Day 88: A quick glimpse into Bulgaria - Sofia, Bulgaria

(Him: Charlie)
Lion is everywhere in Bulgaria. This national symbol appears on every bank note, significant monuments, and statues. Even the currency, “Lev”, means “lion” in Bulgaria (Romania is the same for that matter with their “Lei”).

Bulgaria is an ancient land. With inhabitants first settled thousands of years ago, the country is rich in historical sites and religious monuments.

Unfortunately, time is not on our side. We have committed to be in Istanbul by August 6 to meet up with our friends, Aarthi and Kedar, from India. This means we have about 10 days to travel both Bulgaria and Romania.

So as a starter, we packed 3 days of action in Sofia. The plan is to go to Romania on the north after Sofia, spend 4 days in Romania, and then return to Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, and then finally enter Turkey by Aug 6. Wishful thinking! As we know all along, planning far ahead on a backpacking trip rarely works out. Things are about to be reshuffled when we get to Romania.

Some highlights in and around Sofia.

Sofia: Apparently, Sofia was built upon a natural thermal spring. People in the city continue to fetch the spring water to drink to this date. The interesting thing is the only thermal bath in the city, housed in a grandiose building (in photo), has not been used for decades. The City is considering to convert it for other use. My question is, why not just renovate it and re-open it as it was designed for??

Rila Monastery: Simply one of the finest monasteries we have seen. Tucked away in the mountains, the monastery is ideal for reflection and meditation (though not during the day, thanks to herds of tourists, but tourists are welcome to stay overnight).

 

 

Kroprivshtitsa: An old and rustic rural town that preserves buildings from the Ottoman era. Aside from a few museum, most buildings continue to be used by the local community to this date.  

Day 85: Home town of Mother Teresa - Skopje, Macedonia

(Him: Charlie)

I am in Skopje, Mother Teresa’s home town, to pay pilgrimage to one of the greatest person ever lived on earth. Most people associate Mother Teresa with Calcutta, India, but she was actually born and raised in Skopje, where she spent 18 years before devoting her life to the “poorest of the poor”.

It’s a shame that I didn’t know who Mother Teresa was until she passed away in 1997; and I didn’t know what she had done until the visit to Skopje. Her altruism and dedicated soon garnered my utmost respect, and right away she became one of the persons I respect the most.

Take a look at the vow she wrote when founding the Missionary Sisters of Charity.

"I, sister Mary Teresa, vow and promise to Almighty God and to the blessed Virgin Mary in the hands of your grace, the archbishop of Calcutta, for life. Poverty, chastity, obedience and also to devote myself to the service to the poor." 

The devotion of being poor and dedication of helping the poor for the entire life is an accomplishment that is unmatched by any regular people.

Salute, Mother Teresa!

Day 82: Another UNESCO site? - Ohrid, Macedonia

(Him: Charlie)

When UNESCO first started designating heritage sites in 1978, I wonder if they thought about the designations being used as a marketing tool. Indeed, being a UNESCO designated site definitely has a better draw on travelers, at least when the number of designated sites was still relatively low.

However, the UNESCO designation seems to have lost its silver lining these days, as more and more sites receive their designations. In fact, as of 2012, 962 sites are listed: 745 cultural, 188 natural, and 29 mixed properties, in 157 States Parties. With this large number of designated sites, how much draw does the designation have on tourists? Probably not a lot left.

During our trip to South America 3 years ago, Chung and I realized it’s ok not to visit all the UNESCO sites because there are too many of them. This time around, I don’t even remember how many UNESCO sites Jo and I have been to – Warsaw, Piran, Split, Dubrovnik, Mostar, Kotor, Ohrid, etc. Some of these sites are more impressive than other, but one thing is certain, we went there not because of the UNESCO designation.

I can understand the importance of a UNESCO site in the sense of heritage protection, but unfortunately, though the designation is being widely used as a tourist promotion tool, it can no longer be used as travel guidance.

Day 81: What’s in a name? - Ohrid, Macedonia

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)

Sometimes traveling allows us to encounter some really bizarre and funny things – the naming controversy revolving around Macedonia is one of them.

