And finally ... The One With Personality

---

Whatever her sister Croatia was lacking in personality, Bosnia made up for tenfold. The sayings that “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and that conflict breeds character serve to explain why this last of my Balkan sisters was not only the most controversial, but also the most interesting as well.

Though I had been easily mesmerized by the physical beauty of Croatia, it was about on par with Tijuana or Cancun in offering any sort of memorable cultural insight and I was thirsting for real inspiration. In addition, my EU area tourist visa was due to expire soon and the border patrols failed to even look at my passport upon entry into Croatia, let alone to stamp it (the underlying reason behind this whole trip!) So I started flipping through my excursion options from the Dalmatian coast and settled on a foray into the neighbor to the east after reading a picturesque little commentary on the town of Mostar.

But despite the quaintness of that description, I couldn’t help forming some less-than-stellar expectations in my mind. Images of ugliness, dreariness, and an overall tenebrous atmosphere dominated my thoughts, and I reminded myself that I could come back as soon as I got my little stamp if it was horrible. However, as I boarded the bus, the bright rays of sunshine wiped out any hint of gloom from the sky, as if the heavens themselves were scoffing at me, giving me notice with a sly wink that this little sidetrip was to be so much more than just a visa run.

Immediately upon entering Bosnia, I was enchanted by the landscapes....climbing steadily through the white-tipped mountains with wild greenery in the valleys, it seemed to be an untouched paradise. With the sky sporting a shade of blue I can honestly say I have never seen before - almost a neon, Crayola box color - I was momentarily swept off my feet, so to say.

Of course, it is anything but untouched, and the illusion of an idyllic nature wonderland was broken with the first of the old stone houses I saw along the road. As with many more to come along the road from the border to Mostar, the roofs were blown off, the windows broken, the interior reclaimed by plants and trees that now took the place of couches and kitchens. And the realization of the dangerous nature of that landscape became clear....an explorative hike through the landmine-ridden fields would be an invitation to death or dismemberment.

When we reached Medugoraje, a Catholic pilgrimage site, the bus emptied out, and I was the only passenger left on the bus -- a circumstance which only served to heighten the sense of eeriness I felt. I began to wonder where on earth I was going as the bus driver and I continued our slow trek through the winding mountain roads alone. When we finally descended into the valley below and navigated through the city streets towards the bus station, however, I realized that it is actually quite a touristed city. I was met at the bus station by a girl who offered accommodation and was driven to the apartment by her mother, who pointed out buildings in the city and their past and present functions along the way.

I had a hard time really concentrating, however, as the shocking images I was witnessing invoked in me feelings that I am having an extremely difficult time verbalizing. Passing over the river into the western half of town, we crossed the former front line of the 1992-1993 fighting, where the carcasses of former houses, schools, and businesses haunt your imagination with the horror that took place here. Former conservatories are left crumbling, the greatness of centuries-old Turkish architecture has been reduced to rubble, the stately Austro-Hungarian style high school and apartment buildings are still pockmarked with the scars of gunfire.

Realizing how unprepared I was for what I was witnessing, I read through a concise history of the city and the country before setting out on foot to have a look around. The long history of division dates back to 395 AD when Bosnia became the division point of the Roman empire from the Byzantine Empire, but this was just one of many divisions to come. The Turks took over and held power in the area for about 400 years, and the country marked the division point of the Christian and Islamic worlds before the Austro-Hungarians seized control. After reading about the long and rich history on the fault line between opposing forces, perhaps it should come as no surprise that a city where east and west meet is still divided today, with the predominantly Catholic Croats residing on the west side of the river and the Bosniak Muslims occupying the eastern side of town.

