FIRST IMPRESSIONS of BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
She is talking to me. I have her close to her, I feel her cigarette smell. She asks something and she stares at me. But she doesn't give me time to answer and continues. I hardly hear what she says. I see her eyes huge hers, fixed on mine. Two green lakes on a windy day. Rizzy lakes.
The words belong to the story Bosnia on the pillow by the Argentine writer Alejandra Laurencich, perhaps the only close reference we had before coming here.
It is that with Dace we went back to this side of the map to share it with you and arriving in Bosnia Herzegovina does not seem like a good opportunity to talk about war or the economy, but rather to try to understand what it feels like to live here, in this country of 3.27 million. of inhabitants in the middle of the Balkans.
We entered through Tuzla, a city hidden between the intrepid eastern mountains of a country that is divided in two, but said division is not what anyone might suppose between Bosnia and Herzegovina, but between these two entities on the one hand and the Republika Srpska on the other. another, a hidden country in these geographies that we will discover in future videos.
For now we have only wandered through these streets full of veils and ordinary people, mosques and tapestries, diverse young people who come together with different religions and mentalities in absolute calm.
The enormous eyes, the stones and the market, the self-absorbed passers-by and the aroma of a little-explored region accompany us in these first steps.
The hills that can do everything surround us with crosses and red roofs, the somewhat grim and sometimes smiling faces are unconscious protagonists.
Traveling is hyper-living, the sensation of discovery is facilitated, there is a strange currency, the Bosnian mark that is worth half a euro, a Serbian language that is somewhat understandable to us due to its Slavic roots and a timid sun that peeks out from time to time.
The prices are accessible and markedly lower than what we are used to in a large part of Europe, in this flag country that impresses with its dense yellow and furious blue.
What is life here about, what sports are they passionate about, what is their music and gastronomy like, what is it like to live in this country, these are questions that will answer themselves, finding without searching, being part of it.
So far people are distant, little interested in strangers. We will try to blend in trying to generate as little interference as possible. It is our way of perceiving things, as they are.
We trust that Bosnia will be a feast for the eyes, its landscapes promise, the beauty that swarms, the indecipherable corners are waiting for us.
#DelOtroLadoDelMapa #ViajarEsHipervivir
🌎 Subtitles in Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Russian, Polish, Arabic and English.
🔎 I am Gustavo Llusá, Argentine, after traveling for several years in more than 60 countries, I settled in Latvia where I got married and learned to know another way of life, on the other side of the map.
#FromOtherSideOfTheMap
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