Turkey To Bulgaria
13 March 2017
Our adventures began after six months of packing and selling and giving away furniture, bicycles, cats and coffee makers. It had been a long slog to get to the point where we were ready to climb on the bus. Lots of emotional farewells, cleaning and sorting. We were both quite tired when we actually got on the bus in Istanbul's Bayrampaşa and started heading to the border.
The border crossing between Istanbul and Bulgaria was slow. Firstly, it was discovered that someone had been left behind at the last rest stop on the way to the border, so we needed to wait while this person's name was crossed off the bus manifesto.
After an hour or so we were at the Bulgarian customs area, we stopped along the way and a policeman got on the bus and walked up and down the aisle checking everyone's passport. Then he got off and two minutes later a second policeman got on and did the same. At the customs point we were surprised by how thoroughly the officials were checking every car that went through. They looked under the carpets, unscrewed bits of the car and peered in the holes, emptied bags and checked every item of clothing...we then remembered that on this trip we've got about 20 border crossings to make!
Eventually our bus was driven into a shed and over a trench so someone could check for stowaways. All the bags were taken off and put through a scanner, and some were randomly opened for further checking. There were three tall security guards. You could tell which ones were the guards by the looks of concentration and lack of smiles on their faces. I smiled at one to try to brighten his day a bit. He just blanked me.
We were quite relieved once the bus started moving again and it wasn't long before we had made it to Plovdiv. Once we were off the bus, we got into a taxi and, in our best Bulgarian, explained where our air bnb place was. After we had shown the driver the address on a bit of paper, he understood and took us to our accommodation. Yonko, our friendly host came and opened up for us and we carried our bags up, up, up into a tiny attic room. It is very cute and has a bed, microwave and bathroom. The bed is really only for one person, so we had a very cosy night (after finding a restaurant for some sausages and chickpeas and a local beer).
The next morning I woke up early as the light from the window on the ceiling (well, this was an attic, remember), came steaming in at about 06:00. Not long after. Sarah stirred and we had an early breakfast. We were both quite excited about exploring Plovdiv anyway, so we got up and headed for the tourist information office.
Plovdiv in March is quite chilly and there was a light drizzle in the air, so we were wrapped up warm. There is a nice mix here between old roman ruins, traditional houses, modern pedestrianised shopping streets and lots of small parks. The really helpful man at the tourist information office gave us a map and lots of details about the best things to see and do, so we started exploring.
Plovdiv was built on seven hills (although one of them has been levelled), and has lots of cobbled streets and pretty parks. It has a very old feel and is no where near as busy as Istanbul - in fact, we were surprised by how empty everywhere was. This, along with a distinct lack of mosques, traffic jams and simit sellers told us we were no longer in Istanbul.
We made it to the top of one of the hills for a great panoramic view over the city, we also explored some of the Roman ruins (an old amphitheatre, theatre and arena being the highlights), and wandered through a couple of museums. The ethnographic museum is in an old 19th century house with wooden floors, beams and high ceilings. The architectural museum has a really interesting, well laid out set of displays covering the history of the area from 5000BC to the 19th century. Lots of the information boards were in English, which was useful. After a visit to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies we headed home for some rest. Then in the evening we went to sample Plovdiv's finest Indian restaurant. Which was nice, but not particularly Indian. Probably a mistake as I was up most of the night with a dodgy stomach.
The next day we decided to take a trip a little further afield and caught a bus from the southern bus terminal to Bachkovo Monastery. This was a beautiful collection of buildings dating from the 11th century (well, with a few alterations which were made after the ottomans had taken a dislike to the monastic way of life and tried to pull the buildings down). It was restored in the 15th century after the Ottomans left the area. Some of the buildings were closed as we were far too early in the tourist season for it to be worth their while opening up. The ones that were open contained beautiful frescoes and orthodox architecture (complete, of course, with copious amounts of gold and silver icons).
After admiring the buildings we went for a walk into the surrounding mountains and found a pretty waterfall to sit and eat our lunch at. The return journey to Plovdiv was uneventful (or, at least, I think it was - I fell asleep on the bus). Once we arrived we headed by taxi to a small 5th century basilica which had some great mosaics, and then wound our way through the cobbled backstreets of the old town to the hostel for some down time. In the evening we went out for some Chinese food - I needed some plain chicken and rice as my stomach was still a little dodgy.
The following morning we woke early again and headed to the bus park (which was a bit further than we thought). A pretty three hour bus journey up and over a mountain (which still had lots of snow on it) brought us to the small university city of Veliko Tărnovo. This is a beautiful place with lots of hills, a great big horseshoe shaped river in the centre of town and fortresses and old ruins and Byzantine churches dotted around its forested edges. There are lots of old, wooden beamed houses, some in excellent shape, some in need of a bit of paint.
We hiked to the top of one of the hills, right on the point of the horseshoe river and got some photos of the amazing panorama. Most of our sightseeing was to be the next day, so we found a coffee shop and had a hot milk with honey and cinnamon each. The bar, as seems to be the case almost everywhere at this time of year, was empty and the waitress seemed glad of a customer or two to warm the milk up for.
After hiking back up one of the many hills we went back to the hostel and relaxed with the Internet for a while. I have been offered an interview for a job in Oxford for when we return, so I was quite excited about that.
Our generous host, Volen, said he would cook for us this evening so we waited for him to return from work. At 20:00 he came back and we helped him to cook. About an hour later we had a great dinner of pork (!) sausages and potatoes, along with some fried cheeses for Sarah who isn't a great fan of pork products. We then settled in for the evening with a couple of beers and watching Manchester United playing football (quite badly, as it goes).
Our last day in Veliko Tărnovo was our touristy day. After a surprisingly comfortable night sleeping on an air bed we headed off to Tsavaret - a big medieval fortress that dominates the horizon of the town, being perched as it is on one of the many hills above the horseshoe river that this pretty place is built around. Getting to the fortress involves quite a hike up a steep hill, but the view that it provides as a reward for your efforts is well worth the sweat. There is an old wall surrounding the hill the fortress is on and a series of old ruins follow the contors of the hill up to the summit. On top of the hill, the best preserved building is the church where the last patriarch of Bulgaria was ordained. It all made for a really nice walk in the open air with some beautiful views and a bit of history.
Once we left the fortress we headed down towards the banks of the river and followed it through a couple of small villages, where there were some small old churches. It was all very quaint and reminded me of the Cotswolds. The mix of old and new in Veliko Tărnovo meant that after walking through a medieval scene and feeling we were part of history, we could then quite quickly afterwards be back in town and on the lookout for a supermarket to buy some supplies. It doesn't help that Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but it does help that the word for 'supermarket' is the same in both languages (once you can decipher the lettering). We eventually found one and bought what we needed, before heading back to the hostel for a bit more down time.
In the evening, Volen, our host, prepared a salad and had a friend over. We drank rakiya together (which is similar to Turkish Raki but water isn't added when you drink it). We spent an interesting evening talking about culture and music. Bulgarians, apparently, really aren't all that impressed by their own musicians and would far prefer to listen to 60s, 70s or 80s British and American rock and pop. Bulgaria also has an interesting tradition of tying red and white cords to newly budding trees or hiding them under rocks to see if ants will eat them (which is meant to be lucky).
The following morning we packed our bags and walked down to the bus station. Veliko is a nice place and, if you don't mind hills, it is well worth a visit. After a three hour bus ride we were on the coast of the Black Sea in Varna, which is a much bigger city than Veliko Tărnovo. We were surprised again to see snow on the ground when we had just gone up a small number of meters.
Once the bus arrived at the bus station, we caught a local bus to the air bnb. The owner was out but, after a short wait (and a quick lunch of liver and mushrooms), his mother came and in broken English and an odd bit of Russian explained how to use the keys and which bathroom we could use.
We then dumped our bags and, after an unsuccessful visit back to the bus station (where we tried to find out about tomorrow's bus to Romania), we went for a nice long walk along the sea front. There is a really nice green park next to the sea here. It was quite busy as we were there on a Saturday. The locals were busy skateboarding, walking dogs, strolling with loved ones romantically by the sea. There was a really lovely atmosphere.
We had dinner in the aptly named 'Happy' restaurant, where the pre-requisite for being a waitress was to be a young girl in her early 20s with a figure like an hour glass. The qualification for being a chef was to be a young, trendy dude. Surprisingly the main clientele were families with young children and the food was excellent.
After another stroll along the sea front we were home again. Tomorrow we leave (or at least try to leave) Bulgaria, so we spent the evening doing some research into how best to travel. We didn't get very far would research, so we hoped that when we went to the bus station in the morning things would become much clearer.
We were wrong. There wasn't a bus on Sundays to Constanta, and the best we could do was to get to the border town, Ruse, and try to get a bus to Bucharest and then one to Constanta. We couldn't. All the buses to Bucharest were either full or had already left by the time we got to the border. So, we made the best of it and checked in to a nice hotel next to the bus station and booked tickets for Bucharest the following morning.
When you go on a long overland trip you have to be flexible with your plans, remember you have plenty of time to do anything, and just generally go with the flow. Anyway, Ruse is a pretty town and provided us with a very pleasant stroll through green parks along the banks of the muddy Danube river, past a strange blend of industrial complexes, transport museums with some amazing old steam trains, the remains of a sand sculpture competition, ancient churches and a place for a nice slice of cheesecake and a cup of tea.
The evening was spent having pizza in a local sports bar (more football - Manchester City playing badly this time) and relaxing back in our unexpectedly nice hotel room - where our only complaint was that the curtains weren't long enough to cover the whole width of the window (a bizarre but common occurrence in Bulgaria). Tomorrow we try to leave the country for the second time...
Romania
20th March 2017
We made it across the border! Actually, from Ruse to Bucarest is a short, really easy hop in a minibus. The border experience compared to coming from Turkey into Bulgaria, is a world apart. The minibus stopped for a couple of minutes to pay a toll, we then crossed a bridge over the Danube and, on the other side, got to the border into Romania.
At this border point there is a little shed. There are two windows, with two people sitting at two computers. You pass your passport to the first person, who is sitting under a sign saying 'Bulgaria' (a woman, of course - in Bulgaria most of the transport jobs, apart from the actual driving, is the domain of women (we didn't see a single bus ticket seller or inspector who was a man)). This lady then does whatever she needs to do on her computer to say you've left Bulgaria. She then leans over to the other lady in the shed, who is sat under a sign saying 'Romania' and who then does whatever she has to do on her computer to say you've entered Romania. What would happen if your passport happened to get lost somehow between their two chairs, or if they had a tiff or the two countries were at war, I don't quite know. Where you are legally when your passport is between the two chairs is also a mystery.
An hour and a half later and we were in Bucarest. There was an orchestra on the minibus with us, with a lady who spoke good English and Bulgarian. We got chatting and the lady made sure we got off at the right stop.
A short walk later and we were at the bus stop for buses to Tulcea. Sarah went and bought some food for our lunch, but there was a very poor family sitting next to us so we ended up giving most of our chips to them. Sarah made sure we gave them the salad that came with the chips - she said it was healthier for them.
Four and a half hours later of trundling through the Romanian countryside on the minibus and we were in Tulcea. The journey was uneventful but we learned that Romanians in the countryside like to decorate the outside of their houses with beautiful tiles and paint the outside walls in beautiful shades of blue and green.
Once we had arrived in Tulcea we were met by our host's son who loaded us into his car and drove us to the flat where we were staying, it is a bigger place than we normally stay in (we splashed out a bit as Air bnb had a special offer on, making it cheaper). After a brief wander round the lake and town, and a look at the Danube, we visited the local supermarket and went home to cook some fish and veggies and relax in front of the TV.
The next morning we went down to the tourist information office, which is a lovely walk around a lake and along the edge of the Danube away from our place. The friendly lady there gave us a map and a few tips about how to make the most of our time here. We took her advice and headed to one of the many tour companies along the marina in town and asked about trips into the Danube Delta. We eventually settled on a four hour trip in a 'regular' boat (not a speed boat) and went to buy our permits which would let us get into the protected nature that runs from Tulcea to the Black Sea.
Once we'd got our permits and some snacks we headed back to the boat and got on board. We then had a really pretty four hour cruise down the Delta. The bird life isn't amazing at this time of year (we saw countless cormorants, a few ducks and swans and, best of all, an otter running along one of the banks), but the trees and the endless stretches of deserted river make for a really relaxing trip. We enjoyed ourselves and the weather was kind to us, too.
We were surprised to find the occasional fisherman's hut in amongst the trees. Our guide told us these families are subsistence fishermen and rarely venture further than their stretch of river or their hut. It must be a very beautiful, peaceful life, but quite hard in the winter, I'd imagine.
Once the trip was over we went to a local fish restaurant we had been recommended and had fish soup and some mackerel and salad. All caught that day, I'm sure, and very cheap and tasty.
After a visit to the bus station to try to work out what to do tomorrow and how to get back to Bucarest, we headed home for another restful evening catching up on some planning and admin. On the way home we went to a local fruit and vegetables market. We weren't put off by the sign outside the market that advertised fresh 'crap' for sale. The sellers were really friendly and seemed amused that an English couple had walked into their place. They sold us some fresh vegetables (cucumbers, olives), some cheese and meat and a local bottle of wine and we took it all home.
At about 09:00 the next morning we headed back to the bus station. We tried to change our tickets for the next day back to Bucarest but the lady behind the counter didn't speak any English and we had trouble getting the message across. We decided to leave it and try again later. We got onto a minibus with an interesting group of locals - a lady carrying a box of chics, a lady who had her hair done up in the closest thing to a grey Marge Simpson that I have seen, a couple of old men who looked like fishermen (probably because they were), and we headed to a small village called Morighiol. This is a rural village with a couple of small shops, one school and plenty of small dogs. One thing we noticed about the dogs here is that they are either chained up, meaning they will bark like crazy when you go past them, or they are free and will cower away when you get anywhere near them.
The reason for coming to the village is that it is close to the Delta and we were able to have a nice walk through the village and into the countryside. There is a large holiday resort here that faces onto the lake and has a tall observation tower. We went in and looked around. We were the only ones there apart from a couple of workmen and a large black dog. None of them seemed too interested in us, so we sat on the water's edge and had a picnic in the sun.
After a stroll around and getting a bus back (I'm not sure what the other passengers were like as we both fell asleep on the bus - a combination of good country air and the drafted mosquitoes that had kept us awake last night (despite Sarah valiantly killing about ten of them - and she's a vegetarian!)).
We decided to have a look round the local museum which was all about the plant and animal life in the Delta. It was quite interesting, actually. I didn't realise there were so many different types of animals, birds and fish near here. Apparently the Delta gets over 300 different types of bird during the year as so many migratory routes cross over at this point.
After a wander through the back streets of town, an unsuccessful attempt to buy a SIM card for the phone (the shop assistant was busy on a phone call and we got fed up of waiting after ten minutes), and a visit to the local supermarket we headed back to our base. We stopped on the way to try again to change our reservation. The bus company's office was closed, so we bout tickets with a different company. Well, we did try!
The trip to Bucharest was uneventful, and we passed peacefully through the rolling green fields and past the wind farms until we got out of the countryside and into the big city. We had booked at an air bnb with a lady who seemed to be a little bit of a control freak, She asked us about four times for the exact time of our arrival and departure, days before we actually reached Bucharest. We told her each time and our answer didn't change. I'm not sure if she believed us or not, but it seemed programmed into her that everything must be done according to the clock. So when we arrived in the city a couple of hours earlier than we had told her, we decided to stop in a park (and Bucharest is blessed with a whole range of these), and to have a picnic lunch.
About half an hour later, we'd finished lunch so we decided to be rebels and we walked to the air bnb, a whole hour early! We rang the bell expecting either a grumpy lady telling us to go and walk around the block for a bit, or perhaps no answer at all. The door was answered by the owner's son who ushered us into our place, gave us the key and a quick tour of the flat, and then left us in peace.
This is an all-round strange place as the name suggests - it is called the 'house of surprises'. The first surprise was that hidden in every nook and cranny there were sweets and bars of chocolate. Including in the miniature watering can on the bedroom floor, the ornate box under the tv remote control, and the ornamental Sean the Sheep. So we spent a while hunting, gathering and chomping on these.
The second surprise was that the lady had prepared a kind of 'escape room' game for us to try. This is a succession of clues that provide numbers when solved which in turn unlock hidden padlocks on hidden boxes and bags until you get to the final clue which provides a key which then either unlocks the 'escape room' (if you are doing in properly), or a small safe hidden in an English dictionary if you a doing our version. It was good fun and, with a little help over Facebook we were able to solve the final clue.
In the evening we went to the old town and had a beer, then found a tex-mex place near home for some dinner.
Our last day before meeting the Angloville crowd was spend going around buildings. The first was the Romanian Parliamentary Palace, built by Ceaucescu in the 1970s-1980s at great expense to the Romanian people (especially the 40,000 who lived in the area where it was built and were made homeless as a result), it is the second largest administrative building in the world (after the Pentagon). To say it was opulent would be an understatement. The marbled flooring, the huge handmade carpets and the crystal chandeliers gave the building a sense of wonder and majesty. We had a tour for about an hour and a half (it was meant to be an hour but the guide got carried away with explaining how wonderful the Romanian craftsmanship was in each room, and also got into a bit of an argument with a German lady when she said Hitler was nowhere near as bad as Ceaucescu). It was an enjoyable tour. One of the nicest parts was standing on the huge balcony and admiring the view of the city. This was the same balcony where, apparently, Michael Jackson stood and declared 'Hello Budapest!' I'm sure the citizens of Bucarest were delighted!
After this we got the metro a couple of stops up to one of the many wonderful parks in Bucarest and sat by a lake watching the gulls and cormorants while we ate our left-over tex-mex from last night. After grabbing an ice cream we then headed on to the Bucarest house museum which has about a hundred rebuilt houses from different regions and historical eras of Romanian history. It made for a really nice stroll and gave us a bit more of a feel for the history and culture of the country.
A tube ride later and we were back in the centre of town, where we had a drink and a meal in a local cheap restaurant. Then we walked home.
Early the next morning we had breakfast and then walked to a really beautiful theatre called the Romanian Athenaeum. It was built in the late 1800s as the home of the Romanian cultural society. It only has enough seats for 600 people, but it is really beautiful. We were lucky because when we went inside the Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra were rehearsing for a performance and we got to sit and watch them for a bit.
After this we walked to a nearby coffee shop, opposite the university. We were going on a walking tour of the city with an organisation we're doing some work for this week (Angloville). There were about ten of us on the two hour walking tour of the old city and it was really interesting both meeting people we'll be working with this week, and listening to the stories of the history of the city. There are some very beautiful buildings in Bucharest, including some old 19th century grand hotels, some 17th century churches and some very modern office blocks.
We all had lunch in a nearby restaurant and then Sarah and I left and went to the National Museum. The museum's most interesting exhibits included a horde of 2000 year-old gold objects that had been chanced upon by a child in the mountains of Romania, an old Roman column that has freezes on it telling the story of how Rome conquered the area (this is one of the first places we've been to where the Roman Empire have been seen as the good guys of history), and an exhibit all about Romania's involvement in the Second World War.
As is our custom now, we stopped at a supermarket on the way home and came back to relax,
The trip to Bran (Transylvania, home of Dracula (I.e. Vlad the Impaler) if you believe Bram Stoker - or just the home of a beautiful castle that Vlad probably never visited if you believe the history books) was really pretty and suitably dramatic for a journey into Draculaville. We left Bucharest and were soon heading up into the mountains. The snow began to fall and soon we were on a mountain pass in the middle of a pine forest surrounded by snow. Very atmospheric.
On the bus we had a couple of Romanians, an Australian, a couple of Americans, a South African (Sarah) and a Brit or two. The 'native speakers' as those with English as a first language were called all started chatting and getting to know each other, and the Romanians were quiet and a bit shy at first to be on a bus full of excited foreigners (which was understandable), before slowly loosening up a bit and chatting with us.
We were driven to a beautiful hotel overlooking the snow capped mountains and the infamous castle, there were cows and sheep in the fields nearby with bells round their necks that made for a wonderful rural scene complete with the right noises and smells. We were truly in the heart of the Romanian countryside.
The Angloville program, which we had come to help out on in return for board and lodging in this amazing place, was an intense immersion program designed to help the Romanians develop their English speaking abilities. There were a broad mix of different participants. Most from Romania itself, but a few from Moldova. There was an officer in the Salvation Army, the head of a charity, a couple of doctors, and a few business people. They were all really friendly and appreciative of any help we could give them with their English, which made the program enjoyable.
Most of the sessions were either 1-2-1 or 2-2-1 sessions with the participants where we were given a set of questions and worked through them for about 45 minutes each time. There were also some specific skills sessions (negotiating, telephone English, pronunciation etc), and in the evening we had a session of games and activities. After all of this we gathered around the hotel pool or air hockey tables and drank cheap (but good) Romanian wine together. It was all great fun and very social.
On one of the mornings, we had a mass exodus from the hotel along the busy highway outside the hotel grounds up to the castle. There were fourteen of us in total, but only a few of us actually went in as some had been there before. Whilst it was fascinating going around the castle and learning a little of the history, the most impressive view is from the outside with the backdrop of the snow covered mountains.
One interesting thing I saw in the grounds of the castle was a large set of scales. Apparently, in medieval times they weighed people who had been accused of committing crimes. The thought was that someone in league with the devil would weigh less than their physical appearance would suggest (not sure why - maybe being in league with the devil is good for your diet)? If you weighed more than the weights the authorities put on the other side of the scales when they weighed you, you were Ok. If you weighed less, you were tortured until you confessed to your crimes...if the authorities thought the charges against you were crazy, they would put a bible on one side of the scales to weigh you against. Once you had been weighed you received a certificate so if someone accused you of another crime, you could simply show the certificate and it would be enough evidence to prove you weren't in league with the devil and were therefore innocent. Understandably, there was a huge demand for these certificates and people came from all over Europe to this castle and similar places to be weighed. Of course, the weighed a charged an ever increasing fee for their services as the demand rose.
One of the highlights was a session in which the participants each had to give a presentation that they had been working on with a mentor all week. My mentee (is that a word?) insisted on giving a presentation about how one week at Angloville was not enough and that we would all have to come back again later in the year to repeat the process. I enjoyed the week and wouldn't rule out doing it again (although the intensity of starting at 10:00 and ending at 19:30 every day did get a bit tiring by the end of the week).
The Angloville event ended all too soon. Actually, we thought it ended all too soon but it turns out that the hotel didn't agree! Some of the team had a few drinks in the bar last night and were chatting and laughing quite loudly. Another guest, who was quite drunk got into a bit of an argument with them because he wanted to sleep, the hotel manager was called and it all turned a bit nasty. So on our last day this was the main topic of conversation, sadly.