But to be able to understand how that division, along with the simultaneous "ethnic cleansing" Bosnian Serb movements throughout the country, could instigate the Croats to siege and destroy the Muslim quarter of the city is somehow incomprehensible to me. I was only 13 years old when the fighting here broke out, and really remember Bosnia more as a buzzword of regional turmoil than having any actual knowledge of what was going on or why it started. But seeing the immense cemeteries, with stone after stone after stone showing date of death: 1993, I was overcome with sadness, with fear, with terror, particularly as I saw a grave marker showing the same year of birth as mine. I started thinking about how arbitrary it is that you are born in one country or another, that whether you are rich or poor, whether you exist in an environment of stability or chaos, whether you live with freedom to practice your religion or voice your political dissent, and sometimes, whether you live or die, largely depends on where you happen to come into the world.

It shocked me that, 12 years after the big shelling of 93, these gaping beasts were still standing in the same form they must have been in over a decade ago -- with jagged broken windows like the sharp teeth of a hungry wolf waiting to devour us, always looming in the background as a reminder of the fragility of life. I wondered why these buildings were still standing, if it didn't serve as constant salt in the wounds of everyone who had lost a family member, friend, limb, or home in the ordeal -- why wouldn't they bulldoze them?

And yet, when I saw children playing tag in the park under the shadow of one of these ugly multi-story monsters -- children who were born after the war -- I thought it was also a good education for the next generation. For these children, with the curiosity of all youth, must at some point ask why these buildings look that way. The scary, or rather suspenseful, moment in that seeking of knowledge is the answer that is given them. On the one hand, it could serve to foster more hatred, if children are told that the reason for this destruction was because of "them", creating a division between humans based on religion once again. On the other hand, the utter pointlessness and horrible nature of war could be emphasized and parents could foster a feeling of unity, a love for humanity, and tolerance in their children. It made me curious as to the current sentiment running beneath the surface…of peace beyond the tourist souvenirs…of life walking past these memorials everyday.

My answers were to come, but not until I had contemplated more on my own.... What is it that drives us as humans to hate? What can possess us strongly enough to make us believe that we are justified in taking the life of another? Why do we divide ourselves into "us v. them" camps? Why do we see differences as dangerous instead of as the spice that keeps us interesting despite all our similarities?

I paid a visit to the Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose film highlights the elegant Stari Most bridge, which arched over the jade green Neretva River, and its former bridge-jumping contests, where local boys would take the 21 meter plunge in front of applauding audiences on the banks below. Aerial footage from 1984, presumably used for the showcasing of the country's highlights as host of the Winter Olympics that year, gives the viewer a sense of how absolutely amazing this city was before the carnage of the nineties. Home video captures the shelling and destruction of the Stari Most on November 8 and 9, 1993 and also shows the skeletons of the buildings (many of which still look the same today minus the now swept-up debris) after this storm of gunfire. The film goes on to show the later efforts to remove the remains of the bridge from the river, its reconstruction, and the new bridge’s inauguration in July last year.

If I hadn’t been a full-fledged pacifist before, I definitely am now. Seeing the bullet-ridden schools, the gravestones of 8-year old children, the videos of the shelling and a teenage boy running through a bombed-out building with the sheer terror of someone literally running for his life -- it made me feel fear and horror. I was on the verge of tears contemplating the atrocities these people had seen and experienced. What a strange sensation -- seeing with my own eyes how war can destroy a city, how savage and brutal it really is. And yet at the same time I see how resilient the human spirit is: how life goes on, how we find a way to pick ourselves up from the ashes and start over again.

I really couldn't make sense of the conflict, however, neither in Mostar itself nor in Bosnia at large, so I was lucky to have met Ned and Miedl. I was fumbling at expressing myself in the internet cafe and needed a break to think, and Ned invited me to have a coffee with the staff in the next room. He’s from Sarajevo and runs a number of these language and informatics schools. His friend Miedl was there visiting him and was trying to get up the nerve to ask the girl Sonja out for a drink. It snapped me into real life again: of course these people have gone on with their 'normal' lives -- they spend their time thinking about work and romantic interests and everyday things, not war and destruction. But they were nice enough to share their experiences with me when I requested relief from my ignorance, so this is their story.

