Sarajevo is a beautiful city surrounded by picturesque mountains and has its own unique mix of eastern and western influences. It is easy to forget when walking through the streets that just a little over twenty years ago this city experienced the longest siege in modern history. It is easy to forget this when walking past all the cafes and seeing all of the faces in the crowd that are just going about their day as usual.
It is easy to dismiss the history of this city and be somewhat disconnected from the realities that Sarajevo has faced. The fact that war was a very real thing here in Sarajevo is something you start to realize more and more as you spend time in the city. As you get more familiar with the city, you start to recognize the places that people refer to when giving their accounts of the war. Remember that street with all the shopping centers and cafés that you are so fond of? That street saw sniper rifle rounds flying over head and mortar shells raining down on it every day. That alley with the nice bakery? Many citizens of Sarajevo lost their lives there. It is harder to be disconnected when you can attach a place, a name, or a picture in your mind to the things that you hear or to the memories you relive through the accounts of people who were there.
These kind of connections are not just a sort of sobering thing but also a reassuring one. This city saw the end of war and fighting no longer than twenty years ago, and yet the city was able to re-cultivate the things that made this city beautiful. The fact that there are cafés and bakeries in p
Sarajevo during and after war
laces where nothing but shrapnel and bullets could be found is a testament to the resiliency of Sarajevo. I cannot wait to see what change another twenty years will bring to this city of Sarajevo.