Perhaps a lot of you have never been to Bosnia and can not imagine what's so interesting and special about this country, beside the well-known traditional food "Cevapi"!? In this blog I'll try to give you an insight of the mysterious part of Bosnia.
BOSNIA
It's a country, war-torn, historically never been that independant, hilly landscape, a sea called "Neum" in the South, no highways and a lot of cows and sheeps may cross your street (joke! :-) ), antique buildings, the smell of "Cevape" and "Burek" everywhere :-), summers are too hot and winters too cold (they sometimes have to start the car half an hour before driving it), beautiful hiking-destinations, unspoiled countrysides
BOSNIANS
outgoing, very hospitable, creative, big drinkers, enjoy their lives and especially food, keep their traditions (antique furniture and tableware; folk dance), superstitious, relaxed, never in hurry, unpunctual, religious, patriotic ("Jebes zemlju koja Bosne nema" - it's a rude proverb, but the context says: "There's no country, if Bosnia isn't part of it!" - sounds weird, but that's another characteristic of Bosnians :-) ), will always give you their last piece of bread, always have time to invite someone to coffee, in every town there's a local competition and neighbours struggle to have the most beauftiful house, Bosnian mothers do not except the fact that you're not hungry, family-relations are very close
These adjectives are 100% true!
As for my part, I come from "Travnik" which is located right in the middle of Bosnia. I guess all of you know about the "Bosnian-war", which lasted 3 years. At that time my parents were fugitives and fled to Graz where I was born, luckily ;-). Travnik is not a big town but during the occupation of the Turks it was the capital of Bosnia. I'm really in love with Travnik for several reasons: It's small and it's the hometown of the famous author Ivo Andric, who actually made the degree at the ITAT! (There's a statue of him in front of our building). There are lots of small shops and especially the ones selling gold and silver jewellery. The "oldtown" is absolutely my favourite place. It gives you a wonderful view over Travnik and it's location in the middle of two big mountains. I like the antique aspect of the town. Moreover you can go to a coffeeshop which is located beside a spring of water. It's lovely, especially when you order the traditional coffee. They give you a piece of "Lokum", which is a traditional candy, and a cigarette :-)
As a Bosnian, I feel like it's my duty to tell you all something about the war, but not the historical part of it, more like the human one. Bosnians tend to divide the time into "before" and "after" war, for good reasons. As you may know, Bosnia contains people of the three major religions: Muslims, Catholics and the Orthodox. And "before" war the people of the three religions lived peacefully together, or actually were forced to by Tito, which was the president of Yugoslawia. His death was the beginning of a long period of time were people actually killed their neighbours. Today, conflicts are still present. It's very hard to forget, and it's very hard to make an end to it, as all are patriotic and passionate. Catholics consider themselves as being Croatians and the Orthodox as being Serbs, the Muslims as being Bosnians. But that's the wrong way of thinking! It's nearly impossible nowaydays to say we're all a Bosnian nation! Hopefully the younger generation will start to tolerate themselves! If you visit Bosnia (which i really recommend) you feel like you're in the center of the turning point between the "West" and the "East". People struggle to, let's say "modernise" Bosnia. And that's the magical part right there. How is it possible to turn a country, which is known for being traditional, religious and war-torn, into a modern and ecnomical place?
Visit SARAJEVO and "feel" the changes ;)
It's a country, war-torn, historically never been that independant, hilly landscape, a sea called "Neum" in the South, no highways and a lot of cows and sheeps may cross your street (joke! :-) ), antique buildings, the smell of "Cevape" and "Burek" everywhere :-), summers are too hot and winters too cold (they sometimes have to start the car half an hour before driving it), beautiful hiking-destinations, unspoiled countrysides
BOSNIANS
outgoing, very hospitable, creative, big drinkers, enjoy their lives and especially food, keep their traditions (antique furniture and tableware; folk dance), superstitious, relaxed, never in hurry, unpunctual, religious, patriotic ("Jebes zemlju koja Bosne nema" - it's a rude proverb, but the context says: "There's no country, if Bosnia isn't part of it!" - sounds weird, but that's another characteristic of Bosnians :-) ), will always give you their last piece of bread, always have time to invite someone to coffee, in every town there's a local competition and neighbours struggle to have the most beauftiful house, Bosnian mothers do not except the fact that you're not hungry, family-relations are very close
These adjectives are 100% true!
As for my part, I come from "Travnik" which is located right in the middle of Bosnia. I guess all of you know about the "Bosnian-war", which lasted 3 years. At that time my parents were fugitives and fled to Graz where I was born, luckily ;-). Travnik is not a big town but during the occupation of the Turks it was the capital of Bosnia. I'm really in love with Travnik for several reasons: It's small and it's the hometown of the famous author Ivo Andric, who actually made the degree at the ITAT! (There's a statue of him in front of our building). There are lots of small shops and especially the ones selling gold and silver jewellery. The "oldtown" is absolutely my favourite place. It gives you a wonderful view over Travnik and it's location in the middle of two big mountains. I like the antique aspect of the town. Moreover you can go to a coffeeshop which is located beside a spring of water. It's lovely, especially when you order the traditional coffee. They give you a piece of "Lokum", which is a traditional candy, and a cigarette :-)
As a Bosnian, I feel like it's my duty to tell you all something about the war, but not the historical part of it, more like the human one. Bosnians tend to divide the time into "before" and "after" war, for good reasons. As you may know, Bosnia contains people of the three major religions: Muslims, Catholics and the Orthodox. And "before" war the people of the three religions lived peacefully together, or actually were forced to by Tito, which was the president of Yugoslawia. His death was the beginning of a long period of time were people actually killed their neighbours. Today, conflicts are still present. It's very hard to forget, and it's very hard to make an end to it, as all are patriotic and passionate. Catholics consider themselves as being Croatians and the Orthodox as being Serbs, the Muslims as being Bosnians. But that's the wrong way of thinking! It's nearly impossible nowaydays to say we're all a Bosnian nation! Hopefully the younger generation will start to tolerate themselves! If you visit Bosnia (which i really recommend) you feel like you're in the center of the turning point between the "West" and the "East". People struggle to, let's say "modernise" Bosnia. And that's the magical part right there. How is it possible to turn a country, which is known for being traditional, religious and war-torn, into a modern and ecnomical place?
Visit SARAJEVO and "feel" the changes ;)
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