Sarajevo: Bosnia’s microcosm of humanity

If Serbia was an eye-opener then Bosnia was no less an amazing experience!

As the crow flies, the distance between Belgrade and Sarajevo is less than 200 kilometres – a couple of hours on a German autobahn or an intercity train! However, train services between Belgrade and Sarajevo were suspended in 2012 making bus travel the best option.

Given the mountainous (and beautiful!) terrain traversed during the road journey, the actual distance traveled on a bus is approximately 300 kilometres. Including a few rest stops, immigration formalities to exit Serbia and enter Bosnia (two independent nations), the entire journey takes almost eight hours. A long but manageable ride.

The Sebilj or Ottoman style wooden fountain located in Bascarsija Square, an old city district

The highway from Belgrade takes one through fairly typical (yet beautiful!) European countryside. It is only closer to the Bosnian frontier that the land becomes mountainous. Sarajevo proper is situated 500 meters above sea level in a valley of the Dinaric Alps.

Although the Bosnian countryside is spectacular especially when seen from such high vantage points, it is the pervasiveness of graveyards, large and small, dotted across Bosnia which one finds striking. The cemeteries are a reminder of the horrors – and massacres – of the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s. As recently as October 2013, a mass grave believed to contain over 1,000 bodies was found near a village in Northwest Bosnia.

(View a vivid pictorial essay of the Bosnian War by the Atlantic magazine here.)

The bus curves its way up mountains on narrow roads until at some point it begins its descent again. (Travelers prone to motion sickness or suffering from fear of heights may wish to carry ginger and / or sleeping pills!)

There is a sense of excitement about entering Sarajevo after hours of driving in sparsely populated rural areas; entering civilization after wandering about in 'no man's land!'

The Latin Bridge across the Miljacka River. The bridge was the site of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914, an event which precipitated World War One 

From first glance, one realizes Sarajevo is an old and unique city. Europe but still not quite Europe: more Europe than Istanbul but as Ottoman as any Turkish city, especially in architectural terms.

Moreover, Sarajevo is a city of hills with narrow streets and lanes. A great city for keeping fit as walking – even a short distance of a few hundred meters to the nearest tram station – requires negotiating steep inclines. There is also a medieval, 'stone houses and cobbled streets' atmosphere within Sarajevo, nowhere more so than in the Baščaršija Square located in the old town.

Sarajevo is a must see city for any traveler: a city of functioning synagogues, cathedrals and mosques; a city which recently hosted Pope Francis. Sarajevo is also a city which was only recently (at least for historians!) plunged into despair, despondency and an orgy of bloodletting along religious and ethnic lines.  

A dog drinks water at the Sebilj water fountain

In so many ways, Sarajevo personifies the best and worst of human nature: a city of tolerance, peace and harmony and yet also a city of war and unspeakable atrocities.

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Imran is a business and management consultant. Through his work at Deodar Advisors and the Deodar Diagnostic, Imran improves profits of businesses operating in Singapore and the region. He can be reached at imran@deodaradvisors.com.