Adding to the list.
10. Ah, topla čokolada. The extremely rich and pudding-like hot chocolate served in coffee bars. It’s a wonderful winter treat I first tasted in Belgrade in 2006 and then contributed to probably five pounds of weight-gain on its own when I lived in Sarajevo. I’ve never lived anywhere with that kind of hot chocolate. As with Bosnian booze and coffee, it’s go hard or go home with hot chocolate.
11. Lying on the big bed in my first apartment on a Saturday morning and just bathing in the summer sunlight as it poured in my ninth story window. Bliss. I have this silly dream of going back to Sarajevo, buying that apartment and fixing it up in a few years, before the BiH Government gets its shit in order and real estate prices go through the roof. Of course, I should probably have a good job and pay off most of my student loans first…
12. The endearing hodgepodge of Socialist, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian architecture.
13. My first landlord, Nedad. He was nineteen years old, a freshman in medical school, and the sweetest thing ever. Nothing upset the kid. When I think of him, I think, “Ok, ok, no problem, no problem.” (My second landlord was a hellraiser. A fine arts professor who lost his job after the war, he took out his frustration at having to work nights shifts at EUPM on his expat tenants, namely, me. I should have stayed in my first apartment and not tried to greedily “upgrade” to one with 24 hour running water and heat. That was a lesson hard-learned.)
14. Zeljanica and tikvanica –a vegetarian’s best friends in Bosnia.
15. Being able to go to the Mission doctor when I got sick. Having your doctor work in the same building, just four floors up, is a very nice thing.
16. The flatly ridiculous parking lot (more like a giant mud hole) outside 16 Branilaca Sarajeva. Parking and parking lots in Sarajevo are good for laughs –if you don’t drive!
Transitionland 