Month: November 2019

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Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

In Sarajevo there is a distinct line where East meets West. On one side is the Ottoman market district, dating back 500 years to the founding of the city, full of domed roofs, mosques, and narrow streets. On the other is the Austro-Hungarian area, only 100-150 years old. Here buildings have ornate sculpted facades and would not look out of place in Austria, or Hungary for that matter. This is just in the old town. There are also drab concrete apartment blocks that, like many buildings in the city, are pocked with shrapnel damage from the siege. I also saw some skyscrapers for the first time in awhile.

Suffice to say, this is an interesting city with a turbulent history. An important Ottoman trading city for centuries, then the site of the spark that ignited The First World War when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated near the beautiful Latin Bridge. In 1988 Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics and only 8 years later the longest siege in modern history occurred here.

The Bosnian war and the Siege of Sarajevo occupied most of my interest while I was in the city. It’s hard not to think about it when you’re here, there are reminders of it everywhere. The aforementioned shrapnel scars are still visible on buildings throughout the city, they simply can’t afford to repair every building. Then there are the Sarajevo Roses. If you look down while you walk you will notice these splashes of red on many streets. The red is resin that has been poured into the scars of mortar shells which caused fatalities during the siege. There are hundreds in the city.

The Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide gives an uncompromising look at the horrors of the Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo. Since these events happened only 25 years ago, there is plenty of video footage and photography documenting the war. This made for the most difficult museum experience I’ve had yet. The atrocities were not just words or numbers, they are there for you to see. I’m not going to tell you about them. If you were alive in the 90s you likely already have some idea. What stuck out to me however was how resilient the people of Sarajevo were. They were living in horrible, traumatizing conditions for almost four years, but life went on. Children attended school, people went to work. People went to the theatre. There was a film festival, beauty pageants, and fashion shows. The people of Sarajevo kept going, and survived for almost four years a siege that was meant to break them completely and utterly. It’s quite inspiring.

I’m sorry if this post has been a bit dark and depressing. Sometimes that’s how life is. Be glad that you grew up safe and sound and that you are only reading about these things. And if you have lived through some tragedy, even if it’s ‘minor’, I salute your strength and bravery.

Okay, enough of this. What happened to sarcastic, ironic, irreverent Dylan? I’ll leave you with this. The Bosnian war was conflicts between three ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. They all speak the same language, are all Slavic peoples, all lived together in Yugoslavia. What is the difference between these peoples? What determines their ethnicity?

It’s religion.

Photos.

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Kotor, Montenegro

Imagine a place where high, rugged mountains plunge straight into the sea. But no, this is not the icy waters of the North Sea, nor is it the Norwegian fjords. This is the Montenegrin mountains, and this is the Adriatic Sea. Well, it’s the Bay of Kotor. Actually, the town of Kotor is on a smaller bay off of the Bay of Kotor, so it’s a couple of steps removed from the sea. The point is this: mountains + sea = nice.

Kotor is beautiful, and it knows it. I’m into the part of the Balkans that normal tourists visit, not just backpackers. Cruise ships dock here. Kotor is primarily a tiny old town nestled safely between a wall and a mountain. Despite its small size, there is lots to see, as the streets are so narrow and winding that there’s always something new around the corner. You also have easy access to all the other towns and sights around the Bay of Kotor, though I didn’t take the time to venture far.

It was dark when I arrived in town. Just before you enter Kotor from the south, the road goes through a tunnel. As my bus emerged from the tunnel, fireworks exploded overhead. They knew I was coming. Then I caught sight of the fortress, illuminated high above the town, and the fireworks suddenly seemed quite lame in comparison.

The fortress perches on the mountain above Kotor. I’ve seen many a castle/fortress at this point, but usually they are on hilltops, not mountaintops, albeit a small mountain. Walls zig and zag their way up the mountain from the town below, as does a staircase. But it costs 8€ to climb the staircase to the fortress, who’s got that kind of money?

Fear not, budget traveller, there is a way. Behind the fortress lies a long path full of switchbacks. If you follow it all the way, you’ll cross the mountain into a national park. If you stop when you get to the fortress, you may notice a ladder leading to a window in the wall. I’m not saying that this is how I got in to the fortress, but I do have 8€ in my pocket right now.

The fortress is pretty nice. It has great views, and nice enough walls and what not. I don’t know what they’re doing with the entrance fees, but it certainly isn’t cleaning up the garbage or installing a couple of trash cans. Seeing the lack of upkeep made me glad that I “allegedly” snuck in the back. Terrific views though.

So there you have it. Kotor is beautiful, and there’s a lot more to do in the area, but during the summer it must be swarming with tourists, so visit in November, when it’s still warm, but not so many people are here.

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Shkodër, Albania

The drive into Albania was beautiful, until it wasn’t. For the first couple hours the road wound through breathtaking mountains with picturesque villages in the distance. Then we got to the lowlands and it was impossible to tell where one town ended and the next began. For over an hour we drove through outskirts. Crappy looking roadside hotels and building supply stores. Then the bus dropped me off on the outskirts of Shkodër, this bus just skipped by the city without going to the center. So I walked for almost an hour down the main road to the center of town. It was not an inspiring start.