Ned and Miedl grew up in Sarajevo, which, despite being a communist country, was quite tolerant of all religions, with a synagogue, mosque, Catholic cathedral, and Orthodox church all within a stone’s throw of each other in the city center. As Miedl explained to me, although Yugoslavia was communist, there was a liberal element to it: one could still move up the ranks within a company and people practiced their religions during these times as well -- you just would never get top-level positions if you chose to do so. However, in general they were pretty satisfied until the corruption got to be extreme and the war for independence brought about a separate state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, Ned and Miedl were teenagers, 17- & 18-year olds playing basketball outside their school when they saw a peculiar sight: army tanks rolling down the street. As any curious teenagers who had never seen tanks in real life rolling down the street in their peace-loving hometown, they all gathered around to examine the strange new attraction in town. Two days later, however, their curiosity turned to sheer horror as the tanks had now surrounded the city and from the mountains above town started to rain down drops of death in the form of bullets.

Suddenly the violence and atrocity of war they had only known on TV in the Middle East or somewhere else in the world, the kind of frightful event that could "never happen here" in their own backyard where everyone got along peacefully with each other...suddenly this was their reality, and they learned that peace, that adolescent invincibility, was just an illusion. Suddenly they learned that they were under attack for their religion, and where they had previously seen all their classmates, neighbors, friends as fellow human beings who were all equal, they were now getting a crash course in drawing lines and distinguishing differences, in determining friend from foe. The “ethnic” cleansing by the Serbs had indeed nothing to do with ethnicity, as the Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks are all from the same ethnic roots and visually indiscernible from each other. What distinguishes the three groups is religion; the Croats are Catholic, the Serbs are Orthodox, and the Bosniaks are Muslim. However, to say it was merely a religious war would also raise a lot of controversy, as there are many conspiracy theories out there on the political motives, which we unfortunately didn’t have time to properly discuss. At any rate, I was a bit confused as to how one could wage a war of this kind when all these different religions lived intermingled with each other in the same apartment blocks and neighbourhoods, and all looked relatively the same. “It’s all in the name,” Ned told me, as he admitted that he had never until that pmint made any distinction between who his friends were or what religion they practiced based on their name; but that it now became a survival issue to know who was on his side and who was against him.

The crazy thing was, when I asked, “But how did it happen? How did it come about?” they were, and in some ways still are, equally as confused. Admittedly, it just doesn’t make much sense, but they were at least able to clarify the rather warped logic behind it all a little. (And if any of this seems to go against any fact you know of, please keep in mind that certain things may have gotten lost in translation as Miedl had not spoken English in many years.) Miedl told of some Serbian Scientific Academy who, even before the war for independence, had started dragging up one small battle that had occurred 600 years ago when the Turks were invading and conquering the region. In that battle, many Orthodox Serbs were killed, and suddenly this event was injected into the spotlight once again as some sort of rallying point for the demagogues to use in a pro-Serbia movement. Of course this sounds quite ridiculous, considering that it was six centuries ago, especially considering that there is probably an equal amount of Turkish ethnic background mixed around through all 3 of the present groups inhabiting the area through intermarriage throughout the all those hundreds of years. The only thing that in some way linked the Bosniaks to the ancient Turks was a common religion. But among this scientific academy community, they started calling for revenge for the blood of the Orthodox Serbs and the way to accomplish this was to drive out the Bosniak Muslims. They also had the wherewithal to act on their demands, as after the war for independence from the former Yugoslavia, the ex-Yugoslav army and its armaments were taken over by the Serbian state and became the Serbian army. Given the seeming irrationality of the argument and the somewhat bizarre involvement of a scientific community, I can understand why so many theories on other motives and conspiracies exist. Whatever the motivations, however, the end results are not so easily debatable: the calls for “ethnic cleansing” and the mob mentality seem to have taken root quite swiftly among the Serbs within Bosnia as well.

