The Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge over the Drina River in the town of Višegrad was recently added to Unesco Hermitage List. This historically significant bridge is featured in Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andric’s “Bridge over the Drina,” a novel describing century-spanning stories and events taking places in Bosnia, affecting the lives of multi-ethnic Bosnians: Muslims, Turks, Serbs and gypsies.
“Bridge over the Drina” is a super fiction about which I should have written a long time ago. I have since forgotten most of the details and probably have to reread the book again in order to review it properly. The bonus story of how I got hold of this book and my long trip to return it to its rightful owner is also interesting.
If you need to send presents overnight to friends or relatives living in Prague or Sarajevo, he [didn’t get his name] is the man. No need to worry about packages being lost or broken sending via European Post
either Czech or Bosnia. I failed to send and received packages thrice in this continent which caused me to believe that I was an idiot who could not write a decent label.
The driver lives in Prague, and once a week he drives people from Prague to Sarajevo and vice versa in addition to stuffs and presents.
He charges 5000 CZK (~200 EUR) for a roundtrip ride starting from Prague to Sarajevo, and probably less for trips starting from Sarajevo to Prague. The price is more than Eurolines bus ticket from Prague to either Vienna, Budapes or Zagreb plus connecting trains/buses to Sarajevo. However, you can make this trip in one day and don’t have to wait over night in one of those stations.
Phone: +420 602 316 395 (Czech mobile).
From Prague Location: Namesti Miru, Praha Pickup time: Friday afternoon Depart: Saturday morning Arrive: Saturday evening
From Sarajevo Location: Skenderia Pickup time: ? Depart: ? Arrive: ?
The driver is a family friend of the wife of my boyfriend’s boss’s boss, so he should be reliable.
I will update this post once I have more information.
Update: Some facts are corrected. Thx to La Banda’s pianist Misko!
At the end of the 1980s La Banda were one of the best known bands on Sarajevo’s alternative rock scene. The musicians were just about to complete their debut album when their plans were dramatically changed by war. This personal documentary by the journalist and director Sergej Kreso, La Banda’s bass guitarist, records a reunion of members of the group after more than 15 years. The old friends return to Sarajevo from five different countries in order to complete two last songs and therefore finish the album they began before the war. However, Graffiti Street is not just a documentary about a meeting of musicians after a separation caused by war. Kreso, who has come back to Sarajevo from his new home in the Netherlands, attempts to find out how much the war affected the city and its burgeoning music scene. The spellbinding final concert of the reformed La Banda in a small Sarajevo club allows the happy years before the war to be remembered for one night at least.
This film is neither exciting nor interesting. I chose it over more famous films simply for its connection to Sarajevo. Native speakers might enjoy a few hilarious moments, but for foreigners it was a “Lost in Translation.”
I have left Sarajevo long ago but I seem to have brought away with me its sense of ethnical division, for example figuring out Bosnian names to discover their identities. A neutral, objective observer would have cared less whether the people in the movie are Serbs, Croats or Muslims; he would have directed his attention to the music-making and the reunion of the band. But me no! I had to “This guy is a Croat because he rather does nothing in Split than in Doboj.” “This must be a Serb band because the backup singer’s name is Ceca.” “This probably is a Croat band because the Croats have the best taste among the three ethnic groups, so this jazzy, blue underground music has to be from them.” “Oh no, this band is popular in Sarajevo, a city populated by Muslims and Serbs, so they have to Serbs.” My friend’s sister words once again rings truth: “Before the war, people didn’t pay attention to the name. Tanja or Ermina, it did not matter.”
One of my favorite scene was a band member commented about expecting a bus from hell from the direction of Poland as he was nervously prepared for the band’s first public performance in Sarajevo after a 15-year hiatus. I didn’t understand the connection right away and kept turning to my boyfriend “Do you understand why he brought up Poland?” Then finally it dawned on me. At a Turkish coffee shop in Sarajevo, a friend of mine Me. and I were discussing craps, among which was the up-and-down of the former Yugoslavia. “You know we were very rich. Our Tito Communism was different. We could travel freely. The other Eastern Europeans for example the Poles, whenever they traveled here, they carried with them bags of food on the buses. They used to be way poorer.”
Could this be the explanation for “the bus from hell?”
Trailer
Production Company Boris T. Mati? ; PROPELER FILM - Sc–Savska 25 - Zagreb, 10000 Croatia; tel: +385 14 829 477; fax: +385 14 593 691; btm@propelerfilm.com; WWW.PROPELERFILM.COM
Resource
Website of La Banda member, the pianist from Sweden. He started a website to connect people who had any connection with the band, and eventually everybody did.
I’ve just returned from my hiking trip to the Banat region in Romania. Will post more about this trip after more researching and collecting my thoughts.
As usual, I had a lot of trouble deciding what to pack and how to fit them in my backpacks. To save me time and headache in future trips, I put together a travel check list using a ConceptDraw Mindmap software, a great tool for brainstorming and organizing ideas.
I hope you will find the list useful, and I will update it as my travel experience grow.
The Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge over the Drina River in the town of Višegrad was recently added to Unesco Hermitage List. This historically
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I’ve just returned from my hiking trip to the Banat region in Romania. Will post more about this trip after more researching and collecting my thoughts.