Andrew Currie Online

Updates from July, 2003 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Andrew 5:21 PM on July 22, 2003 Permalink
  Tags: Bosnia ( 24 ), Second City ( 84 )   

  And we’re done! 

  We took the stage tonight in Banja Luka in 35-plus degree weather; two hours and buckets of sweat (not of the flop variety) later, we were done. Since then I’ve downed more than my share of Ozujsko Pivos, hobnobbed with British officers, offered to do the camp commander’s workload for the rest of the week, and generally made an ass of myself. This tour has been an absolute blast, and though there’s plenty of loved ones at home who are sorely missed, it’s also going to be hard to go back to being a nobody again…

   
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  Andrew 8:25 AM on July 22, 2003 Permalink
  Tags: Bosnia ( 24 ), Second City ( 84 )   

  Yak attack! 

  Well, almost…

  The British Merlin pilots who rescued us from a five-hour bus ride made our short trip even better by inviting us to sit, two at a time, on the lowered back ramp of the craft while in flight, giving us some spectacular aerial views of the countryside. And almost as soon as I took my position there the saucy pilots decided to pull some fancy flying maneuvers. I was doing fine until I made my way back into my seat, or more accurately, was slammed into it while the helicopter started a sudden and rapid climb.

  A wave of nausea came pouring over me, but unlike two other unlucky passengers I wasn’t able to make a deposit into the barf bag handed to me. The queasiness stayed with me, though, and had to be slept off. I’m definitely not Air Force material…

   
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  Andrew 12:56 AM on July 22, 2003 Permalink
  Tags: Bosnia ( 24 ), Second City ( 84 )   

  In the home stretch now… 

  On this, the morning after a show for our first International audience in Sarajevo, we’re calling in a favour and getting a ride to the camp at Banja Luca on board a British Merlin Helicopter.

  Our show there is tonight; first thing tomorrow we leave for a one-night hotel stop in Zagreb, Crotia, then fly home.

  Today’s war story: During the siege of Sarajevo, the Serbs offered well-heeled tourists a chance to “hunt” human prey. About five grand would get you a rifle and a spot overlooking sniper’s alley, where you could spend the afternoon taking shots at whatever struck your sick fancy…

   
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  Andrew 10:27 AM on July 21, 2003 Permalink
  Tags: Bosnia ( 24 ), Second City ( 84 )   

  The Romeo and Juliet Bridge 

  One thing I didn’t know about the Balkan conflict was that the city of Sarajevo was under siege for more than thirteen hundred days. Even after NATO took control of the airport, there was still no way to get supplies into the city, or people out of it — that is, until a tunnel was built underneath . Today, after a morning tour of the city, I got to walk through about twenty metres of Sarajevo history. Photographic proof will be provided once I get back home and my website proper goes back up!

  Today’s war story is about the Romeo and Juliet bridge, named after two lovers — one Serbian and one Muslim. To read their story, click here.

   
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  Andrew 10:26 AM on July 20, 2003 Permalink
  Tags: Bosnia ( 24 ), Second City ( 84 )   

  Camp Butmir 

  I’ve just checked into my room at Camp Butmir, in Sarajevo… If you could call it that. Once again, we’re staying in what the army calls “transient quarters”, and because Butmir is a multi-national base the Canadian army had no choice but to throw us, four deep per room, into the boiling hot second floor of a portable.

  One of the big selling points of this SFOR base is the wide variety of International PXes, or Canteens. Based on intelligence gathered from troops at other bases I made a beeline for the American one, only to find last year’s electronics at this year’s prices. I tried to drown my sorrows in a milkshake at the Baskin-Robbins; even that took half an hour, as some poor Serbian woman had to make do with a huge lineup and a blender that was clearly on its last legs.

  The good news is that tomorrow night we’re playing outdoors to an international crowd, possibly more than a thousand strong. Expect lots of America-bashing…