The Tunnel

Saturday i visited the famous Tunnel in Sarajevo, which was the only way in to or out of the city during the 4-year siege. It begins in the garage of someone's house who lives near the airport in Sarajevo, goes underground and emerges outside of Sarejevo. It is 1.5 meters high and wide, and 800 meters long. I don't know what that is in feet, but it apparently took about a half hour to walk through.











This is a plaque on the side of the house commemorating several people who died after Serb soldiers discovered the tunnel and shot a mortar at the entrance.











This is the mortar blast. If you look down on the pavement in Sarajevo, there are alot of those.









So the owners of the house have turned part of it into a museum, which i think is pretty amazing. The tunnel collapsed after the war ended (i don't think anyone was in it at the time) but a small part of it is open. It's tough to explain- there are two entrances because they knocked out part of it so people could walk through a little bit of it and emerge, then there is a space of about 10 feet in the open air (the part of the tunnel they knocked out) and then the tunnel opens again to the long portion of the tunnel that you can no longer walk through.











This is the actual entrance in the house.


















Walking down the steps...
















Not really sure the warning was necessary...

























Inside the tunnel...

















It was actually kind of dangerous; they put a lightbulb inside now so tourists don't crash into the walls, but during most of the siege there was no electricity, so there were no lights inside- walking in the pitch black for a half hour through a tunnel knee-deep in water dripping from the walls... people did it every day. And i almost knocked myself out bashing my head into the ceiling in the little bit that i was able to walk through; people over 5 ft. tall had to walk hunched over for part of it.

People used it to escape Sarajevo and anyone who needed to come in; aid workers, journalists etc., used it to enter the city. But mostly it was used to bring water, food, medical supplies and arms into the city. Saturday after i got back, i had a really informative conversation with Elvira, the woman with a 7-year old daughter (Hena) who works at the store downstairs and stays with Tetka Kimeta until she gets better, about the tunnel, which turned into a conversation about how different people survived during the war. Elvira was in the Bosnian army during the war, and made many trips back and forth through the tunnel to transport supplies into Sarajevo.

I found out some interesting things during this conversation, over sereral Bosnian coffees and Turkish delights, about Tetka Kimeta as well. She and her husband were both economists for the JNA (Yugoslav National Army) but when it was purged of all non-Serbs, they lost their jobs. Tetka Kimeta had a house on one of the hills surrounding Sarajevo with its own running well, so every day she and her husband distributed water to hundreds of Sarajevans who lived in the main part of the city (below in the valley) who had no water because Serb forces cut it (and electricity) off. Serb forces shot a mortar at the house, destroying one of the vital water sources for the city. Most other homes on the mountain sides surrounding the city were destroyed.

Elvira and Tetka Kimeta then showed me how the apartment was arranged during the war. A shell came through the windows on the street side, blowing out all the windows and alot of the wall. Fortunately, no one was there at the time. They showed me the hole in the side of the wall outside from the blast- i had somehow never noticed it before. They put sheets up over the opening in the wall so snipers on the mountainside could not see and target them inside.

Anyway this is the entrance that comes after the blown out part that leads to the long tunnel that is no longer accesible.
























This is the wheelchair that was used to transport former Bosnian President Izetbegovic out of Sarajevo when he needed to go to the hospital.


























Some supplies




















Some exploded shell cases

Weekend in Mostar Part II

The walk from where i was staying in the Centar to the Old Town was marked with lots of buildings that had been destroyed in the war, and alot of the area has not been rebuilt yet. The destruction there really contrasted with the beauty of the Stari Most that was rebuilt, and the Old Town which looks like it has mostly recovered from the war damage. Here is some scenery on the walk.











































































The Old Town in Mostar is similar to the Old Town in Sarajevo; there are cobblestone streets with open craft shops and coffee shops. Also like Sarajevo some of the streets are specific to certain crafts; like there is one street where metalworkers make the Bosnian coffee sets and other metal crafts, a leather street, a jewelry street, etc. But in Mostar there were a lot more painters and photographers selling thier artwork outside as well. Here are some photos of the Old Town.
















































































And some hand-made shoes.