After a certificate ceremony we said farewell to everyone and most people got into a bus back to Bucarest. Sarah and I had got ourselves a lift from the two program coordinators (Sonia and Chris), which was great except they were both quite annoyed by the complaint they had received from the hotel about the noise (nothing to do with us, of course, as we were tucked up safely in bed when this was all happening). The whole two hour car journey to the beautiful little town of Sighisoara was spent discussing how unsuitable the hotel had been for such an event. We did pass through some pretty agricultural areas, though, and were surprised by the number of castles that are dotted around the countryside here.
After finding and checking in to our air bnb place in Sighisoara we dropped our bags and headed out for a walk around the town. This is a stunning medieval village which, apart from being the birth place of Vlad Dracul was also the home to some 12th century churches and a large, old, still inhabited citadel that has been protected by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
The old town is full of cobbled streets, old houses painted in pastel colours. There are lots of towers around the walls of the citadel. Each tower was owned by a different tradesman's guild and so there is the tanners' tower, the tin makers' tower, and ones belonging to shoe makers, rope makers and about five other industries.
The hills in the city and the river that runs through it all add to the beauty of the place. We only have one night here, sadly, but we are glad we added it into our itinerary. It was so photogenic that we took about forty photos (and found it hard to delete them so we were left with a manageable number).
After a trip to the bus station to check what time the buses to Brasov were, and dinner in the old town (I went for a salad after all the food we had been eating at the Angloville event - I was craving vegetables as they were few and far between there), we walked back up the hill our place was on and caught up on some internet time and booked the next leg of our journey.
A common problem with Air bnb places seems to be what to do with the keys once you leave. There are two options when you book an air bnb place. You can choose to rent an entire place or just a room in someone's house. If you book the entire place (which we prefer to do, price permitting), the owner usually lives elsewhere in the same city, or in another city completely. It is really useful to have a phone handy if you book an entire place as invariably you will need to call the owner to let them know you have arrived. When we came to leave the place in Sighisoara, the landlord lived in a flat upstairs from ours. We knocked on his door and he was out, so we decided to lock up and post the keys back through his mail box. We just hoped he found them later.
After a walk to the bus station with our bags, down through the pretty town again, we got to the bus station just as a bus was about to leave for Brasov. We clambered on with our bags, paid the 5 Euro bus fare and spent a very pleasant two hours trundling through the Romanian countryside, past the castles, fields and small patches of forest, until we reached the bigger city of Brasov. We got off the bus at the bus/train station and, after changing up a bit more money and booking tickets for a couple of day's time on the train to Bulgaria, we walked the two or so kilometres into town with our bags. Summer is definitely on its way and it was quite warm carrying the bags with us for that distance.
Our first impression of Brasov is that it is a normal, not-all-that-beautiful industrial city. That was until we reached the old town. As if by magic, we turned a corner off the Main Street in town and ended up back in the Middle Ages (but in a very touristy kind of way).
The streets in the old town are mostly pedestrianised, and cobbled. The buildings that face onto them are all in pastel colours apart from the dark wood of the beams that support the walls. There are icons, decorations, crosses and crosses that adorn the outside of the buildings. There are some picturesque old clock towers and fountains and lots of tourists and sellers and people dressed as clowns and statues trying to earn a bit of money. The beauty and the atmosphere and the sunshine all made it quite a spectacular place.
One of the main buildings in town is the 'Black Church'. It is so called because of a fire that burned the outside in the 16th century, and the church itself dates back to the 13th century. It is one of the largest gothic churches in Europe, and indeed one of the largest in the world. It is a spectacular site that can be seen from all over the old town. The other significant sites are two large hills, one on either side of the city. The highest, in true Hollywood style, has 'Brasov' spelled out in large white letters at the top of the highest peak, and the other has an old fort on top. We climbed the hill with the fort today, and there were some excellent views to be seen from the top (even if the fort itself was closed). After having had lunch in the sunshine in the centre of the old town, in the evening we went to the supermarket near our hostel and ate there.
Getting into our hostel was quite interesting. We booked, again, through air bnb and were told our host was called 'Christian'. We got the address and when we had arrived in Brasov we walked to our place. Christian had sent us a message saying his girlfriend would meet us in a different part of town, but we hadn't got the message. When we arrived at the hostel we waited outside and eventually a lady came out. We stopped her and asked her if she knew Christian. She told us she did because he was her husband, We said that was great and that he had said his girlfriend would give us the keys to the flat. She looked confused and said that her husband didn't have a girlfriend. She did have a husband called Christian and she did run an air bnb place but she didn't know her husband had a girlfriend and she wasn't expecting us...it was all getting a little confusing, so she called her husband to ask what was going on. It turns out that there are two guys called Christian in the building and that our guy would now talk to his girlfriend and tell her to come and meet us at the flat. What a mess. Anyway, it was all sorted in the end.
The next day we decided to go for a walk up the largest hill in town. It can almost call itself a mountain, but technically is about 40 metres too short (the peak is just under 960 metres). One of the beautiful things about Braşov is that it really doesn't take more than a couple of minutes before you find yourself away from the hustle and bustle of the city. After a few minutes walking we were on a forest path up the mountain. Ok, so it was a well worn forest path and there were steps most for some of the way, but it was in the trees and we were surrounded by nature. Whilst a lot of places cities have seagulls or crows as their resident common bird, blackbirds seen to dominate the countryside here. Along with jays, sparrows and magpies, blackbirds could be seen shuffling the leaves on the forest floor looking for grubs, and could be heard singing amongst the trees. Perhaps the most interesting bird we saw was a little black and white woodpecker, actually two who were chasing each other amongst the trees.
The walk took us up to a little tea shop at the top of the hill, past the Hollywood-style 'BRASOV' on one side of the hill, and past the ruins of an old church. For much of the way we could see the old town and had a great view of the surrounding mountain range, which still had a sprinkling of snow at the top. There is even a ski resort nearby which seemed to have a bit more snow than the other mountains.
After a picnic lunch perched on the slopes of the almost-mountain, we made our way down to the old town again and had a look around the 'Black Church', which was open this time. It was very grand inside, but I don't think I need to go into detail here - what can I say? It is an old church full of icons and statues. One of the interesting things inside the church building, though, is a collection (in fact one of the biggest collections in the Balkans) of old Ottoman rugs that had been traded for goods during the time of the Ottoman Empire.
We had a lovely dinner of polenta and sausages (for me, veggie soup for Sarah) in a restaurant overlooking the town square.
The next day we left early, met Christian, our host, at the train station and headed for Bulgaira. We were sad to leave Romania as we both really liked our time here. I'm sure we will say this a lot on this trip, but we would love to return one day to see more of the country.
Bulgaria part two was waiting, so as well as being sad to leave, we were excited about what lay ahead in Bulgaria...but that's for another blog.
Bulgaria (again)
5th April 2017
We were sad to leave Romania as it is a beautiful country, and really enjoyed our time there. We got on a train early in the morning in Brasov and, after a change in Bucarest we headed south for the border with Bulgaria. It was a really hot day and our tiny train (one carriage) didn't have any curtains. The sun was streaming through the windows, and so I made a makeshift cover over the glass using my jacket suspended from a couple of hooks. This managed to block out most of the sunshine, and made the ride bearable.
The border crossing was really smooth, compared to the first time we had entered Bulgaria, a guard came on and checked our passports, then took them away and off the train, a few minutes later her reappeared with them, handed them back and we continued on our way. The only odd moment came after we had crossed the Danube and had arrived back in the border town of Ruse. Here the train stopped and we stood up to get off. We noticed that none of the locals were standing up, even though this was the last station on the trip. We sat down again and shortly afterwards a guard got on, took our passports again and told us to wait. Moments later he reappeared and we were able to get our passports from him and leave the train. We were only overnighting here and had booked a cheap hotel near the station. It was tucked away in a back street, far from anything that might appeal to a tourist, but was very clean and the room was really large with a separate lounge, bathroom and bedroom, all for €15, including breakfast (which we didn't have as we left early the next day). The most important feature of the hotel for us was the fact that it had wifi. Shortly after we had dropped our bags I had a Skype interview with a college in Oxford for a sum we school position. It went well, and I should hear in a couple of weeks whether they like me or not.
In the evening we went for a walk into the main square of the town again, which hadn't changed since couple of weeks ago, when we were last here. We had dinner in the open air at Happy's, and then went home to get an early night. The next morning the alarm went off at 06:15. Our earliest morning on this trip so far. There is something about early mornings that make people whisper - even when there is nobody else to hear your conversation. So we stumbled around, bleary-eyed re-packing our bags before heading off to the bus station for an early morning ride to Sofia.
The ride to Sofia was smooth and we had just about woken up by the time we had reached the city. I have a routine that I like to follow on these long trips. I normally spend an hour reading something spiritual (I'm reading about the Psalms and a bit about church history at the moment), then I listen with Sarah to an audiobook (Divergent by Veronica Roth at the moment), then I read my novel (The Shed That Fed A Thousand People) for another hour. With chatting to Sarah and admiring the scenery, this usually is enough to get me to my destination. If not, I repeat the cycle, I'm a creature of habit and it stops me getting bored.
When we arrived in Sofia we had quite a while before check-in at our air bnb place, so we decided to walk the couple of kilometres through town to the flat. We stopped at a cheap lokanter for lunch on the way.
We were met at the flat by the host's mum (which often seems to be the case - the flats are usually occupied by a young single person who asks their parents to welcome guests while they are at work). She showed us the key to the flat, which was quite strange. Three turns to the right, then a quarter turn and a bump against the door with your knee to unlock it. Four turns to the left and then a half turn back to release the key to lock it,,.we hoped that we weren't going to lock ourselves out. Apparently some guests have broken the key in the lock before in their frustration at not being able to open the door.
This particular flat was incredibly clean. It had the strictest rules of any we have stayed in so far. I think the guy that lives there, Anton, is a bit of a perfectionist. Being a clinical experiments scientist (!), he has an eye for detail. Actually it made us laugh because he had a large printed copy of the house rules that his mum showed us, and then we were given a smaller copy that we could carry around with us when we went out!
We dropped our bags and went for a brief walk around the neighbourhood. We had to be back quite quickly as it was then time for Sarah to be interviewed by the same college as interviewed me back in Ruse.
At 18:00 we headed down to the Palace of Justice (the city's court), and met about 20 other tourists and a guide before heading off with them on a free walking tour of the city. Our guide, Nikki, was excellent and very entertaining. He was full of anecdotes and personal stories. He made the two hour walk very amusing and worthwhile. He showed us lots of the old buildings in town, the churches, mosque, synagogue, communist era government buildings, Roman ruins as well as some of the modern important buildings in the area. We learned about the fascinating history of this city which has seen a real mixture of civilisations and empires all coming together into one large mixture. After the walking tour we headed back to the flat for a dinner that we had bought from the local supermarket. Our host was there but was busy working so we didn't get the chance to talk very much.
We had a couple of hours to kill in the morning before our bus left, so we headed back to two of the churches we had been shown on the walking tour. The first one was the oldest in the city, and it had Byzantine murals, orthodox murals, Catholic murals, it had been a mosque for a while, it had seen a lot of changes and reflected a lot of the history of the city. It was located in a courtyard right in the centre between the old communist parliament buildings, which added another historical dimension to it. It was only a small place, but it was packed full of history. The second church we went to was a massive place - the second biggest Orthodox Church in the Balkans. It is definitely the grandest (the biggest is in Belgrade, but that one is just concrete inside (well, according to our guide anyway - we will find out later on our trip). Once we had visited these, we headed back to the bus station and caught a bus to Thessaloniki.
365.000 €
Greece
6th April 2017
The journey from Bulgaria and over the border into Greece was really easy. We didn't have to get off the bus at the customs point and the bus itself was comfortable enough (no wifi or loo, but we did make a stop on the way and it was only a five hour journey). When we arrived in Thessaloniki we were debating whether to get off the bus at the bus station and book our onward tickets (to Corfu) or to stay on as far as the train station, which was just round the corner from where we were staying. When we got on the bus we were offered either place, but asked to decide, so we had opted for the train station as it was getting late in the day.
The bus pulled into the bus station and some folks got their stuff together and left the bus. We sat and waited...and waited...and waited...eventually we realised (along with about ten other passengers) that the bus wasn't going to move any further, so we all got off. Actually, I'm glad it turned out like that because it meant we could go and book our tickets to Corfu (well, the bus bit anyway) and then the following day we could just relax and enjoy the city. I say we could only book the bus tickets because we obviously need ferry tickets to get to Corfu, too. The man that sold us our bus tickets said we needed to buy ferry tickets from the same place, I.e. from him, but that he could only sell them to us on our day of travel. We aren't sure why this would be - maybe they don't sell them in advance in case there is a storm or something which would mean the boat can't travel...who knows. Often it is the unknown that makes travel fun.
By the time we had caught a local bus to the place where we were staying, it was getting late. We dropped our bags and went out and found a cheap restaurant. I had pork, of course (four years in Turkey leaves a guy like me craving his pork products), and Sarah had vegetables (being as she is a vegetarian).
We were both tired after the early mornings we had been having recently, so we headed back and got an early night.
One thing we have noticed about the countries we have been to so far on this trip is their attitude to curtains. Either they don't exist at all (some places in Bulgaria), or they don't actually cover the window completely (some places in Romania), or they are so thin that we were left wondering what their actual purpose was (the place we were staying in in Thessaloniki). Anyway, we were tired and the little bit of light coming in from outside didn't stop us getting a good nigt's sleep.
The following day was Thessaloniki day. This is a big, busy city, but it has some really pretty areas and some interesting history. We walked all over the city today, round the Rotunda, which is similar to the Pantheon in Rome (except the floor isn't as interesting as the Roman one), up the White Tower, which was built as a lookout across the sea in the 15th century and offered great views across the whole of the city, and through the beautiful church of St Demitrius, the patron saint of the city. We spent some time strolling along the seafront promenade and stopped for an iced coffee at one of the cafes there, and we had a look around the market area (although, apart from a couple of shops selling dead chickens, everything seemed to be closed).
We really liked the city, but weren't too impressed with our timing. It is school holidays at the moment (for Easter), and the streets are packed full of school and university students been ushered from one site to another by harassed looking teachers.
After walking quite a few kilometres, we headed back home for a short siesta before going out in the evening for a meal. What a meal it was, too. We found a local place that had a menu in Greek and English and decided to order a few starters to share rather than a main course. We had baked aubergine filled with goat cheese and walnuts, we had courgette balls with fresh Greek yoghurt, we had field mushrooms in garlic and white wine source, and we had smoked mackerel with green lentils. I also had pork and egg. We had a half litre of their finest Greek wine, and a free dessert. We also had very full stomachs afterwards, but the meal was surprisingly cheap, so we staged home feeling happy.
In the evening, while we were catching up on our emails, our host came through to our room. She had been in the kitchen emptying out the bins. She had two pieces of paper with her that she'd found in the trash. She handed them to us and told us we might need them. When we looked we realised we had almost thrown away the bus tickets for tomorrow's journey to Corfu! Yikes! We thanked her profusely and felt really relieved.
We went to bed, still feeling full but also quite relieved to have our tickets back and we slep soundly until 07:00. It was another early morning for us and after a quick breakfast we picked up our bags and shuffled off to the bus station. There's a machine on the bus you drop coins into to get your ticket. I didn't realise the machine didn't give change (despite a note to this affect on the machine in several different languages, including English). So our tickets cost more than they should.
When we arrived at the bus station we had time to buy our ferry tickets and for a quick fruit juice before getting on the bus. Something we've noticed in this part of the world is the number of people travelling with their pets. Our bus to Thessaloniki had two cute cats on it, and this one had a cat and a dog. It seems that Greek people love their animals. The journey to the ferry port was uneventful, but we passed some beautiful mountains and went through a really large number of tunnels through them.
Once at the port on the mainland, everyone got off the bus and onto the ferry. It was packed! It is nearly Easter and there are thousands of university and high school students on holiday and travelling around in large groups. The ferry was huge, but some people struggled to find a seat.
Towards the end of the journey we went onto the top deck of the boat, into the open air, to watch Corfu approaching. It was really pretty, with the old houses lining the water and two large forts on either side of a large bay, we would have stayed longer if it hadn't been for the wind that was blowing so strongly that it was hard to stand still for any length of time.
We had arranged to meet our host's niece (Angie) at the port so when we got off the boat we waited for our bus and asked the driver if we could get our bags. He opened the luggage doors and we realised that ours were right in the middle, amongst hundreds of others so he said we would have to come to the main bus station and wait for everything to be unloaded. We were just wondering what to do about meeting Angie when she climbed on the bus herself and told us that she would follow the bus in her car to the bus station. We were very happy about that and we settled down for the journey.
Eventually we had reached the bus station, unloaded our bags, met Angie again, climbed into her car and had been driven to the entrance to Corfu's Old Town. We then wound through some of the pedestrianised back streets and were shown our place. Angie laughed and asked us how we were going to manage to find the place again. I didn't like to tell her I have GPS on my phone or that Sarah has an incredible sense of direction, so we just laughed, too.
The evening was spent wandering around the maze of narrow lanes and admiring the outside of the old fort, the sea views, and, of course, the old churches with the wonderful icons inside. After a nice dinner in a small restaurant just round the corner from us, we zig zagged our way home and got an early night.
Then it was time to go to Albania...
Albania
9th April 2017
The crossing to Albania from Corfu on the ferry was stunning. The boat passed through the fairly narrow straight between the two countries, and majestic mountains that rolled into the distance on one side and came down to kiss the sea on the other were visible under the clear blue sky on both sides of our small ferry for the whole hour and a bit journey.
Once we landed in Sananda we cleared customs quickly and, after changing some money (you can get thousands of Lek to the Euro these days), we walked the short distance into town and waited for a bus to Ksamil. The bus service here is good so we didn't have long to wait. Sarah sat next to a friendly local chap who proceeded to give her a short history of the area. He said that the part of the coast we were heading to was meant to be protected and no new buildings were meant to be built on it. He said the locals had learned the secret, though, that you wait until just before an election before you build, and then you apply for permission to build it. You apply to the government with the promise of a vote if the permission is granted. There are lots of new buildings going up at the moment, he said, because there is an election right around the corner.
The bus trundled through some gorgeous countryside and gave us some sea views. The water is a wonderful shade of blue here and the beaches are mostly sandy. Inland there are fields of various crops, and the backdrop is, once again, those wonderful rolling mountains. It all makes for a fantastic setting.
We had been told to take the bus as far as the Kastrati garage, to get off there and to ask for Altin in the car hire shop next door. Our friendly local on the bus told us which stop to get off at, and we found the garage easily. The guys at the garage didn't speak any English, but recognised the name 'Altin'. After a hasty phone call one of the guys loaded us into his car and drove us around the block to Altin's place - only stopping once to spit out of the window.
Altin was really friendly and spoke good English. He showed us our place and we had been given an upgrade to an entire two-bedroom flat. He said the other room was having some work done on it. We were happy about that and eagerly dropped our bags and headed out to explore the area.
There isn't much in Kisamil itself, apart from a great coastline full of small hotels and cafes. The only problem was that it is currently out of season, so most of the places were closed. The majority have workmen in them frantically getting things ready before the summer season starts.
We found one place that was open and had some seafood and pasta. Really good! In the evening we went home and watched a video on the iPad before getting an early night. We were tired from the travelling we have been doing, and Albania is one hour different to Greece, so it felt really late when we hit the sack.
The sun got up long before we did the next day. We discovered last night our windows have shutters on the outside, and when we closed them the room was really dark. With that and the fact that we didn't have to get up early to travel anywhere, we slept soundly until at least 08:00 - which is a real lie in for us at the moment.
Our friendly host, Altin, said yesterday that we could go back to his garage and borrow bicycles from there any time we wanted. So we took him up on this offer today. We packed a lunch, slapped on some sun screen and headed to the bike place. He found us two decent bikes and off we went. The biggest site to see in the area is a historical set of ruins called 'Butrint'. This place has an interesting history. It was inhabited first in Neolithic times, then later by the Romans, then by the Venetians and later people like Gerard Durrell and Edward Leer have stayed and done their thing in the area.
Butrint is basically the remains of an old city. It has the remains of houses, a basilica, an amphitheater, public baths and old temples devoted to the Roman god of healing. There are natural springs, old towers and a triangular fortress built by the Venetians (who I thought only made blinds). The whole area is built on the side of a hill, which is surrounded by forest. It is on a peninsular and there is a river running past one side of the hill. You can see Corfu from the top, It is absolutely stunning and we couldn't put our camera away. After climbing round this area for a while we headed to the museum which has various things they found at the site when they started excavating (old statues, money, pots etc). We found a shady spot and had lunch, then wandered out and into a nearby cafe for a drink (the local drink is called 'Bravo' and is basically fruit juice,water and sugar - but it is good, especially if you add a drop of milk).
Feeling refreshed we decided to cross over to the other side of the river for a stroll in the surrounding countryside. The crossing is done by means of a chain ferry. I haven't been on many of these before - it was a raft, that was able to take cars as well as pedestrians, pulled by chains from one side of the river to the other. It was operated by a young chap who said the return journey for the two of us was a euro - and that we must pay him on the way back, not the way there (very trusting).
There wasn't a lot to do on the other side of the river, except for admiring the beautiful scenery. At one stage we passed a house that had an open gate. Three dogs came rushing out of the gate, teeth barred, snarling and barking at us. A local farmer walked past with a big stick and herded the dogs away from us. It was a bit scary, and even scarier was the fact that we had to walk back the way we came to get to the boat. On the return leg Sarah picked up a big stick and fended the dogs off. She's a brave lass, brought up facing the lions of South Africa, so a few wild dogs didn't scare her. I'd like to say I was equally as brave...
The cycle back was pretty, but it was quite strenuous as we had to ride up the side of one steep hill and down the other side. The downhill bit was ok, but my bike (and I'm sure it was the bike, not my legs), didn't seem to want to do the uphill bit. After another drink, back near where we were staying, we headed back for a much needed shower.
In the evening we decided to eat out. We saw several restaurants in town, so we went to some of them. All the ones we went into were closed or had no food or weren't serving at that time (20:00). Eventually, after asking around several locals, we found a hotel that had a restaurant attached and we were able to get some nice food.
Sadly it was soon time to leave Ksamil. We headed off to the local bus stop and got a bus into Sananda. As we got off the bus a guy approached us. He told us that he was a minibus driver and could take us to Girokastar, where we could get a bus to a junction from which we could get another bus to our destination - Berat. So we paid him the couple of euros each and out our bags next to the baby goat and box full of pigeons in his vehicle.
One thing you quickly learn about Albania is that it is a country full of mountains. Alongside the concrete bunkers, which are everywhere, dotted around the countryside, and some rivers with the clearest water I've seen in a long while, and lots and lots of agriculture, this is the basic landscape that stretches the length of the country. Some of the mountains are topped with a sprinkling of snow, some are forested, there is fynbos covering some of the mountains (although Sarah swears blind that this isn't fynbos as only South Africa and bits of Australia have true fynbos). It all makes for a beautiful drive through the countryside.
