Farewell the ashtray city (for now)

I'm 3 hours in flying to Madrid. I'll be far from my belowed Sarajevo for 21 days. In the next three weeks I'm gonna live at least two wonderful experiences: be back in Dominican Republic, in the wedding of one of my best friends; and then see my family for the first time in 3 months.


But I will miss this city. For thousands of reasons: my friends (you know who you are), Basčaršija, Begova dzamija, Arts Academy, the trams, polako polako, some ćevapi at Hodzić, bosanska kafa, Sarajevsko pivo, a kapućino in the morning with Samir, saying Good morning to Lejla and Chiara, Dobro jutro radio, Grbavica, eating pastrmka at Lights, seeing wahabits praying at King Fahd's mosque, Ferhadija, walking along Miljacka, the lights on the hills, the chaos, the old men playing chess in the squares, Hotel Bristol, Alipašina dzamija... like a genius said once, I love this jungle city.


And this is my tribute to Sarajevo:


"If you play with the lines on the map of Europe, you will have to find Sarajevo. It is revealed where lines cross over the Balkans. First you draw a line from Paris, through Venice and then to Istanbul, the closest East that Europe knew for centuries. A second line starts in Northern Europe, goes between Berlin and Warsaw, through the Mediterranean, and then to Africa. These lines meet over Bosnia and Herzegovina. And, in fact, they cross over Sarajevo.


Here wars started and here they went on, while people loved and longed for love. Here merchants were selling goods from all over the world and life was close and distant to ways of the East and the West. It was Western for the East, and Oriental for the West. It is the life in Sarajevo".


From "Sarajevo Survival Guide" by Fama colective (1993), page 94.



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