Sarajevo

The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is nicknamed the Jerusalem of Europe. Old town Baščaršija Square (also known as Pigeon Square) feels like I imagine Turkey would, with a firm connection to Ottoman culture. We visited Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, a large and beautiful 16th-century mosque. Women in hijab (and niqaab - visitors?) and calls to prayer helped us feel this Muslim presence.

Western Sarajevo is full of Austro-Hungarian style buildings and churches. And, until WW2, many Sephardic Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition lived in the city. There's an Ashkenazi synagogue that still holds services, but they were closed for August.

All of these cultures mixed for centuries, one not dominating the other. Then, the 1990s war happened...

We went on a walking tour and visited the Latin Bridge, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, sparking the events that led to World War I.

What we didn't get to do in Sarajevo was learn more about the war - not enough time due to our van slowdowns and a firm deadline for arriving to Croatia. And it's definitely challenging to find the right approach for the kids to learn about such horrors. We showed them buildings with what seems like bullet holes, and Sarajevo roses - memorial red paint in the concrete scars from a mortar shell's explosion during the siege on Sarajevo. It's wild seeing the memories of such a recent wat mixed with regular everyday life.

In our short time in the city, we walked, ate grilled cevapi, and freshly made Turkish delight in more flavors than I thought possible, and experienced a bit of the day to day of the city. We also took the kids go-karting and they bought themselves soccer jerseys.Read more