I walked over the bridge several times, the view was so beautiful.











































































































In the evening, I ate dinner right over this little bridge, but it was too dark at the restaurant to take photos. I had another one of those amazing fresh mediterranean fish meals with tons of grilled vegetables and fresh herbs and olive oil. This time i tried some wine from Hercegovina. Wine from Hercegovina is compared to wine from grapes grown in other mediterranean climates and people that come to BiH always wonder why they don't sell the wines internationally. It seems odd, but Bosnians just generally aren't interested in putting thier products on the international market- i've heard some people say Bosnians are bad at business for that reason, but they just don't really export things. It's similar to the response i've gotten when talking to Bosnians about thier food which is all organic- no chemicals, preservatives, etc. My friends here ask (generally with horrified looks on thier faces) why we would want to put chemicals into our food.
I respond, "well i guess to make it last longer..."
"But why would you want to do that when you can just grow things that you need?!"
"Um, so you can sell more and make more money?"
"That is crazy. Who wants to eat chemicals?!"





















After dinner I heard a bunch of music coming from the beach, so i walked down through some restaurants and there was this huge beach party on this beach, so i went to it for a while and talked to some people. I went up on the bridge to take a photo, but it was dark and nothing really showed up, so here it is during the day. It was really fun; people of all ages out dancing on the beach, with a dj playing kind of terrible but still fun techno.
After that i was walking back up to the hotel when i heard some really good live music coming from around the corner, so i checked it out and it turned out to be this little outdoor concert venue in one of the coolest spaces i have ever seen. It was called something like "Alternativski Centar" and it's like an arts collective where young artists can come to live and practice- they have a concert space, a dark room, studios etc. It also has a bar/coffee shop and a place to show films. I talked with the guy who does sound for the concerts and got a grand tour of the place- it was so cool. It is in a building that was hit pretty hard by the war. It was repaired enough to be safe, but they chose to create the space in a heavily damaged building in an effort to not forget what happened, but choose to create something positive out of destruction. He is originally from Prishtina, Kosovo, but came to Mostar in 1999. I asked him if he has gone back recently- i was going to ask what he thinks about the current political situation- but he said no, that he had not been back because he has no family left; they were all killed by the NATO bombing that ended the war. He said a lot of people that live at the collective are in a similar situation.



The next day, i walked around some more. This cemetary was by the oldest mosque right outside the old town. The graveyard was relatively new though; all of the gravestones said "1993" which is when Mostar was hit really hard.







































I went to an old Turkish house that has been maintained in the traditional style, and the owner opens it up for tours.





























































































I saw this guy hanging out in a salad.





And this one was following me around. So tiny!

Weekend in Mostar Part I

I spent the weekend in Mostar, which i think might actually be the most beautiful city i have ever seen. It's about a 3 hour busride southwest of Sarajevo, and is in the Hercegovina part of BiH. It is also on the Neretva River, and has more of a Mediterranean climate than nothern Bosnia. It was one of the hardest-hit cities in the war and alot of it has not recovered as well as other parts of BiH. It is similar to Sarajevo in that it has a city centar that is characterized by Austro-Hungarian architecture, and an "old town" with Ottoman architecture, where people still sell their crafts in open shops where you can watch them create.

"Stari Most," or "old bridge" is a famous monument that was destroyed in the war, and rebuilt to precisely resemble the original one. It's kind of considered a "crossroads" between the mostly Bosnian Muslim eastern side of the river, and the mostly Bosnian Croat (most of whom are Catholics) western side, although alot of inhabitants consider that to just be symbolic as people have lived, as in other places in BiH, integrated lives for hundreds of years. Here are several photos of Stari Most, which apparently is one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of BiH. In these photos i had just crossed the bridge from the west to the east side and was standing in the old town beside the river.







































































The Bridge is also famous because every summer they hold diving contests. I saw some of the divers practicing- yikes! The brigde is very high and the current in that area of the Neretva is very strong and fast.

Several mosques in Mostar are open to tourists, so i went inside this one and took photos.










This is the mosque.

















The sebijl (fountain) in the mosque courtyard.










The front of the mosque where people pray five times a day.

















Underneath the dome outside at the front entrance.










Below are some photos of the inside of the mosque.










































































This is the entrance to the stairwell up the minaret.


















The winding stairwell was very narrow and there were 90 steps up...









Here are some photos i took from the top of the minaret of Stari Most