Heaven Can Wait

Sarajevo – Kladanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia seems to be a hotbed of tunnels. Seems like they can’t make a road without burrowing through a mountain.

With all the tunnels on our minds, Diana mentioned the movie Heaven Can Wait the other day. Not on my top-ten list, but certainly in the top-100. The basic premise is that Warren Beatty is a star quarterback on the football team. He’s out training on his bike – he enters a tunnel, and ends up getting hit by a truck.

Doesn’t look good . . .

There happens to be a new angel working that day. He sees that there was a crash in the tunnel, assumes Warren Beatty is dead, and retrieves the spirit. Except that Beatty was really not supposed to die that day – rookie mistake . . .

Beatty spends the rest of the movie trying to get his life back. Of course, Julie Christy is his girlfriend – which pretty much automatically makes the movie good . . . 

I won’t spoil it – but it all turns out fine in the end. 

Fortunately, we haven’t had any trucks hit us in tunnels or anything. Which is a good thing – because around here I’m not sure they would know whether to send an Orthodox, Catholic, or Muslim angel anyway . . .

And maybe that lands us right back in our historical/political drama – because in the Balkans it seems to be all about your religion . . .

I did a little more research, and the big thing that I think I’ve discovered is that in this area World War II never really ended. All the leftover resentments were just buried under the rug for 45 years or so because the Communists didn’t want to deal with them.

Here is the super-simplified version of things . . . 

During the war the Nazis took over the old Yugoslavia and installed puppet governments in Croatia and Serbia. In Croatia, the Nazis first tried to work with a conservative agrarian party – but they declined; apparently they didn’t want any part of an alliance with the Nazis. The Nazis’ second choice was the Ustashi – a really nasty gang of fascists that wanted to rid Croatia of “impure” elements – including the Jews and the Roma (whom they called Gypsies), as well as the Serbs. 

Now, this puppet version of Croatia was bigger than today’s Croatia – and included most of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. The Ustashi recruited some of the Bosniaks to help them in their nasty causes. 

They were truly evil. Everyone knows about the genocide of the Jews and the Roma. But in this greater Croatia there were a lot more Serbs. The Ustashi murdered between 200,000 and 500,000 Serbs. They expelled 300,000 more. And they forced another 200,000 to convert to Catholicism. 

It was obviously a pretty tough period for the Serbs. And because of this, at the end of the war, the Serbs saw the Russians as liberators, saving them from the persecution of the Ustashi and the Croats. 

And then, after Tito came to power, he didn’t want the different ethic tensions and resentments to destroy the country, so, as I understand it, the Communists just kind of buried all of this without prosecuting the bad actors for their war crimes. So there was never any closure . . .

I tell you all this because I think it helps explain some things that I’ve been grappling with: Why were the Serbs so aggressive about keeping Yugoslavia together? And why do the Serbs seem so in love with the Russians?

My sense is that after the experience of World War II the Serbs did not want to see an independent Croatia – especially because there were still hundreds of thousands of Serbs living there. Same with Bosnia. I guess they were afraid of what the Croats and Bosniaks might do to their fellow Serbs. 

Mind you, this doesn’t excuse their behavior – but I think it does help to see where it might have come from. 

The sad thing is that it’s really not over. I mean, people seem to put a good face on, but all the resentments are still like open wounds around here – they seem to be hiding just under the surface . . .

We saw this in Serbia for sure. Like the “Croats suck” comment from our young tour guide. Or the graffiti about the only Balkan genocide being of the Serbs.

And we really felt it in Sarajevo. Our city tour guide yesterday was a charismatic high school student, Husar. You might think that the younger generation would just let this stuff go . . . Nope. 

Husar took every opportunity he could to denigrate the Serbs. Someone asked about East Sarajevo – which, I guess, is the Serbian part of town. Husar said it was a terrible place. The Serbs don’t collect their garbage. They don’t mow the lawn in their parks. The unemployment rate is high and they take no pride in where they live. 

He went on to say that what happened in the ‘90s was not a war – because it takes two sides to fight a war. It was just “an aggression” against the Bosniaks. The Serbs occupied positions above Sarajevo, he said, and just shot randomly into the town. And then he pointed to unrepaired bullet holes as evidence of how terrible the Serbs were. 

At one point he commented that the Bosnians were the only country in the world who use two different alphabets. I asked him about this, because our Belgrade tour guide told us that Serbia also uses two alphabets. “He’s just making that up to impress you,” Husar told me.

Now, I’m not commenting on whether the Serbs were or weren’t terrible. I’m sure they were. But it’s now thirty years later. Husar was not even born when all this happened. And yet, Husar can’t get past it. Here he’s in this great city, with all this amazing history, including hosting the Olympics in 1984 – and Husar has barely a word to say about anything except the brutality of the Serbs. 

Pretty sure I’ll get myself in trouble here, but my sense of the Bosniaks is that they are kind of stuck in the 1990s – permanently playing the role of innocent victims. I’m just not sure I completely buy it. They voted to leave Yugoslavia – and it was only after that vote that the war started. What did they think was going to happen? Yes, the war and the atrocities were terrible – but at this point I think it’s time to build a permanent memorial – and then keep moving forward. Because Bosnia’s population has nose-dived, it has a really high unemployment rate, and a generally tough economy. It needs big bold visions – not more naval gazing.