We reached our first destination, Girokastar after a couple of hours. This is a pretty town with cobbled streets and old Ottoman style houses. There is a castle on top of the town's main hill, and, at the bottom of the hill there is a Cold War tunnel, showing the area had quite a military history.
We stopped for a Moussaka and fried rice balls (an Albanian speciality), and then headed down to the local bus station. We were fortunate because a bus to our next point, a road junction where the buses from Tirana come down on their way to Berat. When we were at the junction we were approached by a guy with a car who thought we were crazy for not taking his taxi the 30km to Berat. We explained in our best Albanian that actually we were just waiting for a bus, thanks, and that we didn't need to have a ride in a taxi. He left us alone after that, but I'm not sure he quite got what we were saying. Anyway, a bus came along five minutes later and it wasn't long before we were in Berat.
The problem was, though, that we were in the bus station at the edge of town. About three kilometres from our hotel. Not knowing how the local buses worked, we decided to walk. We had arrived a lot earlier than expected, so we had plenty of time. It was about three hours faster taking the three different buses we had taken to this point than it would have been if we had taken a direct bus from Sananda! The walk was pleasant enough, and we stopped for a drink next to the river that separates the Christian quarter of town from the Muslim part.
As we approached where we thought the hotel was a man stepped in front of us and said, 'Hello!'. In a tourist town I tend to give people that do this quite a wide berth as they are invariably trying to sell you a tour or a souvenir, neither of which I wanted. So. I stepped to the side to go around him. 'Hello!' He said again, 'Do you have a reservation?'. I told him I did and carried on walking. 'Let me show you your room' he continued, with confidence and a big smile. It turned out he was the manager of the hotel we were staying at. One of his friends had told him two tourists were on their way. He knew we must be staying with him because there were so few tourists around at the moment. I felt bad for giving him a wide berth. I think I'll check in future what the people that stop me actually want.
The hotel is up a really old, cobbled street, behind an even older mosque that has some beautiful murals painted on the old walls. Entry to the hotel is through a large wooden gate on a old stone wall (you get the idea - everything here has a 'wow, this must be ancient' kind of vibe).
We found our room, dropped our bags and headed out to find some dinner. After a quick stroll around town we ended up having a pizza in a restaurant called, 'The White House' which was on the fourth floor of a large, er, White House. We sat next to the window and tried to ignore the Katy Perry video on the TV there and had a good pizza each overlooking the historic town.
Berat is divided into two halves - the Christian half and the Islamic half. The two sides are separated by a river that is spanned by three great bridges - an Ottoman one, a modern suspension bridge and a more modern road bridge. The two sides of the city face each other and retreat away from each other up the sides of a hill each. The buildings are old, Ottoman style buildings, a bit like Elizabethan ones but without the wood. Each house has long Windows, giving this place its nickname, 'the city of a thousand windows'.
On top of the hill on the Muslim side there is an old citadel, with the remains of an old city in it - a water cistern, a church, a mosque, houses etc. The streets are cobbled and the views from the top of the 200m hill are spectacular. We spent the morning climbing up the steep side of the hill and enjoying winding our way around the narrow streets. The citadel is still occupied and we stopped at a local cafe for a juice before climbing back down again.
After a picnic lunch (leftover pizza from yesterday) back at the hotel, we crossed one of the bridges over to the Christian side. As we crossed a man stopped us and showed us he had the keys to one of the churches that is normally locked. He beckoned for us to follow him and showed us around St Thomas' church. The church itself wasn't spectacular, but the views were great back of the Islamic side. After a wander around the Christian side we crossed back to the Islamic side over the Ottoman bridge and went to the Ethnographic museum. This is in an old Ottoman house and it is the building itself which is the most interesting part. The museum was about to close when we got there, but the manager of our hotel also works there, and we were allowed to enter and have a look around. For dinner we headed to a cheap local place for some Albanian Raki, local sausage (pork!), and some other meze dishes. Nice!
The next day we were due to head to Tirana. We packed and headed to the bus park - we got a local bus there this time, not fancying another 3km trudge with our bags. There was a bus waiting to leave for Tirana there and we jumped on board. At first we regretted our decision as there seemed to be something wrong with the engine of the bus and it crawled along the roads - we were overtaken by a cyclist at one point!
Once we had finally arrived we found a lunch spot (crepes seem to be big business in Tirana) and then headed to our accommodation. One of the joys of air bnb is that you stay in private homes, but this can also be a burden as they are often tucked away down a back street, making them hard to find. We had arranged to meet our host this time outside a Spar supermarket, so we called her once we had arrived. She came quickly and we had soon settled into our three bed place with a private bathroom (all for about €16/night). We dropped our bags and headed for a wander around town.
Sarah's favourite thing to do when we arrive in a new place is to head straight for the tourist information point, which we found quite easily as it is just off the main square in the centre of the city. Once there we asked about buses to Macedonia, (which is my favourite thing to do once you arrive in a place - work out how you are going to leave), and got a map with the main sites marked on it.
Tirana is a pretty, but very busy city (I was going to say town, but it has a cathedral, and it is very big). After having been in the Albanian countryside we are shocked by how busy the streets were. It would have been even prettier if the main town square hadn't been under construction! There was a big fence and a lot of scaffolding around the History Museum, but we were assured by the lady in the tourist information centre that it was open so we found an opening in the fence and walked through.
The history museum is really interesting. It tells the history of Albania from the pre-Roman times up to nearly the present day. We felt sorry for Albania and were left with the impression that it was a country that was looking for an identity. It had been conquered firstly by the Illyrians, then the Romans, then the Vandal hordes from the north had attacked. The Normans had also had a go at it, and then the Ottomans captured it. Next it was the turn of the Italian's, then the Germans, then the Communists and finally it had some kind of independence. Talk about being put through the mill!
When we went outside we saw Tirana in a new light. It seemed, amongst the modern buildings, the Mercedes cars (that seemed to dominate the car market here), the latest high street fashions being warn by men and women alike, at least this bit of Albania was doing well and had found an identity. All be it a highly commercialised one, but an identity of its own nonetheless.
After all this history and philosophising we needed a drink. We headed for the market area and found the Stephen's Society. This is a coffee shop run by the church and whose proceeds go towards helping missionaries in the country. It was a nice spot to stop for an iced coffee. After another wander around bit of the town we headed back home via a kebab shop and the Spar supermarket.
The following day we headed out of town a little bit. There is an area called 'Bunker Art', which was a Cold War bunker built to house the president should there be an outbreak of nuclear war. It is a huge complex of underground tunnels with different rooms - including the President's bedroom and study, the Chief of Staff's room, the main assembly room, and it contained an interesting walk through the military history of the country.
It was a bit spooky being in these long, underground tunnels as we were the only people there and there were recordings of atmospheric sounds, water dripping, guns firing...we didn't linger.
Once we had left the area of the bunkers, which was in an existing military zone and was surrounded by currently serving military people (which was a clear sign for Sarah and I that we had grown up in different countries - I felt safe because I was surrounded by soldiers. Sarah felt a bit unsafe because she was surrounded by soldiers), we headed for the hills.
There is a cable car here (called a teleferik, which is interesting as this is the same word that is used in Turkey). It is the longest teleferik in the Balkans and goes 1000 m up a 1600m mountain. We enjoyed the ride which went up and over different hills, back down to the valley, back up and over the next peak. The ground below was a mixture of agricultural land and forest, there were more military areas nearby and the sound of gunshot (hopefully someone practicing) was there only sound we could hear. There was a great view back over Tirana, as well. It was wonderful. Once we got to the top of the run, we decided to head into the forest and along the contour path. We really wanted to walk up to the top. but Sarah needed to get back to our base as she had an interview. After wandering along the contour path for a while we sat down and had a picnic lunch. Then headed back the way we had come, arriving home just in time for Sarah to have a interview.
Macedonia
15th April 2024
We have crossed a few borders really easily recently and memories of the frustrations of the crossing from Turkey into Bulgaria were a distant memory. Then we hit the Albania to Macedonia crossing. We got the bus easily enough and the route to the border was beautiful - winding our way up and over mountain passes, passing lush green forests and fertile agricultural land in the valleys.
About twenty kilometres outside the border we stopped in an area with a small cafe, a hotel and a shop. We asked the bus driver in our best Albanian if we would be there for ten minutes. He said we would. Now, this wasn't a lie, but he forgot to add the other 60 minutes we were there in addition to the ten he'd agreed to.
We weren't sure how long we'd have, so we sat on a wall after buying a drink each from the shop. Half an hour later the driver reappeared and decided now would be a good time to pressure hose the bus.
Eventually, with a gleaming bus, we were ready to continue up and over one more mountain before we reached the border.
Once we got to the border, as usual our passports were collected. The bus was then driven, with us on board, into a small shed which housed an Alsatian and a ditch for the bus to drive over so the guards could check underneath. We then had to pile off the bus, get our bags and line up in front of a table. An elderly customs guard then proceeded to call us up in turn and to get us to open our bags for him to have a poke around. Well, that was the idea and we made sure we were near the back of the queue so we could check the routine before our turn. When we got to the table the guard said something to us in Albanian, we looked at him blankly and told him we were English. He nodded and waved us on, without even touching our bags. So we piled back onto the bus.
After leaving the Albanian side the driver carefully gave us all back our passports. He drove about ten meters to the Macedonian check point and another guard came onto the bus and took our passports away again for checking. I'm sure some of these stages could have been left out. At least on the Macedonian side we didn't need to get our bags back again. It wasn't long before we'd been given our passports back and we were on our way again. Two hours after arriving.
When we bought our tickets in Albania we had been told that the bus would drop us in a town called Struga, and we would be able to just jump on a local bus to Ohrid from there. The bus actually dropped us at a small, closed bus stop/station with a lone taxi driver there who told us there were no buses from there to Ohrid and the only way to get anywhere was to take his taxi. Of course we didn't believe him, so we went into the bus station building and eventually found another person who said town was a ten minute walk away. We decided to take up our bags and walk.
After about fifteen minutes of walking next to a busy highway the road turned off and we found ourselves in what we later found out was Struga town. We found a currency exchange place (the bank we tried to change money at said it was too complicated and we needed to try a small exchange shop - the one we went to was actually an estate agents, but for some reason changed money, too), and then we found a shared taxi (which we actually only shared with one other person, we were driven to the centre of Ohrid, 16km away, for 200 denar (€3) and went to find our air bnb place.
After dropping our bags we headed into town. The first thing you notice about Ohrid, apart from the fact that it is based around a humongous lake that is bordered on one side by Albania and on the other by Macedonia, are the hills. There is a fortress that we climbed up to up at the top of the hill to the left of the town. The views were great, and it was fun winding our way up the cobbled streets (what is it about this trip and cobbled streets going up hills?) and walking past a large number of tiny orthodox churches, most of which are on the UNESCO heritage list.
Dinner wasn't all that successful. We went to the Turkish quarter of town. There are a large number of Turkish people here for some reason and there is one particular street where each restaurant is Turkish. We chose one and asked in English and Turkish if they had vegetarian food. They insisted they did and said they'd bring some meat for me and a veggie thing for Sarah. When the food came it looked promising. I had a meat stew, which was nice, and Sarah had cabbage leaf wraps. However, when she cut into one it was full of mince! We called the waiter over again, and the head waiter and the chef and the manager all came out to see what had happened. Without a fuss they took Sarah's food away, apologising profusely, promising to bring a replacement that really was vegetarian. I finished my stew and we waited for about ten minutes. Eventually the waiter came over again and said Sarah could have a salad if she
liked. We gave up, paid our bill and walked to the next restaurant along. Here Sarah could get some beans and yoghurt. So we had dinner in stages before heading back to the flat for a sleep. When we book into air bnb places we often try to avoid staying too near a mosque as we don't want to get woken up in the early hours of the morning by its call. However, we have noticed that, since leaving Turkey, in each place that we have stayed, the mosques call during the day but don't seem to call at night. In Orhid there is a different kind of sound filling the air.
Our place is very close to a cute little Orthodox Church and it is Easter and so lots was happening there. We could hear chanting coming from it from about half a kilometre away. A repetitive chant that echoed around the small back streets. As we approached we saw lots of people praying, crossing themselves, lighting candles and streaming into the church for a short time before coming out again. We decided to follow them in (without the crossing bit as that looked complicated and I didn't want to upset anyone by getting the hand gestures wrong, and without the candles as we didn't have any of those). It was a tiny building, the inside was covered with interesting old frescoes of bible scenes. In the centre of the church a priest, dressed in his flowing black robes, was reading something from the bible and right in the middle was an elaborate flower arrangement. I couldn't see all of it as there were too many people crammed into the small space, but the top was an ornate crown made, as far as I could see, from flowers. We stayed for a moment to soak in some of the atmosphere and the sounds and smells of the candles and incense. Then we left, with the chanting still filling the air. It continued until around midnight.
One of our aims whilst we were in the Lake Ohrid area was to get a boat trip on the lake and go to a small monastery down at the other end. So at about 09:30 the next morning we went to the harbour in the town and got on a ferry. We had a great hour and a half trip where we hugged the Macedonian side of the lake, going past some old houses, big hotels, Tito's house, and an area where they had recreated some 1000BC houses they'd found the ruins of. Some of the shore line was just the sheer slopes of the beech tree and poplar tree covered mountains, some of which still had snow at the top, other parts of the shore gave way to small villages. Occasionally there was a small Orthodox Church or a shrine. It was all very pretty.
The locals on the boat commandeered the front end, turned on some music and started drinking and having their own private party. There was a great atmosphere.
Once we arrived at the monastery (Sveti Naum), we got off the boat and spent a short while exploring the old buildings there. They are pretty and a couple date back to the 17th century. In the grounds there are some nice grassy areas and some peacocks and peahens. Being Spring, the males were a little randy and had their beautiful feathers on display. We watched one male dance his socks off for a female. She just carried on eating and didn't pay him much notice.
Once we had been through the monastery we went for a walk along one of the streams that flows into the lake. There is a marked circular walk that heads into the nearby forest and has some freshwater springs on it and some old church buildings. It made a great place for a picnic.
The party continued for the locals on the way back. Lots of dancing and a bit too much drink - one of the men tried to throw one of the women overboard, as a joke, and the ship's captain wasn't very impressed.
After arriving back in Ohrid we went back to the flat (after buying some Easter chocolate, of course). We tried some of the local wine that we'd bought from a nearby supermarket (a branch of Migros, which we used in Turkey, but called Ramstore). It was OK but needed to breathe a bit.
Later we headed out to a local fish restaurant. Being near the lake, it had to be done. Trout is the local speciality, but you need to make sure you don't eat trout that has been fished from the lake itself. There is a type of wild trout that is caught in this lake but it is endangered. Some restaurants still sell it because tourists want to eat the local fish. We think, and hope, we managed to choose the type that came from a fish farm nearby.
The restaurant we went to was a small, family run place. The father did the cooking, the son ran around taking orders and delivering the food and drinks and the mother supervised everything. There were only a couple of tables full, but they already seemed quite stretched. How they would cope in the summer when business picked up a bit was a mystery (presumably they'd hire more staff). The food was good, though.
The following day we had given ourselves time to look around the old city in Ohrid. We walked up some of the hills and went round a few of the old Byzantine churches. There is a common theme running through the old churches we have seen on this trip so far (architecturally, I mean - I would hope the fact that there would be some common theological themes running the the churches that wouldn't need mentioning - although you can't be too sure these days). Each of the buildings from this era seem to be made out of bricks and slate and have a beautiful red and yellowish stripe effect from the brickwork on the outside walls. The churches here were no exception to this, and the insides were decorated with various frescoes depicting bible characters or old saints. There were icons (pictures of other saints in frames) that the orthodox either kissed, rubbed gently or left some coins on (how they decided which was the appropriate action for each one was unknown). A couple had some really nice mosaics, too, dating from the 5th century AD.
After a tour of this, and a walk along the walls of the fortress that dominates one of the hills overlooking town, we went to the bus park and bought our tickets for the journey to Skopje. An ice cream on the way back was followed by some down time at the flat.
The food here is interesting. It is a combination of Turkish food (and there are a lot of Turkish speakers here) and Italian food. One of
the most common things to find in the restaurants here is a good pizza. We went to a place that was recommended on one of the blogs we read. The pizzas were great.
The following day was a travel day. We headed off to the bus station and, after a three hour bus journey through rugged mountains (similar to Albania but less agriculture and fewer plains), we were in Skopje. Our first task here was to buy tickets out to Serbia. We spent ages trying to decipher the Cyrillic alphabet and work out which counter to go to to get our tickets. Eventually we gave up and went to the information counter. We were surprised because the lady there spoke excellent English and said we could actually go to any counter and they'd all sell us a couple of tickets. I guess we are just fiercely independent and only want to ask for help as a last restore. We had told our host that we would arrive at his place at 14:30. By the time we had bought our tickets it was already 14:30, so we slashed out on a taxi - a whole €2.
After trying to explain to the driver where we wanted to go, he called his friends over and asked them where we were talking about, he made about five phone calls and eventually was happy to load us into the back of his taxi.
A few minutes later we were in the right neighbourhood. As we turned into a side street the driver stopped and wound down a window to ask a passerby for directions. I tried to explain I had GPS on my phone and knew exactly where we were and where we needed to go, but he preferred to ask a local. Coincidence would have it (if you believe in such things), the guy he asked was our host!
We got out of the taxi there and followed our host to our attic flat. Dropped our bags and went for a wander around the city. Something remarkable about Skopje is the number of statues that are here. They seem to have a love of lions and fountains, old soldiers on horses and pretty bridges. It is a nice city.
We stopped at a microbrewery for a small beer each before wandering home via a supermarket. We spent the evening cooking soup and toasted sandwiches and watching a Macedonian film, 'The Great Water', which was interesting but left us scratching our heads about what it was trying to convey.
A lot of major cities these days (and some not so major ones) have free walking tours. The idea is that a local guide takes whoever wants to join the trip around the outside of all the most important local sites while explaining some of the history and stories that make the area the way it is. The tours are free, but you pay a tip to the guide at the end. We went on one in Sofia, and we have been on one in Athens in the past, so we decided to take up the offer of the Skopje one.
Apart from being able to interact with a local expert and ask lots of questions about the history and culture of the area, these are a good way to meet fellow travellers and swap stories and pick up tips on where to go next and what to avoid. Our group was made up of a Canadian, a German, a Fin, a lady from the Philippines, an Algerian, a South African and a couple of Brits. Our guide was full of energy and made the history come to life. We saw lots of the local sites, like the place where Mother Theresa was born and a monument/museum dedicated to her, we saw a couple of Hans (old Ottoman era hotels, built in a square shape with a central courtyard, lots of statues (the guide admitted that Skopje seems to be addicted to making these, to the point where they have run out of places to put them and have started putting them on the roofs of buildings), mosques, churches, an old castle, we had a walk through the local bazaar and stopped for a grape raki, and all with a running commentary. We were also accompanied for the whole trip by a dog called Sam. He is a street dog, but apparently loves to come on the three hour walking tour each time it runs. He has missed two tours out of the previous year's worth. He was very quiet and gentle, until a car went past. Then he would peel off from our group and try to bite the car's tyres as it went speeding past!
This type of tour is well worth doing if you are ever in a city where these things take place.
After the tour a few of us went together to an old church which had an amazing iconostasis made out of walnut. This was about six meters long, all carved in the 15th century by three self-taught craftsmen. It was really beautiful and, although I'm not a fan of icons and the like, I couldn't help but be impressed with the work and effort that had gone into making this.
We then went for a quick lunch before heading around the massive architectural museum. This has a very interesting display of Neolithic and Roman artefacts that have been found in Macedonia. There were waxworks of historical figures from Macedonia's past, and some interesting write-ups in English, which is always useful.
The most interesting part of the museum was a grave that had been found of a priestess from the 3rd century BC. She was wearing a gold disc around her middle, which signified she was a ruler, and carrying an incense burner - which was found to contain opium. A clever trick for getting people hooked on your religious meetings, I guess.
We discovered that one of our friends that we met whilst we were in Rwanda last time (back in 2009) is living in Skopje at the moment, so we arranged to meet up with her whilst we are here. The weather was a bit nasty - the sunshine of the previous few days had been replaced by heavy cloud and a very English feeling drizzle. Nevertheless, we met Anna Marie outside our flat and got into her SUV. Her husband works for the European Embassy and so she has one of those cars that you associate wi NGOs - big, tank like and very comfortable.
We went first to a local lake, which was really atmospheric as it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, which were shrouded in cloud at that time. The water was still, and the place was eerily quiet. After a short stop in the drizzle there, we got back into the car and drove on to the Matka Canyon. This is a beautiful area in the hills. It has a narrow gorge with steep-sided mountains on either side of a river. The mountains on either side move sharply away from the water and disappear into the clouds. There is a walkway along one
side of the gorge that we followed for a while, soaking in the peace and scenery. On a sunny day you can get boats down the river to a large cave, but it certainly wasn't going to happen today as the weather just wasn't up for it. We were glad to have the walkway cut in such a way that the mountain overhangs it, providing shelter.
After a nice walk we headed back the same way to the car and drove to a restaurant. This was the Skara Grill, that is frequented, apparently, by lots of expats living in Skopje. We had a great meal (chicken in peanut sauce for me).
We left Anna Marie shortly after the meal as we wanted to go to the local shopping mall and watch a film at the cinema. We hadn't been to a cinema since leaving Turkey and we're starting to get withdrawal symptoms. We were just in time to watch the latest Disney vision of Beauty and the Beast. It was a great film but we failed to spot our friend (who is, apparently, in the opening dance scene).
As has been our routine since coming to Skopje, in the evening we went to the supermarket and bought some soup and then went home for soup and a toasted sandwich.
Then it was time to head to Serbia....
Serbia - Part One
21st April 2017
The journey to Serbia was easy enough. We learned something about Serbian buses, though. A bit like Ryan Air, they charge for each piece of luggage you put in the storage area. Our driver wanted some money, but we couldn't quite understand what he wanted so we offered him our last remaining Macedonian coin (worth 1/12 of a euro). He looked at it and waved us onto the bus without taking it. Later, when we got to the hostel, we noticed a small, printed tag on our bags. It said each bag cost 30 denar to store (1/4 of a Euro). We also discovered during the bus trip that the friendly Serbian guy behind us had paid for our luggage to be stored, which was really nice of him.
The border crossing was quick and easy. We had to get off the bus and get our bags again, but the customs official just patted the sides of mine, and didn't even touch Sarah's. I'm not sure what they have against opening and looking in our bags - after a month or so on the road, maybe they are starting to hum a bit and they don't want to get too close!