Commonly known as the Republic of Macedonia, the official name of this country is FYROM, Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia. Why such weird name you may ask. That’s because the countries in the region, particularly Greece, would not allow Macedonia to have a simple and generic name.

Little do outsiders know, thanks to its powerful past, Macedonia also refers to a region, which encompasses not only Macedonia, but also part of northern Greece, part of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania. So when Macedonia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991, countries led by Greece insisted that the new country should have a name that defines the specific region of Macedonia, such as Northern Macedonia. In the end, one thing led to another, the name was temporarily settled as FYROM. Yes, temporarily, because apparently, the negotiation with Greece is still ongoing!!

This issue may be contentious in the region, but to the outside world, the whole issue is just bizarre. Who really cares if Macedonia is Northern Macedonia, FYROM, or simply Macedonia? In my opinion, the prolonged negotiation is pointless and waste of time and resource. If the Greek government is still looking to trim some gravy, they may want to start with a few stubborn historians! 

Day 80: A third-world country in Europe? - Berat, Albania

(Him: Charlie)

Albania is by far the most surprising country we have visited – I never expected how primitive and under-developed this country this. Unlike some of its neighbouring countries, Albania experienced virtually no armed conflicts since the WWII, so it came to a total surprise when a third-world country presented before me when I crossed the border from Montenegro.

(Tangled power lines in a residential neighbourhood in Tirana)

Albania doesn’t feel like Europe at all. It actually reminds me of Venezuela or Bolivia, for their poor roads, close to non-existent waste management (littering and garbage burning is literally everywhere), and ubiquitous half finished or half crumpled buildings.

“Winding mountain roads + bumpy roads full of pot holes = puking passengers”

Another problem we experienced in Albania is the annoyingly unorganized public transportation. The public transportation is so inadequate that it left a big gap for furgons (private vans) to shrive. The problem with these furgon is that they don’t have a fixed schedule and only leave until a van is filled up!!! Very annoying if you want to get to somewhere in a hurry – you might as well hitch-hike!

So looking back in the history of Albania, I attempted to find out the reason for such a poor state (In fact, Albania has consistently been the poorest country in Europe). While there may be many reasons that contributed to the present situation, I believe the biggest culprit was Albanian’s dictator Enver Hoxha. He is one of the worst, most selfish and coward leader, I’ve ever seen. Throughout his dictatorship regime, Hoxha switched the country’s alliance with different countries in response to his selfish needs and fear for losing power and control. Towards to the end of his ruling, he drove the country to extreme poverty in the name of “self-sufficiency”. As a result, the country had become so poor that, despite the long waited democracy arrived in the early 90s, hundreds of thousands of Albanians fled the country to Italy and Greece for a better life.

OK, despite the negative aspects of Albania, this country is well worth visiting – after all, it’s ranked the best destination to visit by Lonely Planet for 2011. Sandwiched between Croatia and Montenegro on the north and Greece on the south, embracing the crystal clear Ionian Sea and Adriatic Sea, Albania is amazingly beautiful. Here are some of the highlights.

Blue-Eye Spring - the source of an entire river. Fresh and cold water up to 10 m3/s gushes from deep below ground (more than 50 m deep) to form a river. It's an amazing phenomenon, but an even better place to cool down in the middle of the Balkan heat!

Butrint historic sites, and spectacular coastal landscape in southern Albania, close to the border with Greece.

Berat - a city with a thousand windows - a legacy from the Ottoman era.

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Something very peculiar about Albania – this poor country has many many luxury cars on the road – Mercedes mostly, BMW, Range Rover, etc. It’s not difficult to figure out where they came from since some of them still bear the original licence plate, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, etc. No wonder people joke about an Albania advertisement: “Come to Albania… your car is already here”.

Day 75: How much history of your country do you know? - Herceg Novi, Montenegro

(Him: Charlie)

Here in the Balkan Peninsula, two things about the people here really caught my attention. Firstly, they are very nationalistic. And secondly, they know there history like it’s written on their sleeve – not just modern history, but ancient history as far as a thousand years ago!

