The Hals Family World Adventures: Day 3

Full day in Sarajevo. Tom is still MIA, stranded in Dayton, driving furiously to Dulles only to discover the flight is sold out (they required him to buy the ticket in person). Poor poor Tom.

Courtyard of a beautiful mosque

The central, historic part of Sarajevo is a lovely, charming area that is very accessible on foot. Even in a two hour walk it's amazing how many of the different "must see" sites can be seen along the way. For a lot of this it makes sense to tell the story via captioned pictures, but I thought I would share a few highlights.

If you drink the water from the fountain, you will return to Sarajevo someday

City Hall / National Museum - this iconic building was built towards the end of Ottoman rule, was the site where Archduke Franz Ferdinand gave his speech prior to being assassinated, was a national library before being hit with successive mortar shells and burning extensively, destroying most all of the book collections and leaving a shell of a building and true reminder of the war. In 2008 the building was almost entirely blocked off, but there were not really any signs of rennovation. Upon some research prior to the trip I discovered that the building had been unveiled in May, with a fully restored interior and exterior. I was so excited to get to see the inside this time! But...when we got there we discovered that yes, the fascade had been fully rennovated, but the interior would not be open until July. :-/ Boo! The glimpses we saw from an open side door were stunning though!

Enjoying our view of a City Hall

Newly renovated Sarajevo

Walking the streets of Sarajevo

Shopping for scarves in the market

Corner of Latin Bridge - this is the actual site where Gavrilo Princep assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia. There is a museum at the corner that last time was in major disrepair and was pretty pitiful. It was really cool to walk from City Hall to the corner of Latin Bridge and think that in about two weeks (June 28), 100 years ago, one of the most horrific wars in all of history began with this incident. Meredith and I did pop into this museum (I was hoping it would be improved in light of the anniversary and such) and it was...but still was very basic. The main aspect of the rennovations were English translations for all fo the artifacts (like I learned that the pants on display belonged to Gavrilo Princep) and there were a few paragraph explanations here and there in English that did a good job trying to explain how Bosnia and Herzegovina were tied to the whole mess. An affiliate group with the United States had actually fasciliated the improvements. It's still one tiny room with a rather eclectic range of artifacts, but I still think it is really cool to get to see the pistol Gavrilo used.

The location of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination

Inat Kuca - the Spite House. Inat Kuca is a restaurant that we had enjoyed back in '08 that I remembered had quite delish Bosnian food. It is a beautiful place on the Milijacka River with a lot of traditional dishes and a fun story. Evidently this home was previously in the exact location where the City Hall is currently located. In otherwords, in 1895, the government wanted to overrun his home and build a symbol of governance in its place. Not cool to this stubborn guy who vehemently refused to leave his property. In the end he demanded a bag of gold coins and required his house be moved brick by brick to its current location. It survived the war and is not a restaurant overlooking the river and City Hall. Meredith enjoyed a stew type dish with beef and vegetables, Daniel had a tasty salad topped with local cheeses, and I had a selection of dolmas, veggies stuffed with seasoned meat. Yum!

The Spite House

Dolmas

A traditional Bosnian dish

People watching at Inat Kuca

Srebrenica Gallery - 11.07.95 - This gallery is a fairly new installation that has a very nice central location and is a series of photographs and personal accounts that try to recognize the expansive number of victims and help individuals gain an understanding of what events transpired around this atrocity. They also included a 35 minute English tour with admission, which Meredith and I did. The images communicate a deep sadness and injustice as well as startling insight of what really happened.

And how is Hannah doing? Pretty well! Before the trip Daniel and I had talked about the ways in which this trip would be different/things we would have to do differently and one of the things we joked about was the need to be able to change her diaper...especially since she starts to cry when she's even the slightest bit wet. Some trips we have themes and we take pictures of that said item each time we enjoy it. When we were in Europe in 2008 we took pictures of all the awesome beer we enjoyed as we worked our way from Belgium to Germany and Austria, etc. In 2011 it was Greek salads as we worked our way through some of the Greek isles. In 2014, with an infant - it's diaper changes in random places. Haha. Yep. And it's been hilarious so far.

Hanging out on the bench along Latin Bridge post diaper change

One happy Hannah after a diaper change on a park bench along the river

Hannah has gotten quite a few loving looks and hundreds of smiles from those we pass - people here seem to love babies and keeping women from reaching for Hannah has been a challenge, but she is certainly adored! Overall she did pretty well today, but was not perfect. She headed into a meltdown just as we went to head into the Srebrenica gallery (thankfully before Daniel had paid for his ticket). This was one of two things in Sarajevo that I had deemed my priority (aka Daniel would take Hannah if she braided down during my time to see this gallery and one other museum I wanted to visit). He took her back to the hotel and when I came home discovered she had cried nearly the entire time and was ravenous (I had fed her an hour before the gallery, so I should have had enough time to visit it for 45 minutes and walk home 15 minutes...two hours between feedings is a totally reasonable expectation for a child who will be three months old in a matter of days). Poor Daniel. However, Hannah does get gold stars for most of the day. I was able to see a good bit, was able to eat my meals at the restaurants (with some interruption, but not too terrible), and overall we had a pretty good day.