The bus dropped us in the bus station in the centre of town and we went to one of the booths there to buy a ticket for Kosovo. The lady there spoke very little English, but understood what we wanted. She told us a bus left at 07:00 and there was also one at 18:00. We asked if we could buy two tickets. She tried to explain something, then crossed out the times she had written on a bit of paper, folded her arms, scowled and blanked us. Quite what happened, we don't know. Lost in translation I think. We went to the next window along and spoke to a friendly lady who spoke good English. She happily sold us two tickets for the 07:00 bus, and even smiled in the process. We then walked the 20 minutes to our air bnb place. It was freezing cold and was sleeting. We hadn't gone up any higher than Skopje, about 200m, but there was a noticeable bite to the air.
After finding the block our flat is in, we stood at the bottom trying to work out which floor to go to. Just then we were approached by a young lady who said, 'Graham? Sarah? Air bnb?' How do these people spot us? I mean, do we look like tourists? The lady showed us our flat and disappeared. We dropped our bags, put on a load of laundry and headed out. The cold weather had got a bit worse - it was raining heavily. Well, I say raining but it actually felt like sheets of ice were being held up for us to walk through. We quickly found a sandwich shop and, over a chicken and a veggie sandwich we made a plan of action.
Sarah had spotted a tourist information place nearby, so that was our first stop. The lady there gave us a map and told us the sites that were worth a visit here in Niş. She also told us that we could buy a combined ticket that, for a cheap price (200 denar, or 1.5 euro) got us into all the main sites. So, we headed for the archaeological museum, which sold the tickets.
On the way to the museum we passed the beautiful Niş cathedral. The inside walls were coved in wonderful paintings of bible scenes and holy people from the past. It wasn't all that old (well, compared to some of the churches we'd been into) and had been completed in the 1800s.
When we got to the museum we bought a combined ticket each and had a look round. This is a tiny museum, especially when compared to the one in Skopje. It had some interesting things in, though. Niş has a fascinating history. For one thing, it was the birthplace of three Roman emperors. The most important being Constantine the Great. So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of Roman ruins around, and one place in particular, Mediana, (which, we learned, is sadly closed during the winter season - which we are currently in) is very grand. There were a lot of relics from here, including the head from a bronze statue of Constantine himself (which is famous in the archaeology world, apparently). After visiting the museum we walked back into the cold. We spotted a shopping mall and decided to have a hot chocolate and some cheesecake and to shelter for a while, hoping the rain would ease off. The rain didn't ease off, but the hot chocolate was delicious!
In the evening we tried to find somewhere to eat. We have learned about the culture here with regards to food. At lunch time all the restaurants were full of life, but at around 19:00 in the evening a majority are closed, or are only doing takeaways, or the few that are open are so full that you can't get a table. It will be easier to eat a big meal at lunch time I think. We did, after walking around the town a few times, find a small restaurant that was open and that we could sit in. We had a great meal. There is a kind of meat dish they do here, which is a combination of lamb, pork and chicken all pressed together and made into a type of burger. It was very tasty. With a fish soup for Sarah and a large salad and two beers, we were amazed that the bill came to just €5! Then we went home for some sleep. The bed here is a sofa bed which is really narrow, so we had to sleep close - which was good anyway, as it kept us warm.
The following day, the rain had stopped. Well, kind of, it had been replaced by snow and hail with wasn't much of an improvement. Still, we had a full day in Niş, so, after a quick breakfast we got dressed and headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was at the fortress which is just by the bus station, so we had already walked past it on the way in, but hadn't stopped. It is free to get in through the old gates, past the well preserved walls (which, according to the tourist information guide we got are the best preserved in the Balkans) and into a lovely green park that has historical buildings dotted around it. Niş has an interesting history, as I mentioned earlier. As well as being the birthplace to three Roman emperors, it was also a border post for the Ottoman Empire. The fortress is large (22 hectares, with walls that stretch over 2km.
Over 2000 years ago Roman forces came from the south and set up camp on the banks of a river that flows through this area. This camp developed into a military zone and the fortress developed from there. Later, after the Huns (Atilla and co.) destroyed the fortress it was rebuilt by the Byzantines (led, of course, by Constantine himself, who must have taken a special pride in rebuilding the place as it was in his birthplace). The Byzantines and later the Serbian rulers who inherited the fortress continually rebuilt and strengthened the walls against attack, which is why they are still in good nic today. The current fortress was built in the early 1700s. Stone cutters from Istanbul were brought in for the task.
During the First World War, the fortress was occupied by German and Bulgarian soldiers who used the underground tunnels as prisons and torture chambers. The only uprising from within an occupied state during the First World War took place here in 1917. It wasn't successful. An ossuary was built to contain the bones of the soldiers, and the gate it was close to was called the 'Gate of Death'. This would make for an interesting meeting point - 'I'll see you at Death's Door!'
Our next stop was a concentration camp. There was definitely a theme running through this day's walk. There was an old military warehouse near a train station during the Second World War in Nis and the authorities decided to turn it into a concentration camp. The station was called the 'Red Cross' station, and that became the name of the camp (it was nothing to do with the charity). The camp was actually built in 1941 and housed Jews, Roma, Serbs, and members of the Chetnik movement. The complex was quite big and initially was only surrounded by barbed wire, without any walls. The central building had 14 cells on two levels. There were a number of cells used for solitary confinement and often barbed wire would bee out on the floor of these cells to increase the prisoner's discomfort. Others had just a thin layer of straw on the floor to lie on. There was little ventilation and we could feel how cold it must have been in the winter.
On 12 February 1942 the prisoners were allowed out for their daily walk in the yard. One guard was on patrol with the prisoners as only a few were allowed out at a time. The prisoners overpowered the guard, grabbed his rifle and shot him. They then unlocked the building's main door and the other inmates were able to flood out. They charged the barbed wire and 105 escaped. 42 died during the escape and a couple of days later, on a nearby hill, 1,500 inmates were executed. I was left wondering whether the escape plot was actually worth it in the end. Butt if the 1,500 were going to be killed or worked/tortured to death anyway, maybe it was better that some managed to get away.
This story raises the question as to the price of freedom. Another story from Niş's history that raises the same question is the Battle of Cegar. This happened after 400 years of Ottoman rule. The Serbians were treated really badly and had had enough of the Ottomans who, in 1804,had murdered the Serbian leaders. Russia was also egging Serbia on to have a go at overthrowing the Ottomans. So between 1804 and 1813 there was the first Serbian attempt to liberate Niş from their oppressors. 16,000 soldiers assembled, dug trenches and had their camp at Cegar Hill, just 6km from Niş. On May 31 1809 the Ottomans attacked,
The Serbian base at Cegar was close to a store used for gunpowder. At first the Serbians were doing well, they expected reinforcements against the Ottomans to arrive quickly. Sadly they never arrived, and the leader of the Serbian army knew that they would soon be overpowered by the Ottomans. He made a decision that would mean the destruction of the Ottoman army, but at a price. He went up to the gunpowder store and waited for as many of the Ottoman army as possible to surround him. Once he could wait no longer, he blew up the gunpowder store, killing himself, his comrades who had gone with him and most of the Ottoman army that were there.
Repulsed by the loss of life and as a lesson to the Serbians not to try such a thing again, the leader of the Ottoman army took the dead Serbian soldiers, decapitated them and took the skin off their skulls. He stuffed the skin with cotton and sent them to Constantinople as evidence of the defeated Serbians. He used the skulls to build a tower - there were 952 skulls in all, but only 58 survive today. We went to visit the skull tower. It is in a beautiful little park, in a pretty church building. The tower inside is quite eerie, mainly, obviously, because of the skulls that are embedded into it.
After having had enough of death and destruction we caught a bus back into town and relaxed for a while. We booked a table at one of the packed local restaurants for the evening. We had an amazing meal (smoked sausages, peppers stuffed with hot feta cheese, courgette chips etc.), and all for a really good price!
We were sad to leave, but Kosovo is waiting...
Kosovo
22nd April 2017
The first thing you notice about Kosovo, once you cross over through the Serbian border (other than the fact that there is a Serbian border, which I'm sure a lot of the Serbians aren't happy about seeing as they don't recognise Kosovo's claim to independence), is the number of Albanian flags that are flying. That and the poor quality of the roads really stood out to us as we arrived in the country. Or, at least they would have stood out if we hadn't had to get up at 05:00 to get the bus this morning. Thankfully, it was the easiest border crossing of our trip so far - the guard didn't even think about looking at our bags.
When we arrived in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, we followed our normal routine of firstly finding out how we could get away (very easy apparently, there's a bus to our next destination every 20 minutes from platform 1). Secondly we trudged with our bags through the housing estates to our flat, met the young chap that owned the place and dropped our bags. We were early so the room wasn't ready, so we immediately turned around again and headed off back to the bus park.
One of the sites that has to be seen here is the old 13th century monastery at Gracanica. After hopping on a bus, telling the conductor where we wanted to go and then hopping off again ten minutes later when he told us we'd arrived, we walked through the old gate that is part of the old stone wall that surrounds the monastery compound. The church actually had been renovated on the outside, so looked a lot newer than it was. The frescoes and icons inside were nice, though, and the domed, painted ceiling was quite dramatic. We wanted to look around a bit of the accommodation at the monastery but it is still in use and a nun gave us a scowl as we headed towards the lodgings. So, we turned around and headed out onto the street again.
In the same area there is a very simple, but quite powerful monument to those that went missing in the war between 1998 and 1999. It consists of large metallic letters spelling out the word 'missing' and photos of people that weren't found after the war ended.
After taking in the history we waited for a bus on the side of the main road back to Pristina. A bus came past and we tried to flag it down. It didn't stop. We spoke to a lady who was also waiting there and she told us that she'd tried to get a bus back but had been told they don't actually stop in this town, so she'd called a taxi. We ended up sharing the taxi back to the city with her.
Once we got back we had a wander through the town, past the history museum, which was closed for renovations, past some old mosques and churches, down a pedestrianised area of town, where it seems the young trendies hang out. Then we went back for a while to the flat.
In the evening we did what the locals do in Pristina - we went around. The locals like to go out in the evening and wander around the coffee shop area (the pedestrianised centre), to be seen and to see what is going on in the city. They do the same in Vietnam, except on motorbikes. After going around for a while we went for a nice Mexican meal. One of the joys of a capital city is that you can often find a wider variety of food, so after lots of local meals, we splashed out. It was good!
The following morning reminded me how important perspective is. The buses to our next destination, Peç, or Peje (depending on who you are speaking to - and be careful to get them right), left every twenty minutes from the local bus station. We were in no hurry to get a bus as the weather was miserable and the main activity in Pec/Peje is hiking. It was actually really nice thinking we didn't have to rush to meet a particular bus and that we could take our time.
The reason this reminded me of the importance of perspective is because I thought it was funny that I was feeling happy that there was a bus I needed to go and get and that I'd sit on for two hours. I remember in previous jobs where I had to commute by bus. The thought of going and sitting on a bus for two hours was depressing. Perspective is a funny thing. If only I could find a way to think about the ordinary, otherwise dull things in life with such a perspective that it would make them a joy each time I had to do them...
Sorry, got side tracked there.
Anyway, back to the travels.
So we got on a bus and a couple of hours later we were in this town with the two names. Basically, the Serbians and the Albanians aren't best of friends. The official languages of Kosovo are Albanian and Serbian and for quite a few top jobs here you need to be able to speak both. However, the political animosity between them means that if you speak the wrong language at the wrong time you could end up in a spot of bother. So, some towns, like this one, have kept the Albanian (in this case Peç) and the Serbian (Peje) forms of the name and most road signs and official notices and information boards will have both on them.
After working out where we were, we headed to the hostel (checking on bus times out of here first, of course). We were met by a very friendly chap who gave us a Turkish tea, showed us a map and tried hard to think of something we could do on a cold, wet Sunday in the Kosovan countryside. He suggested a short walk to a nunnery, which we took him up on and he sent us an electronic map so we could have it on our devices as we walked.
We stopped for a quick lunch. It seemed that every cheap restaurant here sold two things - grilled meat or pizza. I had the grilled meat. Sarah, of course, being vegetarian, had the pizza.
Then we headed for the nunnery. It doesn't take long from this town before you are in the beautiful countryside. There are snow capped mountains surrounding the town and a pretty river flows through the town and out into a gorgeous gorge. We followed the banks of the tree-lined river to the 13th century nunnery. At the gates a security guard met us and asked us for some ID. Sarah had her driver's licence with her and I had my old, expired Turkish residency permit. I gave that to him and, despite the fact it clearly said on it that it expired in December last year, he accepted it and wrote the details from the two cards before handing them back to us and waving us on.
This nunnery was built in the 13th century and, apart from accommodation for the nuns, consists of an old complex of four churches all side by side. Quite why they needed four, I don't know. The insides were beautiful decorated with large pictures of saints and pictures from the bible. Considering the age of these buildings, the paintings were really well preserved.
After strolling around the leafy, green grounds for a bit we headed back the way we came to the main gate.
Once we had left the compound we continued the walk, which, despite the beautiful countryside we were walking through, wasn't the best as the weather was still miserable and the path was actually a main road, and Albanian driving isn't the best, so we had to pay attention to what was coming.
Three or four kilometres further down the track there was a small, riverside cafe where we stopped for a coffee. After this point it was possible to cross the river and head back to town, but this time following a countryside path. It was great to be off the road and we wished we had more time and better weather as there were lots of marked trails that led up into the snowy mountains and we'd have loved to have explored some of these. Another place really must come back to one day.
We stopped at a grocers on the way back for some stuff for breakfast and lunch tomorrow before heading back to the hostel for a bit of a rest. In the evening we went to one of the few restaurants in town that doesn't sell pizza and grilled meat (well, it does, but it also sells other things, too).
Montenegro next...
Montenegro
25th April 2017
The bus journey from Kosovo to Montenegro was a long, windy, quite expensive journey. We worked out that by the time we reached our next air bnb we had been on the road that day for 10 hours. We had to work it out, though, as it really didn't seem that long at all. The journey starts almost immediately after leaving Peç/Peje by winding up, up, up into a pine forest, through saddles where the sheer walls of two mountains almost touched, leaving just enough space for the bus to squeeze through,to the summit of a 1800m high snow capped mountain. In the snow we could see deer tracks and we watched the jays as they flitted from tree to tree to keep away from the bus. It was all very dramatic and very, very beautiful. If you are going to go on a ten hour bus journey, this is the place to do it.
After about six hours of travelling we changed buses in the capital, which, as far as we could see, was built on the only bit of Montenegro that is flat. We have read that anything below 2000m here is considered a hill rather than a mountain.
Once we got to the bay of Kotor we got off the bus and walked, as per the instructions we had been given to 'Cafe Relax'. Here we called our host and he came trotting (down a hill, of course) to take us back up the hill to where we were staying. He was extremely friendly and told us a bit about the area whilst he helped us settle in. In the evening we went back down the hill to a local fish restaurant (well, we are by the sea) and I had some really tasty squid.
We started the following day, rather unsurprisingly, by walking up hill. Overnight a large cruise ship from Norway had sailed into the bay and the old town was full of tourists that, by mid afternoon, soon disappeared. We followed some of the passengers up one of the mountains that surrounds the bay. There is a lovely old cobbled zig-zagging path that winds its way up to the ruins of an old fortress. The fortress itself was built in 535 by Emperor Justinian. It was used a lot and so expanded in the medieval period. Today it is largely a ruin, but the walls remain in tact as do some of the old church buildings that follow the path up from the bay to fortress itself. We walked up, up, up. It was a tiring climb as some of the rocks were quite slippery, but the views were stunning. I'm sensing a theme here in Montenegro - a long journey mainly upwards, but with spectacular views.
Once we'd seen the views, climbed over the walls, had a rest for some water and dried prunes, we climbed down again and found a restaurant. The speciality of this region, unsurprisingly considering our proximity to the Aegean Sea, is fish and seafood. I had read somewhere that I should try the cuttlefish risotto, so that was my lunch. It was a strange meal - completely dark black, apart from the few bits of cuttlefish that were in it. Once I got past the colour, though, it was delicious. It was so good that Sarah even ate some - and she's a vegetarian!
We spent the rest of the day wandering through the narrow, picturesque old streets of the town, stopping for an ice cream.
In the evening we decided to self-cater as we'd been spending a bit too much recently. We found a supermarket (a chain called 'Idea' seems to be present in quite a few countries we are passing through - queue jokes about 'Oh, so this is the big Idea' etc...We had an idea (no pun intended) that we should continue the theme of the area and we bought a packet of fish fingers for supper, along with a bottle of Montenegrin wine, which was quite nice, surprisingly as it was only €3 and we weren't expecting it to taste very palatable. Kotor bay is a big, looping bay that follows the edge of a mountain range of a long, long way. There are small villages at each inward bend and it makes for a wonderful setting. We decided to get a bus to a small village called Perast. This is about twenty minutes away from Kotor town, and the bus ride itself is pretty as it follows the coast for most of the way.
There are two small islands off the coast of Perast and it is easy to get a boat out to one of them. Both islands contain small, cute churches which date from the 1700s, but one of them is currently closed for renovation. The one you can visit is man-made, and made in the shape of a boat. It is dedicated to the sailors of the area.
The story goes that one day two guys found a picture of the Virgin Mary. They hid the picture in a crack in some rocks as the area was under attack at that time. The picture was forgotten about but then rediscovered and a church was built around the cracked rock that housed the picture.
Unfortunately there were large groups of tourists that also thought the islands were beautiful and had a trip out to them at the same time. We had to wait in line in some areas for the groups to move on. So far on this trip we have managed to avoid large groups of tourists in most of the places we have been to, but this trip was an exception. The tourist season is just starting, and so we are really hoping today was an exception. Still, the crowds didn't spoil our enjoyment of the area.
After getting a boat back from the island we caught a bus back to Kotor and cooked another nice meal and relaxed in the flat again.
We haven't had the chance to see much of Montenegro on this trip, but the bits we have seen have been spectacularly beautiful and the people have been really friendly. The wine wasn't bad, either! But Croatia is calling...
Croatia - Part One
27th April 2017
The bus trip from Kotor (Montenegro) to Dubrovnik (Croatia) was spectacular. We followed the fingers of the fjords, reaching in from the sea to the tree covered mountains, winding our way backwards and forwards past the glassy water that revealed reflections of small villages and ancient churches. The four hour journey passed in a blur as we spent the time pointing out of the window and exclaiming, 'Wow!' at various twists and turns round the hairpin bends in the road.
After we had arrived in the Dubrovnik bus park we changed some money, bought bus tickets to Split for the following day and still didn't have the right coins for the toilet (3 kn each), so we bought a drink and spent the change on spending a penny.
Our air bnb place was about a kilometre up a gently sloping hill from the bus park, so we decided to walk. It didn't take long before we were greeted by the mother of the lady that owns the property. In broken English, but with a sweet smile, she showed us how to use the key to the place, gave us a map and wished us a pleasant stay. We thanked her, dumped our bags and headed for the old town.
It would be an understatement to say that Dubrovnik is touristy. It seems to be the central hub of tourism in this region of the world and we heard more English being spoken during our day in the old town than on the rest of our trip so far. However, despite that, Dubrovink still retains a charm and a beauty, and it is even possible to find a quiet corner where you can just imagine that you are off the beaten track.
The problem with Dubrovnik, as with all touristy places, is the price of everything. We noticed that restaurant meals were about double what we had been paying in other countries, so we decided to head to a local bakery to buy two borek (a kind of flaky pastry made in layers with a filling of cheese (for Sarah) or meat (for me) - think the pastry version of a lasagne). We sat in a small park in the sunshine and ate these, formulating a plan for our afternoon in this beautiful place.
The old town is surrounded by thick old city walls. One of the best things to do here is to climb up and walk along them, admiring the fantastic view over the red tiled rooftops of the old churches and houses on one side and the deep dark blue Aegean on the orher. The walls are 2km long in total, and, of course, you need to pay for the pleasure of completing the circuit (which is all marked out as a one way loop). We discovered that we could buy a 'Dubrovnik Card' for a day which, for just over the price of walking the walls (150kn) allowed us to also visit a number of other museums and gave us free bus travel for 24 hours. So we bought one of these and headed up onto the start of the 2km circuit. The views were wonderful, and, once we got away from the start and end points it wasn't too busy.
To make the most of our day pass we also had a look around an old Franciscan Friary which housed the third oldest chemist in the world and Europe's oldest chemist that is still operating. It dated from the 13th century and there was a small museum with some ancient prescriptions and medical equipment on display. It was housed in the friary building.
Dubrovnik, being near the sea, has a long naval history. There is a nautical (but niceicle) museum right on the edge of the water at one end of the harbour. We had a look round and there was quite an interesting historical display covering everything nautical from the 6th century to the 20th. One interesting thing for us was that it showed where the main trading bases were in the 1300s. Lots of the places Dubrovnik used to trade with are places we have been on our trip from Istanbul to here - it was almost as if, inadvertently, we have been following Dubrovnik's former trading route.
After having had enough of the sea, we went and looked around the Natural History museum. One interesting part of this was the plight of the Balkan Pond Turtle. Apparently the poor thing is being beaten up by Terrapins that people have had as pets but then released into the wild, and it is now on the endangered list as a result. A large chunk of the floor space in the museum was, of course, given over to the sea.
Having had our fill of animals we then headed to the ethnography museum - just in time to see the three ladies that work there coming out and locking the place up. So, we moved on to having a look at Marin Drzic's house. I'm sure the cultured folk will chuckle, but neither Sarah nor I had heard of this chap before coming here. He, apparently, was the Croatian equivalent of Shakespeare in the 1500s. He wrote a number of plays, and was also the rector of the local church. The house was not where he lived, was born nor where he died, but it was the place where his plays were performed. Unfortunately there was a school group that took over the whole of the top floor, so we only saw part of the house before having to retreat from the hordes of kids.
After all this culture and information we wanted to clear our heads for a while so we ended our visit with a wander round the back alleys of the old town. The cobbled streets, the old buildings with their wooden shuttered windows, the red roofs and the small winding alleys make for a great setting.
We were going to look around the art gallery before heading home, but when we got to the bus stop to take us back to our flat we saw a bus was coming and decided to jump on it. We headed home via a local supermarket and cooked ourselves a tasty supper with a bottle of Croatian wine (that the lady in the supermarket said was a good one).
After one night in Dubrovnik it was time to split and to head for Split. The weather had turned nasty, so we got an early bus in the rain, along the coastal path again, to Split. We then headed to our air bnb, which was just a few hundred metres from the bus park. Split is a lot smaller than Dubrovnik, so it doesn't take long to get anywhere - which was nice, considering the weather.