The Serbs were demanding that the Muslims leave their land in Bosnia, and if they did not, they would be killed. Miedl explained how one day as he came home, his neighbour, a Serb who he had lived next to all his life and with whom his family had always had good relations, was standing there with a gun telling him to get out because he wasn’t allowed to be there. Miedl and his family escaped with the clothes on their backs and lived as refugees in their own country for four years, but the horror that he survived was written all over his face. He told me how his best friend, the one he had been blood buddies with as a child, was killed along with his younger brother and his parents; how he, who had never even seen a gun before that incident, was given a weapon by his grandfather to defend his own life; how they lived in terror for their own survival for a three-year siege of their city. He told of soldiers who laughed and joked that this was their passage to become “Serbian knights” as they shot the 14- and 15-year old sons of one of his loved ones. And he asked, “Why? Why them and not me?”

But what will become of Bosnia and Herzegovina? In Mostar it seems that the Croats and the Bosniaks have found peace, and in 2004 the Muslim and Catholic children resumed school together in the war-scarred Gymnasium once again. And to hear Miedl’s story, Ned’s story, the stories of their loved ones and friends who had suffered the losses, it was something akin to a miracle to hear him say, “But it’s over. And we don’t want revenge. As the mother of nine who lost all her children and her husband said, >>No amount of killing or revenge will bring any one of them back.<< Revenge is not ours to be had, it is God/Allah’s.”

The existence of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina alongside a Serb Republic within the country of Bosnia, however, left me wondering if the peace of the Dayton Accords’ agreement is merely ephemeral. Ned explained that, yes, it is possible to go into the Serb Republic part of the country as a Muslim and even to live there, but you will most definitely still be harassed and have a difficult time finding anything other than menial labor. Perhaps more disturbing, however, is the fact that many of the leaders of the Serbian army forces during the war who were not the two or three big name war criminals have simply been shuffled around to other government positions within the Serb Republic, and are therefore still “leading” their people. We spoke of Srebrenica and the mass killings that took place there, and how even now certain Serbian officials claim that it did not actually happen, that the visual evidence was simply a photo montage. Of course, even more tragically, as Miedl noted, “Ah, Srebrenica....the problem is, there were a hundred Srebrenicas.”

Of course, this is just one side of the story; to be diplomatic, I should really also travel to the Serb Republic and to Serbia & Montenegro and hope to have a similar experience of firsthand accounts. However, I have to say I would probably have a hard time being unbiased, as if listening to Hitler’s contemporaries trying to rationalize why the Holocaust was carried out. Of course, even then many average citizens got caught up in the hoopla and supported him before he really came to power and then were afraid to publicly denounce him once he did for fear of their own lives if they spoke out against the heinous racial crimes. And there were those who flat out did resist. So I suppose that is a similar possibility that I might encounter there. Regardless, it is obvious that not all Serbs are bad, not all Bosniaks are good, and vice versa; however, the fragile peace guarded by foreign patrols seems evanescent at best.

When I asked Miedl his thoughts on the future of his country, he told me that, honestly, he just doesn’t care. He has too much to do, he lost everything he owned, his family lost everything they owned, and they have been busy rebuilding their lives ever since the war ended. He has a career and his brother’s future to worry about; he just doesn’t wish to waste any more precious time speculating. He can’t imagine, however, that they will ever be able to enter into the EU as a divided country, and given the aforementioned issues in the Serb Republic, it doesn’t seem that a joining of the two sections is a likely event in the foreseeable future.

Miedl’s current sentiment seemed to be reflected in the song playing in the café where he, Sonja, and I had gathered to chat: “Life goes on….” In fact, after Ned finished up working and joined us there, our conversation topics finally changed to the ordinary and we later went out to clubs for a little dancing, although, to be honest, I still haven’t been able to turn off my brain from continuing to ponder these subjects. I am so glad I missed my ride to Sarajevo that morning, for my experience in Mostar would have been one of endless wondering had I not had such in-depth firsthand accounts from two of the most generous, respectful, and polite men I have come across in my travels. As I sat in the old Turkish quarter the next day marveling at the shade of green in the river, with the smokey grilled meat smells of the cevapcici stands wafting under my nose and the quiet chatter of the tourists only interrupted by the subdued call to prayer from the closest mosque, I saw the town in a much different light from the same dinnertime seat that I had sat in just a few days prior.

