Brown Coal and Sauerkraut

For once I should write my blog in Dutch, because the title of this posting is better in translation than it is in English.

Brown coal and Sauerkraut - it would be a great title for a book about BiH. For me those two will be for ever synomims for winter in Sarajevo (although, admittedly, sauerkraut, or cabbage, is eaten all year long- they even put it on hamburgers. I do not think I want to eat cabbage ever again when I leave this town. Let's say it has lost its charm...).

Brown coal is still widely used as a normal source of energy here. Although known as polluting, it is still widely popular. While walking through town you do not see how dirty the coal is, but you do smell the very distinct 'fragance' of it. However, last winter i made a hike in the mountains around town. When looking down, you could see Sarajevo, covered by a thick layer of brown smog, to a large extent caused by the brown coal. When I told Nenad the Neighbour about this, he told me, much to my surprise, that it had been a completely clear blue day all day in town. So indeed, pollution is invisable. Except for on your skin. There you can see it. You get pimpels, as if you are a teenager again....