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.

***********************************************************************************************

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!