Athens to Zagreb


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Europe » Greece
October 11th 2014
Published: November 16th 2014
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With two weeks of leave and a bit of money in the bank, I set off back to Europe with a friend to see a bit more of the Balkans. We had such a great time there last year we felt it was worth going back to explore a bit more. Largely directed by the cost of flights, the aim was to fly into Athens and fly out of Zagreb, and work out where to go as we went along.

Leaving the rapidly cooling shores of England for the late summer heat of Athens with a bag full of t-shirts and shorts, it was a bit of shock to find it was absolutely freezing when we landed. Apparently we’d landed at the same time as a cold snap – a bit of a worry considering my clothing choices and the fact we were travelling further north where temperatures would surely drop further! Well we needn’t have worried – it didn’t last long, and the temperatures soon jumped back up.

Athens seems to have a bad reputation as a city – often branded as dirty, polluted and hostile – it was a nice surprise to find that these labels were unjust. The Acropolis stands guard over the city, an ever present compass allowing you to get completely lost and still find your way home. The Parthenon is magnificent, only slightly marred by the scaffolding that is part of the renovation works that have been ongoing for the past 40 years. The view from here is commanding - mountains on one side, ocean on the other, and the scattering of Athens’ many ancient treasures within.

Ancient and Modern Athens are at battle. The ancient ruins and attractive 19th Century neoclassical architecture lies surrounded by buildings that fell victim to the rapid urbanisation of the 1960s and 70s. Athenians live day to day amongst the history - a main road roars past the Arch of Hadrian and Temple of Zeus. Hadrian’s Library is encircled by cafes, restaurants and tourist shops. It has quite a strange feel, unusual to see extremities in such close proximity. In some ways it is nice to see a city where life is continuing along the same avenues as in antiquity. A timelapse of life along these streets over the past three millennia would be fascinating.

Whilst in Athens, we went on a tour of the city led by a very passionate Greek archaeologist. Although I find ancient history interesting, I have always been of the view that it isn’t that important. I had recently come to the decision that it would be better if they only taught modern history in schools – it isn’t taught in enough detail, and through my travels over the past few years I have seen how politicians and leaders have made the same mistakes over and over again in recent years. In my opinion this is partly due to poor education on modern history – although Roman, Viking and Ancient Greek history is interesting, is it relevant in today’s world?

Well, I learnt an important lesson in Athens – it had never occurred to me that history wasn’t linear. I had always thought that we had developed steadily over the course of time, whereas in reality places like Ancient Athens were very well developed until we plunged back into the Dark Ages, before the Renaissance brought us back to the light. So maybe there is something to learn from the classics? Athens is the birthplace of democracy, and our guide was of the firm belief that in some ways they had developed an almost perfect model of it. They were focused and intent on making it work. They identified that the two things that could bring down a democracy were corruption and demagogues, and put in measures to limit these. They also believed that for a democracy to work, the citizens must take part, and participate in ways that were for the good of the society, not purely working for the good of themselves. (To illustrate this, the word ‘idiot’ comes from the Greek ‘idiōtēs’ meaning a private citizen.) Therefore citizens had to serve one year in the public sector. It was also identified that education was a key factor for democracy to work – if citizens were well educated and informed they would be able to make sensible decisions when it came to voting. Although the Athenian democracy has also been criticised in other ways, maybe there are ways in which some of today’s ‘democracies’ could learn from the past?

