What?
For a brief recap, we spent time in Croatia, hiking in Paklenica National Park, sea kayaking along the Dalmatian Coast, and a little time in the second-largest city, Split, as well as the cities of Livno and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Belgrade, Serbia. Key experiences in Croatia included learning about how Buljma Pass, our hiking destination, was involved in the war, interacting with people in some small coastal towns, and learning the history of Diocletian's palace in Split. In Bosnia, we visited a museum on the genocide at Srebrenica and explored the ruins of the Olympic bobsled track, and in the short time we were in Serbia, we saw the ancient Belgrade Fortress in Kalemegdan Park.
Paklenica National Park
Prvic Luka, Croatian Dalmatian Coast
Bosnian coffee house in Sarajevo
Olympic bobsled ruins in Sarajevo
View of the Danube from the Belgrade Fortress
So What?
As David Knobbe also says, you don't learn from experience, you learn from thinking about experience. So I spent some time thinking about my experiences in the Balkans. One important idea I came to was that the conflict in the Balkans is not truly over, it's just simmering now, biding its time. In Bosnia and Serbia, we heard the story from their side - we visited a Bosnian memorial to the genocide at Srebrenica (committed by Serbs), and some of the Serbian people we talked with passionately told us of the atrocities committed by the Bosnians while dismissing their own wrongdoing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was little remorse on either side for what they had done. While Bosnia and Serbia could each probably name hundreds of reasons why they deserve vengeance on the other, that won't help them live peaceably next to one another. I thought about the time I spent in Germany, seeing memorial after memorial about the Holocaust. They freely and openly admit their guilt, and by doing so, they've moved past the horror of that dark period in their history. Until Bosnia and Serbia can reach that stage of acceptance of wrong, they seem doomed to continue their ancient feud.
I then thought of this concept in light of the U.S., where we also have trouble owning up to our faults. From military action in Vietnam and Korea to the drone strikes of today, we have in some cases indiscriminately taken the lives of millions of civilians. Maybe we've been overall better than the "bad guys." Maybe, in the end, we did something good. The fact remains that there's been a lot of indefensible bloodshed in the meantime, and that's something we should own up to. The best way to do better in the future is to admit our own guilt and let ourselves learn from our mistakes. Blind patriotism is not admirable; it's counterproductive.
Now What?
To me, one of the most valuable parts of spending time abroad is the chance to understand a different way of life. I've learned countless things from spending time in Germany, and those lessons have worked their way into the way I live now. Although I spent far less time in the Balkans, one of the most valuable such experiences was observing the way people lived on the islands we kayaked to in the Adriatic. At one point, I asked a fellow trip mate how much money he estimated these people had. It was difficult to say - no one owned cars; instead, they all had small boats; their homes were pretty, but many were adjacent to vacant lots or abandoned houses; and people dressed well and ate at quaint restaurants in town. Without any major industry, it was difficult to see how they got by. At the same time, I came to appreciate the lifestyle. Many people, it seemed, took pride in maintaining their yards. People enjoyed the natural beauty of their surroundings and the community of the other townspeople. It was difficult to judge how much wealth these coastal hamlets might have, but the time we spent there was a reminder that money is not the only (and perhaps not the best) way to determine quality of life. Our time in the Balkans was quality time indeed.
-Trey
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