"Hate never solves anything"

I think most people have a list, whether expressed or not, of places they would like to visit before they toddle off the mortal coil. On my list, that I have been lucky enough to tick a number off, are some that are unlikely to appear on many people's lists.

In visiting Sarajevo, and exploring Bosnia and Herzegovina a little more generally, I have been able to tick one off mine. Ever since I first saw the images of the conflict in the Balkans, and of the siege of Sarajevo, I wanted to visit not because I am a war junky, but because I wanted to understand how and why such a series of horrific events could occur so recently and so close to western Europe. Reading and studying a number of reports on the conflict, the abuses and incidents did not answer many of the questions I had.

From visiting the region, seeing many burnt out or shot up buildings (some still with sandbags), and having had the opportunity to talk with a number of bravely honest individuals (a long and confronting chat with a 26 year old resident of Mostar is one that I will remember for a long time - the title of this post is a quote from him), I feel that I have a better sense of what occurred but may never really appreciate the key question, why.

Sarajevo is an interesting and vibrant city. The many pedestrianised streets of the old town and the area to the west are charming, filled with people (many people sitting having a conversation over coffee) and have a great buzz.

Bars, restaurants and cafes are everywhere and some streets turn into seas of tables at night. One night we watched FK Sarajevo play the second round of a Europa League qualifying tie in one such street. With 15 tv screens placed throughout an excited and interested crowd, it was quite an experience.

Through a couple of self guided city tours, we visited the Latin Bridge (where the Archduke and his wife were assassinated, triggering world war one), walked down a number of sniper alleys, saw a number of the Sarajevo roses and had lunch on the steps of the rebuilt parliament buildings (the image of it on fire is one that I remember). Near the parliament building is the Holiday Inn, a "safe" hotel where journalists were accommodated during the siege. While the facade has mostly been replaced, there are still some shrapnel marks. We also visited the desperately underfunded historical museum, which has a permanent exhibition on how the city operated during the siege and had two temporary photographic exhibitions comprising some very confronting images of the siege and the conflict more generally.

From Sarajevo we boarded a bus and travelled down to Mostar. Mostar being famous for one of its bridges, which during the conflict was blown up symbolically and practically separating the city.

While much work, and money, has gone into rebuilding parts of the town (the old town, which housed the bridge, was almost totally destroyed), there are still many reminders of the conflict. In some streets, including on each of the streets people walk down from the train/bus station to the old town (where most of the accommodation, restaurants and bars are) almost every building sports some scars from the conflict. Some buildings remain totally destroyed, some still with sandbags and some shot up and abandoned. For our tour guide (on one of the days we did a tour out of town which I talk about below), it is the repaired buildings, including the mosques (he told me every mosque in town was badly damaged during the conflict), that remind and haunt him the most.

I am so lucky to have been born to the family I was and grown up where I did.

On a day trip out from Mostar, we visited the Medugorje and the Kravice waterfalls. The Medugorje was little known until 1981 when a group of teenagers claim they were spoken to by the Virgin Mary on a hill overlooking the town. Even though the Vatican has not acknowledged that the events took place, millions of pilgrims have visited since. The main Catholic church in town is quite a place, with 25+ confession booths (with the languages spoken by the priest written above the door), services conducted daily in a number of languages and parking for thousands. The waterfalls, which are hidden in a gully in the dessert like landscape, provided a nice break from the heat (according to our guide it was too cool for him to swim with the air temperature only 35 degrees).

From Mostar, we took an epic seven and a half hour, four border crossing, bus ride to Budva in Montenegro, where I sit writing this.

Mostar

Mostar and around

Kravice waterfalls

Sarajevo

More Sarajevo

Seventy kilometers west of Kraków lies a most confronting, disturbing and heartbreaking place. While before the war and now it was and is known as Oświęcim, the place is best known by the name the Germans gave it - Auschwitz.

I do not plan to write much about our visit, especially since the horrors that were perpetrated there are largely beyond words, but I will write a little.

Like many of those we saw as we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, we spent much of our visit, and many a time in the days following, shaking our heads with a sense of disbelief. Like we saw and experienced on our visit to Dachau, you enter and leave the same person yet are somehow changed. The people who walk out, although visually indistinct from those heading in, are somehow different. They are in the most part quieter, walking slower and sporting expressions ranging from disbelief, to distress, to anger and in some cases, a mix of the lot. 

I hope that in each of those who visit a seed is a sown, a seed borne of the knowledge of the injustice that occurred, a seed that might grow into resolve to speak up when confronted by injustice in their own life, a seed that might grow to help stop such horrors from continuing to occur.

... compare and contrast

Traveling around Europe it is easy to develop some very specific types of fatigue, including cathedral fatigue, museum/gallery fatigue, castle fatigue, historical ruin/site fatigue and even beautiful landscape fatigue. Given that we are wired to need a greater and greater stimulus for the same effect, it is understandable.

A fatigue that Bren and I found ourselves suffering by the end of our last trip was old town fatigue. Having seen many beautiful, historic and well preserved old towns, we lost the ability to get excited about, or interested by, a collection of old buildings. 

Then we arrived in Kraków.

Kraków's old town, which serves as the epicenter of the tourist part of The city, is simply beautiful. Charming street after charming street radiates out from Rynek Glowny, the central square of the old town. The square itself, although packed with tourists, cafes and restaurants, never feels crowded because it is massive. Even the large numbers of people trying to sell things to/make money off tourists, including those pitching tours of the old town by golf cart or horse and carriage (my favourite being a middle aged gentleman who proudly pointed to a Danish flag and told me they conduct tours in 'that flag's language'), seem less tiresome given the energy of the place and the space.

On a small hill overlooking the old town is the Wawel, where Poland was ruled from for hundreds of years and where numerous monarchs and historical heavyweights are buried. The cathedral, which is one of the few parts of the Wawel accessible without a ticket, is an interesting building. With wealthy citizens having added side chapels to it over the years, it is something of a hodge podge of architectural and decorative styles.

The old town, and Kraków more generally, was spared from the bombing that devastated many a city in Europe in World War Two. A number of guidebooks talk of the city being spared from world war two. A visit to Kazimierz (the pre-war Jewish heart of the city) or the terrible place 70 kilometers west of the city, unforgettably reminds you that if the city was physically spared, its heart and soul was not.

Getting out of the old town, offers a different, and more real, perspective of the place. The consistently beautiful buildings of the old town give way to a widely varied collection of old and new buildings. Crumbling Soviet era apartment blocks stand side by side with gleaming new office buildings and turn of the century hotels. Shabby looking fresh produce markets are shaded by oversized shopping centers.  

If you find yourself in Kraków, make sure you take the time to venture beyond the old town. The real Poland, as a curious old bloke told me only existed away from the postcard parts of town, is well worth a visit. 

Kraków by night

Kraków by day