Where It Begins...

I write from a very significant place, the Kastel (“castle”), which is a basis for the historical events that follow. The Kastel, which is not of any grandeur like those in fairytale-Prague, is modest in its size and location. It housed the imperial ruler of the day, which began with the Celts, followed by the Romans, and then most prescient, the Turks during the Ottoman Empire, the latter of which would create the truly internal rift that remains in this valley today…

Before I digress, I should begin to tell, in a manner of place, where exactly I am and why. I write from the Balkans, the former Yugoslavia. More specifically, I live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (By now, some less than flattering associations probably come to mind.) Still to be more precise, I live in Serbska, arguably an independent state in the Federation of BiH. As you can deduce, location is one complexity in the lot of Balkan Babel...