If you ever read up on the messy history of the Balkan Peninsula, it’s not difficult to find out that most, if not all, the trouble and conflicts were caused by people considering them different than other people in the region – Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, etc. Their strong nationalism destined the years of bloodshed within the region. Although some fell for different religions over the past centuries, the truth is, all these people were from the same tribe initially, the Slavs. If the same principle is to apply in China, dozens of separate countries would be born just for the Han people, not to mention much more formed by China’s other 55 minority ethnics. Some people may argue the Chinese minority ethnics deserve their own states. While that may be a valid argument, I am pretty certain that Chinese people don’t want a shattered China, at least for the regions concentrated with Han people.

As I have begun to grasp the complex history that shaped each Balkan country, my biggest question remains – how did the strong nationalism for these Slavs people come about? In my opinion, the difference is not worth dying for, but obviously, people here did not agree with me!

Perhaps for the strong nationalism, people in the Balkan countries know their history like telling their family story. Although at time opinionated, their knowledge of history is impressive. We’ve met quite a few people (certainly not tour guides), who could tell exactly when their country was under the rules of Roman, Venetians, Ottoman, Austrian-Hungarian, Yugoslavia, etc. The impressive story telling goes back for a thousand years!!

How much history of your own country can you tell? The best I can do is to recite the significant events in China for the last century, and for Canada, I can remember when it was found and name the last three prime minister, and that’s about it. Well, I’d better not mention this to my Balkan friends to embarrass myself… 

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

Day 70: The best way to stifle a country’s tourism - Belgrade, Serbia

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)

Serbia is large country, especially compared to its neighbouring Yugoslav brothers. Supposedly, it offers wild nature, charming villages and deep (maybe controversial) history – perfect for tourists. We were going to spend at least 4-5 days here, even though we are strapped for time. However, thanks to one of the worst tourist information centres we have ever come across, our stay was much shortened…

Upon arrival in Belgrade, as usual, we visited the local tourist office for travel advices. Though courteous, the staff wasted no time in shooting down the few places we had in mind, saying either there’s nothing happening, or it’s not worth visiting. The only place he recommended was the EXIT music festival in Novi Sad, which didn’t really interest us. We were disappointed – I thought Tourist Info is supposed to provide information and let me decide where I want to go. He may be telling his honest thoughts, but what I don’t need is filtered (and opinionated information). What a way to promote his country – totally and successfully turned us off!!

And that’s not all! In addition to the biased information, he also gave us false advice! When asked about Kosovo, a disputed area neighbouring Serbia (or within, depending on who you ask), he told us it’s extremely dangerous, and we shouldn’t go; and that, if we really wanted, we should go to the north part only, because the Albanians (Kosovo is mostly inhabited by Albanian ethnics) would kill us if we go to the south, including the capital. This is contrary to anything we have heard before and it was later proven wrong by other backpackers. I can understand the staff may be opinionated because of the Kosovo-Serbian conflict, but again, I was hoping for a little bit of professionalism.

It’s a shame that a country is represented by tourism staff like this – there is no better way than stifling the tourism like this. The impact, just an example, was we shorted our trip and only gave this country 36 hours of our time! Montenegro, here I come!

Day 70: Are there hidden gems in Serbia awaiting to show the world?

(Her :  Joanna)

After seeing and hearing what had happened in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I have to admit that I developed a certain perception of Serbian.  Even though my conscious told me that a lot of it has nothing to do with the people living but the government at that time was behind all the terrible events, it is difficult not to become bias.  Coming to Belgrade, after a long and tiring semi-overnight bus ride and greet with blazing heat in a room with no AC, did not help me like the city more.  We saw buildings that are on its way to fall down, which are probably caused by the NATO bombing in 1999.  However, I have different feelings as when I saw bullet holes filled buildings in Sarajevo. 

I can resist but to think "Is this man a rapist? Did he kill civilians in Bosnia? What did he do during the war?" every time I passed by men over 35 years old.  It gave me chills.  As a woman, the thought of being around rapists made me very uncomfortable and unsafe.  Though it was during "special" circumstances during the war that might affected the behavior uniquely.  With that feeling and thought, it was hard to see and experience Serbia with an open mind and open heart.  