After reaching the road that the flat was in, we found number 26 and knocked on the door. We didn't get a response, so we knocked again and waited for a minute or two. Still no response. Our usual course of action when this happens is to take out Sarah's phone and to give the host a call. Sarah's phone was out of power, so we wondered what we could do. I left Sarah where she was and went for a walk around the building. At the back, down an alley, I found a set of stairs that led to another door. I figured this must be the main entrance as the mailboxes for the apartments in the building were on the outside wall. I tried the door and it opened. I didn't want to go in without Sarah (I'm nice like that), so I went back around the block and got Sarah who was minding the bags.
When we went into the building we were met by a lady who greeted us with a cheery hello. She had been expecting us, so we were in the right place. We chatted for a while, settled in, had a drink and a sandwich and headed out to see the old town which was very close to where we were staying.
The main part of the old town is built inside the crumbled walls of Emperor Diocletian's palace, built in the 4th century AD. It now houses a few old churches, shops and restaurants and a handful of old houses. There isn't much left of the palace itself, apart from a few sections of wall and a couple of nice gates.
The palace covered a large area but it wasn't all for Diocletian. He shared the premises with the Roman army.
We wandered around the cobbled streets for a bit and then headed into the cathedral. This used to be one of the temples (there were three temples in the city), one of the others has been turned into the baptistery (the Temple of Jupiter). The cathedral itself isn't all that impressive and only covers a small area, but the ornate altar inside which houses the tomb of Diocletian himself is quite ornate, covered in gold objects and old icons. It is also impressive as if is the oldest cathedral which is still in use in its original structure in the world. A funny kart if the history of the cathedral is that it is dedicated to Dominus. Diolcetian had Dominus executed for trying to spread Christianity!
We also had a look at the crypt under the cathedral, the baptistery and, best of all, we climbed to the top of the 900 year old bell tower. It was made in 1100AD and the views from the top were lovely. The wind whirling around the top was very strong and so we had to hold on tight to pillars to stop ourselves getting blown around. The tower itself would be completely hollow if it wasn't for the rickety staircase they put in to let people get to the top. Don't come and climb this if you get vertigo!
Later, we wandered around the town a bit and then our last stop was at a statue of a chap called Gregory of Nin. He was around in the 900s and was a Christian activist. He opposed the Pope and the official leaders of the Catholic Church, saying they had neglected the gospel in order to make profit. He also introduced the idea of not using Latin in church meetings but using the local language, and he was the first person to successfully do this. For some reason the legend has grown that if you rub the toe of the 8m statue, it will bring you luck. So we both rubbed vigorously and are hoping for the best.
We headed home via a vegetarian food shop that Sarah spotted for some down time in the flat and a bit of self catering.
The following day we left Croatia...we will be back, but Bosnia and Herzegovina are beckoning.
Bosnia And Herzegovnia
29th April 2017
The bus ride from Split (Croatia) to Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovnia) was miserable. It wasn't the coastal and forested hills that were to blame, or the bus (although it had definitely seen better days), but the cause of the misery was the ridiculously wet weather. It was grey and stormy and there was so much rain on the bus windows that it made it difficult to look out.
We were heading to a pretty little town, famous in the region for its wonderful bridge - which was outside, of course, so considering the weather we wondered if we should have just stayed on until we reached the comforts of the city and Sarajevo.
When we got off the bus the rain had eased a little, but it was still drizzling, in that way that I usually associate with British summers. The first thing we did was to try to find a person to sell us a train ticket to Sarajevo for the following morning. The bus had dropped us at the train station, so we thought this would be an easy task. However, when we tried to enter the station we discovered all the doors were locked. We peered inside the ticketing hall and it was completely empty. We eventually found a way in, but were then the only people in the buiding, so we exited quite quickly, too, feeling almost guilty for having tried to buy a ticket.
We eventually gave up and headed the few hundred metres up the road to the hostel. We asked the lady who showed us around the place how we could get a train. She told us we couldn't, the trains had stopped running a year ago and nobody was quite sure if or when they would start again.
Our real reason for coming to Mostar was to see a bridge. I was trying to remember the last time I went somewhere specifically to see a bridge, and I think it was when I went to see the bridge over the river Kwai. That was a long time ago.
This particular bridge is in the Old Town. It seems that every city we have selected to visit on this trip has an old town, (and the joy of travelling in Europe is that you can choose to go somewhere because there is something to see there, rather than having to go there because that is where the train or bus goes and where you need to go to travel onwards (as was the case in Africa)). The one in Mostar is similar to others in the sense that it has old cobbled streets, old mosques and old churches (on separate sides of the river, of course), and lots of touristy restaurants and craft shops. What makes this one different is the blue river that flows through the centre of it, and, of course, the old bridge.
The bridge was built by students of Mimar Sinan, the famous Turkish architect, and was completed in 1566. Sadly it, along with a lot of the old buildings near it, was destroyed in the war in 1991. After the war, in 1993, architects painstakingly dredged the river for old pieces of the bridge and started to rebuild it. They applied for an entry on the UNESCO world heritage list for the bridge and this was granted on the condition that the cement that was used to hold the bridge together was made in the same way as it was for the original bridge. This took a long time and a lot of scientists to work out, but they eventually got the formula right (minus the goat hair and egg shell that Mimar had used).
Today, apart from tourists all over the world, the beautiful bridge is used by a local diving club. To raise money for their club the divers task for cash from the passers by in return for them jumping off the bridge into the river below. The water is 11 degrees C, so to prepare and to make sure they don't go into shock, the divers hose themselves down with cold water before the dive. We were able to watch one chap jump off the bridge, but we think he was a newbie because he didn't go right to the top, and he cannon balled rather than diving gracefully. A large crowd gathered and they must have raised quite a bit of money from his jump.
By the time he had gone into the water (it took a while for him to prepare), the clouds had lifted and the sun was starting to break through. We were starting to warm up and to warm to Mostar, too. We weren't regretting our decision not to go on to Sarajevo by this point.
There is a nice little museum all about the bridge housed in one of the old buildings that is attached to the bridge itself. We went in for a look around. For some reason they let us in for free. I think the guy that let us in was just minding the place while his friends, who were there when we came out of the museum, went off for a cigarette or something. I don't think the guy who let us in spoke any English, so rather than trying to make himself understood, he just let us go on in. Which was good for us, of course.
The final bit of sight seeing we did was to go into a beautiful old mosque on the banks of the river. It is possible there to climb the minaret, which we did, and we had amazing views from the top. The mosque had a nice garden, too, so we had a stroll round there.
There was a bride, groom and chief bridesmaid having wedding photos taken by the river and we asked the bridesmaid to take a photo of the two of us.
We found that, unlike in Croatia, we could actually afford to eat out in Mostar, so we went to a nearby local restaurant and I had some goulash. They made up a plate of beans and rice and spinach and stuff for Sarah.
Then we headed back to the bus park to get tickets for Sarajevo (which we didn't really need to do as there are so many buses heading in that direction that it is possible just to turn up), and then we headed back to the hostel for a rest.
The road from Mostar to Sarajevo follows a river through a pretty valley for most of the way. We had been disappointed not to have got the train, as we had been told the journey was beautiful, but we also followed the train tracks for at least three quarters of the trip, so I think we saw the same scenery as we would have had we got it. The train left at 06:00 a.m., too, (or it used to, when it actually ran), so we were glad not to have got it as a 09:00 bus felt far more civilised.
The scenery was, once again, beautiful. Snow capped mountains stood grandly behind smaller, forested mountains which, in turn, stood over a turquoise river that wound its way through the valley, past small villages and farms until it reached the city and was swallowed up in the midst of buildings and industrial complexes.
Sarajevo is quite a big city, and sprawls. There is a tram network that connects the suburbs of the city to the centre. I would say that the trams run east to west, but that would be quite a political statement. The city has an invisible line dividing the eastern side from the centre and the west. A majority of the city's Serbians live to the east of this line, and the Bosnians and Croats and Muslims live on the other side of the line. The line can't be seen but the tension dividing the two sides can be felt.
We caught a tram from the bus station to the old city, climbed up a nearby hill and were at the air bnb place that we had booked into. We were greeted by the owner (a young, single chap), his mum and dad, the pet dog (Paşa), and their cat. This, along with the Turkish coffee that was immediately made for us helped us to settle in really well.
Once we had drank our coffee we headed back down the hill and had a drift around the old town. Sarajevo, and indeed Bosnia and Herzegovnia, is a place that has seen some hard times, many of the buildings have bullet or even missile holes or marks on them, and in some places there are what are known as Sarajevo roses, a Sarajevo rose marks the place where mortar fell. Once the rebuilding of the city took place they filled in the holes left by the mortar with red paint, leaving a kind of flower, or rose, pattern on the floor as a reminder of what happened.
There are three events in the recent history of Sarajevo that most people are interested in (apart from the 1984 Winter Olympics, of course):
Firstly, this is the city that changed the course of world history and the shape of Europe when, in 1914, Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, along with his wife Sophia were assassinated. This event, of course, sparked World War 1. The Austro- Hungarians had bought Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottomans. Many people in the country weren't too happy about being ruled by yet another foreign power, so they made plans to gain independence. They tried, firstly, to blow up a bridge that the Archduke was crossing, using a hand granade, This failed and the politicians moved on to City Hall. Sophia started to feel tired (apparently the speeches were boring). What with that and having survived an attempt on her life, she asked Ferdinand if she could be taken back to their hotel for a rest. He agreed and told his chief of security to tell the chauffeur to take them back to the hotel. The chief spoke to the chauffeur, but the chauffeur didn't understand - but being polite said, yes, no problem, of course he would. The chief of security then told guards to wait on the route back to the hotel to guard the duke. The driver left the town hall and started driving in the wrong direction, thinking the duke was keeping to the arranged schedule rather than going back to the hotel (having misunderstood the chief of security - are you keeping up?), they turned a corner, effectively taking them out of the site of the guards. The Duke shouted at the chauffeur to stop as they were heading in the wrong direction. As the car screeched to a hault a young man, not yet 21, looked up. He had been sitting eating a sandwich, disappointed that his attempt to blow up the bridge with a granade hadn't worked. He reacted quickly and seized the opportunity to pull out his gun and shoot the duke, a policeman ran up to him and grabbed his arm, as he did so the young lad fired again and this time hit Sophia.
We had a guided walk and we learned all this then.
The guided walk was quite interesting. We learned about how the Romans had come to the area as it was on the route to Damascus from Rome. They had discovered a beautiful river, wood, some valuable minerals, and a special type of Lilly. They called this Lilly the Bosnie. They named the river after it and eventually the country became Bosnia.
We learned that the name 'Balkans' comes from the Turkish 'Bal', meaning 'honey' and 'kan' meaning 'blood' - two aspects of Bosnian life. Speaking about blood, this brings us on to the next two aspects of history that have shaped this place.
The politics and history of this area are really complicated. Basically, the Ottomans ruled, then they were bought out by the Austro- Hungarians. The locals in this part of the world didn't like being owned by foreign powers, so they decided to join forces and form a Southern (Yugo) Slavic kingdom (Slavia). Serbia and Bosnia were two of the countries that joined forces at this time. After the Second World War Yugoslavia strengthened under Tito. Tito died in 1980 and a few months after that Slovenia declared its independence, followed by Croatia. This happened without too much bloodshed as there weren't too many different people groups living in these two countries at the time - mainly Slovenians and Croatians, who shared common values and beliefs. But then the Croats living in Bosnia saw that Croatia had independence so they wanted independence, too, The problem was that there were three people groups living in Bosnia at this time - Bosnians, Serbians and Croatians. The Croatians living in Bosnia wanted independence, the Bosnians were worried that this would leave them vulnerable to Croatia attacking them and the Serbians wanted to stay with Serbia who were still part of the Union. This all got a bit messy and tempers rose and war broke out the 1990s.
The Serbians had several paramilitary groups who were 'protecting' Serbian interests in Bosnia and were trying to prevent the breakup of what they saw as their land. The Bosnian Muslims brought in lots of Mujaheddin to protect the Muslim interests. The Croats were caught in the middle of it all.
The Serbians Serbians seized Sarajevo for almost five years, shelling it and killing thousands. Whilst the Serbians were prepared for war, the Bosnians hadn't got much of an army and it took a year before they got anything resembling a reasonable defence force. The UN saw what was happening and came to help. They declared the town of Srebrenica as a 'safe zone' for the Bosnian Muslims and 20,000 made their way there. When they arrived there was not enough food or sanitation to support them and many died of hunger and disease. The UN then pulled out and 8,000 men and boys (mainly) were executed by the Serbians after having been bussed to execution points. Any men and boys who didn't stay in the town were hunted and shot. Some managed to escape, but anyone found was killed. So, what with the assassination of the duke, the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide at Srebrenica, and with the Sarajevo roses on the ground and bullet/missile holes on the walls, this city has a very strange feel to it.
We had some falafel for dinner and then headed back to chew over all we'd seen and heard about.
War, war is stupid and people that do it are stupid. Or so said Culture Club back in the 80s (or near enough anyway). I agree. Walking around the Srebrenica exhibition showed me how ugly war can be and how brutal people can be sometimes to each other whilst justifying it to themselves and thinking they are doing the right thing. We spent an afternoon being reminded that, despite the horrors of war, it is possible to find areas where human ingenuity and goodness is forced to heighten and show itself to a degree that, without war, it might not reach.
We took a tram from the old town to the end of the line. From there it was about a thirty minute walk along peaceful country lanes, past a runway (but very close to it, so the noise as the planes (mostly Turkish) took off and landed was deafening) and up to what is variously known as 'The tunnel', 'Tunnel', 'The Tunnel of Life' and 'The a Tunnel of Hope'. It is, rather unsurprisingly, a tunnel. But a very special one.
In 1992 the city of Sarajevo was surrounded on three sides by the Serbian Cetniks. The fourth side led to a high mountain range that was (a) covered in snow, and (b) land mined and the home for Serbian snipers. The only neutral area, which separated Sarajevo from the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovnia, was the airport. This had been taken over by the UN, who were not allowing anybody - Serbian or Bosnian - to cross it. Soon supplies started to run out in Sarajevo. They were on the brink of collapse, with no food and no water, no electricity and no medical supplies. The population was starving, dying of thirst, full of disease and were not far from giving up.
People tried to play what became locally known as 'Serbian Roulette', by running over the runway from the city to escape into the country and find refuge. It was a difficult crossing and very few made it. The UN had put reels of razor wire across the runway at intervals, between these there were motion detectors so they could spot anyone trying to run over, UN vehicles were constantly on patrol up and down the runway, and Serbian snipers and missile launchers had their sites trained on the airport for the slightest sign of movement. Very few made it.
Then, one family had a great idea. This is where human ingenuity comes in. They decided to dig a 1km tunnel from one side of the runway, starting in their house's garage, under the runway and the airport, and up and out in a friend's garage outside the city. He called in the help of the military, miners, neighbours and everyone grabbed a pick axe or a shovel (they didn't use heavy machinery for fear of arousing UN or Serbian suspicion about what was going on). It took four months and four days to complete the digging.
A telephone cable and an electricity cable were passed through the tunnel, reconnecting the city, in a small way at least, with the rest of the country. A fuel pipeline was also passed through. Tracks were installed to help the movement of goods through the tunnel and military supplies, food parcels and medical equipment made it into the city. People went out to the country and came back with 50kg bags of food on their backs. About 3000 people a day moved through this tunnel. It was in use for about thirty months as the city that was on the brink of collapse managed to hold out for 1,425 days, thanks in many ways to this tunnel.
No wonder why the call it the tunnel of hope!
After having a look around here we headed across country, through some small suburban housing estates, past farms and farm houses to what is known as the 'Alley'. It was May 1st and lots of people seemed to think strolling, cycling or riding a horse and carriage down the alley was a good idea. This is a 3.5 km long, about 4m wide tree-lined paved path that heads in a straight line from the nearest town towards the hills. It ends at the source of the river Bosne, in a beautiful park. There are lakes, with ducks and swans, lots of great green areas and, of course, an ice cream stand.
After relaxing in the path for a while we headed back along the alley to the tram and then back into town. As it was May 1st, and a national holiday, we hadn't been able to change any euros into local currency. So, by the time we were ready for dinner we had 12km (Bosnian marks), or 6 euro. We managed to get a pizza for Sarah and a cevapi for me (a pitta bread full of small meat balls) and two beers. Good job the prices are reasonable here!
We were relieved to see that the currency exchange places were open again the following day. Our first stop was to get our wallets replenished. We have used a lot of different currencies on this holiday, and our maths is really getting a workout when we try to convert prices into euros. Thankfully Bosnia and Herzegovina's Marks are easy at 2:1.
Our last day in Sarajevo was a mix of sightseeing and getting some practical things done. We changed money and went to a few museums (including an interesting history museum, and another exhibition about the Sarajevo siege). We also went clothes shopping - we've done so much walking and clambering around in our jeans that we both managed to make holes in the ones we were using. We found a couple of second hand clothes shops and found a new pair of jeans each for about €5.
We also headed to the bus park to book our tickets for the 16:00 departure to Belgrade. Well, at least we thought it was 16:00 because that is what we had seen advertised, but we were in for a nasty shock when the ticket lady told us there was only one bus a day and it left at 06:00 in the morning!
Back in the old town we went into two tourist information offices to ask about trams to get us to the bus on time. In the first place one chap told us the trams started running at 07:00. His colleague corrected him and said they started at 05:00. We went into a second place and the lady there told us they started at 06:00. We were confused.
In the evening we headed up to a ruined fortress (the 'Yellow' fortress). It is really just a pile of rubble now, but the reason for going up there is to sit on the rubble, which is on a hill overlooking the city, and to watch the sun go down. It made for a picturesque end to our time here. Looking out over the quiet, peaceful city below with the sky lit up in the yellows and oranges of a Bosnian sunset, it was hard to imagine the horrors this place has seen.
When we went back to the air bnb place we told our host's mother that we were leaving very early the following morning. She told us a 06:00 bus wasn't early for their family and that her husband would give us a lift to the bus station. They've been so kind to us at this place. They were having a family bbq and came to our door with a huge plate of meat and bread for us (we didn't like to mention that Sarah was a vegetarian), they gave us coffee, and now an offer of a lift at an ungodly hour of the morning so we could get our bus. This is Sarajevo - a troubled place full of beautiful people who are full of hope.
Next stop, if we get our bus, back to Serbia...
Serbia - Part Two
4th May 2017
The father of the family where we were staying in Bosnia and Herzegovnia was so kind that he got up at 05:00 in the morning to get us to the bus station in Sarajevo in time to get the bus to Belgrade (or 'Beo grad' as the locals call it 'Beo' meaning white and 'grad' meaning city). The journey passed in a blur between sleep, watching the stunning scenery pass by, and trying to watch the scenery through the one eye that would stay open while the other one dozed (mine seemed to take it in turns).
It wasn't long (well, it didn't seem it - actually it was eight hours) before we were getting off the bus in Serbia. Belgrade is a big city and, compared with the places we have been through recently, seemed very modern, bustling and a tiny bit scary. The other, smaller places that we have been through seemed to be expecting tourists and it was almost as if these places welcomed us and invited us in. Belgrade, being a big city, is all about doing big city things and getting on with life. It is almost as if these places kind of look at you and say, 'so what are you doing here?' Whereas the smaller places had a 'let me help you enjoy what I have to offer' kind of feel, these big cities have more of a 'just get on with your life and leave me alone' vibe going on.
We picked up our bags that had been unloaded from the bus and walked the 2.5 km up to our flat. We were met by a lovely lady who let us in, showed us the flat, told us how to get hot water and then disappeared.
We were tired and didn't feel like doing too much sight seeing so we jumped on the tram that does a circular route around the city. A bit like the circle line in London. Except it is a tram. And does more of an oval than a circle. But you get the idea. The trams are hard to understand in Belgrade. You tap in once on your first bit of public transport and then you are able to continue travelling, changing buses and trams if you like, for up to 90 minutes without having to tap in again. But only if you stay within certain zones. We hopped off the tram at the train station and went to book our tickets for our next destination. The trains are also complicated in Belgrade. On the schedule in the station some of them are coloured blue and some are red. The red ones are meant to be faster, although some aren't, but the blue ones are cheaper, but some aren't....anyway, we bought two tickets for what we think is the right train.
After taking the tram the rest of the circuit back to our base, we went out for some food and then home for an early night.
Our first full day in Belgrade was a sight seeing day. We started with a free walking tour, which was great. We were glad that we weren't the only tourists in town - in fact there was a really international group on the tour with us, from Israel, Uruguay, South Korea, Spain, the USA, South Africa, England, Mexico...it seems like word has got out that Belgrade is an interesting city to visit.
Our guide was a local Serbian lady. She was actually a university student and was doing the guiding to earn some extra money to help her with her studies. She was studying law, having already completed a degree in tourism. She was fun, informative and gave us a good tour. The best view was from walls of the old fortress. She explained that we could see two rivers - the Danube and the Sava. These two met at this point and this marked the border between the East and West Roman empires.
In the afternoon we went to Tito's mausoleum. Tito was a leader of former Yugoslavia. One of the most important people in this region of the world's history. There was an interesting exhibition of things he had been presented with in the 1980s as he had gone round the world and met with other political leaders and dignitaries. One of the most interesting things here was a collection of batons (the kind used in relay races). He decided, on one of his birthdays, to hold a massive celebration of youth and sport. He was a really popular leader and somebody had the bright idea of presenting him with a baton that could be unscrewed and contained in the centre a birthday card, or picture, or words of thanks. This idea caught on and he was presented with thousands. Each trade guild made their own with a symbol of the trade on it. The army made him one with a tank on top. An interesting idea for a birthday gift - Sarah's birthday is coming up, so...
In the evening we decided to self-cater so I boiled up some couscous and we watched a film (The Whistleblower), about Bosnia and Herzagovnia - I didn't have any about Serbia,
It is always interesting when you travel to try to find out who the local celebrities are. Sometimes they can be quite surprising. We spent a morning in Belgrade looking around the Nikolai Tesla museum. He of the electricity fame. He wasn't actually born in Serbia, he didn't live in Serbia and he didn't die in Serbia. He was ethnically a Serbian, though, and that is enough for Belgrade to claim him as one of their own. In fact his ashes are housed in the small museum we visited, housed in a copper sphere. He had OCD and he was obsessed with the number three (to the point where he lived in America at number 33, on the third floor of a block of flats which was at number 3 in the street. His favourite object was a sphere, hence his urn.
