Old crafts in Baščaršija

Every time I find myself in the old part of the city of Sarajevo, the heart and symbol of the city's tradition, the famous Baščaršija, on the square near Sebilj (the old fountain), whichever side of the world I go to, I will come across some narrow street or passage where old craftsmen work.

This time, I walked down the narrow cobblestone street near the Baščaršija mosque, to Kazandžija street (Copperwire street).

We were looking for the street with the Kazandžija craft because a colleague with whom I was on a business trip in Sarajevo wanted to buy a copper jug, because she heard about the effective effect of washing water that stands for 8 hours in a copper vessel.

Finding a real copper vessel in this street was not as easy as I thought it would be, because most of the vessels are treated with tin on the inside.
She needed a vessel that is copper inside.

The walk along the narrow cobbled street was very interesting for me, because while she talked to the friendly sellers, I could look at the interestingly decorated items in their shops.

One store, another store, third, fourth...
It was only in the fifth store she entered that she noticed copper products on the shelves.

The kind craftsman, as a descendant of the sixth generation in this shop told us, showed her all the jugs he has in the shop.

And he really had a lot of them.
That meant that, in addition to sightseeing, I would also have time for some photography 🙂

Shopping in Sarajevo, when you are a tourist, cannot go without the usual haggling (negotiation of the final price). The handmade copper jug, from the price of 200KM (ie, 100€), was lowered to 80€ after a few minutes of negotiation, and finally, it was agreed that the colleague would pay 75€.
She really deserves congratulations for her negotiation skills 😀

After she chose her new jug, the potter engraved the date of purchase and the name of his shop and the city of Sarajevo on the bottom.

After shopping, we first went for "Ćevapi"(kebabs), at one of several popular kebab shops in Baška (this time it was Željo), for the unavoidable combination of "10 in half with onion" and a spoonful of cream.
I didn't manage to take a picture of this combination, I was very hungry so I wiped it off the plate, and the second reason is that the bun in which the kebabs are inserted breaks with your fingers, so my whole phone would be greasy, which I didn't want 🙂

After eating kebabs, we walked through some other narrow streets, where there are shops with cakes, so, in addition to the baklava we ate, we took home some Lokum, the traditional Turkish "Ratluk".

This #Wednesdaywalk in Baščaršija, we ended by going to the car we parked in a nearby shopping center, outside Baščaršija in a part of the city with a very western look of the surrounding buildings, as a total contrast to the old, low houses in Baščaršija.

It was a wonderful day for a walk, without precipitation and without strong sun, and certainly successful, because in addition to the shopping done by my colleague, the lunch was very interesting and also the sweets, which we bought to take away.