A Whistle Stop Tour of the Balkans

---

After a long bus ride from south-eastern Turkey I arrived in Istanbul to meet up with a friend from university and a friend that I worked with in Vietnam. We had decided to travel through Eastern Europe across to Budapest, starting off in Istanbul - a city that epitomises 'East meets West' in every way. It’s where the Asian continental plate meets the European plate - crossing the Bosphorous is all it takes to get into Europe. The mixed architecture also reflects the confluence of cultures. But the biggest contrast for me was the number of tourists here – after barely seeing any other Western tourists for the past month it was quite a shock hearing English being spoken left right and centre! There were plenty of mosques to visit, the amazing underground Basilica Cistern, a rather disappointing modern bazaar, along with plenty of places to chill out and soak up the culture. After enjoying catching up and seeing the sights of Istanbul we hopped on the train to Bulgaria.

The train stopped in the middle of the night at the Bulgarian border, where we were ushered off and clambered across the tracks to a building on the other side in complete darkness. Apparently there had been a power cut, and after a long wait where we had no idea what was going on our passports were eventually inspected by torchlight and we carried on our journey. We awoke in the morning to watch the train ploughing its’ way through huge fields of sunflowers and past abandoned derelict Soviet buildings and factories. We arrived in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city, and one of the world’s oldest cities. It’s a city full of history, and we enjoyed exploring the narrow lanes, old houses, and Roman ruins – as well as the cheap beer and food of course! One night we found a sketchy looking bar down a dark alley, which actually turned out to be a cool spot – we met loads of young people who all spoke great English - it seems that most young people there study abroad and they had all just come back for the summer.

Our next stop was Belgrade in Serbia, but we had a few hours to kill in the capital, Sofia. There were a couple of nice churches to see, but it’s a bit of a concrete jungle. There are some great examples of Communist architecture though, with the train station being a perfect example. They are huge buildings, grey and bleak with vast amounts of space inside – perfectly achieving their architectural purpose of instigating inferiority.

Belgrade is an awesome city, with plenty to see and do. We’d made friends with a really nice Serbian couple in Istanbul, and agreed to meet up with them when we arrived in Belgrade. I love being shown round by locals, as you get to see all the best places, and this was no disappointment! We went up to Belgrade fortress to look out across the city, and it offered great views over the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. There’s a military museum up there as well, where you can see a lot of the tanks and military equipment used in the war, which is worth a look. One of my favourite areas in Belgrade is the Bohemian quarter, where you hang out in the kafanas – these bars were where poets, artists and musicians used to gather to drink rakija and share ideas. We sat down for a traditional plate of grilled meat and sausages, and to be serenaded by the roaming band where much to our amusement our friend Steve panicked and accidentally gave a very generous tip! There are plenty of interesting buildings around Belgrade to see, including some that were bombed out by NATO in 1999 that have been left as a reminder. After a few relaxed beers beside the Ada Ciganlija artificial lake as the sun set, we headed to the famous barge clubs on the river. There are loads of boats along the river bank, all playing different types of music, but all absolutely packed with young people rocking the boats with wild dancing and drinking – loads of fun!

A long journey followed, onto a country that I was much anticipating – Kosovo. I grew up with images of fighting and thousands of refugees on my TV screen, and so I was expecting to find an extremely poor country still recovering from a war that displaced so many. We arrived in Pristine to find a seemingly different story. The capital is well developed - full of trendy bars, cafes and well-dressed, fashionable people. I was pleasantly surprised, especially as I had heard stories from various Serbs about the state of Kosovo (although I suspect they have been subjected to a fair amount of propaganda about it). The countryside is full of huge country houses, with loads of farming and agriculture. We went on a day trip to the pleasant historical town of Prizren, where we spent the day hanging out in cafes, exploring the streets and climbing up to the fortress to look over the town. Another day we headed to the town of Mitrovica – a town we had heard much about. Mitrovica is split in two by a river, with Albanians occupying south of the river, and Serbs occupying the north. There has been a lot of tension between the two ethnic groups, with violence often flaring up. So much so that UN peacekeepers still keep watch on the bridge over the River Ibar, blocking any vehicles from crossing. Walking over to the Serbian side is quite a strange experience, with Serbian flags flying from many buildings, prices displayed in Serbian dinar, Serbian licence plates, and only Serbian being spoken. Although it did feel a little bit tense, we didn’t feel in any danger at all, and it’s been quite a while since the last incident in the town (although I guess you have to be a bit careful with what language you speak on either side…).

There are a few interesting things to see in Pristine, such as the Kosovo National Library, which has been referred to as one of the ugliest buildings in the world. It looks a lot like some kind of crazy military building, and so was unsurprisingly used as a base by the Serbian army during the Kosovo war. There’s also a half-finished Orthodox church in the park next to this, which you can get into and have a look around, and a cool bazaar in the old quarter. There’s quite an obsession with Bill Clinton due to his role during the war, and so there’s a big statue of Bill Clinton and some strange road names such as Bill Clinton Boulevard too. It’s a great city to relax in the many coffee shops and people watch. Over 50% of the Kosovan population are under the age of 25, so the streets are full of young people in the evenings parading up and down in their best clothes. It is a strange place, as it came across as being fairly wealthy and well developed but I suspect that it probably isn’t the case under the surface.