Being in Bosnia opened doors in my heart that I didn’t even realize I had. From the windows of my mind, smokescreens that I hadn’t known to exist suddenly evaporated. And I moved beyond the words in a history book and the images in a film to really FEEL something of this place and its history, and to FEEL how interconnected my life, my loves, my passions, my fears, and my hopes are with those of these people I had just met. And is that not why we travel? To break down stereotypes and simple expectations to find out how situations and people really are? To move beyond any artificial, superficial, or manmade barriers to feel our common humanity?

Ironically, I got a message the same day from some "Linda" telling me that I am selfish because I travel, since travel is inherently selfish. I pondered that a moment and then had to laugh out loud. Because travelling makes the difference between looking and really seeing, between hearing and really listening, between memorizing and really knowing, between touching and really feeling. And if learning to feel, understand, and care more about other people in this world is egoistic, then I beg to hold the gold medal in selfishness.


(Note to the fam and friends: I have been traveling computer-free for a few weeks so I am a little behind on things but I will catch up to my current continent's travels soon and fill you in! Sorry for my lapses in returning emails!)

---

Photos

The Beautiful Neretva River
View of Mostar from the riverside restaurants....complete with smoke from the cevapcici stands in the corner

Mostar Gymnasium
The scars of the past on the city high school

The Old Turkish Quarter
Rebuilt and thriving with tourists nowadays

Along the front lines
Austro-Hungarian building taken over by plant life

Timelessness
These stone buildings in the Turkish quarter were renovated after the war, but still seem to maintain an untouched medieval appearance

Stari Most
Mostar's famous bridge that was reconstructed in July 2004

Standing ruins
View of Mostar from the hill east of the city

Inside the Turkish House
A centuries-old house from a wealthy Turkish family preserved with furnishings of the time

Picturesque river view
This is the Mostar they write about in guidebooks.

Comments

[Linda]

comment
If you need travel to allow you to ``feel, understand and care more about people``....you have serious issues that no amount of travelling can help.

[Nicky]

Brilliant
I was recently in Sarajevo, and also had the amazing luck to meet with locals, and have everything explained from their perspective. I hadn't written it all down, but your beautifully written blog brought it all back. Thank you! Keep your heart open, and keep up the 'selfishness' :)

[Gerry]

getting around in B&H
Hi, Great blog! I'll be in Mostar on 3-10-05, and in the region for two weeks, would you recommend car-hire there? As in, worthwhile? Fine piece of writing by the way!

[deleted_4346]

Great blog...
Hi Great piece of writing. I never knew Bosnia was such an interesting place. I never tired of reading your piece, but the last three paragraphs let it down. Leave it as a travel piece and leave out the cliches of 'delving deeply into the travelling soul,' they've been done too many time before.

[Jenni Jen]

To Gerry
Yes, I would recommend car hire, I went to Blagaj with an Italian chap who had his car there and it was lovely, and I'm not sure you can get there without a car. That is just the next village over, about 10 km or so, but I'm sure there are other nice places around that are also only accessible by car. Have a great trip!

[Yubert]

Ennjoyed reading your B&H blog
Nice writing about an area I really want to see and to understand more about the people and place. Also read your first journal about escaping the Corporate Life, something I'd like to do!

[Stefan SERB]

