The Best American Travel Writing 2013 by Elizabeth Gilbert

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert [Gilbert, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Nonfiction, Retail, Travel
ISBN: 9780547808987
Amazon: 0547808984
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 2013-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

Two days later, on a warm Saturday afternoon in Sarajevo, streetcars covered in ads for soda and bubble gum trundle along the city’s main boulevard, Zmaja od Bosne, once known as Sniper Alley. Except for a few pockmarked facades left unrepaired for lack of money, there are no visible reminders of violence. A new skyscraper, the Avaz Twist Tower, rises over the minarets of the old town. A dump truck crawls its way toward Sarajevo’s downtown skate park. Seeing it, a girl in a black hoodie yells, “The snow is coming!”

The truck humps over the curb and stops in the middle of the park. A crowd of about 30 skiers and snowboarders awaits. Vilić and Krneta are here, along with some friends from Madstyle Team. So are the jibbers for Jesus. Biogradlic, beat from the week’s efforts, stayed home.

Vilić and Krneta had suggested the idea: if we can’t have a Europa Cup, let’s bring a truckload of snow to the skate park in Sarajevo and have our own jib session. Sublime is blasting from Krneta’s parked Audi, the four doors wide open, the hatchback full of beer.

“You have to make the best of the worst, dude,” says Matt Gencarella, the evangelist from Idaho, sipping from a can of Sarajevsko beer. He has BFC/DFL tattooed on his wrist. It means Boarders for Christ/Down for Life.

“The sports I do, I do for God,” he declares.

“Funny, I’ve never been in a mosque or a church,” Vilić says, grinning wide.

The truck unloads the snow to cheers. A couple of guys pick up shovels and begin covering the approach ramp with powder and preparing the landing. Some snow is put aside for a makeshift beer cooler. In 20 minutes, everything is ready. Waiting patiently on top of the ramp, snowboarders and skiers drop in one by one, sliding down the flat box at the end. The snow is wet, and there’s hardly any speed on the approach, but Vilić, Krneta, and the others manage a few stylish tricks—nose presses, lip slides, blunt slides. Beers are downed quickly and often. The skiers talk about girlfriends and boyfriends, jobs, Jesus Christ, marijuana farming. Now Dubioza Kolektiv, the hottest reggae-rock band in Bosnia, thumps from the stereo. When dark descends over the city, people pull their cars up and shine their headlights on the ramp. The party goes on. Then, one by one, the minarets on the hills come to life for evening prayer.

“This is absolutely the worst winter I can remember,” says Krneta, popping another beer. “But I love it anyway.”

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