When I heard nationalist comments from a young officer at the tourist office about Kosovo and his advice for us as foreigners not to visit Kosovo because Albanian are very racist and they are at war right now, I was being very turned off.   It was the first time we’ve heard that going to Kosovo is dangerous. 

We tried to “discover” Serbia to see whether there are some country side towns we can visit but the officer at the tourist office just shoot us down in the handful we shortlisted. 

It was a pity as a pair of couples from Australia who were originally from Serbia that we’ve met at Tito’s grave told us that there are tons of beautiful places in Serbia that are untouched by tourism.  Unfortunately, the focus for Serbia is to rebuild the country after the war and tourism wasn’t as developed as it could be.   

Day 68: Jerusalem of Europe - Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)
Sarajevo is truly a place where “east meets west”. It is called Jerusalem of Europe because of the three dominant religions in the City (as well as the whole country) – Catholic, Orthodox, and Islam. And what do you think of when you hear Jerusalem? Trouble! And trouble indeed.  Religion was one of the biggest contributing factors to the Bosnian War in the early 90s.

Visiting Sarajevo means seeing the melting pot of religions – you can see mosques, orthodox and catholic churches, all located a stone-throw away of each other. Just imagine the orchestra of bells from orthodox and catholic churches and call-for-prayers from mosques all at the exact same moment.

Catholic Church

Mosque and Minaret

Orthodox Church

Visiting the city also means traveling through the history of Sarajevo in a matter of minutes. From the old town centre walking eastward, mosques and Ottoman style buildings first crowd the surrounding, but seconds later, you are into the Austrian-Hungarian world with western style buildings. And then before you know it, you are among concrete block buildings from the Communist era. I guess the commonality of all these areas are the scars left behind from the 1992-1995 war. i.e., ubiquitous bullet holes that remind us of the war.

Sarajevo caught the world’s attention from 3 events in the history. The first one was the 1914 assassination of the Austrian-Hungarian heir of throne, which triggered the WWI. The second one was the 1984 Winter Olympics. And the most recent one was the infamous Siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995 – the longest siege in modern warfare, at 3 years and 10 months. That was a dark period in Sarajevo history. The entire city was locked out by Bosnian-Serbs. Sarajevans had virtually no food, no water, or any other basic needs. In addition, there were constant shelling and sniper shootings. Over 10,000 civilians, including 1,500 children, were killed in this siege.

Like the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria today, the Bosnian War was on the news all the time when I was little, but I simply couldn’t relate to it because it seemed so elusive. Just from the brief daily news shows, I could hardly figure out the conflict was taking place, let alone understanding the complex issues. So the more I heard about them on news, the more insensitive I became.

Coming to Bosnia, all the vivid proofs in Sarajevo, especially coloured video footages (not black and white!!) and bullet holes on buildings, remind me again that wars are still happening in this world (and very recently too!!) and they are more than just the news clips that we see on TV. People suffering in the conflicting zones, especially civilians, deserve more attention from international communities and better (more decisive and efficient) conflict resolution and humanitarian aids.


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Bizarre things happen in Bosnia:

• Bosnia has 3 presidents, one representing each ethnic group, but they rotate every 8 months to be "president" of the presidents. Among other things, this avoids sending more than one president to a diplomatic trip.
• The number of stars on the Bosnian flag does not represent anything, so according to locals, a bigger flag may have more stars.
• The official language of Bosnia is Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian in a single word. These three languages are essentially the same, but it has to be named this way to please all three ethnicity.

Day 67: Stubbornness May Be A Good Trait Sometimes

(Her :  Joanna)

Can you imagine yourself living in a war zone for three and a half years without water, food, electricity, an army to start with and military weapons?  People in Sarajevo did.  Per information the guide of the infamous “Tunnel” tour and in museum, we gathered a few things have make it possible for Sarajevo to withstand the war for this long without giving in to Bosnian-Serbs:

• There happened (luckily) to be a natural water spring within a brewery in town that supply the whole city drinkable water during the whole war
• UN occupied the airport of Sarajevo for supplies to fly into the area
• Army of Sarajevo dig the “Tunnel of Hope” that allows supplies (food and weapons) to get into the city   

The will for people in Sarajevo to defend their land was incredible.  Since Bosnia had only declared independence the day before the war started, Bosniak had no proper army nor weapons when the war started.  It was amateur civilians who volunteered.  In the History Museum of Sarajevo, you can see home-made military uniforms that the soldiers worn during the war.      

