I had walked southeast and then northeast in my search for altitude in Bosnia; in this anticlockwise progression, it seemed logical to head north next and so, with sunset in mind, I headed due north of my apartment to Grdonj. Typically considered a suburb of Sarajevo, Grdonj meets the city sprawl to the north of the old town and extends northwards to its eponymous hill, which stands a little over 900m high, flat-ridged and crowned with conifers.
Around three quarters of the way up, exhausted from the hill’s steepness even when travelling the hairpin roads that switch back and forth up its face, I came across a cemetery and headed inside. It is not through some morbid fascination that I find myself constantly in Sarajevo’s cemeteries, I assure you; it is simply that, with the city’s hillsides crisscrossed with houses built almost on top of one another, cemeteries seem to be the only places where it is possible to gain an unobstructed view of the city.
This view, I must say, was a particularly fine one. The cemetery jutted out on a curved promontory, sloping downwards steeply from its outermost point and offering a truly panoramic view of the city. To my right was Hum, with its television tower sceptre thrusting upwards from the crown of the hill, its silhouette instantly recognisable. In front of me, the whole city spread out across the valley floor: the Avaz twist tower, crowned with the red logo of the newspaper, loomed over its tiny neighbours; everywhere, minarets and church towers poked up from the tumble of roofs and gables. In the far distance I could see Mt. Igman, colossal and snow-browed even in this 35º heat.
Over my right shoulder, the sun was sinking below the mountains; the lights below flickered on, one-by-one; seen through the waves of heat drifting up from the city below, the whole scene gained a shimmering, impressionistic quality, unfixed and and unfixable, never quite settling.
The sound of yelping and barking, surprisingly close, snapped me out of my reverie; there in the graveyard, ten metres away, was a group of stray dogs, menacing, fighting among themselves; I took my cue to leave and headed downhill, back into that shimmering vision.
