Nearly everyone smokes, as they do in most places in Bosnia. Perhaps most striking about Tuzla is that it actually feels like a city, a far cry from the post-war mess found elsewhere, especially on the Serbian side in eastern Bosnia. But a walk down a main thoroughfare shows this city still has a ways to go. The streets are grimy. There is more than an occasional foul odor, especially near a concrete-bottomed creek that runs through town and smells of raw sewage.
Garbage is scattered about.
The piles don't compare with some other Bosnian cities, but it's still noticeable to the outsider's eye. Tuzla didn't always look this way, Babajic says. Since the war, local governments are still struggling to provide basic services such as garbage collection and street-cleaning. Gazette A woman sits with her child as she begs on a street near downtown Tuzla. The city has begun the process of rebuilding itself after the war.