I squeezed into the last spot available, tucked up on the former stage. Tables and chairs, all fully occupied, crowded every available open space of the old cinema, Kino Bosna; people even lounged with drinks in the stadium seating. A musical trio – a guy with an accordion, another with something like a ukulele, and a singer – wove in out of the crowd performing merry songs that I could not understand, but for which the audience, young and old, clearly knew every word. The group of twenty-something guys sitting next to me offered rounds of rakija and asked me where I was from between bouts of laughing and belting out the latest song and crying over a friend’s imminent departure to Italy.One guy leaned towards me, waving his arm to indicate the cheerful chaos, and
... read more
