Fortunately Bosnia/Hercegovina has a local cuisine, presumably via the Turks, similar to what I saw in Kosovo, saucey almost curry-like dishes which, except for goulash, have names that I’m not familiar with, and are not altogether unlike some of the Muslim food that enters Southeast Asia and gets transformed into Thai and Padang (Indonesian) cuisine.In addition to this are moussaka and the local version of lasagna among others.Desserts include baklava and halva and others with difficult names, which should confirm the origin of the influence.Since I discovered the local cuisine and started eating actual meals- not in restaurants, mind you, as that would involve adding smoke to every dish- I realize I’ve been eating like a horse, and I don’t mean apples.At first I figure that must be because of the cold weather- you burn more fuel to stay warm.But mostly I think it’s just that I’ve been eating less simply because a traveler’s diet is so boring.Moral of the story: the boredom diet works.
We Westerners wonder why obesity is such a modern problem while trying to decide whether to order the cheesecake or the tiramisu for dessert.My problem is more one of eating cheaply and healthily at the same time.Eating small but frequent meal-ettes has been vindicated as not only acceptable but actually beneficial to people with weight-control issues.The problem is eating healthily.Pizza is not the answer.Fruits and vegetables are.For a hyper-traveler this helps control costs also.My friends rag on me about how I’m such a tightwad, yet at the same time so unusually rich that I can travel all the time and all the world, while they rack up three-figure bills at the sushi bar, wishing they could travel some day, too.Go figure.Do the math.Get a clue.
Of course for the true backpacker self-catering is the thing, but you have to have a kitchen to do that in style, or at least a mini-fridge and a microwave, almost standard features in US hotel rooms now, much to my approval.Next to internet, this is the most important ingredient of any good hostel.But what good’s a kitchen in an area that doesn’t have instant noodles or rice cookers?That’s half my diet right there.Of course there is a tradition that pre-dates hostels that still persists in some parts of the world and is also a good alternative to the typical businessman’s hotel.
I’ve got the killer deal on local digs here in Sarajevo, in-room internet and cable TV en suite WITH BREAKFAST for less then twenty bucks.Only problem is it’s not right in the Turkey Quarter, with all the other tourist turkeys, so I get malls and supermarkets instead of tourist sites.This place is a part of a tradition that pre-dates modern hotels and restaurants and clubs, when the local inn served all those functions (did you know that the first restaurant in Europe opened for business less then three hundred years ago?). Places like this still exist widely in the UK, rooms above pubs, though mostly outside, or at least on the outskirts, of London.Many even serve ‘full English breakfast’, aka ‘full Irish breakfast’ (don’t light any matches).Their existence may be in peril with the advent of later bar hours, since you could also drink late there if you had a room.Considering the post-smoking fate of many pubs, however, there may be a counter-trend of conversion to hostels.I hope so.Of course the TV here is mostly Serbo-Bosniac-Croatian with assorted European channels, but that’s half the fun, watching the Italian military weather and German reality TV.At least I’ve got the History, Discovery, and NatGeo channels, and for news I’ve got al-Jazeera.It beats Fox hands down.What would a time-lapse movie of this place for the last century reveal?Probably some things you wouldn’t want to see.
This area’s got some heavy karma to deal with, specifically the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990’s and consequent ‘ethnic cleansing’.I saw a program on al-J today about the systematic rape and imprisonment of Bosnian women, not as a random act of violence, which I had assumed, BUT AS AN ACT OF ‘ETHNIC CLEANSING’, TO ENSURE THAT THEIR OFFSPRING WOULD BE SERBIAN (a moment of silence please while I get a towel. If tears could turn turbines...),
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as if religion were transmitted sexually.These hate children are being raised as Muslims of course, and soon will begin asking questions.Aside from any slight ethnic admixtures the Bosnians might have gotten from the Turks, and the Croats from their Italian neighbors across the Sea, and the Serbs from their eastern first cousin Russians, the groups are indistinguishable of course.
It’s time for a new religion, one to unite all the others.When I mention ‘the war’ to my hotel hosts, they clam up like oysters, jaw muscles quivering.Who knows?They might be Serbian.The memories carry weapons; at least the future has some variables in the equation.For better or worse Bosnia & Hercegovina is effectively divided into at least two parts, the recognized Bosniac/Croat government and the Serbian-dominated ‘Republika Srpski’.I guess I’ll have to pass through there just in case they become a UN-recognized independent country one day.Is this what ‘Balkanization’ is all about?It sounds like a process for hardening rubber or something.Ethnic cleansing will harden you or something.