The other side to the story..
You wanted it, here it is, the Serbian side to the story, I don't care whether you believe it or not, I am not trying to win sympathy. I don't need your sympathy, I am a Serb, once a soldier of the JNA and a citizen of our once glorious paradise of a country: As a Serb it angers me deeply when I see what Serbs are now getting for everything they have done to contribute to making Jugoslavija the paradise that it once was. First of all, before WWI; Serbia and Montenegro remained the only two independent countries of the later-day Yugoslavia. Serbs were being abused on a daily basis as scum of Bosnia (which was actually their original land which Austro-Hungaria invaded). In retaliation to years of taking abuse on the chin, the Serbs had had enough. In 1914 Gavrilo Princip acting on behalf of the Black Hand Gang assassinated Archduke to the Throne of Austro-Hungaria Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, modern day Bosnia. It was a day that was to shape the history of the World. WWI inevitably began with the attempted invasion of Serbia by Austro-Hungarian troops. Russia joined on the side of the Serbs, as did Britain and France as the Triple-Entente, Germany joined on the side of the Austro-Hungarians. Concentration camps were quickly set up to eradicate the Serbs on Austro-Hungarian soil with the Croats and Muslims backing the regime, only the Serbs dared to stand up to them. After 4 years of the bloodiest war the World had ever seen, Austro-Hungaria and Germany surrendered. The Serbs had won WWI and the World was again safe. Croats and Muslims were never punished for their genocide of the Serbs, on the contrary, a Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was created for the Balkans to be unified (later called Yugoslavia). CROATS AND MUSLIMS WERE NEVER PUNISHED. 20 years later, WWII commences, Italy, Austria, Germany and Japan become the Axis powers and the Nazis quickly sweep across Europa. Once again, the Croats and Muslims in Croatia and Bosnia quickly allied themselves with Hitler while Serbs began their Partizan resistance. The Ustase is unheard of in the West today, nor is it known that the Serbs were the only people in the Balkans to liberate themselves without Soviet aid. Anywho, the Croats massacred 100,000's of Serbs during WWII while kissing up to the Nazis. All nations in the Balkans surrounding Serbia allied themselves with Hitler (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Albania, Hungary and Bosnian Muslim territory). Meanwhile, as Serbs were being massacred daily at the hands of the FILTHY Croats and Muslims, they were also organizing the strongest resistance in Europe. Eventually after the Partizans (led by almost 90% Serbs) liberated Yugoslavia and restored peace to the Balkans. After the casualties were tolled, it was found that more than 1 Million Serbs had died during the war at the hands of Croats, Muslims and the Axis Forces. That is 10% of our population wiped out my friend! Once again, true to form, the stupid Serbs totally forgave Croatia for their monstrous crimes against Serbs and installed a CROAT AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA!! During Josip Broz Tito's reign, it is true that he suppressed Nationalistic Movements in Croatia and ultimately held together Yugoslavia for his entire life. However, what you may not know is that he carved Serbia up while leaving the other Republics untouched. In Kosovo, where many, many Serbs had left during WWII when the pussy Albanians had been granted a greater Albania in order to reduce Serbian land, were no longer allowed to return there. Kosovo is where the State of Serbia was born; it is where the brave Christian Serbs faced an enemy of far Greater numbers in the name of Christianity knowing they would inevitably lose to the Turks. It is where Orthodoxy was born for the Serbs, it is our most precious Holy Land where 100's of 1000 year monasteries lie, where our history began. All the Serbs who had left during WWII were not allowed to return, you understand!? While 100's of Albanian refugees crossed the border in to Kosovo every day to escape the absolute awfulness and tyranny of life in Albania. TITO MADE KOSOVO AN AUTONOMY, THEN MADE