D11: Historical Museum of BiH

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Very lazy morning - I headed out to Old Town to wander more of the tiny streets. I also found myself in the middle of a flock (?) of pigeons... oh God they are everywhere here, and I just keeping thinking of the Animaniacs and their pigeon skits. (Ah, childhood.)

Time for lunch already? Don't mind if I do! I opted for "burek" today - meat pie like things that are served with yogurt and are simply delish. Plateful for about $2... yeah can't go wrong with that!!

After lunch I went in search of the other museum I wanted to see... imagine my face when I realized it was only 2 blocks down from the closed one I ventured out to yesterday. Oops..! Haha, ah well, it was a nice walk again.

Once I found it, I went to the train station first to figure out how to get to my next stop. The ticket guy didn't speak English but he was a great sport as we played charades. Finally I met someone here in the transportation world who doesn't cleary hate their job 😊

Walking back to the museum I had to pass the US embassy... which is more than slightly massive. The guard gave me a funny look as I stared at the building, so I decided to keep on going.

(Sidenote - people keep thinking I'm a local here and I don't understand how everywhere I go this is the case. How can I have that universal a face?? Haha. The only place I've gone where I've not been mistaken as a local is Morocco... where I was cleary Polish or British. Go figure.)

ANYWAY. The historical museum... I fear it's not to far from closing its own doors too. It is a dilapidated building and a few of its exhibits are closed, sectioned off or the videos simply aren't playing which is a shame because it has the makings of an amazing museum... and it kind of left me disappointed. No. Disappointed is too strong a word - ok, how about: it definitely left me wanting more..? Yes. That's more like it.

They had a "before and after" photo exhibit which was beautiful. A photographer took a bunch of photos during/right after the shellings and the siege. In 2011 he returned to the exact same locations to retake the photos - it was very inspiring to see the rebuild shots right next to the complete and utter destruction.

Upstairs was the main exhibit. There was a brief "history of" outlining the lead-up to the war and how the factories were targeted to try and cripple the economy... but I found it was kind of basic information in terms of the historical aspect... which is funny since it's the Historical Museum. But anyway. They did have a lot of info re: ICTY and the trials from after the conflict.

The artifacts were interesting to see - they had leftover artillery, the first flag (with holes in it), replicas of the stalls from the market during the conflict, etc. But it was the photo gallery that was the most impressive - it was unsettling, but it did paint a rather vivid portrayal of what life was like. Hiding from sniper fire. Makeshift kitchens and cooking outside without electricity. The markets. Etc. But also, they did have rather graphic photos from one of the attacks on the market - pictures of bodies missing heads... of someone with a hole where their shoulder blade and lungs should be... that kind of thing... I mean I'm not one to get squeamish... but that was intense.

They also had pictures from a school that was hit... that was upsetting to see the blood all over the floor. There were also excerpts from kids' diaires... how sad to read entries things such as "got to school only to be told to go home bc it's too dangerous" ... "had to run thru sniper fire" ... "we have no water anymore which is hard because we live on the 14th floor and still have no electricity". It definitely makes you stop and reflect.

I think the worse though was the victim statements from the ICTY trials... omg I almost lost it. Most of the statements were parents describing how they watched their children die... and as you can imagine their deaths were not peaceful by any means. One mom watched her daughter's head be blown half off. Like... yeah. Those were powerful to read.

It is unimaginable that this genocide happened ~20 years ago... everytime I visit a country with a violent/tragic chapter it makes me thankful for my home... and yet it's disheartening because there's always the quote "never again" or "don't forget" or what have you... and yet look at our current world. We do forget... or we don't care. Every year there is a new war. A genocide in the making if not an actual genocide... how depressing...

Ok ok... sorry... went off on a tangent there. Ahem.

Anyway, all that to say it was a nice museum but I wanted more.

From the museum I wandered back towards Old Town. I stopped at the shopping mall to look at suitcases bit didn't find any I liked. Oh well.

I grabbed an ice coffee to sit back and read my book for a bit. Now, "ice coffee" in the Balkans is a beautiful thing - not only do you get ice coffee as we know it in North America, BUT it comes with whip cream and ice cream... it's like a coffee float and it is damnnnn good.

After that it started to rain quite hard and thunderstorm (5 days in a row and counting!), so I popped into the movie theatre to see Lone Ranger. It was much better than I expected..! I hope they do another one.

(Wow. Anticlimatic ending to my day haha)

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