Thinking Allowed: Coffee and Cigarettes

The culture of Bosnia is intricately linked with coffee and cigarettes. Coffee came to Bosnia via the Ottomans over 500 years ago. Bosnians has a distinct way of making and serving coffee and many rituals surrounding it. It is served in traditional copper coffee making and serving dishes. There is a cultural idea of cejf which involves taking pleasure and time in your coffee. Bosnians appear to live true to this concept as they sit with their coffee for a long time. Cafes have a lot of seating as it would be unthinkable to hurry up a customer. It is normal to socialize with others while drinking their coffee. Rarely did I see anyone looking at a cell phone while at a cafe. It is a rare thing in todays world to have people spend so much time just sitting enjoying each others company or just sitting on their own enjoying the quiet and flavour.

Hand in hand with drinking coffee is smoking cigarettes. No cup of coffee is complete without cigarettes to accompany. Actually, people smoke even when not having coffee. They seem to smoke all the time. Rules made to ban smoking indoors have been largely unsuccessful as they are ignored. The cafe in the Mostar mall would lose a lot of business if they disallowed smoking - so they don't. The dentist smelled like cigarette smoke, the grocer smelled like cigarette smoke, the blood testing centre smelled like cigarette smoke, the airport smelled like cigarette smoke. We went to get Tova a haircut - the hair dresser and her partner were sitting outside having coffee and cigarettes. They looked longingly at their cups of coffee and cigarettes before finally caving and agreeing to cut her hair. Bosnia has one of the highest smoking rates in the world. We have been to other countries with a high prevalence of smoking but Bosnia is a level up in commitment. I really am not that indulgent of smokers. Still, in Bosnia I felt it made sense. During the siege of Sarajevo there was a shortage of food. Cigarettes were manufactured in the city and they managed to keep up production throughout the four year siege. Cigarettes became currency and many people were paid in cigarettes. With little food and water and a daily risk of being shot cigarettes were the ideal available solution to calm nerves and suppress appetites. Maybe I also would have taken up smoking?

Bosnia has been a lot of fun. The people are kind and low stress. It is a country with a difficult past and a strenuous political system but manages to put on a smile and enjoy life anyways. I wont take up coffee and cigarettes but hopefully some of the culture of cejf will wear off on us. We can all learn to sit a little longer with life's people and pleasures.