Despite seeing the brutality of their own city being destroyed and death of their love ones, people in Sarajevo stubbornly refused to be despaired.  Throughout the war, cultural events such as beauty pageant, music concert, night life and soccer games still went on.   Isnt’ it impressive?

I knew war was bad but seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from WWII and hearing from locals what had happened in Sarajevo with my own eyes and ears, it put bad into perspective.  We are the lucky ones living in a peaceful part of the world but are we bystanders witnessing war around us happening everyday in parts of the world distant from us?  Are there anything each of us can do?  If wishing “world peace” is your New Year wish, what have you done to contribute on that?  Seeing what’s happening in Syria breaks my heart that we, human being, didn’t learn our lesson from our history……

With this thought, it reminds me of a song of John Lennon – Imagine. 

Day 66: Differences?

(Her : Joanna)

Bosniak Serbs and Bosniak Croats seem to still be quite divided.  In both Mostar and Sarajevo, the 2 groups reside in different part of the city.  In Mostar, there are even 2 postal services and separate football stadium for each group as some samples. However, all of the Bosnian & Herzegovinian who we’ve talked to around our age all told us that they don’t care and won’t judge people by their skin color, religion and ethnicity.   They believe everyone is equal and should be treated the same way.  I really would like to speak to some older generation to understand whether they also think the same way.  Why then are these 2 groups still so divided in this country puzzle me as the younger generation seems to be going against the division.  

Day 65: Community and Hospitality of Bosnian & Herzegovinian

(Her : Joanna)

I am so utterly impressed by the hospitality of Bosnian & Herzegovinian.  I have met quite a few very friendly hosts at places we stayed but not quite like Bosnian & Herzegovinian.  The host, Almir, and his wife, Salena, of the guest house we stayed with at Mostar made sure we are really feeling like home and well taken care of. 

Even though we arrived at 2 am, he insisted to pick us up from the bus station, and greeted us with a true-hearted warm welcome even though he has to go to work the next day at 6 AM.  Almir invited us to his house for coffee/tea, and chat with us like a family friend (I even watched his 6 months old son bath).  He bought us snacks, fresh figs and vegetables through our stay, and even gave us some to bring with us on the road.   

I don’t know whether we treat our friends like he does in Canada, let alone a stranger.

Later we found out from our tour guide that Bosnian & Herzegovinian has a very strong sense of community.  Everyone knows all of their neighbors, everyone help each other’s out and look out of each other.  It is a strange concept to Bosnian & Herzegovinian not to even know the name of their neighbors like I would say most of us do in North America and HK.  I don’t know whether because Mostar is a small city that our host and guide seem to know everyone around his neighborhood or it is just the way Bosnian & Herzegovinian are.  We will find out when we visit Sarajevo.

Day 64: To Ask Or Not To Ask

(Her : Joanna)

Just reading the raping camp from the war time in Bosnia and Herzegovina gave me nightmares.  I can’t imagine what these people have to go through or still living with after the war.  The war is still so fresh.  A pure 15 years is not enough to “move on” or forget.   

Before this trip, I have always thought that the war time is the toughest time for people but it is extremely difficult for those who survive and have to live with the memory or rather nightmare.

The mood or tone changed whenever the topic of war was bought up when we talked to a local family here.   Implicitly, I can feel that they try to move on.  When they told us sparsely things they went through at the war, I felt that they lightened up a lot as if they are just talking about a normal event in the past.  And at times, they joked about some things they themselves or their family went through but through the jokes, I can superficially imagine the hardship they have went through.

Almost every local we have met, though we didn’t meet too many, have been affected by the war.  There are ruins of building mix with new buildings and a lot of buildings with something like bullet holes on the exterior of the wall.

The tour guide of the tour we took lost 20 family members from the war; and the tour bus driver, who was only 2 when the war happened, showed us the scar he got from an explosion on his arm.

