Back to walking! Learning!

11/20: Well THAT was a good night of sleep! We woke up feeling great and ready to explore our new town. We got the kids going with some exercise and set out on a walk. I asked Bob if he’d like me to look at a map and figure out where to go, and he said, “Nope! I’ve already got it mapped out.” Ahhh another thing I love about him :-)

We walked a short bit through town to a beautiful trail by the river. There were very few people on it, but the ones that were there greeted us with a smile. Man have we missed that! It felt like so many Turks were brusque and unfriendly. The falls colors were still in effect, and we made it to an old bridge.

We have SO missed our morning walks! The whole month we were in Türkiye we were never in a suitable/comfortable area where we could walk out our door for a walk. Even in Antalya where we walked on the beachfront, the beach was about 1 mile away and the walk to the beach was not a nice one. This morning was rejuvenating for us.

Online school at its best!

While Bob and I were mapping out our Sarajevo activities, I learned that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand happened on a street corner in Sarajevo very close to our place! As I looked into the history behind his death, I learned that it was the precipitating event that started WWI. This knowledge led me down multiple rabbit holes of learning about the Ottoman Empire, WWI, Turkey and Yugoslavia. It was hard for me to stop and break for our family lunch! It was so great, though…this was the kind of learning that I thought I’d be doing for so much of our trip, but that I just couldn’t find the time for amidst our daily responsibilities and planning.

After lunch Bob and I headed out again to Kovači Cemetery, a war cemetery from the Bosnian War from 1992 - 1995. This was only 1 block from our home. It was a very powerful place. We have never been in a mainly civilian gravesite where all the years of death are the same - and so many young people - not much older than Bob and me. I also noticed how so many seemed to be Muslim and the writing on the tombstones were in Arabic and had quotes from the Quran. I did not know it at the time, but this would become clear to me later.

We walked 10 minutes to the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was killed, and saw a bit more of Old Town. We are really enjoying this city.

There is graffiti everywhere here, and most of it is not attractive, but this was super cool. It gets dark very early here - pitch black at 4:45.

We came home to join the kids in a little more work. Here is when I dove into the history of the Bosnian War from 1992 - 1995. The sequence of events is so interesting, far more so now that I am in this place and learning firsthand. History was never my favorite subject, but now it is truly phenomenal to be in a place with such historic significance, and to have the time to dig in and learn about these monumental world events. So many places are tying together as well - the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) where we just were, Bosnia where we are now (where WWI started), the result of WWI where Germany lost and created the foundation for the Nazi party (we were in Munich, Dachau, Normandy). Yugoslavia (socialist) was created in 1929 (comprised of 6 countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro where we’re going soon). The leader Tito died in 1980 which weakened the unifying force in that country and communism as a whole in Eastern Europe - the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

In 1991 - 92 Croatia and Slovenia declared independence, and in 1992 Bosnia/Herzegovina declared independence too. This is where I had a few ‘aha’ moments. Bosnia/Herzegovina was comprised of:

44% Muslim Bosniaks 

31% Orthodox Serbs

17% Catholic Croats

The Serbs boycotted the referendum for independence because they thought it would result in the Serbs “being a national minority in an Islamic State.” So that’s why there were so many Muslim graves…I couldn’t believe what I was learning combined with the place where I just stood a few hours earlier. Over 100,000 people died, mainly Muslim Bosniaks.

Next I learned about the Srebrenica massacre, which sadly I had never heard of. In July 1995, the UN established a safe zone for Muslims in Srebrenica in Eastern Bosnia. Thousands of people fled to this safe zone, but it was not adequately protected by the UN. There were concentration camps, a death march, and the systematic killing of 8,000+ people - the first ethnic cleansing since WWII. Bob and I could not believe we had never heard of this - and it was only 30 years ago. How have we learned about so many other more minor events but not this atrocity??

We have no scratch paper, so I took my notes on the paper bags we got from the fresh produce stand.

Before we watched our Wonder Years, I gave my family my 10 minute overview of all that I’d learned in my hours of research today. It was so gratifying to put these huge events on a timeline. We are in a powerful place and we are very much trying to soak up all of its significance.

It was raining earlier, and this evening it turned to snow. It's really coming down!