Caroline has been living in Sarajevo for a little over a year now and she recently gave birth to her third child at Sarajevo General Hospital. She affectionately calls her daughter Hermione Alice Lara “Mala Sarajka”.
She first heard about Sarajevo when she was quite young, while learning about WWI and the Sarajevo Assassination. She says that back then she could never have imagined that this lovely, dynamic and cosmopolitan city would, one day, become her home.
Pleasantly surprised by the architecture
She first came to Sarajevo in the spring of 2014 and she had expected a city with “communist” architecture, so she was pleasantly surprised by the mix of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian styles of architecture.
She was first taken by the kindness of Sarajevans, as well as by the many people who speak English really well. This not only makes her life much easier, but also makes her feel a bit less motivated to follow through on her wish to perfect her own Bosnian!
What Caroline likes most about Sarajevo is its size, the proximity to the mountains and coast and the multi-ethnicity. She says that she is especially fond of morning walks on Sundays, when both adhans and church bells can be heard calling believers to prayer.
She’s proud of having made many friends in Sarajevo and would describe Sarajevans as approachable, kind and tolerant people. She adds by saying, with a smile, that that’s how they are until they get behind a steering wheel!
She was surprised by the fact that smoking is still allowed in public places. She says that before coming to BiH, her children had never seen anyone smoke and she laughs when sharing that her son, who was four at the time, once asked her, “Mummy, what are those white lollipops?”.
She also finds it odd that traffic jams in Sarajevo start at 3:00 p.m. and that she has to carry a tote or bag in the supermarket, as this is something that has only recently become common practice in Great Britain. She says that she misses recycling and is sorry when she has to throw away garbage which could be recycled.
During the year or so that she has been living in Sarajevo, her family has grown from four to six members and, in addition to “Mala Sarajka”, there’s also the little dog they have adopted, who needs to be taken out quite often!
Your favourit food is mine, too
For this reason, a perfect day in Sarajevo includes an outing with the children and the dog to Vrelo Bosne, or a trip to some of the surrounding mountains, followed by lunch in town. After that, the rest of the day is usually spent lounging around in their warm Sarajevo home.
When it comes to Bosnian specialties, Caroline says that she is especially fond of ćevapi, which are also her children’s favorite, as well as burek and other kinds of pita.
For Caroline, the symbol of Sarajevo is the place where East and West meet, or the spot called “Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures”, which is located near Gazi Husrev Bey’s Bezistan, right where Sarači St. and Ferhadija St. merge.
Caroline would recommend a first-time visitor to thoroughly explore the city and to visit the rest of BiH, which, she says, is a country full of lovely scenery and fascinating culture and history.
