Time to Pray

Although it was nice to be in a Christian country for the Easter holiday, I do have to confess that I missed hearing the call to prayer five times a day, it became music to my ears. For the past three months I have been in countries that practice the Muslim faith. Part of being a Muslim is praying five times a day; twice in the morning, once in the afternoon and twice in the evening. The way they are reminded is by having the call to prayer sung from the minarets. Once I left Turkey I thought for sure I was never going to hear the call to prayer again…well I was wrong. I arrived into Sarajevo where my Dad greeted me at the airport and although it was dark during our drive to the hotel I could still see all the minarets standing tall above the buildings. Shocked and unsure if what I was seeing was real I quickly read up on the many articles my Dad had brought as well as the travel books and it turns out roughly half the population is Muslim. Since it was late in the evening I missed the call to prayer but no worries I heard it at least four of the five times almost every day thereafter.

Aside from Bosnia & Herzegovina (BH) being dominantly Muslim I was also shocked to read through all its history. BH has suffered a lot and before I get into where and what all we did, here is a bit of history so you can understand them better. The Ottomans ruled Bosnia for five centuries, but before that it was ruled by the Romans, the Goths, the Slavs and finally the Ottomans took over; so already Bosnia is very diverse. After five century’s, around the late 1800’s, the Austro-Hungarian empire took over and stayed till 1918 when it then became part of Yugoslavia under the ruling of Tito. Well, just before this WWI broke out which started in Sarajevo at Princip’s Bridge when Serbian Nationalist Princip assassinated Emperor Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Once WWI was over Bosnia became apart of Yugoslavia and stayed a part of it until Tito’s death in 1980. Once Tito died, Yugoslavia started to crumble and each of the countries we have today (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, etc...) all started to claim independence. BH was one of the last because they knew that if they were to break off from Yugoslavia internal ethnic conflicts would eventually arise, and they were correct. War started to break out in 1991 and continued till 1995. On December 14, 1995 the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed and the war was over. The war in BH resulted in many deaths, many buildings were destroyed and a dramatic shift in population occurred.

Even though it is only fourteen years ago since the war ended one would think that BH would still be mourning and very little progression would have been made. It turns out this is not the case. Walking through the streets of Sarajevo I was amazed by how peaceful and happy everyone is. Most of the buildings have been refurbished and very little war damage remains. Sarajevo sits in this valley and in between this valley is the Miljacka River which runs right through Sarajevo splitting it into two parts. The river has several bridges and it is at the corner of Prinicp’s bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot. Currently the building where the shooting happened has been turned into a WWI museum which explains the history of WWI in Sarajevo; sadly it was closed so we could not go in. Walking along the river was nice because you could see the buildings that have been restored and in between those were ones that still had bomb shelling scars. We also liked to walk through the central market called, Barscarsija, it is filled with bakeries, mosques, copper shops, restaurants, cafes, arts, crafts shop and many more. Barscarsija is covered in cobble stone streets and it really takes you back to the old times. Since it was the weekend most tourist attractions were closed so we spent most of our time roaming the cobble stone streets, watching the old communist tram go by and taking in all of Sarajevo and its history.

The day before leaving BH we took a day trip over to Mostar which represents the best and worst of the Yugoslavian years. Before the fall of Yugoslavia, Mostar was a mingling of cultures, but once they broke off from Yugoslavia all this peace turned into ethnic pride and war broke out amongst these ethnicities. Today, like Sarajevo, Mostar has moved past the war and has rebuilt its city. One of the most popular sights in Mostar is the Old Bridge. The Old Bridge dates back to the former Yugoslavia era but sadly during the war it tumbled into pieces due to all the bombings and crossfire. Once the war was over the city put great efforts into rebuilding the Old Bridge and today it stands strong over the Neretva River. Mostar is divided as well into two parts and so this bridge is very important to the people because now they can freely walk over it without the fear of being shot. During our walk through Mostar we crossed this bridge a few times to see different sites, one of our favorite sites we visited was an old Turkish home. The Biscevic Turkish House dates back to 1635, and has a mix of oriental and Mediterranean features. Although it’s been refurbished a bit the interior and décor is purely authentic and original, it was really unique to see. Just down the road from the house is a mosque and across from the mosque is an old park, however, today this park has been turned into a war cemetery for those who died in the war. We took a stroll through the cemetery and all of the graves dates were either 1993, 1994, or, 1995, it was really sad to see how many people died during the war. Before heading back to Sarajevo we stopped to have lunch by the Crooked Bridge, which happens to date back a decade before the Old Bridge. This bridge however, managed to survive through the war but sadly was destroyed by flooding. Nevertheless, they have rebuilt it and the restaurant we ate at was just across from it. Our visit to Mostar was a real treat and just gave a better understanding to BH’s history and cultural diversity. When looking out over the skyline we saw minarets sharing the space with church steeples. Plus, we heard church bells going off and the call to prayer all at the same time, nowhere else can one find this kind of music!