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.