Sarajevo: nuestra amor!

Sarajevo was definitely one of the peaks of the trip for us. I had just a few days left for my return flight to Istanbul from Belgrade when we arrived to Sarajevo, but because everything had worked so well before, I decided to postpone my ticket, which was a fortunate decision otherwise I might have missed a lot. So Sarajevo also became the city where me and also Dorota prolonged the trip, allowing us to see Albania as well. 

As before the emphasis will be on people not the buildings or sights, in this case more so since our Sarajevo is the city of Tijana and Lelo. But let's return to the point where we left off.

Mostar: A good start for the amazing Bosnia!

From Croatia to Mostar

As soon as we got into car, I knew that this was going to be something amazing. There is a great group of hyperactive people who can talk for hours in a fast way and still manage not to bore you and from the very first second I was sure that Tijana belonged to that group. She studied in an American school in Sarajevo if I remember correctly and because of that can speak English very fluently; but no, it wasn’t a thing of language, it’s more about her personality.

The rough route of the Balkan travel

Here follows a rough route of the travel, the part spent with Dorota only. 

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How to enjoy tea like real tea addicts, or in other words Turks? An instruction manual for someone who just got a tea set from Turkey

Well you just got a traditional tea set (made of copper in this special case but could be porcelain or steel etc.) from Turkey and now ask yourself "How am I going to use it?" Let's see first what you should have:

Youporn out, Du-porn in! Three days through Dalmatia...

How would you think of a rich Russian businessman? Probably as shown in many Hollywood movies; riding a luxurious car, speaking English with the famous Russian accent and having a bad-tempered wife. Well that’s exactly what we have experienced in the black Mercedes at the border of Croatia.

Introducing some great poetry from Turkey part 2: Selected Poems

For further reading again go to that wonderful website, Turkish Poetry in Translation. Here follows some chosen poems from that collection with brief comments of mine...It will be followed by a further part with different poets. My love for Dağlarca is clearly felt in this first part, most poems are his but I hope you will also find them masterful as I do.

Introducing some great poetry from Turkey part 1: A Brief History

I had a long break since my last entry but will of course continue with my travel story later on. However today I felt like introducing my dear foreign readers to Turkish poetry.Yesterday, while reading the great Russian poet Sergey Yesenin unfortunately not in his own language but in English, my belief in powers of translation gained strength and I wondered how our ingenious poets would sound like in English. The results are really amazing, and even my countrymen can get a different  taste in them. I always thought that in terms of poetry Turkish literature can compete with the best of the best in the world and I hope my foreign friends will think the same after reading some of the poems I will introduce. I'm really thankful to Sibel Adalı, a Turkish academician living in New York, who has prepared a website with a really good amount of Turkish poems translated in English. All the translations are taken from her website and if you want to read more just go to her website: Turkish Poetry in Translation