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Published: October 13th 2006
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The flight over the Alps to Ljubljana was one of the nicest flights I have ever done. Snow capped peaks that pierced through the clouds. Circling around some mountain with beautiful blue lakes in the valley while preparing to land. All this while the sun was slowly setting.
My first night in Slovenia I ended up in prison...well a former prison that is. The whole area used to be army barracks and is now some sort of a 'counter culture' area, pretty similar to Copenhagen's Kristiania.
Zagreb
Zagreb the capital of Croatia used to be two competing towns on two hills across from each other. They decided to unite and form Zagreb only when the Turks were almost at their gates.
It's a nice little town, nothing spectacular but cosy and the weather was really nice so it was a very enjoyable stay.
Belgrade
Next morning I caught an early (6 am) train to Belgrade. Now I understand why people leave their job at 3-4 pm. They all start at 6 am. While I walked to the station at 5.30am I passed train loads of people going to work.
The train ride was again interesting, especially
zagreb
detail on church near the Serbian-Croatian border. All of a sudden there was plenty bullet holes and houses that were partly rebuilt. I had a look on my map and there was a lot of names there that sounded pretty familiar (Vukovar, Osjiek).
The Serbian immigration officer thought my passport was pretty interesting with all the funky communist (Vietnam, Laos) stamps.
My first impression of Belgrade was interesting too. Shanty towns (or 'informal settlements' as they called it in South Africa) on the edges of town followed by the grey (communist) apartment blocks. Not too promising...
Some sort of warning sign at the Novi Beograd train station reminded me again of the 'dark decade' of the region. It showed a train with people saying goodbye on the platform while a bomb was falling from the sky. Referring to the NATO bombing campaign that ultimately forced Milosevic to resign in '99. I saw some more 'Thank You Nato' sings...
Belgrade proved to be a very interesting city anyway. It has an amazing castle-citadel built, conquered, destroyed and rebuilt several times. It ended up as a mixture of a medieval and Ottoman fortification with tennis and basketball courts between the fortified walls??
Other
interesting features:
-Tito's grave
-A huge huge church of which the building started in the 1920's but is still far from finished (Hitler, Communism and a lack of money caused some delays).
-A Big 'victory moment' that was moved from the city centre because people protested against the 'full frontal nudity' and is now hidden in a corner with the nudity faced away from the city.
Belgrade is supposed to be the new 'European Party central'. I decided to have a look with some people from the hostel.
We ended up in 'Silicon valley', so called because of the 'silicon attributes' on the girlfriends of the local 'gangsta' guys.
I wanted to stay a bit longer in this city and visit another town in the area but unfortunately my hostel made a couple of double bookings and because of a 'Youth art conference' all the hostels were full with our future 'art popes'... Too bad I wanted eat some more of those delicious pastries.
The other things I wanted to see were the famous (world heritage) orthodox monasteries in the Kosovo region, unfortunately due to some recent incidents there my embassy didn't like to see me go
there at this time.
Instead I got on a night train to the Adriatic coast. Spectacular waking up the next morning as we were driving high in the mountains. This ride is known to be very beautiful but I didn't count on something this spectacular. Through the Moroca canyon and by the Skadar lake all the way to the Adriatic Sea in Bar. Amazing views!
Montenegro coast
Montenegro has just voted to be independent from Serbia in a referendum earlier this year. As far as I could check they should get UN membership next month and really be a separate country.
If the coast of Croatia is the new hot spot for European tourism, Montenegro will be the ‘next big thing'. It is incredibly beautiful with huge lakes, citadels, old mountain and coastal towns, the Kotor Fjord and a mountain range that plunges right into the beautiful blue sea.
Right now it's a big tourist destination for local people (and Russians) but I expect the international crowds to arrive any time now.
I based myself in
Budva for a couple of days and went out on several trips on and around the coastline.
Budva has
belgrade
NATO bombed building in central Belgrade a nice fortified old town that goes into the sea. Really nice to stroll through the cosy little streets and eat at great restaurants (for almost no money). The beaches are nice and even though it was end September the water was still very warm. Perfect for swimming.
Cetinje is up in the mountains just behind the coastline. The drive over there had (once again) amazing views of the coastline. The town itself used to be the capital of Montenegro in the first part of the previous century which is still visible in the old embassy buildings that are dotted all over town. It seems that time has stood still there the last 50 years.
Kotor is probably the most impressive spot on the whole Montengro coastline. Imagine a 12-13th century fortified town at the end of Southern Europe’s biggest Fjord and you can imagine it will be a spectacular setting. It is possible to climb all the way up the steep Fjord side to a citadel that is set high above the town of Kotor...talking about a view to kill for.
The town itself is another maze of cute little streets with mixed Catholic and Orthodox churches.
belgrade
Traditional dancing at the Citadel One even has 2 altars, one for each religion with separate times of mass. Just to show how tolerant Kotor people are. After a couple of hours of roaming through the old town streets and climbing to the citadel, I left Kotor very impressed.
Durmitor National Park
I had doubted a long time if I would go there as it is pretty far from everything else but the guys at the hostel in Budva convinced me. Getting there was not easy. I hopped on a bus to the nearest city and hoped to find a local bus to the park. When I got to that city I noticed that a new bus station was about to be finished. But in the mean time the old one was gone and chaos reigned. No one spoke English or could help me in any way. After running around for half an hour a friendly bus driver gave me a little note which said ' Bus 15.00 h and the name of the company'. I would have to sit around for 3 hours but at least I would get there.
The ride was great. Into the mountains up to 1500 m
belgrade
Work in progress Sveti Sava church where the Zablak village and the National Park are. When I arrived I got immediately offered a room with a local family. I got to use the room of their son Darko who had moved to the city. It was pretty cold already (compared to the 27 degrees at the coast) and everybody seemed to be preparing for the coming winter. The scent of freshly cut wood was all over town.
I made an early start the next morning (good thing I brought my fleece jacket) and headed out to the mountains. The scenery was awe inspiring (once more). My plan was to do a hike to and round 2 lakes in the park, which according to the guides would fill a day. However by (DIY) lunch time I finished these hikes. I decided to try to reach one of the peaks. I had to settle for one of the lower peaks (about 2000 m) because otherwise I would not make it back before dusk. It was a nice climb through woods in autumn colours and later through a desolated rock landscape. The only living things I met were 2 huge bulls that (luckily) stared at me rather indifferently.
belgrade
Outside Sveti Sava The view at the top was pretty nice and I was even able to send a sms home from there. (It seems that the mobile phone network in the middle of the mountains in Montenegro is better than the one in country side Belgium).
The way down was a less enjoyable experience since my legs still hurt from the descent from the citadel two days earlier.
The 8 hour hike was a good test for me. It seems I'm slowly getting back to normal.
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frederik
non-member comment
eindelijk jan, vertrek maar gauw terug naar australie en nieuw-zeeland dat we terug berichten van daar krijgen, dit is leuk maar vind die van nieuw-zeeland en australie toch nog iets specialer