The Universe smiled when Bosnia was born...

...Man just had to go & fuck it up.

Those of you following my journey (if anyone out there is actually reading this) may have been a little perplexed by the fact that I dropped off the face of the planet for the period I was in Bosnia. It´s not because they don´t have internet there; they do. I was just enjoying myself too much to sit in front of a computer...

In a nutshell, I love Bosnia and would go back again and again and again - and hope to be able to do so later in life. The people are so friendly, the mixture of (and tolerance among) cultures is amazing, and the impact of war is still visible in building facades, large cemetaries, the tunnel museum, and the memories of people my age and younger. Take that, plus the fact that the natural environment (e.g. the drive between Sarajevo and Mostar) is simply breathtaking, and you might understand a bit of why I love it so much. The Universe smiled when Bosnia was born; I really believe that.

Yeah, so... I took the night train down from Budapest to Sarajevo. That was an ˝experience˝ I could´ve lived without. Only two train cars actually go to Bosnia; the others disconnect in Pecs, Hungary. The kicker is that, of course, those train cars left are Bosnian train cars - old, with windows that barely work and don´t stay down on their own, riddled with mosquitoes. I was in a car with three university students from Banja Luka who were very nice - and much impressed by that fact that an American in their general age group would come all the way to Bosnia to try to understand things; they wished more people would try to do the same. The interesting thing was that they were absolutely mystified by my American passport; it was as though they were looking at the Holy Grail (or equiv) because of the kind of freedom it represented to them. Their reaction really put me in my place, let me tell you. Anyway, after 4 passport checks and 3 ticket checks, I finally made it to Sarajevo. (No, it was not a train for sleeping...)

For the most part, Bosnia is something that has to be experienced; I don´t think words will do it justice, but Iĺl try...

I went for a walk the 2nd day I was in Sarajevo (since I was knackered the 1st day after no sleep) and stumbled on lots of bombed-out buildings and the Holiday Inn. I later realized that I´d taken a leisurely stroll through ˝sniper alley˝ without knowing it. Talk about crazy irony. I went back later and really looked - and saw the bomb footprints painted red and other things. No real words to describe it, though. I took a tour to the tunnel museum through another hostel; it was short, but useful to contextualize everything. I also also went to the Sarajevo Film Festival and saw two films - one Croatian (about human trafficking between Bosnia/Croatia) and one American (about the Moroccan Fez Music Festival).

I only had a day in Mostar, so only got to see the bridge and lots of bombed-out buildings - but still a rather profound experience once you get away from the tourist trap.

Today, I am in Dubrovnik - after quite the adventure getting here yesterday. Itś beautiful, but expensive...

EDIT (11/08/2006):
Someone in an online community recently asked a question regarding safety in Bosnia, which got me thinking. As I thought back to my trip, I remembered something noteworthy that I (perhaps intentionally?) left out at the time: Shortly before I arrived in Sarajevo, someone bombed the grave of President Izetbegovic (the first president of BiH) in Kovaci cemetery. According to the story I heard while in Sarajevo, a grenade was placed on the grave and later exploded. I believe no one was injured, but the act does illustrate that things remain in a delicate balance in the former-Yugoslavia.

Even still, I would return to BiH in a heartbeat...