yellow fortress + being at home living abroad

Smoke wafts out of the cevapi restaurant a block away. It streams across the narrow street before getting lost in the trees that frame the Bascarsija mosque. If I were just a few feet closer, I'd be able to smell the grilling sausages. Sitting at a cafe, enjoying the social culture around coffee and tea, I feel at ease. I'm slipping easily into living here. Living somewhere new, where the language eludes me, and the customs challenge and highlight my own - it's fulfilling to me. It's satisfying - immensely satisfying - to find my way around somewhere foreign, to spend twice as long as normal in a grocery store to figure out what's what and take in all the new and different culinary possibilities, to feel my heart beat faster with every new sight I see. It's like living abroad keeps my mind constantly engaged - it keeps me sharper, asks me to learn constantly. I'm never bored, and that's so much of the appeal for me. I'm always challenged. There's always something new to do and somewhere new to see. It makes me acutely aware of living in the moment each day. I feel more present when I live abroad, and that presence is intentional without having to work at it.

This time, living abroad feels easier than it did in Japan. The learning curve is flatter. Maybe it's that it's Europe, though Sarajevo feels like somewhere much further away. (And then again, what do I know about Europe?!) Maybe it's that there's some English, although my experience has been that English here is just slightly more common than it was in Japan. I think it's more likely about experience. I'm older now. I've done this before, and doing it again is like seeing a close friend after years apart. I'm picking up right where I left off.

I wandered up to the Yellow Fortress, an old fortification that once defended the town of of Vratnik, part of Sarajevo's Old Town now. The nickname comes from the slightly yellow color of the rocks used to construct it. It's one of the most popular viewing points in the city. It's so popular that there's even a small cafe up there. It was closed the day I hiked up, but I still shook my head and smiled - Bosnians can't live without coffee, even for a short hike. It's an especially crowded place during Ramadan. There's a canon fired at sunset every night to tell all the practicing Muslims that it's time to break the fast. I hear that people bring feasts and enjoy their picnics with the sun setting over the city. It's sounds pretty great to me.

The day I went, the Fortress wasn't crowded at all. There was a newly married couple taking wedding photos, and I watched in awe, thinking how priceless those images will be one day. I fell in love with this city a little bit more sitting up there, my feet dangling near the edge, snapping photo after photo and pledging that the next time I go, it'll be with a bottle of wine, a pen, and my journal.