From Athens we made our way up to Meteora, a few hours north-west towards the Albanian border. Monasteries perch atop gigantic sandstone rock pillars, living up to the literal translation of the name, ‘in the heavens above’. Built between the 14th and 16th centuries, they used to only be accessible by rope ladders. Goods and people could be lifted to them by a system of baskets and ropes. Arriving in darkness to the small village of Kastriki at the base of the pillars, we were greeted by a spectacular view from the balcony of our room the next morning. We set off on what looked like a difficult hike to try and find a way to get access to some of these monasteries over the course of the day. After an hour of clambering up a very steep path through some dense vegetation (and lots of angry bees), we eventually made it to the main monastery, the Monastery of the Great Metereon (unfortunately closed on Tuesdays…). Wiping the sweat out of our eyes, it was a bit of a surprise to find crowds of rather pristine looking tourists ambling round and taking pictures. Surely they hadn’t climbed up this remote path as well? The next few steps revealed the answer – a rather new looking road swept the area, handily winding past the entrances to the monasteries in the area, and plied with coaches full of tourists. I have to say it was a bit of a shock! Climbing up that path felt so remote, there wasn’t a soul in sight, slowly making our way to a quiet monastery in the middle of nowhere. For me it was a real shame, not unlike the hordes of people swarming the Temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Nothing takes away the magic of somewhere like that than coaches full of tourists stopping off outside the front entrance! Groups of tourists aside, it really is an astounding place. The views from the top of the pillars are even more breath-taking than from the bottom. The view is rivalled only by the thought of how on earth these structures could ever have been built, and how they survived so exposed to the elements. It was fascinating to see the systems of ropes, basket and pulleys used to transport goods. Inside, the monasteries are painted with such intricacy and detail. One we went inside was covered with horrifying paintings of torture and pain – you could stare at these walls for hours and not see everything. We spent the rest of the day exploring the countryside and the local town of Kalambaka, admiring the hundreds of rock climbers making their way up these huge columns of rock.

Next stop on the trip was Albania. We decided to head towards the beach resort of Drymades in the south. We’d heard that it was difficult to travel in Albania, but swept aside these claims thinking it couldn’t be that hard. We made it to the border, with the hope that we would be able to find our way to Drymades from there. Already getting later in the day, we decided to try and get a taxi, and found one willing to take us there for 30 Euros. After we started on our way it turned out that he was only going to take us to Sarande, which was still quite a few hours from where we needed to get to! Why is it that taxi drivers are universally so untrustworthy?!! Really I should have known better, but was too tired to particularly care. Driving through Albania, I began to get the pangs of excitement that I feel when travelling somewhere relatively unknown. Albania is a captivating country, mysterious and unfamiliar. After the liberation from the Nazis at the end of World War II, the country became a Communist state. After severing ties with both the Soviet Union and China, accusing them of not being Communist enough, they totally isolated themselves from the world. Borders were closed and it was proclaimed the world’s first atheist state. For 50 years, Albania was a mystery. They became so paranoid that they would be invaded, they built a concrete bunker for every four people, equating to around 700,000 bunkers. It was a complete drain on Albania’s resources, they were never actually used for their intended purpose, and now stand derelict and scattered across the country. Not a day goes by without seeing one. I know some people have used them for new purposes in recent years, but it would be good to see more of them reused for something (although they are so small it’s hard to think of meaningful uses!).

Eventually, after catching a furgon (minibus) from Sarande (complete with a back catalogue of 90’s trance music), we were dropped off in the early evening at the top of the road leading to Drymades. The road here was mountainous, with fantastic views of the beaches and forested headlands along the way. The final leg of the trip was the 3km walk down the hill to the resort, the early evening light capturing a string of mountains fringed by white sand beaches, plunging into a turquoise sea. And no one in sight. Drymades is hailed as the resort where the rich and famous of Albania go to hang out and party, so we were looking forward to a couple of days of good fun by the beach. However, turning the final corner revealed what I can only describe as a post-tsunami landscape – complete desertion, pieces of furniture scattered everywhere, beach bars missing their roofs, and so on. It turned out that we had missed the season by about a month or so, although fortunately for us there was one hotel still open for the next week. It was a really beautiful location, and I’m sure it’s great (or conversely absolutely horrific…) during the season, but there really wasn’t much to do apart from sit on the beach, which I’m not particularly good at doing without getting bored. The water here is the clearest I have ever seen in the sea before – the beaches are made of white pebbles, and as a result there is no sediment to cloud up the water. Like swimming through liquid glass, with warm water and a mountainous backdrop, it is certainly one of the nicest places to go for a dip in the ocean.

