Bosnia and Herzegovina: war, peace and clotted cream for breakfast
I ate the most peculiar breakfast of my life in Bihac, Bosnia, at the riverside Restaurant Mlin. It consisted of raw onion, clotted cream, polenta and sweet, sweet coffee in a rustic hut surrounded by water, fields and a handmade play area. I have searched the internet for proof that this is a normal Bosnian breakfast and come to the conclusion that someone was playing a joke on me.
It is an especially peculiar joke given that every single B&H dish we cooked during this week’s Armchair Travel was delicious, whether it was the classic, easy to make Djuvec rice (a one pot rice dish that you can make out of whatever needs eating); or this Lepinja bread which worked well with soya milk substituted. They were complemented by the shopska salad which is similar to a Greek salad but with a red wine vinegar dressing.
Bosnia week coincided with the start of the unlock-down which meant we were able to share it with 6 people in our garden, we also gave some to the folk next door and our children who came home late from their own 6 person meet up… Everyone loved it, particularly the slivovitz which we used to toast an end to wars everywhere.
Having spent the week reading Goodbye Sarajevo, war had been very much on my mind. It is the true story of how one family survived the Bosnian war (which ended in 1995). It is shown through the eyes of Hana (12) and her 21 year old sister Atka. It outlines their traumas and coping mechanisms; the fears, and daily injustices; as well as their journey to freedom in New Zealand. As always when I read about war, I couldn’t get my head around how the perpetrators can commit such crimes; but nor could I fathom how the victims find the strength to forgive and begin again.
As if to labour that point, the story ends with their little bother Tarik, freed from Sarajevo but refusing to put down a stick that he is using as a pretend gun. It made me fear that long-term peace may be beyond our grasp. Hope returned however when I tagged the authors in my Instagram post about the book with a caption about toasting an end to war everywhere. I’m pretty sure that the actual Tarik liked it (he’s called Tarik, from New Zealand and knows the authors) — so that gives me hope that the future could be one of peace.
The more I read and watched and the more I remembered the bullet pocked walls of Bihac, the clearer it became that B&H has seen and suffered more than most in man’s inhumanity to man. Our first film was set decades before the Bosnian War, but its focus was still on fighting. Sarajevo tells the story behind the start of the First World War. It is one of Hawkish fools pushing for war in the hope that they will benefit from attacking Serbia — and of thwarted love (of course!)
B&H has been part of the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. It is also one of the Balkans, though, as this week’s second film Balkan Spirit explains, the Balkans is a very vague concept that means many things to many people! The film focuses on the people, on their passion, on their energy, on their art, and on their music which is highlighted in this playlist of Balkan, Gypsy and Retro Swing.
And so it is with peace and music in my heart that I leave behind Bosnia and Herzegovina, feeling a little sorry for Herzegovina which doesn’t seem to have had a look in, perhaps they have an even more unusual breakfast just waiting for me to try. But sadly time has run out and I must head on to the African paradise of Botswana!
