This is a picture of me standing in the Gold Medal position at the bullet-ridden Olympic Awards Stand in Sarajevo. I did a short trip to Bosnia in 1998 and seeing places like the Olympics sites was just one of the many benefits of that experience.For anyone who has traveled to magnificent places seen on TV or in books, places like London, Paris, Washington DC, The Alamo; there is a sudden sense of wow, it seems so much smaller, but is just as awesome as I thought (I think anyway).
The difference here was after watching the Olympics on TV and then seeing the place in person, all shot-up with evidence of violence at every turn (the Bobsled track had holes broken out of it to allow gun turrets to poke through), there wasn't such a feeling of the place being small or awesome, but rather witnessing the scene of a crime. It was a great experience.
Local San Antonio members of City-Data may be interested to know that the guy on the right (to my left) is none other than MajorMadMax. The guy on the the left (my right) is even more famous: In college, he was Bucky Badger, the mascot for the University of Wisconsin.
4 comments:
What an amazing photograph. Thanks for sharing it.
It was an amazing place! I have a load of similar pics, and the same fond memories of some great times with good people! We had a great appreciation for the country and its beauty, and it is a shame that they let things like ethnic cleansing and ultra-nationalism tarnish it all.
Cheers! M2
(a.k.a. majormadmax)
Hey, Dave!
How's things? M2 sent me your blog site and I thought I'd drop a note.
I would jump at a chance to go back to Bosnia and look around. What an amazing place. I still think the U.S. should have annexed it and made the country America's European playground.
Hope all it well with you. Didn't see you at the last Phoenix Challenge. The family is still living large in Omaha. Go figure!
Have a good one!
Marilee Philen
Marilee! Put up one picture of a shot up Olympics site and it's a regular reunion!
I've said many times, if I were to win the Lottery, I'd go back and see the entire place if only to get more pictures.
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