Twitmachine inaccessible again.
Wandered to the old city, which is also apparently the new city, and quite a walk from the rooms. Old Roman ampitheatre, basically just dug out of the silt, nothing to distance you from the relic of the time. Possible to walk through the tunnels, and out into the arena. Half of the structure is preserved, the other half, the downhill half, which presumably therefore had all of the pens and machinery, only survives at the basement level.
Seafront open, recently developed, excellent walking quay. Socialist statues. Seems to be more typical of socialist countries to make statues of young heroes. Kouroi of righteousness. The outpost of Venice is embedded in the old walls; the admission fee of twice the ampitheatre seemed a bit steep to go inside a small turret.
There are malls, but from the scale of things, it appears that very much the opposite of Sarajevo’s development, the economy is still informal and small-shops based. I’ll continue to supply from the large stores, Turkish, I think, on the same principle under which I shopped for supplies at Walmart when working in rural Kentucky. When you are of the place, or you’re not absolutely reliant on acquiring cheap and effective things, the small shops are certainly the way to go. Otherwise — on a military campaign, the quartermaster doesn’t care much for provenance.
You really do need to put your clothes in the hot wash and take a thorough shower after wandering less-developed areas of southern Europe. Part of the routine. Hence Goethe’s travelling cappa magna, below (on the twitter feed). I keep the washable trenchcoat on at all times. Remarkably fecund place. But why still now, after decades of development in which the northern countries developed civic sanitation systems? The elderly woman I saw sweeping the street was working diligently, but using a large stick to which a bundle of small sticks was attached at the end to sweep the sidewalk. Or perhaps it’s the climate, the lack of hard frosts against the microbiota. Garibaldi divided Africa.
Peculiar signage outside the old stone church, seems to be functionally a proto-cathedral, but apparently canonically a co-cathedral. Claims to be the first site of Christian worship, but the structure dates from 19th c., and earliest claim to archaeological dating of previous structures is 14th c. (based on a single engraved cross, now lost). Narrative of the place is the struggle against the national form of socialism, during which it became a puppet theatre. Better than the English, turning Blackfriars into a horse barn. Or perhaps an argument for building small churches. Just in case.
“Just enough Cross by the way to enter the soul in the light
Just enough work by the day to turn us from error to right”
(Old Shaker Song)