.....whether it be religion, nationalism or ethnicity.
But, when left to their own devices, it seems to work pretty well here. It's basically when outsiders get involved but that's often the case I guess.
Last night I walked back into the Old Town to eat. It's only about a ten minute walk but the hill is pretty steep.
I was still suffering the effects of travel so I wasn't real hungry and tried the national dish over here--called cevapi. It's basically ground lamp cooked into small sausages and stuffed into a bread with cooked onions.
It was OK--I'm not a big fan of lamb but it was good enough to get me caught up from traveling.
I got a fairly good night's sleep and ate breakfast at the hotel then headed back down the hill to explore some more. One of the really neat things here is the outdoor cafes--literally everywhere--that feature tea and Turkish coffee.
I had a tea as soon as I got into the Old City and it was really relaxing--the weather is much warmer here than I'd anticipated and it was refreshing to sit and have the tea with Turkish music in the background. It's served with heavy doses of lemon and honey.
As I mentioned in the earlier post, Sarajevo has been called the Jerusalem of the West. Earliest records of the city show it being created as a Muslim trading post and the Ottoman Turk influence is everywhere in the Old City. If fact, it reminds me very much of Istanbul in many ways. Of the three predominant ethnicity groups, Muslims make up the majority at about 40% of the population.
One of the earliest structures other than a mosque was a fortress-style house where animals were housed on the ground floor and the upper floor consisted of rooms where visitors and traders could stay free of charge for three nights. It still exists but is now a complex of shops and a large coffee house. But early in Sarajevo's history, Muslim traders would come into town on camels and meet here with Jewish traders who arrived by horse and donkey (thus the reason for keeping livestock on the first floor. Ironically, when the Jews were expelled from Spain and Europe during the Inquisition, it was the Muslims here that welcomed them and for centuries Sarajevo had a thriving Jewish population and synagogue. The Nazis pretty much decimated the Jews here and they have never returned to the numbers as before the war and concentration camps.
I had a coffee here and Turkish coffee is very strong and they serve it in small vessels with an inch of coffee grounds in the bottom. They then pour boiling water into the vessel and let it create a foam. It's almost impossible to drink without a cube of sugar so it's served with sugar and a piece of Turkish Delight. If you haven't tried Turkish Delight, it's a sugar-coated candy that's very addictive. When Devin, Alida and I went to Istanbul, I bought three boxes to give as Christmas presents and I think I ended up eating all three pretty much by myself.
Anyway, you pour the coffee into the small cup over a sugar cube and stir--which causes another foam. You gently blow the foam back and sip the coffee. The secret is knowing when to stop before you get to the grounds. It was OK--I've tried it and will probably stick to tea the rest of this trip.
The thing is, these outdoor cafes are everywhere and it's easy to just wander the small side streets of the old town and spend the day drinking tea and coffee. In the afternoons, you can go into the Hapsburg area of the city and include stopping for a local beer in the outdoor cafes. Life really is slower here.
The city really does celebrate its diversity. The Muslims are obvious by their dress--men with beards and fez-type caps and the women with their hijabs (shoulder and head scarves). I haven't seen a single burka over here. But it's not at all unusual to see two young girls arm in arm on the sidewalk with one wearing a head scarf and the other in skinny jeans with a bare-midriff cutoff tee shirt. I really get the sense it's a more relaxed practice of Islam over here than in the Middle East.
I heard the local mosque make it's call to prayers outside the hotel around five this morning. The calls are always made in Arabic but this one was a little less harsh than most I've heard. The guy wasn't exactly Bing Crosby but neither was he that screaming, almost threatening, sound like in Africa, Indonesia and Egypt.
There is one large block in the Old Town that features a 15th century mosque, a Serbian Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral and a Jewish synagogue.
During the war years of 1992-1995, over a million rounds were fired into the city from the surrounding hills and much of it was directed at the Muslim Quarter and the two 15th century mosques.
I checked out the museum at the Latin Bridge marking the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wive Sofia. It's not called "Latin Bridge" because of Roman influences. It's actually the Latinska Cuprija named after the architect who designed it in the 1500s.
I thought the museum and the story of the assassination were interesting. The Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg empire had assumed control of the Balkans from the Ottoman Turks and had annexed the area, including Sarajevo and Bosnia, into the Empire in 1908. The move was very unpopular here and Franz Ferdinand's visit was seen as an extreme insult and provocation since he was in line to become the next emperor.
On the day of the assassination, a Serbian separatist threw a bomb into the car only to have the driver toss it back out where it exploded and injured 22 parade bystanders. In a classical historical understatement and mistake, the driver told the prince "the Slavs were too stupid to plan a second attempt and they went to the city hall for a reception.
The building that is now the museum was a bar at the time and another Serbian nationalist was inside.
After the reception at the city hall, the motorcade headed back down the street and for some unknown reason turned right at the Latin Bridge and past the bar.
From there, I crossed the river and visited the national brewery of Bosnia--the Sarajevsko Brewery which has been around since 1864. It was built over the only natural springs in Sarajevo and during the 1992 War, provided the only drinking water available to the besieged city.
The inside is beautiful with dark wood and lots of brass.
It is considered one of the more expensive restaurants in town, but this sausage lunch with beer was less than $10.t
.jpg)
Overall, a very good first day.
But, when left to their own devices, it seems to work pretty well here. It's basically when outsiders get involved but that's often the case I guess.
Last night I walked back into the Old Town to eat. It's only about a ten minute walk but the hill is pretty steep.
