Tito’s Iron Fist

 

Back in Sarajevo, following a week of travelling and hiking, it was once again time to get some washing done, but this time I had decided to leave my dirty clothes in the gentle care of “Tito’s Iron Fist”, an institution no traveller to the city should miss, regardless of their need for a laundry…

While the walk to this laundrette was much shorter than in Mostar, it still meant that I had to cross the border between two entirely different worlds.

Stepping out of the front door of my accommodation, I found myself on Ferhadija, the busy High Street of the capital, which with its international brands of shops looked not very different from similar pedestrianised areas in Zagreb, in Vienna or in any other larger city in Continental Europe.

However, turning left and walking for not more than 100 meters, I crossed from an occidental world of multi-storey shops, churches, cafes and bars into a relict of Ottoman street life, where single story buildings with artisan workshops, shisha bars and mosques set the scene.

Cappuccinos were replaced by Bosnian coffees, Palatschinke by Baclava, Aperol Spritz by freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and Wiener Schnitzel by Börek of different varieties. Even the ice cream outlets had changed from Italian style Gelaterias to Turkish ice cream vendors, who you virtually had to fight to earn a cone with a single scoop of vanilla….

Resisting the urge to settle in one of the comfortably cushioned coffee houses, I carried on walking and crossed Baščaršija Square with its famous wooden fountain.

Just on the other side of the road, hidden in the bowels of an old building, I finally arrived at one of the most unusual laundries you can imagine.….

A room of not more than 16 square meters was filled with a couple of rows of washing machines and tumble dryers, most of them decorated with a large red, golden rimmed star. And yet, all of these machines were performing their useful work under the watchful eyes of Karl Marx, Lenin, Che Guevara and of course Marshall Tito.

That was, when the washing machines were working…

This morning however, road works outside of the building had damaged a water pipe and as a result the water supply to the whole building had been cut off. A problem that even the most advanced energy efficient and water saving washing machine technology couldn’t overcome.

While these were bad news for my fellow travellers, it gave me a chance to take a closer look at the place and to have a conversation with Kris, who could be described as half laundry owner and half history teacher.

Kris’ laundry featured not only a number of busts of the poster boys of communism, but also a pretty comprehensive library of the key works of marxism, communism, socialism as well as the odd handbook on guerrilla warfare.

When pushed on the subject of Tito and the former Yugoslavia, Kris missed no time to cover a vacant ironing board with a huge tourist map of this historic country and the  detailed narrative that followed, was illustrated with the help of a coffee table book featuring the Marshall with all world leaders of that time. Another of Kris’ treasures that came on display, was his private collection of old Yugoslav passports.

Arguably  “the best passport in the world at that time” , this document was apparently the only one that allowed visa-free travel to both East and West Germany, as well as to the United States, to the Soviet Union and to Cuba. Pretty handy, but I wondered if Finnish or Swedish passport holders would have agreed with this assessment.

While all the enthusiasm for this part of history didn’t result in clean clothes, a constant stream of loyal customers who had to be turned away, as well as a large number of favourable Google reviews confirmed, that “Tito’s Iron Fist” might be an unconventional laundry, but regardless of one’s political orientation, one that certainly gets the job done.

If there is water….

Well,…. may be next time ?!