Globe Corner Blogs

I was sad to leave Belgrade, Serbia. I had stopped there briefly to visit a friend on my way from Romania to Croatia. But the journey had to continue and my next stop was Sarajevo, Bosnia. I assumed that buying a one-way ticket would be pretty straightforward. I was wrong.

The friend that I was visiting knew all of the ins-and-outs of getting from Belgrade to Sarajevo, and thanks to her, I knew that I had to ask for a ticket to “Lukavica” in Sarajevo – not for the main bus station. I knew how many buses went daily. I knew what time I wanted to leave and how much cash to bring to the bus station. Even though I have studied Serbian for several years, I still get a bit nervous speaking it, so I even reviewed the vocabulary necessary for the transaction.

I made my way to the Belgrade bus station and had no problem finding the correct desks. I got in line and readied everything I could possibly need to buy my ticket. When I got to the front of the line, a woman at the ticket counter barked, “SLEDECA!” NEXT! I was trying to maneuver in the line to end up at the window of the grandmotherly woman’s who looked very sweet and kind. However, she was still nicely helping another person. The woman who was yelling “NEXT” was at the counter beside the grandmother. This woman didn’t look too friendly. I summoned some courage and walked up to her. Continue Reading »

I am generally not a big sports fan…which can be a bit of a problem living in Boston. I grew up on Pac-10 football and golf, but every four years I do catch World Cup Fever.

During the last World Cup I was spending the month of July in Sarajevo, Bosnia. I had rented a small room from my beloved “adopted” Bosnian Grandma, Tecvida. She soon began to treat me as family and not just as a traveler that she had taken in to help support her meager pension. She is a Bosnian Muslim, but explained to me that I could eat all the pork and drink all the alcohol I wanted in her house; she just asked that I please not disturb her during her prayers.

During my stay, I learned many things from her. She taught me how to cook some dishes -  including some vegetarian dishes, a lot of Bosnian vocabulary, how to properly cover my head so I could enter the non-touristy mosques, but maybe most importantly she taught me about football and the importance of the World Cup. Continue Reading »