Thursday, June 17, 2010

during the May holiday, i went to Bosnia with my husband and parents, we flew to Italy where my dad rented a car and we drove through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and finally arrived in Bosnia.
every one in my family have been to Bosnia numerous times including my husband, i on the other hand never had the opportunity and every one has been raving about how beautiful it is and how the people are amazing, i always thought that they where exaggerating as i never imagined Bosnia to be like they describe it, but i was pleasantly surprised. its a country that is full of natural beauty subhanallah and i swear whilst you are there you cant help but utter words such as subhnallah, mashallah, Allah akbar as you really do become a witness to the greatness of Allah's creation.

as usual here are some photo samples:
any one care to jump?
water mills, never seen the like of...
martyrs graveyard
Bosnian coffee, they eat the sugar cube and sip the coffee...
wudu area in a mosque in Sarajevo
the rules of the mosque in animated form :0)
minaret from the restaurant.
we prayed isha prayer in this mosque, it was full of roses from the outside, so beautiful mashallah.
i love people watching, we went to a local cafe and whilst my mum and dad shopped in the market, i sat and watched the world go by and took shots of people :)
love the fruit and veggies, they taste real lol
this house played a big role during the war, an old lady owns the house and she allowed for the Bosnians to dig a tunnel from her home to just after the airport as the Serbs had surrounded the city and placed snipers and refused to let any one leave, this tunnel helped many escape.
map of how it looked then
the tunnel...
some of the buildings are still damaged due to the war
king fahad mosque, as the name indicates, Saudi donated the money to build this mosque.
ice cream, summer fruit, wafers, sauce, cream , mmmmmmmm delicious
this is a derelict factory that was used by the united nations, 30,000 Bosnians came to find refuge here, the UN declared the area a 'safe zone' only to hand the men and boys between the ages of 12-60 to the Serbs who literally massacred them.
the men and boys where buried in mass graves, and no one new where the mass graves where, and they are still uncovering them today, in some of the graves, personal items where found on some of the bodies, like the above glasses and case as well as:
a napkin
school books ;(
and a quran.
we then went to the srebrenica cemetery where the bodies that are found in the mass graves, are given a proper funeral with a proper burial, the anniversary is the 11th July, and every year they add more graves of bodies they have found in mass graves, this year they will add 750 graves to the cemetery.
so far 8372 are buried.
whilst we where there, it rained for a good 4-5 days, the clouds where stuck in between the mountains.
meat any one?
we made a friend with a horse that my mum named mardeeyah
the local mosque we prayed in
grilled fish, my dad is the only person who eats fish
at breakfast we where joined by a little friend
we went to a taqeeyah, which is like a Sufi retreat and its also where the source of the river comes from, its meant to be one of the wonders of Europe as no one knows exactly where the source of the river comes from.
one of the rooms had graves.Bosnians are not famous for tea, so at this place they had tea and i jumped at the chance to drink the good old stuff, the Turkish delight was one of the best I've had in a long time.
i love these swirling dervishes, I'm going to try and find a swirling dervish in every country i go to.we went to mostar city where its famous for this bridge
the Croatians bombed mostar city including the bridge, the UN helped to re-build it, probably felt guilty for there hand in the massacre.
anglo this one is for you, i made friends with a Bosnian turtle ;)

15 comments:

eternal peace said...

salaams sis sounds like quite an adventure and your right when i saw those images all you could do is the dhikr of Allah, subhanAllah,alhamdulillah, mashaAllah, Allahu Akbar, its a country I only know because images of war had no idea how beautiful it actually was,May Allah SWT give our matyr brothers jannah aameen

Lebeeya said...

Wow, I am impressed. If I didn't see the pictures and your post only described Bosnia, I would think you were exaggerating lol but mashallah, the country looks beautiful and so interesting with all the war history.

Thanks for sharing and happy to know you enjoyed your time!

Unknown said...

I want to thank u for this post WA.

My mom and dad are always talking about the natural beauty of Bosnia, my father always say it is a paradise "Janna"... They visited Bosnia before the war in the 80s, my dad was literally crying tears during the war.
When my parents came with me to the States, we rent an apartment which we discovered later that it's run by people from Bosnia ... These people came to the state during the war.
Shortly they became my father's new friends.
Tell tody I am living in this apartment, and enjoying their presence around me.

Thanx again for sharing the views.

Anglo-Libyan said...

wow fantastic pictures ya Whiteafrican.

I would love to go there and that tortoise is so cute, thank you :o)

white african said...

eternal ameen for your dua, it really is a beautiful country and every one thinks its still war ridden, but they have managed to pick themselves up since then ;)

lebeeya thanks hun ;) i want to go back.

enlightened your very welcome, and thanks for telling me about your parents experince, your dad so 100% right about it being janna on earth subhannallah.

i thought it was so cool how they went in the 80s, not heard of many libyans who have been to bosnia.

if you can, go and follow there footsteps, i can see you enjoying it ;)

anglo thank you, i wanted to take the tortoise home with me but sadly i cant.

lostkitty said...

u actually found fruit and veg!! lucky! lol

Anonymous said...

Cof is thinking … “ i love people watching … i sat and watched and took shots of people” are you looking for a job? A spy for hire?
“ …love the fruit and veggies, they taste real lol” Thanks!
“ … we made a friend with a horse that my mum named mardeeyah” I thought you said the people were friendly!
“ .. at breakfast we where joined by a little friend”
I really can’t take it any more ..
I am off!

Khedegah said...

Salam,
MashALLAH a very interesting post. Bosnia is beautiful, I never wud of thought of going there.
When I saw the Quran I cried, truly...... I was a child in Ireland, during the war. I didn't quite understand it at the time. Now I am A European Muslim (ALHOMDOLELAH, a revert/convert) and every time I hear about bosnia it hurts... Be it european guilt, that we did not lobby our leaders enough, and allowed it 2 happen, or the fear that it may happen again......MashALLAH that lady with a tunnel, how is it we do not hear about them...... This post was beautiful. K

Khedegah said...

Salam,
MashALLAH a very interesting post. Bosnia is beautiful, I never wud of thought of going there.
When I saw the Quran I cried, truly...... I was a child in Ireland, during the war. I didn't quite understand it at the time. Now I am A European Muslim (ALHOMDOLELAH, a revert/convert) and every time I hear about bosnia it hurts... Be it european guilt, that we did not lobby our leaders enough, and allowed it 2 happen, or the fear that it may happen again......MashALLAH that lady with a tunnel, how is it we do not hear about them...... This post was beautiful. K

Khedegah said...

Salam,
MashALLAH a very interesting post. Bosnia is beautiful, I never wud of thought of going there.
When I saw the Quran I cried, truly...... I was a child in Ireland, during the war. I didn't quite understand it at the time. Now I am A European Muslim (ALHOMDOLELAH, a revert/convert) and every time I hear about bosnia it hurts... Be it european guilt, that we did not lobby our leaders enough, and allowed it 2 happen, or the fear that it may happen again......MashALLAH that lady with a tunnel, how is it we do not hear about them...... This post was beautiful. K

ibeebarbie said...

Salam White African,
As always your eyes capture such beauty, mashallah. Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.

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