We had a guided tour of the museum and the chap that was leading it told us about his life. He was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire in present day Croatia, he went to university in Prague and worked for a telephone company in Budapest and then Paris before moving to America. He got a job with Edison's company but had a fight with him over direct current v alternating current. He then got sponsored by J P Morgan to pursue his inventions. He was responsible for the lighting at the world trade fair, which brought him a lot of respect. He had a massive plan to provide electricity to the whole world for free, but his sponsors either didn't believe him or couldn't see the profit in that, so they withdrew their sponsorship. He continued pursuing a whole range of mad cap inventions. He never married, had children or bought a house, choosing to live alone in a hotel as he thought anything else would distract him from his work. His nephew was his sole heir when Nikolai died. The nephew collected a lot of Nicolai's belongings and brought them back to the museum in Belgrade. Including Nikolai's body.
As well as learning all this we also had a demonstration of some of the machines he invented. For example, the first remote controlled toy. The best one of these was a (and excuse me getting technical here) large copper coly thing that had a ball suspended over it. The coils produced electricity that sent a spark up to the ball, like a miniature piece of lightning. This, in turn, diffused ions into the air and people standing close to the machine then became conductors of electricity. (You can tell I didn't do well in Physics at school, can't you)? Anyway, the guy gave us all a strip lightbulb to hold and turned the machine on. Our light bulbs lit up, showing we were conducting electricity!
We felt like bright sparks after that experience.
After a quick lunch at home we then headed out to look at the largest Orthodox Church in Europe (and possibly the world). It is 80m high (if you count the cross at the top) and can hold 10,000 people. It looks really impressive on the outside, but inside it is unpainted and there are lots of heavy machines building the thing.
The afternoon was spent on a walking tour mainly around the old fortress. We went underground this time and looked at some old ottoman military installations, a First World War bomb shelter and, best of all, a wine cellar where we tried some of the Serbian white wine (which was drinkable but very fruity).
One of the items we saw on the walk was quite interesting. It was an old 4th century Roman sarcophagi that had a picture on it that, apparently, is unique. You probably know the story of Jonah - the guy that was trying to escape from God by jumping on a ship, who got thrown off the ship and eaten by a whale where he stayed for three days and three nights? Well, the picture was of this. It was also (and here's the interesting, unique bit), of Jesus holding a lamb (as a good shepherd should). The maker of the sarcophagi was making a connection between the death and resurrection of Jesus (who was in the grave for three days and three nights) and Jonah (who was in a whale's stomach (so probably wished he was dead) for three days and three nights. Jonah's mission, that he was running away from God about, was bringing good news to the people of a land that was his enemy. Jesus' mission was also to bring good news to people that had rejected him. So, it is easy to see why the connection had been made. Apparently this sort of gospel representation hasn't been found on any other sarcophagi anywhere in the world.
In the evening we went to a restaurant just round the corner from where we were staying. It had been recommended to us and was good, except they allow people to smoke in restaurants here and this one was particularly smoky.
The train the following day to Novi Sad was quick and easy - probably our shortest journey to a new overnight stop on our whole journey. We had been warned against taking the trains in Serbia as the locals said they took far too long and were always late. Ours, thankfully, seemed to be the exception.
From the train station to the accommodation (which was right on Liberty Square) was only a couple id kilometres so we walked it. We still arrived early - we had arranged to meet the host by a yellow post box outside the main cathedral - so we sat and had our sandwiches whilst we waited.
Doing air bnb rather than hotels or hostels is fun because (a) it works our a lot cheaper if you are travelling with two people, and (b) you meet a range of people who are hosting. Some hosts seem almost nervous about letting you into their home, unsure about how to best treat you and what they need to do to make you comfortable. Some hosts treat you like an old friend, invite you to dinner or to share a beer with them. Some hosts, and this was the case with our host in Novi Sad, are extremely efficient and professional and seem to have been in the air bnb business for years. We were met by a young chap and a lady who marched us briskly to our flat, let us in, gave us a professionally produced brochure which had all the essential information on (the wifi codes, the address, a map with the best restaurants and the local supermarket on etc.), gave us our keys and bid us a good day. All in about four minutes flat.
Once we'd got our breath back we put our bags down and went for a wander around town. Novi Sad isn't particularly dramatic or picturesque, but it is very pleasant. It has a nice, old town square, some interesting museums and a well preserved citadel on a hill overlooking the Danube. We strolled around the square, admiring the 18th century cathedral and old town hall, then went over the river to the citadel. The current form of this was built by the Austro-Hungarians, although there has been some kind of fortification on the hill for thousands of years. It was built by slaves in the 1700s and is in excellent condition. It is worth climbing up the 40m high hill it is perched on to see the view of the river below, and to admire the old clock tower (which is interesting because the hour hand and the minute hand are reversed in terms of their size so that the passing ships can more clearly see roughly what hour it is as they sail by). We stopped for a coffee while we overlooked the river.
Back in the town we discovered there was a cheap cinema and we bought some popcorn and watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2. A fun film, and it was odd suddenly being confronted with 3D technology and surround sound so shortly after soaking in history and peacefully sitting by a river.
In the evening we treated ourselves to a nice meal in one of the international restaurants in the town. We were definitely in Europe here. The architecture had changed - gone were the domes of the basilicas and the old ottoman houses. These had been replaced by spires on the churches and large, pastel coloured buildings. The buildings also hadn't been destroyed and rebuilt quite so many times. The food had more variety available and the restaurants were much less smokey, which was great. Serbia has a lot of variety. The three places we visited (Niş, Belgrade and Novi Sad) were all very different to each other. It has an interesting history and is well worth a visit.
Hungary - Part One
7th May 2024
The train ride from Novi Sad to Budapest takes about seven hours and passes through flat farmland most of the way. It was quite pretty though and we saw deer, lots of pheasants, some egrets and birds of prey. It is always more comfortable being on a train than on a bus, I find, as you can stand up and stretch your legs a bit (and there is usually a loo readily available). The train we took was a little odd. It was made up of four carriages. The first one was first class, the second was a dining carriage. The third carriage was second class, with normal rows of seats as you'd expect. The fourth carriage, and the one we got on (we didn't have reserved seats) was made up of small compartments, each with six seats and each with its own sliding glass door. We found an empty compartment with really comfortable seats, side tables, plug points etc. And settled in. We were so comfortable we wondered if we were in the wrong section, but the outside of the carriage definitely had a second class label on it, so we hoped we wouldn't be moved.
Later a guard came along and checked our tickets. We were just waiting for him to tell us to move. He studied our tickets for a while, then stamped them and handed them back with a smile and walked away. We had the private compartment to ourselves for the whole journey. We decided train travel was the way forward.
After seven hours of comfortable travel we picked up our bags and headed to our host (after buying tickets to get us out of Budapest in a few days time, of course). It was only a 2km walk to the flat, so we were soon there. The flat is located right in the centre of a very busy part of town, but at the back of a building that has very thick walls. The outside is noisy most of the time, but inside it was silent. After being settled in we headed out for a walking tour with a guide. We learnt a little about this fascinating city. For example, the Danube runs through the centre of the city. On the east of the river is a flat area called 'Peşt' and on the west is a hilly area called 'Buda'. These two areas were combined to form Budapest. Pest, being flat, expanded faster than hilly Buda and so is a bit larger.
The buildings here are very grand, tall, thick-walled, well decorated (with statues and ornate stonework) blocks. They tower over you as you walk down the narrow streets. The city has a little Ottoman influence (public baths are really popular here and one even has the dome of hamam on its roof) - it was part of the Ottoman Empire for 50 years. It also has a lot of Austro-Hungarian style, of course, being Hungary! The river has a lot of bridges over it, at the rate of one bridge per kilometre.
It has a big city feel, having an underground system as well as extensive networks of trams, buses and ferries. The restaurants are as you would expect from a major European city (Starbucks, McDonalds (the first one ever in the Eastern Block - built even before Moscow got its own Golden Arches restaurant), Hard Rock Cafe etc etc...). We were surprised to find there are even branches of Tesco supermarket here. We finished the day with a Chinese meal (well, we are in Hungary after all).
Our first full day in Budapest was spent walking. We walked a long way, but there is so much to see here that you really need a week or more to get it all in. We started by taking a tram over the water to Buda, and we climbed the hill up to the Fisherman's Bastion. This is a set of seven towers on top of a hill, where the old walls of Buda used to be. They were built in the late 1800s and get their name from the fact that the fisherman's guild was given the responsibility by the King to safeguard that section of the wall. There is a wonderful view from the towers, but a few too many tourists for our liking.
Next to the towers there is an old 11th century church that has a fantastic roof covered in coloured tiles. It is extremely gothic looking with high pointed spires. The church was the site of lots of coronations of former kings. Many of the old paintings inside were destroyed by the Ottomans during their occupation of the city. We didn't go in, but it was beautiful to look at from the outside.
After admiring the view we walked back down the hill, past the old palace, and along to Gellert hill. This is 140m high and is the location of a lot of the foreign embassies. There is a beautiful park that covers the sloping sides of the hill, and a path that winds its way slowly to the top. At the summit there is a statue of what the locals call the 'tin opener' because of the shape, but was actually a gift from the Soviet Union originally. When the country became communist, they presented the city with this, a statue of a lady holding a laurel wreath. It can be seen all over the city due to its position right at the top of the hill. Once the country was free from the soviet regime, they didn't want to go to the trouble of removing the statue, so they covered it up with a white sheet for three days. The problem was that this made it look like a giant condom, which didn't go down too well. It didn't help that the sheet ripped and slipped, coming to rest
with two gaping holes that one revealed two parts of the statue of the woman - her breasts. So this was all a little bit of an embarrassment. After three days they brought the statue back to life by whipping off the sheet. It is now a symbol of the freedom of the city. After admiring the statues and the view we headed down the hill and across one of the many bridges that go over the Danube. We were then at the main covered market, the 'Great Market' as it is humbly called. This is a huge building, 10,000 square meters, with three levels of small stalls. The basement of the market had a supermarket and lots of pickled things (onions, gherkins, radish, beetroot etc - pickling things is big business over here), as well as a fish section. The ground floor had everything you would expect from a food market - fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, and a bakery selling strudel (which, of course, we had to try - and it was delicious, even if it was cabbage strudel!). The top floor of the market has some small eateries and some souvenir stands.
One of the nicest things about the market was the roof of the building. Like the church on this hill, this was covered in really colourful tiles (Zsolnay tiles from Pecs) and it looked beautiful.
We bought some stuff for lunches for the next couple of days - sliced salami for me, and some cottage cheese for Sarah, and then continued our walk. We had a stroll along the river bank on the Pest side and admired the view until we had to turn inland to head to Saint Stephen's basilica. This is a 19th century church named after the first King (and it even houses his mummified fist - for some strange reason). It is the home of the Roman Catholic bishop of Budapest and is very impressive to look at both inside and out. It took 55 years and two attempts to build as the first attempt failed when the dome collapsed before it could be completed.
After looking round the church and admiring the fist we headed home via the intriguingly named,'House Of Terror'. Unfortunately it was closed, so we headed back for a rest (our feet were pounding a little by this stage). We strolled past the beautiful synagogue in town in the evening and then went for a kosher meal in a nearby restaurant.
There are some days where your carefully worked out plans come together and all the timing and details work out exactly as expected. Our last full day in Budapest wasn't like that. We had planned to go for a quick wander around the 'House of Terror', before walking around the big island in the middle of the Danube, having a picnic and then heading for a spa (as Budapest is known as the spa capital of the world, apparently) and ending with a typically Hungarian meal.
What actually happened was that we went to the House of Terror, which was the former base of the Soviet Secret Police in Budapest, and the Nazis' HQ before that. What we thought would take an hour or so took over three hours to get round. It was truly fascinating to learn about the troubled relatively recent history of the country. During the Second World War Hungary had been occupied by the Nazis and a strict military regime dominated public and private life for a few years until the Soviets 'liberated' the nation at the end of the war. The first elections were held in the late 1940s and initially people voted for the communists, seeing them as the great liberators. However, once farming subsidies and curfews and the continuation of rationing and the loss of national identity to socialism kicked in the electorate started to think differently. At the following election the Soviets were resoundingly defeated. However, the ruling party said that 700,000 of the votes were, er, spoiled or just not right so didn't count. Even then the Soviets were only able to achieve a 22% share of the votes, so they arrested and killed the opposition, thus maintaining power. They'd gone from being the great liberators to the militant persecutors of the people.
All this history got me thinking. Freedom, I decided, has two aspects - liberation from something negative (like overthrowing the Nazis) and a release into something positive (which didn't happen as hoped, here, as the Soviets turned out to be far from positive). I learned that there is no point in being set free from an oppressive system unless there is some positive system to enter into. It reminded me of something Jesus is recorded in the Bible as saying. He said that if a man (or woman) has a demon cast out of them, they need to make sure they are then filled with his spirit. If not, the demon will wander around and then return to the man, bringing seven of his friends. In other words, freedom is being released into something good from something bad. If it is only being released from something bad, there is a high chance that what replaces it will be even worse! Phew! That got my head pounding a bit. The museum also had a rather gruesome basement. The building had a prison/death row in it for political prisoners.
Once we left the museum we were hungry, so we had lunch at the flat. After lunch we were still trying to keep to our plans and decided to head to the island in the Danube. As we were walking there we passed a hairdressers and Sarah decided she wanted to get her hair cut. So I amused myself by wandering around and getting a few bits and pieces for her birthday the next day. An hour later and Sarah, with a nice new haircut, came out of the salon. We walked down the road for a while, passing a statue of one of Budapest's most famous former celebrity residents (others include Liszt, of the music fame, and Rubik, of the cube fame). I was surprised to learn that Sarah hadn't heard of this chap - he had obviously never made it to South Africa. Any ideas who I'm talking about? He wore a long raincoat, he smoked, he had a dog? No? How about this - his catch phrase was, 'I have one more question...'? I'm talking, of course about Peter Falk (better known as Colombo), the American (and apparently Hungarian) detective.
A bit further down the road we heard someone greeting us in a loud voice. We looked up and saw Helena, one of the former teachers from British Side, where we used to work in Istanbul. It was quite a shock to see her as we had completely forgotten she now lived in this city. So, we headed to a local wine bar and she bought us a glass of wine each while we caught up on all the gossip.
Finally, after saying goodbye to Helena, we made it to Margaret Island. This is a 2ish kilometre Long Island which has a wonderful park on it. There is a jogging track that goes around the outside of the island and nice views of the city from the shore. The jogging is very organised as everyone goes around the island in the same direction.
After spending some time here we wandered back into town, via parliament, which is a beautiful, gothic style building, and had dinner. We were heading for a particular restaurant but when we got there we discovered it was all outdoors and it was too cold to sit there, sadly. So, we headed to a local pub for some sausages and chips. It wasn't the day we had planned, but it was fun anyway.
We left Budapest via train to Pecs. I'm still not sure how you say the name of this place, but it isn't 'Pecks' as saying that will only produced confused frowns at the train ticket office. This is a small town about four hours away by train (and rail replacement bus service - getting us ready for the UK). It is best known for the Zsolnay tiles that are those small tiles that look like really brightly coloured fish scales and which decorate the roofs of houses and public buildings in this part of the world. It was Sarah's birthday so we stayed in a slightly more up market place (a flat with large rooms, right in the centre of town). In the afternoon we strolled around the old town, admiring the old buildings that ranged from a 3rd century Christian burial ground to some ancient mosques. There was a huge cathedral and a pretty town square with a wonderful, ornate fountain in the centre. It was all very quaint.
In the evening we went to the 'Interspar' - a humongous supermarket near our place, and bought some food which I then cooked up for a birthday meal for Sarah.
I don't know how you say the name, but Pecs made for a nice stop over. The next day, the alarm went off at 05:10. It was time to head back to Croatia.
Croatia - Part Two
12th May 2017
The journey from Pecs to Zagreb was short, but early (the train left at 06:00 in he morning) and a bit fiddly (we took a train to the border, changed trains, got a rail replacement bus service for part of the trip and then a third train). But, we got there in the end and it was then just a short tram ride up to our accommodation.
One of the problems with doing air bnb is that you need a phone that will work in several different countries. The host had sent us a message, probably when we were on the rail replacement bus, saying that he would be a bit late. We didn't get the message and, of course, there was nobody at the flat when we arrived. Sarah's phone was out of power, so I went for a walk around the block to see if I could find an Internet cafe to message him. I was unsuccessful, but when I went back to the building our flat was in Sarah had disappeared, along with our bags. I rang the door bell and eventually all three of us got together in the small, but cute place that was to be our accommodation for three nights.
After the customary tour of the flat by the host, we dropped our bags and went looking for lunch. We were hungry as we hadn't eaten since about 6:30 and it was then well past lunch time. We went into the nearest affordable eatery - which, sadly, and don't tell anyone we did this, was McDonalds. I know, but we were hungry!
After lunch we went back to the flat and collapsed for a while. We are definitely getting older - I'm sure these early mornings didn't have quite such a toll on our bodies when we last did an long overland trip (about seven years ago). It took us a while to get up enough strength to go for a wander around town. To be fair, though, town (well, the interesting bit of town) was about 2km from our flat, so we ended up walking six or seven kilometres in the end.
We didn't go into anything, but had a walk around to get our bearings. The old town is divided into two sections - an upper bit (up a hill) and a lower bit (at the bottom of the hill). Scattered around the hills are a mix of different types of architecture - the grand blocks of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the cute churches with the Zsolnay roofs of the 1800s and some older buildings, too. The streets vary from narrow, cobbled alleyways which require careful placement of your feet so you don't trip, to modern, tar roads. There are cathedrals (three - a Catholic one, a Greek Orthodox one and an Eastern Orthodox one). Something I've learned on this trip is that the Orthodox Church is basically old Catholicism. The two religions are very similar. Very different to my own version of Christianity (but they have prettier church buildings!).
After wandering around for a while we headed back to the flat via a supermarket for a slightly healthier dinner than the lunch we had at the Golden Arches restaurant. We spent the evening planning our next few days.
Two Croatian brothers went travelling to try to help one of them get over a failed romance. The heartbroken fellow took a wind up little white rabbit as a momento of the relationship and took photos of it in various locations on their travels. They received a lot of interest as they stopped in different places - just what were two grown men doing with a small, fluffy, white rabbit toy, and why were they taking its photo? They had lots of opportunities to share their story.
When they returned, someone else gave them a momento they had kept after a failed romance. Other people started to do the same when they heard the brother's story. Soon they had enough to open a small porta-cabin displaying the objects and with a small write up about each story of failed romance connected to each item. As travellers came and saw this exhibition they also started to send in items with their stories to the brothers.
Now, in the upper town in Zagreb there is a 'Museum of Broken Relationships', housed in an old palace. There are 17,000 stories and items which could be on display (but aren't all out at the same time). The items range from an axe (used to chop up the furniture of a former lover who had been found cheating) to a high heeled shoe (given as a momento by a prostitute to a former school lover who had gone to see her without knowing who he was going to see).
There were some interesting stories - one lady had gone to a prisoner of war camp to look for her friend's uncle and aunt in the Balkans. They didn't find the uncle or aunt so they gave the basket of food that they had brought with them to a different prisoner of war there (when the guards weren't looking). He thanked them and gave them his family's address. After the war finished she wondered what had happened to this former prisoner, so she wrote to the address to find out. He had got out of the camp alive, so they started
corresponding. After some time he came to visit her and her family. He declared his undying love for her. Unfortunately, she wasn't interested in a romantic relationship. After a few days he tried declaring his love again and once again she turned him down. This time he gave her a golden napoleonic coin to remember him by.
A few years later she met and fell in love with another young man. She didn't want to get rid of the coin as it had such an interesting story attached to it, so she had it melted down and turned into her wedding ring.
After a while in the museum, we spent some time wandering around the old town. There is a Second World War bomb shelter here, which actually is a really long tunnel (about 1km long and it has various side branches). We walked around this and admired the flower display they had set up. In the evening we had dinner back at the flat.
We were up early the next day and we caught a tram down to the bus station. Two and a bit hours later we were in Plitvice Lakes. This is Croatia's largest protected area and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. We discovered that when we arrived and were caught in the middle of several different tour groups.
Plitvice is an area of turquoise lakes on different levels, each connected by several waterfalls of various shapes and sizes. Above the lakes there is a dense forest of fir and beech trees where bears, deer, wolves and Lynx live. The area around the lakes has clearly marked walking trails, most of which involve walking over boardwalks that go along the banks of the lake and sometimes even over the lake (to give you a closeup view of the waterfalls. We walked about 10km of the trails. Inside the park the expensive ticket fee includes a ferry ride and a bus ride, so it is possible to walk around different sections of the lakes fairly easily.
Apart from the crowds, or, perhaps, despite the crowds, it was a great day out and it is a gorgeous area. Well worth visiting.
Next we are going to a city that we can't pronounce in Slovenia...
Slovenia
15th May 2017
The journey from Zagreb to Slovenia was an easy three hour train ride through pretty countryside. We passed pine forest covered mountains, fast flowing rivers, farmland and a handful of small villages. The other good thing about the journey was that it wasn't one of our 06:00 in the morning runs. In fact, it was 15:00 by he time we reached our hostel, 'The Cube', in downtown Ljubljana. The only negative part of the trip was that it started raining when we were about thirty kilometres outside the city, and it didn't stop for long.
When we arrived and checked in to our squeaky clean, almost clinical hostel with its well organised four bedroom, a kitchen a bathroom wings, it's code numbers rather than keys to unlock the doors and its hostel-like labelling and distribution of brochures about the surrounding area and possible activities and excursions, we dropped our bags and headed out for a coffee in a nearby cafe. We are in planning mode at the moment, so we took Sarah's kindle and used the cafe's wifi to start booking up our next few stages of the trip. We ended up slightly altering our route back to the UK because Saltzberg, where we were going to stay for a night or two is unreasonably expensive. We decided to go to Innsbruck instead as there are more accommodation choices there.
After a nice pizza for dinner (which was so large that we both had left overs for lunch the next day), we went back to the cube and went to bed in our small, but very clean (well it was before we got there) room.
Ljubljana is a really pretty city. It has a hill on the edge of town with a castle on it and a nice clock tower, it has a river running through its centre and a dozen or so bridges of all different shapes and sizes, it has lots of pedestrianised squares and a great mix of architecture. There are some grand church buildings (including a big pink one in the middle of the biggest 'trg' (square)). There is a university here dating from 1919 which Ivanka Trump attended (but didn't graduate from).
We started our day by going to the bus station and booking up our tickets for the next few days, which was quick and easy as the lady there spoke excellent English. Then we headed to the pink church and joined a tips-based walking tour. This was the biggest one we've been on since leaving Turkey. For some reason I thought Slovenia would be less touristy than other places we've been to. How wrong I was! In fact, the guide on the walking tour said it was unusual for this number of tourists to be in Slovenia at this time of year. She told me she had mixed feelings about it - obviously it was great for business, but she was worried that if there was this many in May, August would be unbearably crowded.
