Adi, the false shoe-maker
Listen to testimony
Adi was not a real shoemaker of Bascarsija. I made this discovery only twelve years later when I found him in a carpet shop, just opposite the shoe shop. He explained that at the time he was trying to keep the store of his friend who had been injured during the war operating. He was amused by this misunderstanding that he agreed to play the shoemaker role for me in the same old shop, today completely renovated. The irony of the situation is that he was showing me the same leather boots, which have never been sold since the war.
“My shop, in reality is the one in front, I sell souvenirs for tourists. Before the war there were many tourists from Europe, Italy, Germany, Spain…but now people are afraid and don’t came visit our city. During the siege the city was full of soldiers, they were my customers. The soldiers from Argentina they bought a lot, they spent their entire paycheck here in Sarajevo, the Italians also they were good buyers, the French not so good.I sold many carpets, some 150 years old. Now, we are waiting, the country is very interesting, beautiful so tourists will surely return.”