Balkan Hopping

The exploration of the Balkans began back in July with the family and now continued after my visit to Turkey. I visited quite a few places in not very much time, and I’m very behind with this blogging thing, so they’re all going to be briefly summarised and mushed together in this one post – hope that’s ok with everyone!

I began this section of the journey by flying from Istanbul to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I had a few days exploring before heading to Mostar a little further south.

I had a nice time in Sarajevo, exploring the city, visiting museums, and eating lots of cevapi. It’s very different from what I had seen until now of the ex-Yugoslav states; it almost felt like I was still in Turkey with the mosque and the coffee shops and the selection of products in the stores. The highlight, however, was definitely taking the cable car up the hill to the old bobsled track left over from the 1984 Winter Olympics. It’s totally in ruins, as it was used for shelter during the war in 1995, but you can walk down it, and it is covered in graffiti which makes it pretty interesting. At the bottom of the track, there’s a path through the trees that takes you up to an abandoned observatory that was also used during the war and is now covered in bullet holes (and more graffiti).

Also in Sarajevo I visited the place where Franz Ferdinand was killed, triggering the war. Crazy to think that now it’s just a regular street corner where people go about their regular lives. I was also surprised by how much space in the city was taken up my cemeteries. I later learned that in many places in the country, public parks had to be converted into cemeteries during the war, as there was nowhere else to bury the dead. So now there are few parks, but many, many cemeteries.

When I arrived in Mostar, I was too early to check in to my accommodation, so I hopped on a bus down to Blagaj, a common spot for people to visit while in town. There’s a big cliff with a castle, a pretty river, and a Dervish monastery, which I didn’t go into but was pretty to look at. Back in Mostar, I had a quiet evening, choosing to leave my city sightseeing until the next day when I had a walking tour booked.

The walking tour was really interesting! I learnt a lot about the war, and the man running the tour was a soldier in Mostar during the conflict here, and the photos he showed us were all photos he had taken himself during and after the fighting.

It’s a pretty small city, so there weren’t a lot of sights to see, just the bridge, another smaller bridge, and a little market area, but he kept us entertained for several hours with his stories of the city, and he gave us some recommendations for further exploring.

From Mostar, I took the train back to Sarajevo, then caught a bus on to Belgrade, Serbia. Did I like Serbia? I’m not really sure. It was a bit cold and grey, there wasn’t much going on in Belgrade (though I hear it has great nightlife??), and, well, I’ve heard from all the other Balkan countries about how Serbia was the bad guy all along, so that may have influenced my interpretation of things.

I spent a couple of days in Belgrade, plus a wee side trip up to Novi Sad. There were actually protests the day that I arrived as a year ago the newly rebuilt train station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people, and still no one has taken responsibility for the clearly inferior construction of the building.

Highlights of Serbia included the Nikola Tesla museum (the Serbs claim him although he was born in Croatia), the Church of Saint Sava, and the hostel I stayed at. Weird highlight, I know, but everyone there was really lovely and because the weather wasn’t great we spent a bit of time hanging out and watched movies and chatted and whatnot. Also interesting: Belgrade public transport is free! Great system, people actually use it.

From Serbia, I bussed to Zagreb. Robert (previous tour guide, for those who weren’t there) had asked me to let him know when I was in town, and he took me for a wander around the city’s sights and neighbourhoods, and had lunch and then coffee with me, which was lovely. The weather was less lovely, and I don’t think I saw the sky at any point during my time in the city.

Highlights in Zagreb include a long pedestrian tunnel through the middle of the old town, the “Octagon” (which is quite different from Dunedin’s Octagon, I must say), the cannon that goes off every day at midday (I got a fright when I went to see it, even though I knew it was coming!), pretty tiling on the roof of the church, and a busking man with quite the musical contraption – remind me to show you the video sometime.

One of my days “in Zagreb”, I went on a day trip down to see the Plitvice Lakes. Probably normally a summer activity, as that’s when the water is turquoise and the plants are green and lush, it was interesting to see it looking quite different to the pictures. I was lucky, as they close over half of the park in the winter once it starts getting frosty and snowy, but this hadn’t happened yet for this year. Despite the rather bare trees, it was still a beautiful place to wander around for a few hours, and I’m glad I didn’t have to contend with the summer crowds.

And then, finally, my last Balkan destination: Slovenia. I arrived in Ljubljana in the afternoon and the sun was out (though setting fast). Having spent the last few days in the fog of Zagreb, and before that, Belgrade, I quickly decided I liked it here. Little did I know that it is only sunny in the afternoons, and for the first half of the day it’s just as cold and grey as the last few places I’ve been.

I guess it’s becoming winter, I should know better than to complain!! Still, I enjoyed the sunlight, and did my best to see the main sights, climb up the castle for a view over the city, and stay warm. Oh! They were in the process of putting up their Christmas lighting and it was all science themed: strands of DNA, the planets, an egg and sperm… a bit weird but I liked it!

As I did in the last few places, I had two days here in the capital city, plus a day trip: this time to Lake Bled.

And, just like my other day trips, the sun was out in my destination, yay! Bled is a pretty small town without a heap of things to do, but I climbed up to the castle, and then attempted to do the walk around the perimeter of the lake. “Attempted”, because I got halfway around only to discover that the second half of the trail has been cut off for restoration work or something, so I had to turn around and go back the way I came from instead of being able to complete the loop. That’s ok though, it was still a pretty walk, and a nice day out of the city.