With nothing much else to do, we decided to press on the following day and head towards the UNESCO heritage site of Berat. With the previous day’s travel experience, we expected it to take a little while to get there. We walked back to the main road to wait for a furgon that would supposedly pass at 12. We waited and waited by the side of the road, hoping that this was a location it would actually stop. Luckily for us we met an Albanian guy who spoke good English - he had just finished working at the resort and was heading back to Tirana for the winter. Eventually a phone call was made, and we were told that the furgon was running very late, and to top it off it was already full. Our friend told us that we were going to have to start walking, and hopefully hitch a ride. He was pointing in the direction of the aforementioned mountains, and in the scorching heat, I was not too happy about the situation! By a stroke of luck, an unexpected furgon with seats available drove past just as we were giving up hope. The furgon wound its way up the switchbacks of the mountain, with remarkable views. I think this would be the best road ever to cycle down! Unfortunately we ended up sitting next to a man carrying some medicine for his bees, which stunk the bus out the whole way!

The furgon took us as far as Vlore. Our friend said he would come with us to the next town, where we could get another furgon to Berat. After walking to somewhere else in the city and bartering with a few different drivers and a lot more waiting, we eventually set off on the second bus journey of the day, going towards a town with no idea where it was. Another few hours of driving took us to Lushnje, where more walking led us to a share taxi, to take us on the final leg to Berat. Without the help of this guy, there would have been no way we would have got there. He was so kind, even stopping to buy us coffees on the way, and full of interesting conversation. Another preconception shattered. This final journey in the taxi had me excited again – this is what travelling is all about, the kind of adventures where it’s hard to get around, hanging out with the locals, and seeing somewhere a bit more off the beaten track. Now we were hurtling down a dusty dirt road through the Albanian countryside to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Everywhere in Albania you see half-built houses. It is a land of rebar. We even saw some beach umbrellas made from the stuff. There are buildings left, right and centre with a certain number of floors built, and then the starter bars left sticking up ready for more construction – but with no signs of construction happening any time soon. It is just one of many slightly strange things about this country. Our friend told us the reason why - most people don’t have enough money to build a complete house, so they do it floor by floor, as and when they can afford it. Also, as most construction is started illegally a lot of it gets halted halfway through, or ripped down.

As we started to approach Berat, I was confused. The area was full of old, tatty communist blocks of flats – surely there couldn’t be a world heritage site round here? And then, turning a corner, there it was. The river is flanked either side by white Ottoman style houses tumbling down the hillside, with lines of timber framed rectangular windows peering out. The City of a Thousand Windows certainly lives up to its name. One of these houses was the hostel that we stayed in – a beautifully restored house with creaking timber floors and decorated ceilings. It was a privilege to be able to stay in such a house – in a hostel no less! It is a charming town, with winding back alleys and history abound. Clever engineering here, where horizontal strips of timber were placed every metre up the walls of the buildings, has meant that these wonderful houses have survived earthquakes that many houses of a standard construction haven’t. From the fortress at the top of the hill, the word ‘NEVER’ can be seen written on a mountain on the other side of the valley. In the days of Communism, this read ‘ENVER’, a tribute to the Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha. Now, it reads as ‘NEVER’, to remind people that what happened will never happen again.

The modern part of Berat was coming to the end of a big revamp, part of which was called the giro. This is where the whole town comes in the evening, dressed in their best clothes, and parade up and down in front of all the cafes and restaurants. It’s a great place to people watch – we actually saw a very similar thing in Prishtina in Kosovo the previous year – but it’s great, everyone just hanging round, chatting, and parading! One of my favourite sights was seeing the many turkey shepherds (if that’s what they are?), sitting around drinking coffee with gaggles of very well trained turkeys sitting and waiting for them to finish reading the paper.

One particularly interesting thing was to see and learn about the mixture of religions in Albania - the Star of David could be seen on some mosques for example. These were supposedly put there to show respect. During Communism, many churches were destroyed, but some mosques remained and were used for other purposes. When Communism fell, these communities came together, with Muslims letting Christians use their space for worship, and helping to rebuild the churches. It is so unusual to see this in today’s society, and as such the Pope had recently been in Tirana talking about how the rest of the world could learn from the coexistence of religion in Albania.

