Suddenly, western Europe

Suddenly, western Europe

[ Apr.2009 ] When I walked in the main pedestrian street in Sarajevo, on the way, suddenly the appearance of buildings changed.

I started walking in the old Turkish town, but in one point, the atmosphere became as if I were in somewhere like Germany or Austria.

I saw a lot of Christian churches and some sky scrapers which did not fit there.

There was a very trendy shopping centre, too and it was full of people.

I had a look at the prices of goods, and found they were very expensive.

I wondered if the economy was booming there.

But afterwards, some people told me that they were in difficulty.

Apparently those new buildings were built by Slovenian or Croatian capital and no money stayed in Sarajevo.

The taxi driver said ‘it is a beautiful city, but there is no work here’ and a man whose face had been paralyzed since the civil war said ‘we do not have our own industry, which is the main problem.

Only cigarettes are cheap here’.

This man used to work as a communication engineer, but after the war, he rents his rooms for tourists for living.

I thought that they should appeal this town’s uniqueness to the world and develop the tourism.

Four years has passed since then.

I wonder how it is now over there…