Adventuring: Crawling through tunnels and climbing up mountains

Third or fourth day in Sarajevo and it seems like it has been weeks. We've been meeting with government officials and professors the last few days so today we finally got to ditch the business formal duds and explore even more of Sarajevo's culture and history.

First thing this morning we visited the tunnel that the Bosnian army and citizens used when Sarajevo was under siege for four years. There was a slight gap in the control of the Serbian army around the city at the Sarajevo International Airport where the UN peace keepers were in control so the Bosniaks built the tunnel right beneath the airport, knowing that the Serbs would not bomb the small UN-held area, and that they could cross the Bosnian free territory on the other side of Sarajevo city limits. The tunnel starts in the basement of a normal residential home. The Serbs had suspicions about the entrance to the tunnel and as we walked up to the house you could see the damage from the shelling on the streets and houses nearby.

A portion of the tunnel has been preserved and we were able to walk through it. Crouching down and unable to stand up straight for the four minute walk of the segment that remains I cannot imagine the thousands of people who stayed below for more than two hours, often in a foot or so of water, carrying one hundred or so pounds of supplies from free Bosnia back to their families in Sarajevo. No matter how many sites like this I visit all around the world, sites of triumph over tragedy in the most heartbreaking situations, I never cease to be astonished by the strength of the human spirit to power through.

After visiting the tunnel, we traveled by bus up the windy roads of Mt. Ingram to visit the Olympic site from the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984. The drive was absolutely incredible. The leaves haven't started turning yet in DC so I haven't seen fall in about a year and all of these mountains and valleys are just exploding with the most vibrant fall colors. My camera in no way does them justice. It was incredible to leave the tunnel and drive up the mountains until we reached way up above the fog that lingers on Sarajevo's streets and into this sort of oasis of color, light, and happy memories of Sarajevo being at the center of the world's stage for reasons other than its violent war.