balkanalysis.com
January 7, 2011
By Lidija Jularic*
Sarajevans, and other Bosnia-Herzegovina locals in general, know how to enjoy themselves. Enjoying yourself, and putting yourself first above everything else is perceived as being one of the most important things in Sarajevo. This can be an over-generalization, though, and it does ignore all the problems that this society – just fifteen years after the war, after all – still faces. Nevertheless, the conclusion can be made, if we consider that there exist at least three concepts which describe different states of Sarajevan enjoyment.
Bosnians as Hedonists
It appears that in Bosnia, the locals like to think about themselves as hedonists. Zvonko, a 28-year-old student from Sarajevo, claims that Bosnians are people “who really love to enjoy themselves” and that they are “some of the biggest hedonists that exist.” This means that they love to drink coffee, to smoke and to socialize intensively.
Moreover, Bosnians are known for their drinks and mezetluk (going out for snacks, from the word meze used elsewhere in the region too). To make it clear, mezetluk is not just about having a snack, it is mostly about socializing while thus having a bite to eat. So eating a snack alone in your house does not really count as mezetluk.
You can have meza at home with your guests or in a coffeehouse. In a coffeehouse you have meza while sitting, drinking (mostly, alcohol) and discussing some important topic, preferably, politics, with your friends or other random coffeehouse clients. You can do this in Sarajevo especially if you are a male (and particularly, a bit older).
To have this type of enjoyment over drinking and snacking some food while presenting your political views, you mostly have to go to a kafana, a peculiar mix of restaurant and cafe with a vintage, socialist touch. They serve food and drinks, with a very strong accentuation on alcohol.
Another type of cafe where you can seek enjoyment, but this time without alcohol and also without mezetluk, is the bosanska kafana. This is a traditional type of coffeehouse which serves Bosnian coffee (in other places, generally known as Turkish coffee), tea and juice. But what type of enjoyment can you have here, if you cannot drink alcohol? Well, something that is called ćeif....more...
read more: balkanalysis.com
*Literature:
Hangi, Antun: Život i običaji muslimana u Bosni i Hercegovini. Sarajevo, 1990: Svjetlost
Prstojević, Miroslav: Zaboravljeno Sarajevo. Sarajevo, 1992: PP Ideja
Škaljić, Abdulah: Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku. Sarajevo, 1989: Svjetlost
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*Slovenia-based Lidija Jularic writes primarily on Balkan local traditions and diaspora communities from the former Yugoslavia, particularly in relation to issues of social inclusion. She finished her postgraduate degree in Nationalism Studies at Central European University in Budapest. With a thesis on contemporary Sarajevo coffeehouses and society, she graduated in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Ljubljana.
Hangi, Antun: Život i običaji muslimana u Bosni i Hercegovini. Sarajevo, 1990: Svjetlost
Prstojević, Miroslav: Zaboravljeno Sarajevo. Sarajevo, 1992: PP Ideja
Škaljić, Abdulah: Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku. Sarajevo, 1989: Svjetlost
……………………………
*Slovenia-based Lidija Jularic writes primarily on Balkan local traditions and diaspora communities from the former Yugoslavia, particularly in relation to issues of social inclusion. She finished her postgraduate degree in Nationalism Studies at Central European University in Budapest. With a thesis on contemporary Sarajevo coffeehouses and society, she graduated in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Ljubljana.
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