Blogs from East, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Europe - page 4

With a free day, what better thing to do than nothing? I slept in this morning, ate a late breakfast, and read. I played at least 10 games of freecell and just did nothing for a bit. Around 1:00, Dave and Tom and I went out for lunch, then Dave and I split off and went souvenir shopping. On our way through Baščaršija, the local Turkish shopping area, we stopped to feed the pigeons, which was actually amazing. Nearby in Copper Alley we visited one of our professor's friend's shops, where we saw some really cool copper implements (coffee mugs and pots, plates, spoons, and everything in between). Around 5, a group of us hiked to the Yellow Fortress one last time for a cup of coffee and a last view at the city from above. ... read more

Well, it's starting to sink in that we've been here for 11 days and our time in Sarajevo is coming to an end. Luckily, we've got some pretty cool things planned for the upcoming days. Today we had a short lecture on State Building, which allowed us both to sleep in and to have the entire afternoon off. We took advantage by stopping by Vapiano again for a delicious lunch, then heading back and starting to power through what remains of our essays due in 24 hours. To take a break from writing, though, I got to hit one of the few places in Sarajevo I hadn't yet: the White Fortress. Elise, Dave, and I jog/walked to it (I challenge anyone to actually jog all the way. At least a third of the distance is a ... read more

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, because, honestly, it's 1:15 am and I need to sleep. Also, not much happened today. We had two visits this afternoon, after a free morning. One was to the Bosnian War Crimes Tribunal, where we had the chance to talk with a legal advisor. He mentioned the difficulties present in prosecuting War Criminals, including building a case and avoiding corruption. After the Balkan war, international judges came in to help sit on cases; however, they have been phased out, allowing for more corruption in the system. Cases are not decided by jurors, but rather by a single judge or a panel, depending on the severity of the possible sentence, allowing for yet more. We also had the chance to meet with a member of the International Commission on ... read more

Today was another somewhat slow day. We started with a lecture from our Serbian TA on Balkan relations and why differentiating between the different nationalities can be so different, what with the dozens of invasions and migrations over the years. We then had the chance to meet with the Bishop of the Sarajevo Diocese, who was one of the few religious leaders that stuck around during the war. When we asked why, he gave several reasons, including "this is home," "the New Testament says a shepherd stays with his flock," and "love is stronger than fear." He was also quite a character. For example, during Communist Yugoslavia, religious was, of course, oppressed. In one interrogation, when he refused to budge, the interrogator took out a gun and put it on the table, saying "you see I ... read more

Note: Rogatica is simply the closest city I could choose to were we actually were. Srebrenica is approximately 3 hours ENE of Sarajevo, or 1.5 hours NE of Rogatica. There are so many things I have to say about today, and so few ways to say them. We visited the memorial to the Srebrenica Massacre, which is one of the emotionally heaviest sites I've ever visited, barring perhaps the Boston Bombing Memorial (likely because that was my city). It didn't help that our leader for the day was a woman who lost her father, grandfather, and much of her extended family in it. The power and extent of the massacre and memorial are hard to get across in words, so refer to the pictures for more context, but I'll try. For a bit of backstory: Srebrenica ... read more