This article was submitted by alinesarajevo, a traveler in Bosnia.
If you are somewhat outdoorsy and planning a Balkans vacation, there is simply no excuse not to take a Green Visions (www.greenvisions.ba) trip. Green Visions, an eco-tourism agency based in Sarajevo, has been leading treks in the Bosnian mountains from May to October for over a decade now (as well as offering other types of travel, such as white-water rafting). They are well organized, decently priced, and their trained guides have a knowledge of all the mountain areas that have still not been cleared of land mines.
This article was submitted by an American teacher teaching English in Sarajevo.
I first met my student on a Monday evening. He was wearing a suit and tie, and his level was pre-intermediate. He had relatives in the US and had been to a language school there during a month-long trip. I admired this willingness for a relatively older learner with a high-status job to enroll in an elementary level language class.
This article was submitted by a former English teacher in Sarajevo.
She was an old woman, seventy-five years old, she told me, holding up seven fingers and then five. The day I moved into the flat in the building her family owned, she came up the steps the first day with some homemade sirnica, cheese pie. Every week or so she would come up the stairs slowly, bearing some kind of food. If I ever knocked on her door, she would invite me in for coffee and warm up some food for me.
PORTLAND, Oregon: A Million Movies a Minute, an independent distributor specializing in short documentaries, has announced the release of AFTER THE WAR: LIFE POST-YUGOSLAVIA. This 150-minute compilation includes films by 5 filmmakers from the former Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Peru and the United States. These 9 films represent a broad spectrum of contemporary documentary film-making.The recent apprehension of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has brought the Bosnian war back into the international spotlight.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
Bosnia-Herzegovina must certainly be the world-champion in fitting several schools under one roof. A common phenomenon in this country is the so-called ‘two schools under one roof’ which means that there are two different ethnic groups enrolling in a different school curriculum in the same building. One group usually starts early in the morning until noon, and the other begins right after until dinner time.
By ISA BELLE
The Old Town, or Stari Most as the locals say, is the pride of Mostar. It was inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list in 2005. The showpiece is the famous Old Bridge (Stari Most), built by the Ottomans in the 15th century and characterized by cobblestones, truly a beautiful place. The bridge, however, is not as old as you may suspect. It was destroyed during the Bosnian war and has been rebuilt since and opened just in 2004.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
I was abruptly woken up by the alarm clock. My head was heavy, and I could not properly open my eyes or get out of the bed. Why should I anyway when the bed was so warm? But you know what? It was not even my alarm clock. Shit! I could have slept for at least half an hour more.Situations like these await you every day living in a three-person dormitory room. But who complains? There are some sacrifices you have to accept when you want to experience the adventure of finishing your high school abroad, sharing a small territory with two incredibly interesting roommates from the United States and Russia in an incredibly interesting town called Mostar.
I never cut my hair while traveling, but I did so in Belgrade. Why? Maybe so I could be in a closed environment with Serbs?
Psychologically, you cannot say anything bad about the person who tries to make you beautiful. I sat five meters across from Jelena’s former boss who had returned to work after recovering from an apparently terminal illness only to find she was now reporting to a former subordinate who was less qualified. Now she looked forward to her early retirement. While walking about the city, Jelena mentioned an invitation from a cousin whom she had not seen in a long time and wondered if I would not mind going there with her so she could spend time with both of us. I didn’t want to appear over-zealous, but secretly I wished Jelena would take the cousin up on the offer and take me there with her right then.
Belgrade is the ugliest city…I arrived in Belgrade with no map and plan, so I left it up to this Serbian friend whom I met accidentally in Andorra. How many people travel to Andorra for just one day and rush back for their flights on the next day? How many of them end up staying with the same host? How many will return to Spain on the same bus? How many will then flight at the same airport? How many will fly on the same morning requiring an overnight sleeping on the same bench? And how many are the exact people you are trying to meet? That was how I met Jelena.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
Partisans or Yugoslav partisans were a communist-led resistance movement during the Second World War who fought both the Axis of power in Yugoslavia and their collaborators. Thanks to them, Yugoslavia was the only country in Eastern Europe not liberated by outside forces but by its own people. This led to a lot of praises for these heroes and massive support for the communists after the war. Because of the overwhelming support for former partisans, their leader, Josip Broz Tito, abandoned other political parties in Yugoslavia as he deemed it unnecessary.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