Okay, maybe it sounds like we didn’t like Sarajevo. Actually, we loved it. First off, the setting is pretty incredible. Big mountains surround the city – with neighborhoods built into the hillsides and a river running through the bustling town. 

We took a cable car up to this Olympic area yesterday.

Amazing views of the city and the valley.

Of course, it was a little disappointing up there as well. Very little by way of signage or interpretation. All the old Olympic infrastructure is mouldering away. It’s mostly falling apart and covered in graffiti. 

Doesn’t make sense to me. Sarajevo is not Florence – but there are a ton of tourists around. Why not make some small investments in things like signage celebrating the Olympics? I don’t get it . . .

Maybe the reason has something to do with the crazy governance structure. (I just can’t see Bosnia & Herzegovina lasting in its current state for that long. It’s not a country so much as a collection of independent administrative units all under one common name.) No one can make a decision . . . There are three presidents, one representing each religious group (some might argue they are ethnic groups, but I think they are all the same people – just different churches), and then they have to hire an administrator from a completely different part of the world because nobody trusts anyone local to not play favorites.

Once again, enough politics/history for today.

I just wanted to add one thing here before I drop the topic entirely . . . The thing is, whether its the Balkans, or the Middle East, or a family dispute, or whatever, what I’ve been thinking about is that someone has to be the first to just forgive and forget. Or maybe forget is the wrong word – maybe forgive and move on. 

I guess the Ustashi were mad at the Serbs back in World War II times because of perceived slights under the first Yugoslavia – between the wars. They could have forgiven – but instead they chose their patently evil path. 

When Yugoslavia started falling apart in the ‘90s, the Serbs could have forgiven the sins of World War II. Instead, their leaders took the easy path – fomenting fear and hatred rather than seeking understanding and reconciliation. 

And now I see Bosnia insisting on making monsters of the Serbs. Again, the easy path. 

Over and over again, we’ve had folks around here tell us that most people get along – it’s the politicians that mess things up. That’s probably right. But if that’s the case, I hope the Serbs, or the Croats or the Bosnians find a politician who can lead them out of this mess. Because, while things seem good right now, I don’t think it would take much for a real conflict to start again . . . When young people like our tour guides harbor resentments you know the old people are even worse . . .

Okay, now I’m really done with all that . . .

Two more thing to cover today . . . The biking today and bikers we met along the way …

The Biking.

Really pretty. Biking through friendly mountains like these is just plain pleasant. Yes, there was for sure some significant climbing, but the views were great and the descents were fun.

On the slightly negative side, there isn’t much for shoulders in Bosnia – but the traffic’s not bad and it seems to move pretty slowly.

Bikers We Met Along The Way.

First, Ivan, Mikaela, and Livia.

They’re from Italy, here on vacation. Wonderful family. Turns out that Ivan was a semi-professional rider who grew up with Ivan Basso. I don’t follow bike racing that closely, but pretty sure he’s a famous guy. Ivan and Mikaela still bike today; they were telling us that they participate in this big Gran Fondo type event in the Netherlands each year. Sounds fun. And their daughter, Livia – she is a middle distance runner who is training for a 1,000 meters race in Monaco, where she hopes to qualify for a Junior Nationals type event. 

Lejla Njemcevic

We met Lejla at a spring along the side of the road. She’s the best biker in the history of Bosnia. I guess she was the number one ranked UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) marathon mountain bike racer in the world the past few years. She loves the U.S., and is heading back there soon to compete in the Leadville 100. Diana and I have never done this event, but many of our friends have. It’s brutal. 100 miles, with some huge ups and downs. And it’s all at an elevation of 10,000+ feet. We’re looking forward to seeing how she does!

Eldar

He was our waiter tonight. Poor guy.

Diana: “I’ll have lamb skewers.”

Eldar: “Umm. We don’t have those tonight.”

Diana: “What do you have that has some salad?”

Eldar: “We have Cevapi.” 

(If you’ll recall, Cevapi is the famous Bosnian meat ditch. Basically little skinless sausage links with pita bread).

Diana: “But does it have salad?”

Eldar: “No. Cevapi traditionally has onions and cream.”

Diana: “But what about your picture. It shows some salad and tomatoes.” (Pointing at a little picture on the menu.)

Eldar: “No. We don’t have that. Not like the picture. But we do have small, medium and large Cevapi.”

Diana: “But what about salad or vegetables?”

Eldar: “There’s onions. [Then, seeing Diana’s disappointment, he takes another tact.] Umm, I could go buy salad for you if you really want it . . .”

Diana: “Okay, I guess I’ll have a small Cevapi – and some salad . . .”

Eldar must have run to the store, because he came back with a nice plate of sliced tomatoes for Diana.

Itx turns out that Eldar is a big mountain biker. Doesn’t sound like there are trails in Bosnia the way we have trails in the States – built with machines and stuff. But Eldar volunteers a little – putting up signs and clearing the bike “roads” a bit. He bikes from town to town on these back roads – which sound like gravel paths of some kind. 

One other thing that I thought was interesting from Eldar . . . He says that there is more wildlife – bears and wolves and such – over the past several years because the small villages of Bosnia have been emptying out. I guess that’s what happens when your population goes down this much . . . (Not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned – not the emptying of the villages but the rebounding of the wildlife . . .)

Tomorrow should be our last day in Bosnia. We’ll be re-crossing into Serbia on our way to Novi Sad, and then on to Budapest. Still avoiding Schengen – so no Croatia. 

Heaven, and Schengen, can wait…