VOJVODINA AN AUTONOMY, he had carved Serbia into 3, while the Serbs watched and supported him in all his actions. However, he DID NOT create an AUTONOMY for the Serbs in Slavonia and Krajina, nor did he grant Republika Srpska the right to exist. The fact of the matter is that Serbs suffered heavily under Tito unknowingly, and supported him in his actions which ultimately resulted in the loss of Serbian lands in the inevitable break-up of Yugoslavia. When Tito died in 1980, Nationalism began to slowly build and with the collapse of the USSR in 1990, it truly began to flare as the rest of Eastern Europe disintegrated. Communism fell and Yugoslavia was the last remaining country to succeed from in Eastern Europe, it was the only obstacle left in the West's way. The West began to spark up Nationalism themselves in Croatia and Slovenia promising money and weapons to support their liberation and huge investment afterwards. Croatia and Slovenia had largely profited from Yugoslavia and were consequently the most developed regions of the Federation. In 1991 when Slovenia and Croatia declared illegal independence, Germany and the USA immediately acknowledged their existence as independent states without having any official documentation signed in Belgrade authorizing it. Yugoslavia's Serbs had always had excellent ties with the West and thought they were genuinely backing them; however the Fucking pussies in the West had constantly gone behind our backs to sneakily destroy us. Slovenian separatists armed by the West prior to declaring independence surrounded JNA barracks in Slovenia where trainee soldiers were serving National Service. Serbia issued an ultimatum to Slovenia to back down and diplomatically sort out their independence, but they felt they were in the driving seat and wanted to flex their muscles. They denied Yugoslavia's ultimatum and immediately JNA MiGs were ordered to bomb separatist TO targets. Giant lines of Tanks were sent from Belgrade to Slovenia but never made it in time (after less than 5 days the Slovenian TO backed down from their position and signed a peaceful independence treaty). SLOVENIA WAS GONE. On their way back to Belgrade, the JNA Units who were forced to leave all their weapons in their barracks in Slovenia (therefore unarmed) were traveling through Croatia, when they were pounced upon by armed Croatian separatists and massacred without a chance to defend themselves. Several JNA Tanks and various equipment such as heavy artillery was seized in this cowardly attack on their once fellow neighbors. The War in Croatia began. Vukovar shortly fell and separatist movements were eradicated in less than 48 hours after what was left of the JNA moved in. Croatian and Bosnian Muslims armed Mujahedeen rebels went on the rampage in Bosnia climbing to the top of Hospitals and Mosques with sniper rifles and gunning down Serbian civilians while others were beheading Serbian old women and children in villages and burning the Serbs' houses down. After everything Serbs had suffered up to this point, they finally realized that they had been conned for a century, 3 Yugoslavia's cost them 3 million people and the shit finally hit the fan. Bosnia was a car park in 48 hours and the Serbs lost control (gone crazy). Srebrenica was an awful event in hindsight but I am glad it took place, Muslims and Croats should count themselves lucky, they got 8000 people killed, we got 3 Million. Remember, after all the Genocide that took place Croats had never been punished for a thing, Serbs are now being punished for killing not even 1/20 of the amount we sustained and we will now be punished for another 50 years, my friends, you must understand that even Nazi Germany did not suffer such punishment after WWII. Now we will lose Kosovo and Islam will be spread even further into the heart of Europe, you have no idea what Kosovo means to Serbs, taking Washington DC and New York from the USA does not even begin to compare to its meaning to us SERBS. Which story would you believe, the ridiculous story this Bosnian muppet has told you, or my story, the story of the Serbs, the story which just happens to be correct? SRBIJA I ELLAS ZA UVEK!! Pics of Belgrade: http://www.pbase.com/stefan_serb/belgrade_2005