Sarajevo is not a beautiful city, but by regional standards it’s not bad, and has its share of bright spots, mostly around the ‘stari grad’ Turkish Quarter, all gussied up for tourism.The rest of the city is basically Bolshevik Modern Concrete Cell-block, but it could be worse.At least the apartment complexes tend to be color-coded.Of course it’s amazing what a little sunshine can do.The temps have hit a balmy 10C-50F the last two days after hovering only 2-3 degrees above freezing before that.It’s supposed to snow 5-8 inches tonight then warm up later in the week, maybe even ABOVE 15C-59F!Bring on the sun block!Of course by then I may be long gone or… maybe not.I’ve got about two weeks of travel left to accomplish in over three weeks, so I’m idling with the engine running, next stop either Split or Zagreb or Ljubljana, Africa pretty firmly on the back-burner until next month, probably Ethiopia and maybe Kenya, too, along with northern Europe.Ethiopia Airlines will pretty much give you another destination and a stop in Addis Ababa for little more than the flight to Addis itself.You heard it here first.I just bought a water kettle, so I’m getting domestic, wherever that happens to be.The Bosnian word for ‘signature’ is ‘potpis’.I like that.
All good things must come to an end of course.That’s okay.I couldn’t look another ham and cheese breakfast in the face anyway.Sarajevo falls short of a true epiphany regardless.For that I need to blend into a place, not just occupy a corner in its periphery, or just satisfy a financial angle.I need to be inspired linguistically also.Dabbling in Serbo-Croatian is okay, but ultimately just a primer for Russian.I think my hotel wants to get rid of me.The breakfast portions have been getting smaller every day.Then the Internet went out again yesterday, just like the beginning of my stay here.They’d already warned me that a crowd was coming for the vikend, but that I could probably move to another room; sounds ominous.I book onward passage.I also book that long-planned flight to Addis Ababa for a month from now.
I had planned to book on through to Nairobi on Ethiopian Airline, but when their credit card procedure glitches on me, I go back to the drawing board (Expedia), and end up booking on Turkish Airlines, with a long stopover at IST on the way back, something I had previously failed to accomplish through the airline’s website itself, all for the simple ADD price (and less than the Ethiopian options).A little less Africa is fine, since it tends to be intense, and I’m inspired by the Turkish element in Bosnia.Hopefully I can make the Black Sea loop, pending Russian visa.If that’s multiple-entry, then I’ll try to pick up St. Pete on the Scandinavia loop.Since I’m on a roll and my Turkish Air flight lands back at Stansted instead of LHR, I go ahead and book a Ryan Air flight connection to Stockhom on the same day.What the Hell, it’s only fifty bucks.This is hyper-travel.
The next day dawns clear and bright, a perfect day for travel.Finally I find the Chinese, their stores lined up on the edge of town, preparing for the invasion.Don’t forget the chopsticks.Soon we’re driving into snow of course.You don’t get out of Sarajevo without the ritual baptism of snow.It’s like Flagstaff, I checking the Weather Channel constantly.Its checkered past is like Mississippi.Then it hits me- this may not be my epiphany, but at least it’s my catharsis, forcing me to face up to the dark recesses of my own past.I’ve been at odds with all the places I’ve ever lived, so maybe now I’m trying to get even by going to them all.Catharses can be messy.
Somewhere along the way to the Croatian border we start traveling in the same downward direction as the river, the Mosques grow fewer, houses are occupied instead of vacant, and small garden patches under the till appear.
The postal drop-boxes say ‘Republika Srpski’.Maybe the Serbs are bitter at their own tortured past.The words ‘Slav’ and ‘slave’ are cognate, you know; now you do.Crossing the border into Croatia is like turning on the lights, cleaner and brighter.The sun comes out accordingly.We’re on a super-highway now, heading toward Europe, heading toward the future.Me, I’m still looking for an epiphany.Best bet now is Nice, France.It doesn’t sound very ‘me’, but then neither did Vina del Mar or Montego Bay on my last two trips.The future has an infinite number of mathematical possibilities.The past, well… the past sucks.That’s a technical term.Maybe I should go to Cannes instead, thoroughly mix my metaphors.Stay tuned.
