Monday, August 22- Sarajevo

 

In the morning we went to see part of the tunnel built to transit people, goods and weapons from the part of Sarajevo occupied by the Serbian Army to the “safe” zone (or, as our guide put it, the “less-dangerous zone”).  Before that, anyone wishing to make the transit had to run across the runway of Sarajevo Airport, which was extremely dangerous.  The tunnel was dug entirely with hand tools and took 4 months and 4 days.  Only a short passage was open to the public; part of the walls were braced with wood and the rest, after they ran out of trees (needed for fuel), were braced with metal from destroyed buildings.  All the trees around us had been planted after the war.  The museum showed videos of people using the tunnel- one brought a goat through!   It was strange seeing low-cost airlines taking off and landing near us at the nearby Sarajevo airport given the history.

The family that owns the house where the tunnel entrance is located still lives here.

Tunnel Entrance

Detail of corrugated metal side of tunnel

After lunch I went to the City Hall- another building which unfortunately was a reconstruction.  The Serbs had destroyed it, including the entire national archives.   

This building was the last stop for Franz Ferdinand and Sophie before they got into the fateful motorcade where they were assassinated.

The main square, always full of people and pigeons.  Serbian snipers liked to shoot at people gathering in the area to buy food during the Balkan War.

We had a home-hosted visit for dinner.  This is an interesting feature of Overseas Adventure Travel tours.  They choose the families carefully (now everyone must be vaccinated against COVID) and there must be at least someone fluent in English.  Five of us visited a family in an aging, unattractive apartment complex (after driving through a road known in the war as “Snipers’ Alley”) but found that the apartment itself was pleasant and filled with family mementos.  The apartment was occupied by a grandmother, her son and daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren- a 16-year old girl, her 5-year old sister and their 14-year old brother.  The 14-year old wasn’t there and neither were his parents (both were working) but the 16-year old carried on a lively conversation with us in perfect English.  She’s at a high school designed to train people for the hospitality industry and aspires to be a tour guide.   

Choosing wine to bring as a gift was a challenge.  All I could do was go by price!    The Bosnian Mark is worth about 50 cents US, so it was not high-stakes  When I presented the wine to the family the grandmother said happily, "Vino!"