The tour was good and we heard lots of information about the area. Slovenia is populated by just one million people (if you don't count the tourists), and Ljubljana itself has 300,000. So it isn't a huge place. It has changed hands many times. First there were the original settlers. When they were here (in the Pre-Roman days), the city was actually a lake with a few small islands in it - so it would have looked very different to how it does today. The Romans had their turn at ruling the country, as did the Venetians then the Austro- Hungarians then the Italians had another go during World War 1, and then it was part of the kingdom of Yugoslavia before being ruled by the Germans during World War 2, before going back to Yugoslavia after the war. It finally got its independence in the 1990s (being the first of the Yugoslav countries to declare independence). It later joined to the European Community.
For such a small country it had trouble getting a national identity of its own and not just assimilating the culture and practices and languages of its past rulers. This wasn't helped by the fact that for many years it was illegal to speak, teach or read anything in Slavonian. An example we heard was that if a school child was caught speaking Slavonian in the playground at school, he or she would be immediately expelled.
Now, however, it seems to have found its feet. The university courses are mainly in the local language, and there is a lot more freedom than in the past. The country was never part of the Ottoman Empire, which sets it apart from many of the places we have visited. It has a lot more European influence than Serbian influence. Tito is barely mentioned, for example.
As they got their independence, like the other states that distanced themselves from Yugoslavia, there was a war. The one here, though, only lasted ten days - for which the majority of Slovenians are really thankful.
Most of the main buildings and bridges in town were designed by an architect called Plecnik. He was from Slovenia and he went on to work in Vienna and to help design Prague Castle. The library that he built was finished just before World War 1. It was a nice, big empty building just as the war started and it would have made perfect army barracks. Obviously Plecnik didn't want the army taking over his nice new library building so he got the citizens of the town to all muck in and stuff the building full of books. This was a major operation that had to be done at great haste before the army got there. Part of the process involved forming a human conveyor belt from the river to the library itself. Books were brought in by boat and then handed hand to hand along to the library where they were liberally distributed in the building. The Italian army arrived and found the building stuffed with these books, and then decided that it would be too much effort to move the books out, so they found a different building for their barracks.
As well as Plecnik's buildings and bridges there are also some Austro-Hungarian style buildings and some colourful art nouveau buildings, too.
Another part of the architecture here is the abundance of dragons. Dragons of all shapes and sizes are everywhere - they guard the bridges, they are on lamp posts, they can be seen next to the river banks and even appear on Ljubljana's flag. The legend of Jason and the Argonauts involves Slovenia, and particularly the river in Ljubljana. On the way back from getting the Golden Fleece, on the way back to Greece, Jason was travelling on the Black Sea and took a wrong turn. Instead of travelling up the Bosphorus he travelled up the Danube and into Ljubljana. In order to continue his journey he had to defeat the dragon that lived here. The dragon was the protector of the city. Jason was successful, though, and continued on his way. Quite why there are statues of the dragon rather than of Jason himself here, I am not sure.
Anyway, speaking of army barracks (which we were, if you were paying attention), there is one area in town that used to be a barracks for the Yugoslav army. Once the country gained its independence the area was given over as a kind of student commune/squatter camp. Now it is like a free open-air museum that is covered in interesting murals, sculptures, graffiti etc. that the students created whilst they were living there. Some of it suggests there wasn't just tobacco in the cigarettes that were being passed around, but it is fascinating to look at.
We had to (it is compulsory if you come to Ljubljana) climb the hill on the edge of town to get a closer look at the castle and to admire the views from its walls. It is a short, but quite steep, climb up to the top of the hill. The views are worth it, though.
After looking around the castle for a while we climbed back down the hill again, waving on the way to the people who were in the funicular railway going up (cheats!). We wanders through the market, where you can buy all sorts of fruit and vegetables, and nice turnip or cabbage sauerkraut, and into a cafe for a quick drink.
Later we walked back to the hostel for a bit of a rest before heading out for dinner. There is a restaurant near the hostel which was recommended to us by the hostel manager. We also got 10% off the food. It specialises in local Slovenian dishes, so I had a lamb ragout that was served with gnocchi and Sarah had cottage cheese dumplings with wild mushrooms. It was really good, and not too expensive. Then, after a short stroll along the banks of the river whilst we watched the sun going down and the ducks playing in the water, we headed back to the hostel.
When you travel the thing that can often spoil your enjoyment a little (well, I find anyway) is other travellers. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like meeting new people and finding out about where others are coming form or going to etc., and often meeting other travellers can be a highlight of an adventure. Sometimes, though, there are fellow travellers who seem hell bent on ruining what could otherwise be a nice experience. On our last night in Ljubljana we had the joy of encountering a couple of individuals who were, sadly, in this category. They were young, and I won't mention their nationality for fear of this being seen as influencing my judgement about them (let's just say Britain and this country have never had the best of relationships). They were in the room next to us. Their room was also very small, like ours, but they clearly felt the need to communicate with each other by shouting as loudly as they could. This was OK at ten o'clock when we were thinking about hitting the sack, and it was bearable at eleven, too. By midnight it was starting to grate on my nerves a bit. When they still hadn't turned the volume down by one o'clock in the morning I went and knocked on their door and asked them as nicely as I could at that time of the night to please turn the noise down a bit as we were trying to sleep. Thankfully they did. For a while, before starting up again an hour or so later.
In the morning, being a very forgiving chap I was busy working out all sorts of ways in which I could make just a little more noise than necessary so that they wouldn't miss out on the opportunity of a bit of sleep deprivation, which they clearly thought they were kindly helping everyone else to enjoy. I had worked out a few plans (the rooms in the hostel are operated by noisy number pads that make an electronic beeping sound each time you enter a number of the code for the door, so mistyping these a few times would be a nice start) and I was just about to launch into my carefully calculated routine when they emerged, as bright as buttons from the room, backpacks on, bidding me a good morning and heading for their next destination. Hopefully not Bled, which is where we were heading. Maybe it is just me getting old, though. I'm sure I used to be able to sleep through most things.
The trip to Lesce was quick and easy - just an hour by bus. We soon found ourselves at another hostel. We had a small room with a shared bathroom. This room, though, had the luxury of its own sink! Such luxury. It was the most hostel-like hostel we have stayed at so far. By that I mean there was tour information on the walls, the receptionist was full of travel information and the kitchen was clearly labelled with its own 'free food' shelf - things that had been left over from previous travellers. We took advantage of this shelf and grabbed a bag of crisps and some crackers for our lunch.
The draw of Lesce is that it is a very short bus ride (just 4km) from one of the most beautiful lakes we've been to in a long, long time - Lake Bled. The hostel we stayed at gave free shuttle rides in their minibus to the lake shore. The first afternoon we were there we just went and sat in a cafe next to the water. The lake is beautiful, about 6km in circumference and surrounded on all sides by steep, pine covered trees. It is little wonder that Tito had a house built for him here, right on the lake shore.
The lake is home to a number of international rowing competitions, some biathlons and some fishing clubs. Small rowing boats can be rented, or slightly larger ones with a pilot can be hired for trips around the lake, and visits to the pretty, small island and its church.
We spent one full day walking in Vintgar Gorge, near to the lake, and walking around the circumference of the lake itself. The Gorge is, well, gorgeous. It is just under 2km long and has boardwalks suspended over the fast flowing river running along one side of the sheer mountains that get closer and closer together the further you walk towards the waterfalls at the end. The water is clear and it is easy to see the trout in it swimming upstream (which is odd as there is a trout restaurant at the end - do they have a desire to become someone's lunch?).
Walking around the lake was very peaceful and picturesque. We managed to take over 50 photos on the way round, which was unusual for us. It was hard choosing whichever pictures to keep as the place is so photogenic.
At the far end of the lake from Bled town there is a 650m high hill which was begging to be scrambled up. The walk to the top was short but steep and involved using a long ladder at one point to get to the summit. It was good exercise and we felt like we had earned our traditional Slovenian cream cake by the time we got to the cafe at the bottom.
The evening was spent relaxing back in the garden of the hostel, next to the noisy church. There is a church here that rings its bells every 15 minutes, really loudly. It is right next to the hostel, and we were worried we wouldn't be able to sleep with that racket going on, but it stopped at 20:30 and didn't start again until 07:00 in the morning. So Muslims don't have a monopoly on blaring out loud calls to pray from their religious buildings! But thankfully this one didn't sound at 04:00 in the morning, as we have known some mosques to do.
We also went to Bled church which is an old, but well preserved place. Most of what is there today is from the Austro-Hungarian period in the 1800s, but there has been some kind of fortification on the site since prehistoric times. It is easy to see why. It is perched on top of an almost vertical stick of granite rock that projects straight up from one corner of the lake. It has a great 360 degree panoramic view from the top and most of the old buildings are not only still there, but are also still in use. The chapel, for example, is one of the most beautiful sites I've seen for having a wedding (although the guests would have to be quite fit to get to the reception, and remain quite sober to be able to get down again).
There is a second big lake near to Bled. This one is called Bohinj and is equally beautiful, but in a different way. It is far more natural, with a distinct lack of bug hotels and restaurants around the edge. It is surrounded by the Alps and makes for another lovely day trip, we caught a bus to the far end (from Bled) of the lake, There is a walk that goes into a valley between the mountains and then 800m up the side of the mountain to a great waterfall. We did this and learned that the Slavian word for waterfall is 'Slap'. This slap was worth a hike to see.
After admiring the slap we had a picnic lunch and then wandered over to a cable car that goes up to the top of one of the 1,500m high mountains near the lake. We took the cable car up to the top and then spent three hours wandering back down to the lake again. The walk was quite difficult. It was very steep in parts and most of it was scree. It is usually occupied by skiers in the winter and there is a big ski lodge at the top. Despite the difficulty it was great being in the alpine forest, listening to the birds twittering away in the trees (they don't use Facebook), and watching our for bears. I kept telling Sarah she had a nice bear, behind. She wasn't all that amused, surprisingly.
At the bottom we had a hard earned toasted sandwich and then caught the bus back to the hostel. We spent the evening relaxing and getting ready for the next day - our trip to Vienna.
Austria - Part One
21st May 2017
The bus journey from Ljubljana to Vienna was quite long (about five hours) and not the most scenic trip we've taken as it was mostly along motorways. The border crossing was quite funny, though. It consisted of a border guard climbing into the bus, standing next to the drivers seat for about three seconds, then walking away again. He must have, through telepathy, calculated that we all had the relevant passports and visas.
After a tram ride through the city we arrived at a pretty square with cafes dotted around it. Our place was down a side street a few metres away. We were met a the door by a young, single chap (the usual for air bnb) and we went in, said hello and dropped our bags before heading out for an Italian meal around the corner from the property.
The following day was a full day of exploring Vienna. The is an expensive city (entry to a standard museum here is about €15-20), so we decided that we would be satisfied with just wandering around and admiring the buildings from the outside. The first thing that strikes you about the buildings here is their size. They are massive. I was wondering what the statistics would be for the various capital cities around the world if you took the number of separate buildings per square kilometre. I think Vienna's total number would be very low. They were built to last, too. They are solid, thick-walled blocks that would be ugly and overpowering if it wasn't for their ornate decorations. They are covered in columns, statues of figures from the past or from mythology, floral designs, even some animals or representations of shields or weaponry in some places. The combination of huge building, ornate decorations, and a feeling of history (as Vienna obviously carries in bucket loads) makes for a fascinating place. Each corner you turn as you walk through the massive, sprawling old town, reveals another historical building.
There are lots of things to admire here. For example, Vienna has a quite well known riding school which has a long history and some beautiful horses - right in the centre of the city. The horses are called Lipizzaner horses and the riding school has been in place for 440 years, making it one of the oldest riding schools in the world. We went and had a look at the outside of their stables and watched the riders prepare the horses for a show. We were going to go to a show, but it was about €30 for a standing ticket. Out of our budget for this trip, sadly.
After admiring the horses for a while we strolled past more of the huge buildings in the city, popped into a couple of gothic churches to admire the frescos and went for a picnic in one of the nearby parks.
In the afternoon we spent a while in a coffee shop. It is the thing to do in Vienna, and very much part of the local culture. Coffee houses are everywhere, and the idea is to go and relax, have a coffee (which come in tiny, dolls-house sized cups), chat with friends etc. A bit like Starbucks, only with culture and a little more style.
In the late afternoon there was a beer festival going on in one of the squares, so we went for a beer and to watch one of the live bands. There was a nice atmosphere and the band was OK, but perhaps should have kept to singing in German as I couldn't help chuckling at their pronunciation of some of the words to the English songs they were trying to sing. Mind you, I have been to some countries where the singers sing English songs having learned the sounds, without learning what the actual words are they are trying to sing.
We wandered back to the hostel along the banks of the muddy brown Danube after our beer. We stopped at a Turkish restaurant and conversed with the chap behind the counter in Turkish (us) and Turman (Turkish/German) (him). It was nice to have a bit of Turkish food again and to think back to how much ground we've covered since we left Istanbul.
We've got more ground to cover and the next stage of our trip takes us just an hour up the road, or river, to Slovakia...
Slovakia
22nd May 2017
The border crossings are getting easier. I wouldn't have noticed that we had actually gone over a national border between Austria and Slovakia unless Sarah had pointed to a small shed out of the bus window. The bus didn't slow down and I didn't see any security guards. There are two quite distinct ways to travel through life. The first is to fix a destination in your mind, and then take the road that leads directly there. Not stopping to smell the roses or admire the scenery, just determinedly getting from point A to point B. We followed this path from the bus station up an almost straight road that bypassed the old town up to the train station where we had two goals - to buy tickets for the train to Poprad and to leave our luggage at the left luggage place (it was twelve o'clock and the air bnb wouldn't be ready until 18:00).
The other path to follow through life is one that still gets you to point B, but in a much more leisurely fashion - giving you time to admire the road as you travel and to enjoy the surroundings along the way. Once we'd dropped our bags at the station we then walked, slowly, away and back down the road we had come from. We crisscrossed our way through the parks that followed the main road, and stopped in an old, friendly cafe for a coffee and a snack.
After lunch we wandered around the streets of the old town - which was quite big, but not as big as Vienna's. We saw lots of very interesting historical and contemporary statues, a cathedral, a bright blue church (built in the 1800s), the walls and a gate of the old city's fortifications and finally ended up sitting on a grass bank overlooking the Danube. I hope my life can be one where the path I choose will always give me time to admire the view along the way as I travel.
At 17:30 we went and collected our bags from the station and walked about ten minutes towards the old town and to our air bnb, We had a really colourful room. It had bright pink curtains, a wide striped black and white sofa with a bright red and a turquoise blanket on, a very floral set of drawers and a bed with a red and blue duvet. It was bright and fun and suited us for a couple of nights.
The following day we went on the city's free walking tour. This was quite a long one and lasted nearly three hours. It was interesting, though, learning about the Slovaks, the Czechs, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet and Nazi and Keltic and Roman periods of control of the area etc. We walked around the castle that sits on a hill overlooking the old town, and how it was completely rebuilt in recent years due to fires that have swept through it in the past (which some say were started by Italian soldiers who were trying to cook, and others say was started by some teenagers who were smoking on the grassy hill and dropped a match or a cigarette.
After the walk we went back to the banks of the Danube, where we had been the previous day, and had lunch while sitting on the grass. After a stroll along the banks of the Danube, admiring the boats and the brown, muddy water, we walked as far as the UFO (a restaurant perched on the top of the world's longest suspension bridge that has only one support), up into the old town and then we caught a bus to the top of one of the hills on the edge of town. There is a monument here to the Soviets that were killed while trying to liberate Slovakia from the Nazis. There are over 6,000 people buried in mass graves near the monument. It is a bit controversial as just as many people were killed by the Soviets dragging them to the gulags as there were Soviets killed here. The people killed on the way to the work camps don't get a monument of their own.
The views from the monument were good and after admiring these for a while we wandered back to our flat for a rest.
The following day was spent mostly on the train, travelling to Poprad in the East of the country. The idea was to go hiking in the surrounding mountains (the High Tatras). The weather, however, had other ideas. We spent a wet, but enjoyable day walking around the old town. It was deserted - probably because of the rain. There was a lovely old church here. Built in the 1200s, it is decorated inside with wonderful statues and figures from the bible and from local stories. It made a change from the frescoes we have been seeing. After a brief look around the old town (there really isn't much else to see apart from the outside of some beautiful old 15th century houses), we wandered back into the new town of Poprad and went to the tourist information place. The chap there recommended getting a bus to Spisk castle, about an hour away.
When we arrived in the town that the castle towers over it was pouring with rainy. Fortunately it was lunch time so we dived into a nearby restaurant for an hour or so to let the rain pass (and to eat a nice lunch, too, of course). Eventually the rain did clear and we climbed the hill the castle is perched on.
Spis, or Spisk (depending on your mood) Castle is one of the 1000+ UNESCO world heritage sites. It was built in the 12th century, on top of the ruins of an older castle. It used to be the Hungarian HQ for the region and was owned by Hungarian kings until 1464 when it was taken over by a series of aristocratic Slovak families. It is one of the biggest castles in Europe (41,000 m2) and is in quite good condition considering its age.
We were given an audio guide, included in the €6 admission price, and we wandered around the various sections admiring the architecture and chuckling at the man on the audio guide who was talking about the 'picture skew' castle.
Once we had finished clambering around the upper parts of the castle, we decided to head down and start walking towards the bus stop again to head back to Poprad. Well, that was the plan, but the weather had other ideas. We had heard thunder rumbling in the distance as we were walking around and it was at this point that the rain clouds decided to dump their load. We dived into the castle cafe and had a rooibos tea while we were waiting for it to clear.
After half an hour or so the rain eased and we were able to get down the hill the castle was on and to get onto a bus heading for Poprad. The sky was quite clear and there were even a few blue patches around when we got off the bus again and walked the couple of kilometres between the bus park and our flat.
We spent the evening at home. We've discovered a lovely kind of tea they sell here - Tatratea, Tatra, after the mountain range, of course, and tea because that, along with some herbs from the mountains and some mountain spring water is the main ingredient. It is nice and comes in all sorts of different flavours and strengths. It is alcoholic, and we bought a bottle that was 52% (we couldn't bring ourselves to buy the 'Outlaw' variety which is 75%). We chuckled because we looked it up on Amazon. It is available, but for about four times the price, so we had better not start liking it too much!
We did have one day where the rain stayed away most of the time. We took advantage of the gap in the clouds by jumping on an electric train into the mountains. We had discovered a walk that didn't go up too high (there was no point going beyond about 2000m as there were thick clouds from them on upwards). The walk went from the station, up a valley to a small lake where there was a restaurant serving traditional meals (goulash for me and cheese dumplings for Sarah). It then went down a different valley to another lake and a different train station to take us home again.
The scenery was great once we started. The train took us two stops away from where we wanted to be and then there was a rail replacement bus service (yes, even here in the high Tatras they have these). The problem was that the bus took us past the station we wanted to start our walk at and on to the end of the train line. We then had to work out how to get back. As the trains were only every hour, and they were clearly not running on this part of the track, we decided that the easiest way to find where we needed to be was to walk along the train tracks back in the direction we had come. A couple of kilometres later, walking from plank to plank along the track we were at our starting point. The walk wound its way up a tar path to start with, but even here the scenery was great with the huge, snow capped mountains as a backdrop and pine forest on either side of us. The road was empty apart from the occasional random group of school kids and their harassed looking teachers walking in the opposite direction to us. (we have noticed that Slovakian school kids get taken out a lot - I guess with 40% of the country covered in forest, it has to be quite an important part of their curriculum). The main sounds we heard was bird song - lots of it. The forest was a little too dense to spot many, though.
Just before we reached the first lake we walked through an interesting cemetery. The people buried here are all victims of mountain accidents. There is a small chapel that has a painting of an angel carrying a wounded mountaineer down a mountain. The crosses here were all designed by a local artist and are really colourful. There is even one grave monument consisting of a beaten up and bent out of shape propellor that must have crashed in the area. A bit morbid, but interesting nonetheless.
After our local, very tasty lunch we headed away from the first lake on a different path. This one went into the woods themselves and wound its way up and down the side of one of the mountains. It didn't go up quite as high as the path coming, so we reached the small town at the second lake quite quickly. After a hard earned hot chocolate and Nutella pancake we caught the train back.
We were glad to have got into the mountains, even if we hadn't got quite as high as we had hoped. The weather is supposed to be getting better, though, and we are now heading towards Innsbruck in Austria and then on to Switzerland, so maybe we will get the chance to go even higher...
Austria - Part Two
28th May 2017
The trip from Slovakia to Austria was easy. A lovely train ride from Poprad. It was long, and we had to change trains in Bucarest, but it was nice and relaxing.
We arrived late in Vienna and as we had been there before we only stayed one night and left fairly early the following morning. Despite the flying visit, we managed to squeeze in one site. Near where we were staying there was an area of buildings that were designed and built by an Austrian born architect who was a New Zealander by nationality. He was born in Vienna in 1928 and died of a heart attack on the QE2 ship in 2000. His philosophy led him to hate straight lines (I wouldn't have liked to have walked behind him down a narrow street) and this translated to his architecture, which led to him designing and building some weird and wonderfully shaped blocks, using a whole range of colours and materials. He was also an environmental activist and combined the natural world with his buildings - so many of his office blocks, for example, have forests on top. It is all a bit bizarre, but actually quite refreshing to look at in an area where the buildings tend to get a bit samey.
After admiring these for a while we had a quick bite to eat before heading to bed. The next day was going to be a long journey.
Actually, the journey didn't seem as long as we had imagined. We were heading for Innsbruck and we had train tickets that meant that we were to change in Salzburg, and then in Rosenheim, Germany. I'm not sure why it went that way - it seemed a bit odd to go from Austria to Germany and back to Austria again just to get from one side of the country to the other. But still, these tickets were the cheapest we could find, so we weren't complaining.
Quite early in the morning we headed to the Westbahnhof station in Vienna and asked at the information desk whether or not our tickets allowed us to get any train to Salzburg, or only certain ones. We were told that any train would do, so we decided to catch an earlier train than the one we had originally intended to get as this would give us time to look around Salzburg before the next leg of the journey.
We got on the train - which was absolutely stuffed full of people - and managed to find a seat in the dining car. We felt a bit bad about sitting there, so we had a drink and hoped we wouldn't get moved on. Then it started to unravel a bit. The ticket inspector came and looked at our ticket. She told us that our tickets weren't valid for any trains before 11:00 a.m.. We tried to explain that we had operated on good faith after having consulted with their learned information assistant at the station but she wasn't having it. She fined us an excess fare (€15) and then let us stay on the train. Oh well, you live and learn I guess.
The benefit of getting the earlier train is that
we had about five hours in Salzburg to look around. After dropping our bags off at a left luggage place in the train station, we headed into town. It is a really beautiful little city, which kind of made up for the fine we'd had to pay. There is a lovely river flowing through the town, lots and lots of old gothic cathedrals and, of course, Mozart. He was born here and we saw the house that this happened in - for some reason it is a bright yellow place, We also saw the convent that was the base for the Sound Of Music, it is a pretty building with a nice clock tower and a backdrop of snow covered mountains.