We now had a monster trip ahead of us to Mostar in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Everything we had been told about how to get there from Pristine turned out to be wrong, and we ended up sleeping in a bus station in Montenegro overnight before catching a bus to another small town, where again it turned out there were no buses. Luckily someone was around to help us and we managed to get a taxi the rest of the way. It was worth it though, because Mostar is both fascinating and beautiful in equal measures. Set in a valley between the mountains, an impossibly turquoise river cuts this war-torn town in half, with the famous Stari Most bridge connecting the east and west sides. No building has gone unscathed in this town – every house is riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel. Big chunks are missing where shells have fallen, and some buildings are all but destroyed. The centre of town by the old bridge has been restored though, and tourists flock to the small souvenir shops, and gather to watch the locals diving off the bridge into to freezing water over 20 metres below.

We stayed at a hostel owned by a Bosnian guy who lived through the war and he told us many stories about what life was like at that time. He lost 19 members of his family during the war, and showed us videos of the damage that had been done to the building we were staying in – his home. He talked passionately about how the world stood by and did nothing as the people of Mostar were brutally murdered by both Serb and Croat forces. It was interesting to hear stories from him that demonstrate how war is just about money and politics. He described how the Bosnian forces realised they couldn’t fight both the Serbs and the Croats at the same time, and so they asked a Serbian commander how much it would cost to stop him from attacking. After naming his price (I can’t remember how many million dollars it was exactly…), the Bosnians just went and printed off the money in one of their counterfeit factories and paid them off! He also talked about the frustrations of the Washington Agreement, when they were told overnight to stop fighting the Croat enemy and instead to start fighting with them against the Serbs. To suddenly be 'friends' with the people that had been murdering their families in the previous days and months was understandably not something they found easy to swallow.

There’s plenty to see in the local area, and the hostel owner runs a very good day tour, so we tagged along. We started off at the beautiful Blagaj for a traditional Bosnian breakfast of burek (a kind of flaky pastry filled with meat or cheese and served with clotted cream). Here a river flows out of a mountain, overlooked by a mosque built into the cliff, and restaurants line the river bank. The water here is supposed to be of the highest quality in the world - so fresh you can scoop it out and drink it with your breakfast. We headed on to the historic town of Pocitelj, which was largely destroyed by Croat forces during the war and is now pretty much just a tourist attraction as hardly anyone lives there anymore. You can climb to the top of the tower there and get some great views across the town and the river. We spent the next few hours jumping off rocks at the spectacular Kravice falls before heading up into the mountains above Mostar to have a look at the old Bosnian-Serb frontline. Although most of the mines have been cleared, we were warned to stick exactly to the paths – apparently the local shepherds make sure they walk behind their flocks when they roam through the mountains so that the sheep will find the mines first! It’s really beautiful up there, and quite paradoxical to think about the terrible things that happened, but the evidence is all around you – stare at one spot on the ground for long enough and you will find spent bullet casings and pieces of shrapnel. There are plenty of bunkers around that you can have a look inside – the distance between the Bosnian and Serbian frontlines is surprisingly not far at all.

After a great couple of days in Mostar we caught the train to Sarajevo, along what is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train lines in the world. It lived up to its’ reputation, with the train winding through huge mountain ranges and past lakes and rivers with unnaturally vivid colours - Bosnia is a really beautiful place! Unfortunately for us it was the last day of Ramadan, which meant that the whole of Sarajevo had completely shut down. The cobbled streets were devoid of people and the shops were shut, but we visited the point where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated (the event that triggered the First World War), and headed up to the Yellow Fortress to have a look over the city. Every cloud has a silver lining though, with the end of Ramadan being celebrated with a huge party – and sure enough as the evening approached the city became lively, with the locals singing their hearts out to Bosnian music in every bar all night long.

Steve and I carried on to Budapest (with a few hours spent relaxing in Belgrade’s many coffee shops on the way). Our arrival in Budapest coincided with the Sziget Festival, which meant that there wasn’t much accommodation available, and what was available was really expensive. Eventually we found somewhere and headed off on a tour of the city, which we quickly abandoned as it started raining and it was really cold (although I appreciated it as I hadn’t been cold for the past year and a half!). Steve then had to catch a flight back to England, and I attempted a second tour in the afternoon, to learn about Communist life in Hungary. It was really interesting to hear stories about what life was like, and although there were a lot of aspects that made life difficult, there were also ways in which it had a positive impact. One example was with school – all children were taken on many school trips around the country, no matter if they could afford it as it was all paid for by the government. The hostel owner in Mostar also talked very favourably of the times when Tito was in power, and suggested that 90% of people in Bosnia preferred living in those times as they had a better quality of life back then. Another interesting story I heard was about a televised Hungarian talent show. Instead of counting the votes through a phoning in system, they used to get everyone to turn off their lights when they wanted to vote. As there was only one energy company, they could measure the drop in energy consumption and therefore find out the winner! I spent my last night in Budapest checking out the famous 'ruin bars'. These are abandoned buildings or factories with loads of rooms, nooks and crannies that have been filled with interesting artwork and eccentric things such as cars turned into tables – there’s a great atmosphere in there and they're great places to have a few beers!

We really flew through the Balkans very quickly and did a lot of travelling, so I was pretty tired at the end, but we got to see so much and it gave me a taste of the area. There is so much history there, whether it’s from thousands of years ago or the modern history of the break-up of Yugoslavia. It’s a fascinating region to visit, and one that I’m sure to explore in more depth another time!

---

Comments

[TinNiE]

love this silhouette shot :)