[Jenni Jen]

To Stefan SERB:
While I've posted your comment, I also must mention my sentiment that there is something quite 'off' about thinking that killing the descendants of people whom you feel wronged your people 80+ years ago is a justifiable solution. As a girl with family in Germany, I would be outraged to think that anyone would find it acceptable to start shelling Berlin today and killing my relatives because they felt that the citizens were not properly 'punished' for crimes in WW2. Particularly when you yourself admit that your own leader carved your country up and created divisions, how can one take all the combined circumstances and say that it is appropriate to throw fault at and kill the great-grandchildren of the Croats and Bosniaks that you claim started all the mess?

[Lana]

do not forget
your experience while traveling through out My home town of Mostar, and I feel sorry for Linda that she felt as she had. Ialso feel Sorry for the serbian guy, not that I would like to elaborate on anything since I am not going to, but it is well known that the history, especially in later days is written by hard core politicians so they could lure their own nation and eventually will end up something like BH. i AM PLEASENTLY SURPRISED BY YOUR DESCRIPTION OF MOSTAR....... MY email address is [e-mail] if you'd like to have a pen pal

[Linda]

for Lana
Hi Lana, don`t feel sorry for me. I still stand by my theory that if you need travel to allow you to `feel, understand and care more about people`...you have serious issues that no amount of travelling can help. You see Lana, it is very easy to travel. Just pack your toothbrush and go. I did it for years and so have millions of others. I recommend you read Alain de Bottom`s The Art of Travel if you are truly interested in the reasons behind why people travel. Travel simply does not make you understand people on any level that is significant. It is easy to superficially connect with strangers precisely becasue WE ARE LEAVING. Emotions appear to be fantastic exactly because they are doomed to end. Travelling can fool anyone into believing what they are experiencing is better than being home. Travelling is better, when your life at home sucks. So why bother building real relationships with your family and friends at home when a series of temporary passions await you in exotic locations? What I`m getting at is that the most difficult thing to connect, feel and understand our own next door neighbor, our mother and father and everyone else in our life. It is difficult to stay in one`s own home and much easier to run away from who we are with aimless travel. I believe that many, including La Vagabonda, rationalize their running away from their own loved ones by claiming they have experienced a deeper understanding of humanity by the means of futile meetings and conversations. But no amount of travelling in the world, no beach, no mountain, no culture or remote exotic location can make better, torn, unresolved relationships from their home.

[Jenni Jen]

Thanks for your unsolicited psychiatric evaluation, but....
I don't need to rationalise why I travel to you because there is nothing to rationalise -- I don't have torn relationships with my family, neighbors, or loved ones, and the fact that I do feel a greater understanding of the world by observing it in person rather than staying in a country where half the people my age never even watch the news is not an attempt to 'rationalize' my travel; I am simply stating my preferences. I am sorry that your 'pack up your toothbrush and go' philosophy left you feeling some void or superficiality in your own life, but it doesn't give you the right to extrapolate and project your experience onto others. Not all people are meant to work a 9 to 5 job in the city they were born in and get excited over Sunday afternoon tea and picking out drapes for the living room, so the fact that I choose to live elsewhere than mainstream small town America has nothing to do with running away from who you supposedly think that I am ... and all those unbroken long term friendships and family relationships would be the first to say that this is precisely who I really am. I find it ironic that you would pretend to know anything about my relationships with my family when you have never met me. In fact, if you want to criticise superficial conversation, why don't you examine the fact that you like to leave slanderous comments on my blog without having the courage to actually contact me personally via a personal message and initiate any real conversation?

[xxx]

Wow, just reading through your blogs, seems Linda is a bit obsessed to be honest.....Linda, if you're so above it all, why do you waste your time browsing a travel-based website, and stalking poor Jenni, surely you should be focusing on building relationships with your family and friends instead......

[Janez]

nice adventure
Serbs Muslims and Croats are diffrent racial you would never call a scotish the same as english would you ? Serbs and croat migrated from current ukrine and mixed with local people and are influnced by many empires the muslums actualy have a much higer percentage of turkish blood than the rest . croats inland have also high german blood while the seacoast are usualy dark apperance from the native illyrians which are current day albanians . Of course in the past croats attacked serbs and vise versa but in the yugo war serbs were 100% wrong there is no dispute there aim was to wipe out the rest of the races a lot of the problems were in a region of croatia were the austrians placed the serbs here to fight the turks thus alot of the war is contributed to the past turkish/ottoman empire which nearly destroye this part of europe right up to vienna and of course it destroyed the greek capital which is now unfortunaly istanbul

[janez]

I just had to respond to the serb guy comment that kosovo taking away from serbia the albainians in kosovo and todays macadonia have been settled by albanians or illyrians for 3 thousnad years way before serbs and bulgarians of macdonia region . And Germany is paying for the price of its quest to save white europe it is now under washington anglojudasium control and of course i dont support germany but britain is much worse try to name a country that was not occupied by britain

[For Janez]

ahhh
Dear Janez , Please try to distinguish the difference between the race , nationality and religion .I See , that is your personal approach , but if you take more scientific method to antropology , like physical , linguistic , cultural and applied anthropology , you will understand better origin of the people from balcans, and believe me , we all have chioce of religion, is that simple.. And then maybe you will understand. Peace...

[Shelley Cochran]

Stone houses
I am interested in a traditional stone house in Turkey. Please give me some more information about these houses and if it is possible to buy one. Thank you