Two Songs that I want to Introduce to You

One of them, probably most of you already know it, is Beyonce`s song called Halo. I have been listening it since few days and I could not stop myself to keep listening it again and again.

A nice part from its lyrics:
You are everything I need and more
It`s written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won`t fade away!
...
The second one I would like to introduce you is more less known one I guess. As a general information, there is an idiosyncratic music type in Portugal called Fado. And one of the best practitioners of it is Amalia Rodrigues. One of her songs, that I also recognize from somewhere, is called Solidao. Here it is!

Try of the trial of Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic, former Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested in Serbia last july after 13 years of run. The next address for him was a famous one for the other war criminals; The Hague. Today, it supposed to be his first trial but because of some excuses like getting ready for the judgment (as if this last 13 years were not enough), he did not appear in the court. Let`s see how long this will take. The process actually went similar for Milosevic, who, at the end died in the prison before getting his decision from the court. Bosnians wait this trial just because of getting a bit healing but nothing else. Of course, the biggest healing for them would occur if Karadzic made self critisim and said sorry from the Bosnian. But... There is something called `nefs`which causes people to think that they are doing the right, nothing but the right and even almost in all cases! Another thing I am thinking about all these situations is that despite there happened only one history here, the reflections of it are s different in the eyes of Bosnians, Serbs and Croats today. Just few kilometers from Sarajevo, in the territory of Serbian Republis, people think that what has happened to Bosnians is not so much, this was what they deserved etc. Is not it interesting? Is history so subjective?

Compulsory and Painful Trip to Metkovic (Croatia)

Our 'legal' three month period of staying in Sarajevo without residence permit is over again and we needed to go out this weekend. We decided to take train this time to the place which is so close to Bosnian border in Croatia. That was Metkovic which is a small town just after the Bosnian-Croatian border. These are not the best times to trip since the weather is not so good here. But... Our trip started at 6 am in the morning and it took 5 hours, with some delay, to arrive to Metkovic. There was interesting detail to share from the train trip that the train that we took was a Swedish donation to Bosnia. Well, we know now what Sweden does with their really old trains! Below photo is from inside of the train.After we arrived, we tried to buy tickets for returning but unfortunately the guy at the train station was not knowing any English and my poor Bosnian was not enough to express our wish. We just walked the whole city and searched for the bus station then. We could take the last bus in half an hour but we have thought that the guy was trying to cheat us since he asked so expensive ticket price. Then we turned back again to train station to buy train tickets which became the only way to turn back to Sarajevo. We could not explain us again but this time we found one young lady to make translation for us. The thing that the guy was trying to tell us was that we could buy the tickets inside the train! So hard sometimes not to understand the language. Ok, but we had 5 more hours to spend in this small city. It was cold, rainy and I was getting sick. We found a shopping mall and tried to stay in it long hours. I think we could see everything from this city. You can see the most important piaces from below photos; the upper one is from Neretva going through the city, and the below one is from a big church called Sv. Ivan.

In the evening we took train back and bought our tickets inside the train. However, it did not take long to face with another and big problem. When we entered to the Bosnian border, we have waited the police to check our passports and put stamp on them to pove later on that we actually entered into the country. Despite all search we could not find any policeman around the train station. The train waited us 15 minutes almost but we measurably accepted the situation by thinking that that would create a problem later on. Our 'nice' night did not end here. At Mostar, a big group of students and their teachers went inside the train. They continued almost all night to sing and talk and move and drink. I really became so tired and frustrated and sick. When we could arrive to Sarajevo at 11 pm, another surprise was waiting us; snow and rain! Do you also feel sometimes that God is really tring your patience and you start to wait that everything can happen actually. This trip was exactly like that. I have been sick since then and we have told that the police will decide tomorrow if they will accept our passports without having Bosnian entrance stamp or not. If they do not, we will probably go to Metkovic again on Thursday. Life is hard sometimes!

:((( Yine...

Diğerinin şokunu atlatamadan bir üzücü haber daha aldım bugün uzaklardan. Çocukluk arkadaşlarımdan birinin acı bir şekilde vefat ettiğini öğrendim. Tıpkı Faruk'un vefatındaki gibi cenazesine katılamayacağım bir devir nice güzellikleri paylaştığımız bu insanın. Üstelik bu defa daha bir hüzünlüyüm. Nasıl olmasın ki? Hani ufakken birbirine yakıştırılan çiftler olur ya o da öyleydi benim için. Hayat, garip işte bazen. İnsan içine yediremiyor bir de sevdiği bir insanın bu derece gazete 3. sayfası ölüm haberine. Bak ne yazmışlar senin ardından gazetelerde: "Kaza, bugün saat 10.00 sıralarında meydana geldi. İzmir’den Manisa yönüne giden Ali Semir (35) yönetimindeki 35 BFR 42 plakalı TIR, Manisa Batı Kışla Nizamiyesi önünde kontrolünü kaybederek Mimar Sinan Bulvarı’nda yol ortasındaki yeşil alan kaplı refüjü aşarak karşı şeride geçti. Bu sırada TIR’dan atladığı öne sürülen sürücü Ali Semir aracın altında kaldı. TIR üzerindeki boş konteyner de karşı yolda seyir halindeki Tayfun Cirbil’in (28) kullandığı motosikletin üzerine düştü. Kazada, TIR sürücüsü Ali Semir ile Manisa’da bir giyim mağazasında tezgahtar olarak çalışan motosiklet sürücüsü Tayfun Cirbil kaza yerinde hayatını kaybetti." Öyle oluyor işte, bir tır devriliyor, sen orda oluyorsun o sıra, sen ölüyorsun, adın mağazada çalışan tezgahtar oluyor, senin için delice koşuşturan anneni, 3 ay önce zorluklarla evlendiğin eşini, güzel çocukluğunu, zor gençliğini ve sınır karakolundaki askerliğini kimse bilmiyor. Allah gani gani rahmet eylesin bu güzel arkadaşıma! Kendim ve tüm sevdiklerim için de güzel bir ölüm diliyorum. Ölümün güzeli de olur mu demeyin, oluyor işte. Böyle arkadaşlar teker teker ayrılınca sahneden kendimi düşünüyorum ister istemez. Rabbim güzel işler etmeyi nasip eylesin ayrılıp gitmeden bu dünyadan.
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Dünya malı ile gözün boyarlar
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Ölen hayvan olur,
Aşıklar ölmez... (YUnus Emre)

Snow, Kar, Snijeg, Snö...

Why are all these things about snow now? Yees, because, we got the first snow today here in Sarajevo. Now, I am sitting next to our window and watching the snow falling down rapidly and making everywhere white. First snow of the year makes me happy always, nice :) However, would not be bad if we got our heaters on also!