After a day or two we carried on towards Tirana – a slightly more direct (albeit cramped) journey for once. Bustling Tirana is full of cafés and restaurants, communist blocks painted bright colours, and a lively nightlife. We spent our time here hopping from café to restaurant to bar, enjoying this kind of lifestyle. We also went on an interesting tour of the city - Albania has such a fascinating past it never gets boring. There’s an interesting mix of architecture, ranging from the grand National Historical Museum (which has a fantastic collection of Albanian iconography), to the dilapidated Pyramid of Tirana – a former museum that was dedicated to Enver Hoxha. This graffiti covered concrete pyramid has caused arguments in recent years as to what should be done with it. There was an interesting architectural competition inside when we went, with plans for what could be done with it. Although it is a bit of an eyesore, I liked it because of its history – although the architectural submissions had some great ideas of how to make this space much more usable for the future.

Talking of pyramids, in the mid-1990s as Albania was becoming a market economy, the financial system started to become dominated by various pyramid schemes. These schemes were partly endorsed by the government, and promising high returns to attract investors, approximately two-thirds of the Albanian population invested in the schemes. People sold their houses, farmers sold their livestock. To keep people investing, the rates of interest were increased higher and higher. Eventually it was realised that liabilities by far exceeded assets, and some of the schemes began to default on payments. Pretty soon, Albania descended into chaos. Weapons banks were raided (one of our guides had told us he had six AK47’s at one point), government infrastructure was attacked, and eventually the government was toppled. The interim government eventually manage to bring back some stability, but not after a lot of people lost all their money, and 2000 people lost their lives.

After a great few days in Albania, we decided to head on to Montenegro. Albania really exceeded my expectations. Fascinating and beautiful in equal measures, it feels like the last frontier of Europe. It was hard to put my finger on it, but it feels so different to anywhere else I’ve been in Europe. It almost reminded me of South East Asia in some ways – how there is construction everywhere, poor roads and transport, the horse and cart seems to still be a primary way of getting around, and the level of development. The people we met were the total opposite of the gangsters that people often associate with Albania (I don’t think the film ‘Taken’ has helped out much with that stereotype…), and the scenery is so spectacular there is no way that this won’t become a major tourist destination in the next ten years or so.

Due to the poor rail network in Albania (their railway is built at a different gauge to every other railway, so is not compatible with any of the bordering countries railway networks), we opted for a private minibus to take us to Kotor in Montenegro. I had no idea what to expect of Montenegro – my only experience in the country being sleeping overnight in Podgorica bus station the previous year. Crossing the border was like jumping forward 40 years – a real noticeable improvement in infrastructure. And if we thought that the scenery was good in Albania, Montenegro somehow managed to beat it. Climbing the mountain roads overlooking the sea was nothing short of jaw-dropping – the mountains towering even higher and the sea even bluer. Arriving in Kotor in the evening, we were led to our hostel which happened in to be in the walled old town. Once again we found ourselves staying in another piece of history - an amazing building, surrounding by narrow winding streets, 1200 year old churches, and overlooked by fortress on the hill above. The food here was excellent and so cheap for what it was – I ordered mussels and was supplied with a huge china cauldron full of them!

We ended up booking to go on a day tour around a large portion of the country (it’s only a small place) as part of a group, something I don’t normally like doing but as we had little time we thought it was the best option. Unfortunately on the day it was plagued by rain, and Montenegro being a mountainous country (hence the name – ‘Black Mountain’), it was spent mostly getting wet and trying to peer through the fog. Still, we got to see plenty of deep canyons, gushing with that deep turquoise water that seems to be so common in that area of the Balkans (I remember being staggered by rivers of the exact same colour in Bosnia the previous year). Steve stopped off to do a zip line across one of them, next to a rather impressive concrete arch bridge crossing the River Tara. We went for a walk around a lake up in the mountains too, but the bad weather put a bit of a downer on the afternoon. The next day, we clambered up to the top of the fortress in Kotor, where we got a spectacular view looking down upon the red-tiled jigsaw puzzle roofs below, across the whole bay and over to the mountains guarding the natural harbour on the other side. We would have carried on but a very dark cloud looked a bit too threatening to taunt any further so we headed back.

