Sarajevo Sees a Brighter Future Part 2

By Andy Jarosz

The Tunnel of Hope once provided cover to Sarajevo's soldiers. (Sameena Jarosz)

Now, Hatibovic’s eyes lit up as he saw a Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) in the museum collection. The military-style food packets supplied by United Nations troops brought back happy memories because of the boiled sweets they sometimes contained. An MRE with meat, however, was another matter. “It was so bad even the dogs wouldn’t eat it,” he said.

Twenty years later, Sarajevo offers far more culinary options than food parcels. On the tour, we avoided the many cevapcici (minced meat kebab) shops, instead stopping at an intimate restaurant serving up freshly cooked dishes from a tiny open kitchen with space for only one cook. Called To Be Or Not To Be (although after the war, owner Amer Beširović permanently amended the sign, in typical Sarajevo defiance, to simply “To Be”), the restaurant opened just 20 days before the war broke out. Forced to close during the siege, Beširović reopened as soon as peace arrived. He has been serving home-cooked dishes to locals and visitors ever since, like his signature chilli chocolate steak, a chunk of tender beef covered in a spicy, cocoa-flavoured sauce.

Beširović invited us to sample some local wine to accompany our meal. Bosnia and Herzegovina is growing in stature as a wine-producing region, with Blatina (a spicy red variety) and Žilavka (a nutty, acidic white) the most popular grape varieties. Restaurants in Sarajevo are increasingly promoting home-grown wine as a quality option to the Old World classics, and Hatibovic told me that his guests are asking him to include visits to vineyards in their customised tours of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sarajevo's bobsleigh track from the 1984 Winter Olympics. (Sameena Jarosz)

Another industry that has begun bouncing back post-war is winter sport, with the mountains around Sarajevo once again becoming popular destinations. Since a ski break in Bosnia costs far less than in the Alps, Hatibovic has started organising skiing breaks aimed at international visitors. Still, reminders of the war’s destruction remain. On Trebevic Mountain which overlooks the city, we walked along a giant graffiti-covered concrete tube that was punctuated by holes made by mortar shells – the bobsleigh track from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

Despite the siege’s continued consequences, Hatibovic described how it brought about a remarkable camaraderie, with residents hosting improvised music concerts and even the first Sarajevo Film Festival. (In August 2014, the festival will celebrate its 20th year.) “It was important to bring back the human within yourself,” he said. And that, I realised, was what Hatibovic’s tour was all about: not merely teaching visitors about the war years, but introducing them to the spirit of survival needed to come through such a nightmare.

Where snipers once stood: the view of Sarajevo from Zlatiste. (Sameena Jarosz)