I posted images from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, earlier. Here’s some of what I saw elsewhere.

Most Americans probably know Sarajevo for three things: 1. Hosting the Winter Olympics, back in the 1980s. 2. The city where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated to kick of World War I. 3. Somehow being in the middle of the terrible Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. The scars of the 1990s are most obvious. Admittedly, Sarajevo might not be your first choice for “pretty” pictures, but it’s an interesting place to visit and learn.

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A Bosniak family walks past a photo exhibit on the sidewalks of Sarajevo. This is one of several exhibits, museums, and memorials reminding Sarajevans of the damage and deaths in the 1990s Yugoslav conflicts. Back then, Sarajevo was mostly home to (Muslim) Bosniaks. The (Orthodox) Serbs had a lot more military firepower and they were willing to use it, even in downtown Sarajevo against the Bosniaks. One symbolic attack bombed and burned the iconic City Hall building (pictured). The reminders of the war seemed unusually pervasive. I worried they just kept the anger and alive — and likely taught their children who they should grow up to hate.

The pockmarks on this Sarajevo apartment building are from Serbian bombing in the 1990s.

The assassin who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked World War I in 1914 was standing on this exact spot (see the ‘footprints’ and the inscription). (A Bosnian soldier just happened to be strolling past as I was taking pictures). That 1914 assassin was a Serbian – Gavrilo Princip. It’s complicated, but the US ultimately came into WWI on the side of the assassin (Serbia/Russia/France/UK/US) — not on the side of the Austria-Hungarian Archduke. Nowadays, Sarajevo’s smallish Serbian population is segregated to a suburb called East Sarajevo. There are statues honoring Princip there.

Looking down at a tour group visiting the Eternal Flame memorial in downtown Sarajevo. Lit in 1946 to celebrate liberation from Nazi occupation, it honors Yugoslavs killed in World War II.

One of the area ski town that hosted the 1984 Olympics. Not everything was this dilapidated, but the area certainly was not the showcase the Yugoslavs wanted to to be in the 1980s.

I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls

That U2 song lyric ran through my head a lot when I was in Dubrovnik. I did a lap and a half of the 500-year-old city walls that surround the Old Town. Long ago the walls held off the Venetians (from the sea, I think) and then the Ottomans (mostly from the land). In the 1990s, they were less effective against Serbian mortars.

It was a little too crowded, commercial, and ‘touristy’ for my taste, but all those folks come here for good reason. You’ll climb up and down a lot of steps, but the views of the orange rooftops and blue Adriatic waters are worth every step (and the 40 Euro fee!). Lots of history, lots of basketball courts.

For me it was a landing and launching point for a trip through some less-developed parts of the region, and an intro to the area’s tumultuous history. More to come from the Balkans.

Many countries have some sort of tribute to unknown soldiers killed in the nation’s historical wars. Greece’s is in downtown Athens, right next to their Parliament building. As the sculpture on the wall behind it reminds us, Greek warriors have been fighting wars for a very long time. So when the Greeks think about their historical, noble warriors, they may well be thinking about the Trojan War, or about the 300 Greek “Spartans” who fought at Thermopolea 2500 years ago. Apparently today it’s quite an honor for a Greek soldier to don the traditional uniform and do the high-stepping ceremonial march. At 8am on a weekday, I was pretty much the only person there to watch this changing of the guard.