Finally finally….
I was searching the net, preparing for my trips to Berlin when Honza skyped me “Karadzic was arrested. I’m watching it on CNN.” “No, i can’t be. I’ve just surfed that site.” I objected and refreshing CNN home page, still nothing. I googled around but came up empty. Then there it was, the familiar breaking news yellow banner with the large text “War crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic has been arrested, AP reports quoting the office of Serbian president.”
This is too good to be true. It’s… politics. Croatia and Serbia caught their infamous fugitives, well, in a very convenient time, too convenient I must say.
“Are you happy for Bosnians?” Honza asked me. “I think they will celebrate.”
I think they do too, at least the Bosniaks and Bosnian-Croats. I hope Karadzic’s capture, thought done by Serbia special force, will help Bosnia’s EU case.
[Reuters]
Bosnian Serb, War Crimes Fugitive Radovan Karadzic Was Caught
How to Find Swimming Pools in Sarajevo/Bosnia and Everywhere in the World
SwimmersGuide is an excellent, well-kept user-collaborate database of swimming pools around the world. Click on Bosnia-Sarajevo to find a list of pools. Hours and prices might not be precise, but you have the address and most importantly link to the pool’s website.
Bosnia currently has only two regions listed: Sarajevo and Jahorina, with one pool each; I doubt if the info is even correct. If you have swum or known any pool from other cities especially major ones like Mostar and Banja Luka, please add them to the database.
Eurovision 2008
Bosnia - Laka – Pokusaj
Croatia – Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents
Serbia – Jelena Tomasevic – Oro
Bride over the Drina Added to UNESCO List
The Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge over the Drina River in the town of Višegrad was recently added to Unesco Hermitage List. This historically
significant bridge is featured in Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andric’s
“Bridge over the Drina,” a novel describing century-spanning stories and
events taking places in Bosnia, affecting the lives of multi-ethnic Bosnians: Muslims, Turks, Serbs and gypsies.
“Bridge over the Drina” is a super fiction about which I should have written a long time ago. I have since forgotten most of the details and probably have to reread the book again in order to review it properly.
The bonus story of how I got hold of this book and my long trip to
return it to its rightful owner is also interesting.
Soon, I will tell.
[Link]
Messenger Man Driving People and Things between Prague and Sarajevo
Update: Got a confirmation from a reader who paid 1000 CZK/40 EUR for him to pick up two large, heavy boxes from Sarajevo and deliver them to her dormitory. She thought it was a fair price. Also perhaps, you can negotiate with him the fare for driving you there. 
If you need to send presents overnight to friends or relatives living in Prague or Sarajevo, Goran is the man. No need to worry about packages being lost or broken sending via European Post either Czech or Bosnia. I failed to send and received packages thrice in this continent which caused me to believe that I was an idiot who could not write a decent label.
The driver lives in Prague, and once a week he drives people from Prague to Sarajevo and vice versa in addition to stuffs and presents.
He charges 5000 CZK (~200 EUR) for a roundtrip ride starting from Prague to Sarajevo, and probably less for trips starting from Sarajevo to Prague. The price is more than Eurolines bus ticket from Prague to either Vienna, Budapes or Zagreb plus connecting trains/buses to Sarajevo. However, you can make this trip in one day and don’t have to wait over night in one of those stations.
Phone: +420 602 316 395 (Czech mobile).
From Prague
Location: Namesti Miru, Praha
Pickup time: Friday afternoon
Depart: Saturday morning
Arrive: Saturday evening
From Sarajevo
Location: Skenderia
Pickup time: ?
Depart: ?
Arrive: ?
The driver is a family friend of the wife of my boyfriend’s boss’s boss, so he should be reliable.
I will update this post once I have more information.
Documentary Film – Graffiti Street
Update: Some facts are corrected. Thx to La Banda’s pianist Misko!
At the end of the 1980s La Banda were one of the best known bands on Sarajevo’s alternative rock scene. The musicians were just about to complete their debut album when their plans were dramatically changed by war. This personal documentary by the journalist and director Sergej Kreso, La Banda’s bass guitarist, records a reunion of members of the group after more than 15 years. The old friends return to Sarajevo from five different countries in order to complete two last songs and therefore finish the album they began before the war. However, Graffiti Street is not just a documentary about a meeting of musicians after a separation caused by war. Kreso, who has come back to Sarajevo from his new home in the Netherlands, attempts to find out how much the war affected the city and its burgeoning music scene. The spellbinding final concert of the reformed La Banda in a small Sarajevo club allows the happy years before the war to be remembered for one night at least.
This film is neither exciting nor interesting. I chose it over more famous films simply for its connection to Sarajevo. Native speakers might enjoy a few hilarious moments, but for foreigners it was a “Lost in Translation.”