Though we really want to know more what it is like going through the war and what happened from people who went through it but it is too cruel to ask about a wound that everyone tries to recover from.  Perhaps, we should look forward and see what Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer as a country.

Day 64: Passion of Life in Bosnia & Herzegovina

(Him: Charlie)(Him: Charlie)

I have not had much desire to write in the last little while, even after a fantastic trip in Croatia’s beautiful cities and islands. However, here in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), after just 3 day of visit, the urge has burst out. So I am actually going to blog about BiH first.

The urge to write about Bosnia mostly came from the host of our guesthouse, the Taso family. Jo and I have been deeply touched by this couple’s passion for life.

A quick history of BiH – BiH has been a country that comprises three main ethnicities – Bosnian Croats (mainly Catholics), Bosnian Serbs (mainly Orthodox), and Bosniak (mainly Muslim). As history has repeatedly demonstrated, when you have strong presence of multiple religions at one place, you are asking for trouble, to say the least. And trouble indeed. From 1992 to 1995, the Bosnian War broke out, where the three ethnicities expelled and persecuted each other. Here in Mostar, a city built in the valley, was reduced to rubble after all the battles, siege, and heavy shelling. Even to this date, relics of destroyed buildings or buildings full of bullet holes can still be seen everywhere.

Fast forward 17 years, the Taso family, having lived through the horrifying war, has long been back to normal life. They both have a well respected job – regional manager of bank and psychology teacher, and they recently had a new addition to the family, baby boy Omar. You would think this couple have their hands full with their jobs, the baby and the guesthouse? Think again! On top of all that, they have plans to expand the guesthouse and they even help out their family farm – literally work like there is no tomorrow.

Sometimes our conversation touched the subject of the war. It is obvious to us that they would downplay the hardship they endured and even joked about it. Everyone knows it must be hell going through those 4 sorrow years and they have definitely not forgotten about it, but they chose to joke about it and even dismiss it, because they have chosen to focus on the future instead. They have to chosen to seize every possible opportunity for a better tomorrow. To me, that’s the passion of life that everyone should pursue!

Day 59: Home

(Her: Joanna)

Don’t know since when I shifted from being “I’m from Hong Kong” to “I’m from Canada”.  I feel excited to talk about how beautiful Vancouver is and promoting Whistler to other backpackers.  Unlike my trips to Australia, Asia, South America and Western Europe, Eastern European talks about Canada as the “promised land”.  I’ve only heard of this term describing Canada in text books.  It is so strange to hear it from people.  Traveling through the Eastern European countries and learning what had happened to them, relatively, Canada is a “promised land”.  The peace and security, I now learn, is not a guaranteed thing for every country.  We, Canadian, are a lucky bunch.  I’m proud to be Canadian.  One thing I love traveling is that it allows you to see and helps you realize and appreciate things that you have.

Happy Canada Day!!!

Day 59: Illusion?! Are the fishes in the water or in the air?

(Her :  Joanna)

We bumped into a backpacker on a train to Ljubljana that Plitvice is a must go but it is a pain in the ass to get to by public transportation.  We met a pair of young couple, Eric and Rena, from San Francisco at the hostel we stayed in at Pula who was also heading to Zadar the same day.  We sold them on going to Plitvice with us.

After 4 hours of painstaking search of car rental (thanks to Eric and Charlie), we finally got one.  Plitvice National Park was well worth the effort and the 2-hours drive!  The water was ridiculously clear.  You can see right through the bottom.  After you starred at the water for a while, you get confused whether the fishes are in the water or in the air.  I have never seen any water so clear ever in my life.   There were also a few waterfall, though not as spectacular as Iguazu Fall in Brazil/Argentina, the turquoise color water with the sun shining onto it is a beauty in another way.

On our way back to Zadar, Eric, who was in his early 20s asked us some questions surrounding the theme of “do you feel that you are old?” and advices.  At that moment I realized that these are some of the questions in my mind when I was in my early 20s that I used to ask people older than me for advice.  I hate to but have to admit that I’m no longer the amateur, inexperience baby who just graduated from college as my colleges more senior of me used to say.