Turning Points

I want to write about turning points in this blog, both personal and historical.

When researching this trip, both Steve and I did what I think most people think of when they consider planning a trip: we made a list of “must see” sights and destinations and started planning our ride, with the idea that we’d incorporate changes along the way.

All the way from Portugal through Italy, we did incorporate small changes to our route, but mostly followed along the route and major cities that we’d planned to see. Our routine upon arriving to a city was to get showered and comfortable and then look at our check list of sights and activities, sometimes even looking on TripAdvisor or Google Trips for ideas. Then we’d hit the city and start checking things off the list.

This might work okay for a 2-week vacation, but doing this again and again quickly became exhausting. Whenever you go to that “must see” sight that your friend said you can’t miss, we’d find ourselves surrounded by the same people (other tourists from various other countries), the same suvenir shops selling the same trinkets made in China, the same over priced crappy restaurants with pushy greeters trying to get you in, and the same over-worked disgruntled staff. I don’t want to sound ungrateful for our friends for making these recommendations because many of your recommendations have been amazing and really are things we will never forget. But we were trying to do too many of them!

The turning point came when we realized we aren’t exactly tourists in the traditional sense; we don’t pop in and pop out of a spot. Because we go so slowly and ride through all the places in between, we flow through areas that tourists never go. It is more like we are living in each of these countries, with occasional stops to see the tourist attractions. So why, then, are we acting like tourists who got plopped in a city from a plane ride and then shuttled off to the next attraction in a hermetically sealed air conditioned bus with a limited time frame?

Since we’ve entered the Balkans, we’ve begun to change how we are touring, and it has made our trip so much more exciting, enjoyable, and I think real. Here’s what we’re doing differently:

• Rather than planning our route based on the places that other people have said we “have to see”, we’ve been looking around at other things nearby on the map and asking, “why wouldn’t we want to go there?” So far this has included Zagreb, Croatia; Novi Sad and Belgrade, Serbia; and Tuzla and Sarajevo, Bosnia. Of course we make sure it’s possible to get there and that it’s safe; most people’s perceptions of safety is seriously warped by the way; Sarajevo is many times safer than San Francisco for example, on almost every single crime statistic that you can find. But yet no one ever told me to “be careful” when I moved to San Francisco, but many do when they hear I’m in Bosnia.
• Before we get to a place, instead of reading guide books about what to see, I’ve instead been reading history articles and books to get an idea of the recent history and culture. Oh and of course, articles about local food!
• When we get to a place, rather than rushing to the “must see” spots, we try to find an area where locals hang out and grab a coffee, beer, or a meal there, and just people watch to get a feel for the place.
• Once we feel comfortable, we look for a free (tip-based) walking tour, which most European cities offer, and we join it. These are awesome because the tour guides are usually very passionate locals, and we can meet and connect with other like-minded travellers.
• After we do these things, then maybe we have some things we want to see, or maybe we just spend some more time people watching or exploring neighborhoods randomly.

And that’s how we’ve ended up in Sarajevo, on the important Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Walking out of our traditional Saray home rental in a residential neighborhood, heading to the old town for dessert, we heard the echoes of people praying from the many mosques in the city and in the hills, signaling the end of Ramadan, the month of day-time fasting that many Muslims observe. The holiday starts precisely at sunset based on a lunar calendar, and suddenly the streets were packed with thousands of well-dressed cheerful locals, celebrating the holiday and enjoying the perfect warm, clear evening.

So that is our personal turning point; we will probably continue to evolve our style of travel, but so far this has led to some great experiences that were never even on our radar.

Today we have visited a museum that focuses on another much more serious and important turning point, the war crimes that precipitated the end of the Bosnian war in 1995, particularly the genocide at Srebrenica and Žepa, where thousands of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) were killed, prompting the international community to step in to help end the war.

And here are some other photos.

There are many landmines still left from the war; this sign has “MINES” written in Cyrillic. They are well-marked from the road side, and the recommendation is not to leave the pavement even for a pee break.

A view down one street in Sarajevo; it’s beautiful to see the homes in the hills from almost everywhere in the city.

One of the cemeteries above the city

An Orthodox Church along with a monument celebrating Sarajevo’s multi-culturalism.

Very many buildings have plaques attached commemorating residents who died in the war.

An abstract of a Jewish synagogue in the old town area

Buildings on the Miljacka river

The Latin Bridge, where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, triggering World War I.

I believe this is the oldest mosque in the city (has been restored recently, so it looks quite new).

The Sarajevo brewery was important during the war because it is built on top of a natural spring, where the city could get fresh water even during the siege.

And here is some of the quite tasty beer from the brewery!