On our final day in Kotor, we decided to hire out some bikes and cycle around the bay, the weather had improved significantly and it didn’t look that far. The scenery was incredible, passing through small fishing villages, with those huge mountains plummeting into the glassy water on all sides – it really was quite something. Unfortunately it turned out that it was a lot longer than we thought, and we had to cycle as hard as we could to get back to get to the bus on time! 26 miles later, we made it to the bus station so we could continue our journey on to the capital Podgorica.

The overnight train from Podgorica to Belgrade slowly climbed through the mountains of Montenegro, winding its way up through tunnels and traversing bridges over deep gorges. The sun was setting, and there couldn’t have been a better backdrop to leave the country with. We had only spent a short time in Montenegro, but I feel that this country has so much to offer, and will definitely be back to explore more. I had been interested in finding out about the history of Montenegro before we went, but I struggled to find out anything. Its place during the Balkans conflict is a mystery to me, I’ve never heard anyone mention anything about it during that time, but I’m sure there must have been some involvement. I’d like to go back to discover more about it, and explore more of the beautiful scenery it holds (hopefully in better weather!). I also feel very at home there as it is a land of giants…

The overnight train took us to Belgrade, where we planned to meet up with some Serbian friends of ours that we had met on our trip through Eastern Europe last year. Belgrade was one of the highlights of our trip last year, and I was hoping that it would live up to our last visit. And sure enough it didn’t disappoint. We spent our time there eating plates of meat, drinking in some of the coolest bars, and hanging out with our friends Nebojsa and Milica. We ventured out to Novi Sad one day (which took a lot longer than planned, as somehow the bus driver took a wrong turning and ended up going down a toll road for miles which no one on the bus was too happy about…). Novi Sad is a pleasant city with some great architecture, and we spent the afternoon chilling out at a café in the fortress, overlooking the Danube as the sun set.

Our final destination was Zagreb in Croatia, from where we would fly home. After another long train journey to get there, we spent our evening enjoying the vibrant café, restaurant and bar scene that dominates the centre of the city. I was trying to take advantage of as many plates of meat and good beer as possible! The next day we wandered around the city, yet another city full of interesting buildings and great places to eat and drink. For our final activity of the holiday, we went to the ‘Museum of Broken Relationships’. The idea of this place was that people who had broken up from a relationship (not necessarily a romantic one, but primarily so) would donate an object that was a symbol of that relationship, and write the story of what happened. For them, it is closure on what may have been a difficult time. For us, it is a slightly depressing glimpse into the lives of other people, and unfortunately leaves you feeling like there’s not much hope left in humanity. I think they could do with a section of relationships that have gone well, just to offset all the pain and misery in the rest of the place! Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to wander round for an hour or two. We went and got some ice creams and sat in the sun, soaking up the last few rays of sunlight we would likely see for the next six months before heading back to England.

It was a fantastic trip – we met and travelled with some great people along the way, saw some amazing places, learnt a bit more about the history of the area, and saw the reality behind a few more stereotypes to top it all off. The distances we had to travel were a lot longer than I thought they were going to be, which meant we didn't get to spend as much time in each place as I would have liked, but it was still a great trip. If only I could be on holiday all year…


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16th November 2014
Monastery at Meteora

OMG--what a fab blog!
So many amazing sites--great Greece--where its democracy was really only for the free white men (nothing for women and slaves); my beloved Meteora where I stayed for three weeks, hiking trails and visiting monasteries; amazing Albania that so few visit with its ecumenical mosques allowing others to pray there, painted Communist blogs and Enver to Never; fabulous Kotor and Zagreb--all so full of beauty and history. Pretty amazing what you covered in 2 weeks--what will you do with your lifetime?
20th November 2014

Greece is still my favorite country
I've traveled a bit of the world and still love every thing about Greece. You have to love a country that has olives on the breakfast bar. We recently bought an Eastern Europe travel guide. Your blog is very timely. Great stuff. This part of the world holds a great deal of interest for us. Keep these fantastic blogs coming.

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