Craic and Cold

The first time I ever travelled the Balkans included a short episode in Sarajevo. The only reason I really wanted to go there was, well, because it had my name in it. I had imagined it to be beautiful, tragic, exciting, a melting pot of different religions and nationalities. My expectations were let down - we arrived at night, at the side of the road somewhere on the outskirts of the city, so we just took the first tram to what we guessed would be the direction of the centre. Next to us a teenager so drugged he sagged to the floor from time to time because his feet failed to keep him up started to smell unpleasantly. He probably soiled himself. After wandering around the old town aimlessly for a while we found a hostel and went straight to sleep. The next two days were spent roaming around Sarajevo. It wasn't beautiful in an obvious way. It was hot, dirty, derelict at times; the bustle in the streets and the omnipresent smoke of the rotisseries made me dizzy. I had to lie down and not be an energetic explorer for a moment. At night we sat in a backstreet among other foreigners nut even more local families having dinner, being loud and jolly like Italians, having huge portions of grilled meat in every variety, with scrumptious bread, fresh salads and creamy dips. It was indulgent and delicious and put me at ease. When we left the next day for the Croatian coast, I had found my peace with Sarajevo. Afterwards I met a Croatian guy who told me about the history of the city as well, about the relation between Croatians, Bosnians and people from Herzegovina. His longtime girlfriend is from Sarajevo and he was so passionate about the city that is as fragmented and traumatised as the whole area, yet exudes peace and confidence. The coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jewish, if not exactly troublefree, baffled me and gave the place a unique feel. When we discovered that the local currency was Mark and Pfennig, the former German currency before we got the Euro, it occured to me that Sarajevo had actually more links to my country than I would have ever guessed. I promised myself to go back in the future and try to get more under the surface.