We really enjoyed our time in Salzburg and we're glad we'd had time to go and look around a bit.
Back on the train we headed into Germany. Actually, besides a policeman getting on the train and checking about three people's passports (but not ours), we didn't actually notice that we had crossed the border and had to keep checking our own map to see when that had happened.
We waited on Rosenheim's platform for a while and then finally got a train into Innsbruck.
The air bnb place we were staying at was just ten minutes away from the station so we walked there. The first thing that strikes you about the city is that it is surrounded by high, snow capped mountains. We had arrived in the Alps.
The lady at the air bnb was really sweet and helped us check in. She was obviously used to tourists as she gave us armfuls of maps, guides, advice and information about the city and then recommended a nice restaurant that was nearby and in our price bracket (I.e. Dirt cheap). Sarah was sold on it as she could get some falafel, which she loves.
On the way to the restaurant (which was outside, and in a courtyard next to an old church whose bells kept ringing every fifteen minutes), we experienced a bit of Innsbruck culture. We headed to a local supermarket to buy milk for breakfast the following morning.
The place was packed. There were queues twenty people long at the checkouts and there was a party atmosphere in the building. When we looked closer we realised everyone was buying crate loads of beer. I'm not sure where the parties were happening, but it was Saturday night and people here obviously, instead of going to clubs and pubs, like to party at home.
We had a nice meal and took our milk home to our own flat party - well, a cup of tea anyway.
Lots of big cities we have travelled through on this trip have a city card. It is a card you can buy for a certain period of time that lets you use all the public transport, get into museums, and sometimes gives you discounts on restaurant meals etc. We decided to splash out and get a 24 hour one of these, so on our only full day in Innsbruck we headed down to the tourist information point early in the morning and bought them. We winced a bit at the price, but headed straight out to enjoy the city. Our day consisted of three main sites. First of all we headed up. There is a funicular railway you can get from town to take you up to a village in the hills (1,900m up, Hungerburg). From here you can get a cable car and then a second cable car up to the peak of one of the highest mountains in the area - the 2,300m high Nordkette. Needless to say, the views from here were spectacular. It was a little cooler (there was some snow still on the ground) but the clean air and the mountain-top feeling were great.
On the way down we stopped at one of the stages to watch the paragliders taking off from the side of the mountain. They are much braver than me - it looks really scary! It must be beautiful once you get the hang of it, though.
After coming down to earth again, we had a quick picnic in a nearby park - or tried to. We were told off by the park warden as he said no sitting on the grass was allowed. Apparently the locals aren't happy about this rule and every year they stage a 'sit-down' in protest - but they haven't been successful yet. So we sat on a nearby wall instead and finished our sandwiches.
Then, secondly, we caught a bus to the strange but beautiful 'Swarovski Crystal World'. Excuse my ignorance, but apparently they are an Austrian based crystal company that produces crystals for the likes of H. Samuel. I'm sure you knew that already, though.
We visited what was effectively their headquarters. There is a museum here which consists of different rooms, each with a theme, designed to display and show off their wares. The museum is housed inside a man-made hill which, on the outside, has a waterfall that is in the shape of a man's head (the water is coming out of his mouth). All very odd, and we only had about thirty minutes here as the bus we wanted to catch was leaving, so we basically trotted around the museum, stopping only to take one or two quick photos. To be honest, that was all the time we felt we really would have needed anyway (I can't quite believe that they charge €19 to get in if you don't have a city card)!
Back on the bus we headed to the station where we caught a 'hop-on-hop-off' site seeing bus to our third and final site. The bus had headphones at every seat and you could select on a panel which language you wanted, there were about eight different ones to choose from, and whether you wanted the children's commentary or the adult one. I chose the children's one - it was far more interesting than the adult one!
We got off the bus at the Schloss Ambrass (Ambrass Castle). This was rebuilt by Archduke Ferdinand II for his good lady wife Philippine. She was not nobility, and was just a merchant's daughter. The marriage was a secret one and the castle was partly used as a place for her to hide so she wasn't lynched for marrying out of her class. The castle has a collection of buildings which are all in quite good repair considering that some of them date from the 1500s. There is Philippine's bathroom, lots of armoury (including one set that belonged to a 'giant' in Ferdinand's court - he was over 8 foot tall), and lots of paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Tizian, Ruebens etc. Ferdinand loved to collect curiosities. There is a room devoted to these - portraits of people with a sickness that leads to you having a really hairy body and face, a portrait of a guy who got a lance through his eye in battle, but managed to survive for a year in that condition, a stuffed shark, and lots of other weird and wonderful things.
The grounds that the castle is set in is a lovely green park with a big pond and lots of grass where the locals were having picnics (nobody was asking them to sit on a nearby wall).
After the castle we got the bus back to the station and the supermarket that wasn't filled with people in a frenzy to buy beer this time. We bought some picnic food and, after a quick stop back at the flat, we walked to the river to watch the water go buy, look at the mountains and eat some strawberries. It had been a lovely, but very busy day,
The final day in Innsbruck was much more relaxing. We had a leisurely morning and didn't get out of bed until about 09:00. Our host came and said goodbye and that we could stay as long as we needed to before heading off to catch our bus. So, after breakfast we went for a nice walk by the river Inn, from which the town gets its name ('Brucke' meaning 'bridge'). We wandered around the old town and saw some of the sites. There is a triumphal arch that was built to celebrate the marriage of one of the princes back in the 1600s. There wasn't much to celebrate, though - the groom had chronic stomach problems during the ceremonies and kept having to dash off to the toilet, it rained all day and the groom died a year later. Still, the arch is very nice.
There is a wonderful balcony on the outside of one of the buildings that was built by one of the Archdukes. He had fallen out of favour and gone away to live on his own for a while, thereby losing a lot of his fortune. He gained the nickname, 'the penniless'. He then returned to his family and later became ruler, but the nickname stuck. In order to show that he wasn't penniless he had a golden balcony built and heavily decorated with lots of small figures, wood carvings etc. to show just how wealthy he really was. He also made the building into the local treasury.
We also went into the Swarovski crystal shop in town, where I bought Sarah a crystal necklace with a crystal mined from the local
mountains.
We came back to the flat and had lunch and relaxed before continuing our journey. Switzerland next...I'm hoping for some nice chocolate! :)
Switzerland
30th May 2017
The journey from Innsbruck to Zurich is spectacular. The bus followed the Alps and we went round mountains (along valleys), up and over mountains (1,800m was the highest point I was able to measure on my gps), and through mountains (there were loads of tunnels). The scenery varied from wonderful views from the mountain tops to farming land in the valleys to pine and beach tree forests.
We got into Zurich quite late. The guy at the air bnb had told us he wasn't going to be at home as he worked until midnight. He had arranged to leave the key to his flat cunningly hidden in the pages of a magazine in his mailbox at the door of the block his was in. We arrived at Zurich station (which is massive and decorated with various pieces of art work - including a blue Angel for some reason). Our first challenge was to change some money into Swiss francs. We were hoping this wouldn't be a problem, but it was already about 21:00 in the evening, so we weren't 100% convinced we could do it. After walking around the station for a while we decided to ask a friendly police lady. She was very helpful and pointed us in the direction of Western Union.
Once we had changed money successfully our next challenge was to buy tickets. We tried an automated ticket machine and couldn't work out how to buy tickets for the particular train we wanted. Eventually we worked out we were using the wrong machine. There are several different types of train in Switzerland (mainline, local line, international etc...) and each one has their own ticketing system. Once we'd worked out which machine to use, we bought our tickets and then it dawned on us just how expensive Switzerland actually is, especially compared to some of the places we have been travelling in. Once we had our ticket, we then found the station and finally got on the train towards our place. After getting off the train we then had to get a bus, have a short walk in the dark and finally arrive at our air bnb. We found the keys and managed to let ourselves in. It was late by then and we were tired, so we went to bed. We didn't actually see our host.
The following morning we decided to climb the hill that is behind our property. It was a lovely walk but muc harder than we had anticipated. We thought we were following a marked path that wound its way gently up the 850m hill. It started off that way, but then turned into the forest where we were walking along a narrow, steep ridge for much of the way. It was so steep in parts that there were ropes to pull yourself up with. It actually got a bit scary in parts, but once we were at the top we joined a circular, wide path that took us up to the summit.
At the summit we admired the view for a while and then headed down to the nearby train station. We didn't have many coins and the only ticket machine there didn't take notes. There weren't any people to ask or to pay so we bought the most expensive ticket we could with our few coins and hoped for the best. Thankfully no ticket inspector came along and we were soon in town.
Zurich has a few wonderful features - a lovely, huge lake right in the centre, a river that feeds into the lake, and lots and lots of churches and grand old buildings. Some of the churches are quite historical (either because of their age, dating from the 9th century, or because of who went to the church - people like Zwingli who helped start the reformation).
After walking a circuit round the old city, crossing bridges over the river, watching the swans on the lake, admiring the buildings etc., we headed back to the main train station and got ourselves home again via a supermarket.
We spent the evening planning our next trip - Freiburg.
Germany
31st May 2017
The two hour bus trip between Zurich and Freiburg was pleasant, but not spectacular as most of it was along a busy motorway. We arrived at the flat a little early, so sat on the doorstep. Sarah got her phone working (the Romanian SIM card that we bought still hasn't run out of credit) and, after about ten minutes of sitting in the sun she got at text message over to the guy checking us in. Fine minutes later he appeared - from inside the building we'd been sitting at. If only we'd known the correct doorbell to ring!
We were shown into our studio flat, consisting of a small room with a sofa bed, a massive TV and a kitchen unit in one room and a separate bathroom with the funkiest shower and jacuzzi I've seen. Really high tec and I was looking forward to using it the following day.
Sarah wasn't feeling her usual chipper self. She has a bit of a lung infection and sore eyes. She did have hay fever, but it seems to have developed into something a little worse. So our first stop after dropping our bags was the chemist.
By the time Sarah had been loaded up with armfuls of medicine it was about 14:00 and we were feeling hungry. There is a place in Freiburg called the Market Halle, (no prizes for guessing the English translation of this). This is a covered area with lots of different food stalls from around the world. There's Indian, Mexican, Argentinian, Thai etc...and even a German place. We thought as we were in Germany we'd better eat like the locals - so we had an Indian meal each. This was really tasty and much cheaper than anything in Switzerland.
Feeling refreshed we then had a stroll round the old town, dodging the trams hat whizzed up and down the narrow streets and admiring the old 16th and 17th century colourful houses with their big balconies and decorations.
One of the highlights here is the Munster, the cathedral. The last duke of Zähringen started building the place around 1200 in romanesque style. The construction continued in 1230 in Gothic style. The minster was partly built on the foundations of an original church that had been there from the beginning of Freiburg, in 1120. So, as you can imagine, there is are a lot of different styles of architecture in the building all mashed together (a 'Munster mash'...anyone?...no?...oh well, I did try to lighten the history lesson).
I asked a chap at the information counter if I could climb the tour. He told me it was under renovation until March next year. I told him I was sorry, but couldn't wait that long, and consoled myself with a wander around the inside admiring the windows and statues. Some of the windows are red and, apparently, this is due to gold nanoparticles inside the glass and not red dye. I thought the building must be worth a bit, then.
After admiring the Munster we headed out for more of a wander around town. Sarah was feeling a bit worn out. Something about not being able to breathe (which I think is over rated anyway), so we went to a cheap supermarket (one of the advantages of being in a university area - a big bottle of Riesling cost €2!) and came home to cook some German sausages and cabbage.
That evening there was a wonderful sunset that we could see through the skylight window in the loft apartment we were in. The rich, deep reds and golds over the trees of the Black Forest made for a wonderful site.
Overnight Sarah's lung problems worsened. She didn't sleep very much and I woke occasionally to the sound of coughing and heavy wheezing. In the morning she felt really weak.
There is an 850m hill at the back of the town. We were going to spend a day hiking in the Black Forest but, because Sarah could hardly breathe, we decided against this. Breathing is quite useful when you are hiking. So she sent me off in the morning to hike the hill in town on my own with instructions to get some good photos to show her when I got back.
It didn't take long to hike the hill. It was a round trip of about eight kilometres and, as Freiburg is already just under 300m up, there wasn't too much of a climb. Most of the way to the top of the hill is on wide gravel or paved paths that wind their way around the contours of the hill through thick forest. There were some great views from up to half way up, but then the density of the trees meant the views were obscured somewhat. It seemed not many other people had had the idea of climbing the hill that morning and, for most of the way I was on my own. It was very peaceful and I just had the sound of birdsong to keep me company on my hike. I went back to the patient in the flat via a supermarket and we had some lunch whilst sitting on the bed.
We decided it would be a good idea to try to get Sarah's lungs out of the flat for a while, and I tempted her with the promise of some Black Forest gateaux. The problem was that she really didn't have any energy and even walking down the four flights of stairs to leave the building (there wasn't a lift) was a strain. She decided that even the temptation of cake couldn't entice her to walk much further, so we went to a small cafe next to the apartment block and had an orange juice each. Vitamins. Probably better for her than cream cake anyway.
To kill time in the afternoon we decided to head to the pharmacy to see if we could get Sarah some medicine. There was a chemist opposite the flat, so we headed there. The chemist took one look at Sarah and told her to go to the doctor. She recommended a GP just down the road so we went to see him. Unfortunately, he was busy and he recommended another surgery just round the corner, so we went there. Unfortunately this was a children only place. Apparently Sarah didn't qualify as one of those, so they recommended a third place. Here there was a lovely Indian female doctor that gave Sarah a thorough examination. She came back with the news that Sarah had asthma. This, apparently, was brought on by her allergies. I don't quite understand the science of it all, but she was given an inhaler and a couple of quick puffs later and she started feeling a little better.
We spent the evening with Sarah getting better at home whilst I cooked some veggies for her so she could get some vitamins to make her stronger. I had a pizza.
Rotterdam and Amsterdam next, and then we are heading back to the UK...
Netherlands
3rd June 2017
The journey from Freiburg to Rotterdam wasn't the easiest train journey we've had. We chose tickets that were slightly more expensive than the bus because the bus took three hours longer than the train, but ours were still the cheapest train tickets available. The reason for the low price was partly due to the number of changes of trains we had to make to reach Rotterdam (five). The timings were carefully worked out on the ticket, though, so we thought there wouldn't be a problem.
We got to the train station in Freiburg in good time and our first train of the five arrived dead on time, so we started to think that the rumours about German efficiency were founded in truth. We couldn't get a seat, though, as the train was packed. We found a spot to sit on the floor next to one of the doors. This was fine, except we had to keep standing up every time we got to a station.
The second train arrived and departed on time, too, so we started to relax. We even got a seat each on this one (not together, but at least we got seats). The train started well and for the first couple of stations on the route was keeping time. Then the problems hit. At one of the stations we sat for about twenty minutes and, when we finally departed, it continued at a much slower pace. The result was that we arrived at our next stop 40 minutes late. We had obviously missed our connecting train.
We grabbed our bags and ran for a train on a different platform that was going to our next destination in our sequence. We missed the train. So, bags in hand (and on back) we headed down to the information point. We expected to have a big problem with our tickets, have to re-book, maybe have to pay more money etc...but the lady there just looked at our ticket, stamped it to say we had been delayed through no fault of our own and then explained that we could catch a later train and have only one more change.
The good thing about this was that it gave us time for lunch (which we'd neglected to bring with us) and an easier journey with less changes. So we liked German trains again.
The rest of the journey went smoothly and we got to Rotterdam station without any hitches.
Our next challenge was to buy a tram ticket. You would think that would be a simple enough task. We didn't even need to change tram lines. Just one ticket each to take us about six stops down the same train line. Easy? Not quite. Firstly there were three different types of ticket machine. We asked and somebody told us which machine we needed. We then looked at the options for tickets but really couldn't work out which one to buy, so we decided to head to the information booth. There was a sign on this saying 'All ticketing is handled by the service centre', so we headed to the service centre. There was a queue of about ten people there and it would have taken about half an hour to get seen, so we decided to try our hand at using the machines again.
Eventually we found a ticket type that seemed to say 2 x 1 hour journey. We thought it strange that it offered one for two people but not one for an individual. These Dutch folk must be very social, we thought, always travelling with a partner. Anyway, we bought this one and headed onto our tram.
We were almost at our destination when a friendly (thank goodness) ticket collector came up to us and checked our ticket. We explained we had one ticket that was for two people. He nearly fell on the floor laughing. 'Eees impossible', he said, chuckling. He then carefully (as he was talking to two tourists who clearly had no idea how to use a tram properly) explained that the ticket we had was for two separate one hour journeys. So at the start of a journey you validate your card on a machine, and then tap again when you leave, then, at a later date, you can take a second one hour journey. The two one hour journeys can't, (obviously be taken at the same time). He then sold us one one hour journey ticket. Why the machine we were using didn't have this explanation or this ticket type available when we needed it, is a mystery, but at least we then knew how to use a tram in Rotterdam.
Finally, after a long, long journey (much longer than taking the bus), we arrived at our air bnb. We were greeted by a friendly young, single chap who showed us into the flat, the bedroom, the lounge, the kitchen, bathroom and the dog (a massive, docile, friendly beasty called Dina).
In the evening we were too tired to cook so we ate at the local restaurant just outside our flat. It is called Mombassa but serves Dutch food...
Part of the deal with the air bnb we were in here was that we get free use of two bicycles. They were big, heavy, clumpy things with no gears, very high handlebars and no breaks. Well, actually that's not really fair, they did have breaks, kind of, you had to cycle backwards
to break. They took some getting used to but it was nice to have them as it meant we could cover a lot more ground than if we were just walking. We visited lots of the local sites and had fun just cycling up and down the canals and over some of the many bridges that are here. Rotterdam is a place full of very interesting, and extremely diverse architecture. It was bombed in the Second World War and most of the building in town were left in rubble. There is one house that remains from the 1600s, but most of the churches, houses, offices and bridges are post Second World War. When they started rebuilding they obviously decided to have fun. There aren't too many buildings that are the same as any of the others. Huge, angular office blocks, strange cubic houses and red, white and green bridges make up the majority of the landscape, while there are lots of canals, larger rivers and huge harbours (in fact the biggest in the world until 2004 and still the biggest in Europe today).
We started the day by looking at a windmill. There are three in town, we cycled around one of them. Then we headed up the Euromast, which is the tallest tower in town. There is a revolving class lift right up at the top of the 185m tower that both gives a breathtaking view of the city and provides a commentary about some of the buildings.
After this we cycled along the canals, saw the point where the pilgrims first left for America in the 1600s, wandered around some of the lovely parks and just relaxed on the bikes. I went to an art museum (Sarah was a bit pooped by then, so she relaxed in the leafy shade of a nearby park, watching an Egyptian goose with her goslings getting fed by a local). In the evening we had dinner back at the flat and got ready for our trip the following day.
We had an early start on the last day before we travelled back to England. We got ourselves to Rotterdam Central Station for 09:00 and then jumped onto a Flixbus for an hour and a bit's journey to Amsterdam.
We were surprised by the difference between the two cities. Amsterdam is much bigger and busier than Rotterdam. There are far more tourists (in fact, uncomfortably so), and the buildings are more uniform in their design, and are older having survived the wars. There are still the canals, the large number of bicycles and the trams, but Amsterdam just seems to have a lot more of these. There are some interesting features to the city, too. There are some quirky museums (like the Tulip and the Hemp museums), there are the historical houses of the likes of Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Anne Frank, and there are the not so family friendly quarters, too, like the red light district (I walked past one building and was surprised to see a large lady dressed just in a bra and pants making eyes at me through one of the windows - I hid behind Sarah).
If you can escape the crowds (unfortunately easier said than done) there are some cute narrow back streets and some big green parks to explore.
We walked most of the centre of the city and had fun just people watching and admiring the architecture of the outside of some of the grand museums (such as the Rijks Museum). We stopped in a park for a picnic and later for some great Dutch pancakes.
The bus journey back to Rotterdam took us through The Hague, past some huge sky scrapers, and then we had our last supper before heading back to England. We thought it fitting to go to a local restaurant, so we did, but it just so happened it was an Indian. We had a great curry.
The following day we were up at 06:15 and left the flat without having breakfast. We thought we could just jump on a tram and get to the station for the train to Brussels where we would change on to the Eurostar back to London. It was a good plan, except there weren't any trams that day as it was some kind of national holiday. No problem, we thought, we were close to the underground so we could walk there and jump on a tube. We walked there but didn't jump on a tube because the next one was an hour away!
In the end we walked the 2km to Rotterdam central and caught our train to Brussels. It was a comfortable journey and we were happy that we could get a seat and that our tickets were valid - so no repeats of previous train-based adventures.
We had deliberately chosen a morning train because that meant in Brussels we had time to join the free walking tour (these things are never 'free' really as you are expected to tip handsomely at the end).
Once we reached Brussels we found the left luggage lockers and put our bags in. Then we realised we didn't have enough coins so Sarah minded the bags and I dived into a nearby supermarket. Once the bags were safely tucked away we went in search of the metro to the centre of town.
The walking tour started outside the old city hall in a wonderful old square full of guild houses built in the 1700s. They were all very ornate with lots of gold on them and lots of statues.
The tour lasted about two and a half hours. One of the highlights was the famous little statue of the young boy having a wee. The Mannequin Piss, as it is called. Apparently it dates back to the days when there were lots of tanners around. They needed ammonia to cure the leather, but this was expensive. A solution was to buy people's urine (due to its high ammonia content), and so some people were so poor that they got money by selling their own piss. Hence the expression 'piss poor'. The statue used to mark the area where this trade was conducted. Not it stands on the corner of the street for thousands of tourists to take photos of.
There is a lot of art of different kinds in Brussels- Tin Tin is one famous Belgian character and there are quite a few paintings dedicated to him around the city. One painting shows two characters from Tin Tin walking arm in arm. The guy who painted it was a LGBT rights campaigner and he deliberately made it so that the gender of the characters in the painting was a little unclear. People complained and he added an earring to one of the characters, and slightly rounded their backside. The gay community loved the idea behind the painting and bought up a lot of the houses in the area around it, so this is now the gay quarter of Brussels. We saw lots of the grand old palaces, too, and learned about some of the not so nice parts of Belgian history - Leopold the second, for example, who took over the Congo and demanded people provide a certain (high) quota of rubber every day or risk having their hands chopped off as punishment.
We stopped for a Belgian beer and bought some Belgian chocolate. It was a nice stop over. After this we walked to the Eurostar and rode it back to London.
This has been an amazing trip through a whole variety of countries. We have learned a lot about European history and have loved seeing the sites this great continent has to offer.
Right, what's the next big adventure going to be?
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