I was still suffering the effects of travel so I wasn't real hungry and tried the national dish over here--called cevapi. It's basically ground lamp cooked into small sausages and stuffed into a bread with cooked onions.
It was OK--I'm not a big fan of lamb but it was good enough to get me caught up from traveling.
I got a fairly good night's sleep and ate breakfast at the hotel then headed back down the hill to explore some more. One of the really neat things here is the outdoor cafes--literally everywhere--that feature tea and Turkish coffee.
I had a tea as soon as I got into the Old City and it was really relaxing--the weather is much warmer here than I'd anticipated and it was refreshing to sit and have the tea with Turkish music in the background. It's served with heavy doses of lemon and honey.
As I mentioned in the earlier post, Sarajevo has been called the Jerusalem of the West. Earliest records of the city show it being created as a Muslim trading post and the Ottoman Turk influence is everywhere in the Old City. If fact, it reminds me very much of Istanbul in many ways. Of the three predominant ethnicity groups, Muslims make up the majority at about 40% of the population.
One of the earliest structures other than a mosque was a fortress-style house where animals were housed on the ground floor and the upper floor consisted of rooms where visitors and traders could stay free of charge for three nights. It still exists but is now a complex of shops and a large coffee house. But early in Sarajevo's history, Muslim traders would come into town on camels and meet here with Jewish traders who arrived by horse and donkey (thus the reason for keeping livestock on the first floor. Ironically, when the Jews were expelled from Spain and Europe during the Inquisition, it was the Muslims here that welcomed them and for centuries Sarajevo had a thriving Jewish population and synagogue. The Nazis pretty much decimated the Jews here and they have never returned to the numbers as before the war and concentration camps.
I had a coffee here and Turkish coffee is very strong and they serve it in small vessels with an inch of coffee grounds in the bottom. They then pour boiling water into the vessel and let it create a foam. It's almost impossible to drink without a cube of sugar so it's served with sugar and a piece of Turkish Delight. If you haven't tried Turkish Delight, it's a sugar-coated candy that's very addictive. When Devin, Alida and I went to Istanbul, I bought three boxes to give as Christmas presents and I think I ended up eating all three pretty much by myself.
Anyway, you pour the coffee into the small cup over a sugar cube and stir--which causes another foam. You gently blow the foam back and sip the coffee. The secret is knowing when to stop before you get to the grounds. It was OK--I've tried it and will probably stick to tea the rest of this trip.
The thing is, these outdoor cafes are everywhere and it's easy to just wander the small side streets of the old town and spend the day drinking tea and coffee. In the afternoons, you can go into the Hapsburg area of the city and include stopping for a local beer in the outdoor cafes. Life really is slower here.
The city really does celebrate its diversity. The Muslims are obvious by their dress--men with beards and fez-type caps and the women with their hijabs (shoulder and head scarves). I haven't seen a single burka over here. But it's not at all unusual to see two young girls arm in arm on the sidewalk with one wearing a head scarf and the other in skinny jeans with a bare-midriff cutoff tee shirt. I really get the sense it's a more relaxed practice of Islam over here than in the Middle East.
I heard the local mosque make it's call to prayers outside the hotel around five this morning. The calls are always made in Arabic but this one was a little less harsh than most I've heard. The guy wasn't exactly Bing Crosby but neither was he that screaming, almost threatening, sound like in Africa, Indonesia and Egypt.
There is one large block in the Old Town that features a 15th century mosque, a Serbian Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral and a Jewish synagogue.
Serbian Orthodox
Jewish
Roman Catholic
Muslim
During the war years of 1992-1995, over a million rounds were fired into the city from the surrounding hills and much of it was directed at the Muslim Quarter and the two 15th century mosques.
I checked out the museum at the Latin Bridge marking the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wive Sofia. It's not called "Latin Bridge" because of Roman influences. It's actually the Latinska Cuprija named after the architect who designed it in the 1500s.
I thought the museum and the story of the assassination were interesting. The Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg empire had assumed control of the Balkans from the Ottoman Turks and had annexed the area, including Sarajevo and Bosnia, into the Empire in 1908. The move was very unpopular here and Franz Ferdinand's visit was seen as an extreme insult and provocation since he was in line to become the next emperor.
On the day of the assassination, a Serbian separatist threw a bomb into the car only to have the driver toss it back out where it exploded and injured 22 parade bystanders. In a classical historical understatement and mistake, the driver told the prince "the Slavs were too stupid to plan a second attempt and they went to the city hall for a reception.
The building that is now the museum was a bar at the time and another Serbian nationalist was inside.
After the reception at the city hall, the motorcade headed back down the street and for some unknown reason turned right at the Latin Bridge and past the bar.
City Hall
From a distance of about five feet, the Serb shot and killed the archduke and his wife--making him a Serbian hero. For a while, the bridge was renamed after him and his footprints embedded in the concrete. Today only these remain and inside the museum.
From there, I crossed the river and visited the national brewery of Bosnia--the Sarajevsko Brewery which has been around since 1864. It was built over the only natural springs in Sarajevo and during the 1992 War, provided the only drinking water available to the besieged city.
The inside is beautiful with dark wood and lots of brass.
It is considered one of the more expensive restaurants in town, but this sausage lunch with beer was less than $10.t
.jpg)
Overall, a very good first day.
1 comment:
ALIDA:
I LOVE the Turkish coffee, that's cool that here you get to serve yourself, in Istanbul they pre-made it and you just drank the coffee. I'm really wanting to visit from your post so far.
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