I have left Sarajevo long ago but I seem to have brought away with me its sense of ethnical division, for example figuring out Bosnian names to discover their identities. A neutral, objective observer would have cared less whether the people in the movie are Serbs, Croats or Muslims; he would have directed his attention to the music-making and the reunion of the band. But me no! I had to “This guy is a Croat because he rather does nothing in Split than in Doboj.” “This must be a Serb band because the backup singer’s name is Ceca.” “This probably is a Croat band because the Croats have the best taste among the three ethnic groups, so this jazzy, blue underground music has to be from them.” “Oh no, this band is popular in Sarajevo, a city populated by Muslims and Serbs, so they have to Serbs.” My friend’s sister words once again rings truth: “Before the war, people didn’t pay attention to the name. Tanja or Ermina, it did not matter.”
One of my favorite scene was a band member commented about expecting a bus from hell from the direction of Poland as he was nervously prepared for the band’s first public performance in Sarajevo after a 15-year hiatus. I didn’t understand the connection right away and kept turning to my boyfriend “Do you understand why he brought up Poland?” Then finally it dawned on me. At a Turkish coffee shop in Sarajevo, a friend of mine Me. and I were discussing craps, among which was the up-and-down of the former Yugoslavia. “You know we were very rich. Our Tito Communism was different. We could travel freely. The other Eastern Europeans for example the Poles, whenever they traveled here, they carried with them bags of food on the buses. They used to be way poorer.”
Could this be the explanation for “the bus from hell?”
Trailer
Production Company
Boris T. Mati? ; PROPELER FILM – Sc–Savska 25 – Zagreb, 10000 Croatia; tel: +385 14 829 477; fax: +385 14 593 691; btm@propelerfilm.com; WWW.PROPELERFILM.COM
Resource
- Website of La Banda member, the pianist from Sweden. He started a website to connect people who had any connection with the band, and eventually everybody did.
- Film director, drummer, Sergej Kreso’s site.
- Graffiti Street’s official website
Jeden Svet Documentary Film Festival in Prague.
A Visit to The Hague International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Two weeks ago I arrived at The Hague, Netherlands to visit a friend of mine, N., who interned at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She and I taught at the same high school in Sarajevo in 2006. I flew at 6:20 a.m., thus all I wanted to do the rest of the morning was to take quick nap before exploring the city. Eventually she convinced me to follow her to work and then went to the trial of the Bosnian Serb, Vojislav Seselj, founder and former president of the Radical Serbian Party. Being a brilliant lawyer, Seselj defended himself against a panel of three judges and three/four prosecutors. On that day, the court interrogated him for crimes committed against Croatian civilians because all questions, facts and evidence focused on Croats and villages in Croatia; also the word “Frandjo Tudman” and “Utasha” came up frequently.I had not had a fainted idea of Seselj before arriving at the trial. He made a good impression on me with his composure and his dominating of the invisible witness by his line of questioning. The witness kept saying “yes” and “i also heard that” and “i read that” to the majority of Seselj’s questions regarding Serb civilians being discriminated and oppressed under Tujdman’s regime.Seselj studied law with my friend N.’s uncle at Sarajevo University and visited her grandparents’ house during the good old days when he was a “normal” man. “He was extremely smart and polite before he became crazy with his ideology.” She said. “You saw how he kept looking at me from the inside. He hates that he’s in there, and I’m out here.” “Why is that so?” I asked. “Uh, ’cause he and his men tried to kill people like me.” (My friend N. wears a head-scalf.)Neither did I have paper and pen to jot down keywords nor I was allowed to take notes. Only visitors with press badges, who sit on the left side, can do this. For a complete transcript of the trial and video feeds of the courtroom, please check out the links below.Notes: The trials are open to the public for free. You get a visitor ticket from the security-guarded reception, and then you can proceed to the courtrooms after leaving all electronics and dangerous objects in a locker.Resources
- Website
- Transcript (only on the day I was there)
- Charges against him
Kosovo Declared Independence
On Sunday, 17 of February, 2008 Kosovo’ parliament declared independence from Serbia with back up of the USA, Britain, Germany and France.
[BBC]
Balkan Joke – What Being Thrown off the Boat?
Frenchman, a Cuban, a Bosnian and an American are stranded in a lifeboat fighting to survive after their ship has gone down. They are trying to show bravado in the middle of a bad situation.
The Frenchman pops open a bottle of French wine he’s saved from their sinking sink, takes a few sips and throws the bottle into the sea. “In Paris when we arrive, we’ll find many more!” he says.
The Cuban pulls a big cigar out of his pocket, takes a few puffs and likewise tosses it overboard. “In Havanna” he says, “We’ll find many more!”
The Bosnian threw the American overboard.
(Note: Bosnians are sick of all the international aid wokers in their country telling them what they should do.)
[Source]
Sarajevo Hostel Haris (Review)
A friend of mine visited Sarejevo during her Europe’s tour last year. She stayed at Hostel Haris and wrote a short review about it after much “pressure” from me.
H’s review
Basically it is a small hostel for backpackers that has 14 beds in 3 rooms, and 2 bathrooms that everyone
shares. It’s up on a hill so it’s a bit of a hike but Haris who runs the hostel will pick you up from the
station. Haris is young, really nice and friendly. He will tell you a bit about the history of Sarajevo, take you out at night on the weekends, and you can join his personal tours of the city which are really good. Plus since the hostel is so small you will get to meet a lot of the other backpackers and it makes it really fun.
Book a hostel in Sarajevo