Actually, it was quite interesting. But I was tired and had not been expecting such a walk. Also it was chaotic and kinda dirty. The road was two lanes in each direction plus curb parking, but people stop their cars in the lane next to the parking lane. There are as many bicycles as cars and it’s a bit of a free for all. People sit on the sidewalk with little displays of goods for sale. Fruits and vegetables, shoes, odds and ends. Chickens are tied by their legs to the handlebars of some bikes. Live chickens.

And then I made it to the center of town, and just one street over from the craziness is a whole other world. An elegant pedestrian street. Peaceful narrow lanes. My hostel.

Shkodër features two of the best museums I’ve seen in a while. The Museum of Memory was yet another museum dedicated to the atrocities of the communist regimes, set in yet another old prison. This one was distinguished by having an exhibit chronicling every single totalitarian regime in Europe – Nazis, fascists, communists, on a country by country basis. This was interesting, but soon became overwhelming, and the numbers blended together and became unreal. Simple statistics are not a good way to communicate the numbers of people murdered and deported. The other museum was much happier. It was an exhibition of photos taken by a family of influential Albanian photographers from the beginning of photography up to the 1970s. The photographs were excellent and portrayed both the history of Albania and of photography.

A big draw of Shkodër, other than hiking the nearby mountains, is Lake Shkodër. So I just had to get out of town and enjoy the lovely lakeshore. Luckily, my hostel had bikes to rent. That’s how I found myself biking out of town, on the road I had all too recently considered chaotic. Now I was part of the chaos. Cycling alongside and inside of traffic. Dodging Albanian drivers like the best of them. Actually, once you’re out there, it’s not as wild as it appears. People drive very slowly in town, and they’re used to cyclists. An employee at my hostel figures that Shkodër has the 7th most bikes in Europe per capita, which makes sense. It’s flat and perfect for biking.

Then I was out of town and biking along the shore of Lake Shkodër. On my left, mountains. On my right, lake, and then mountains. In front of me, a narrow winding road.

After a leisurely hour and a half of biking the road runs out. Not much further and you’d cross the border into Montenegro.

Like any city worth its salt, Shkodër has a fortress. Situated on a hill just outside of town, it offers an excellent view of the city and surrounding countryside.

Albania is the least familiar place in Europe. It’s the furthest from Canada or the rest of Europe that you can get. Spending longer here and seeing more of the country would be quite an interesting experience. But my time in Europe is running out, and I want to hit a few more countries before I have to call it quits. So it’s so long to Albania and zdravo to Montenegro!

Enjoy some photos!

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Prizren, Kosovo

The central square of Prizren is surrounded by cafes and restaurants, their patios full of locals drinking tea or coffee and chatting away. I took their example and spent a good deal of time sipping tea at a lovely cafe in the garden behind the Sinan Pasha Mosque.

Minarets dot the horizon. Throughout the day the call to prayer sounds out. There are always several mosques within earshot and they never quite seem to be in sync, so a multitude of voices create a beautiful cacophony.

The narrow streets barely have sidewalks, so one must keep their wits about them and always be prepared to step out of the way of a car. Kosovans have been very friendly and helpful, but once they are behind the wheel of a car it feels as if they will run you down with barely a second thought. Welcome to the Balkans.

Yet another fortress sits above the city. It’s accessible via the steep, winding streets, or you can walk out of town along the river, and through the forest to approach the castle from the back. From above Prizren is a sea of red tile rooftops, pierced by the aforementioned minarets, flowing up to the mountains in the distance.

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Skopje, (North) Macedonia

North Macedonia, the Republic formerly known as The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Skopje is the weirdest city I’ve ever visited. It may be the city with the most statues, it certainly feels like it. Highest density of statues at the very least.

When I arrived at night by bus I was greeted by a vision of a neon cross hovering high above the city.

“Is this it?”, I thought, “Is God finally revealing itself to me, proving my atheism to be a foolish mistake?”

In a word, no. The neon cross was a very man made item. It was the Millennium Cross, built to celebrate two millennia of Christianity, seated atop a mountain overlooking Skopje. It is the second largest cross in the world, the largest metal one.

As you walk along the river towards the centre of the city you will see many beautiful Baroque and classical style buildings. You will see uncountable statues of important Macedonians. You will see at least twice as many bridges as necessary.

Don’t be fooled. These beautiful old buildings and statues were mostly built between 2010 and 2014. They are built in styles that never existed in this area historically. When buildings like these were being built in other parts of Europe, Macedonia was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Skopje has been nearly completely destroyed three times by earthquakes in the last 1500 years, most recently in 1963. This is why there are very few real historical buildings in the city. The country and the city have also been very corrupt, which is why unthinkable amounts of money has been spent on statues and pretty buildings.

How does Dylan know all this? you wonder. Well, let me tell you. I’ve often been going on free walking tours of cities. It’s a good way to learn about the city, and figure out what you want to look more closely at during the rest of your time. These tours are generally pretty good. The one in Skopje is the best yet.

It didn’t hurt that only three of us turned up for the tour. This made for a more intimate, personal tour than you usually get. We were outnumbered by the stray dogs that followed us along our way. They had tags indicating that they had received shots and been fixed, so they were very friendly and not aggressive. Unless you’re on a bicycle, that is. As we walked the streets of Skopje our posse of dogs kept us very safe from cyclists, barking and biting at ankles, as well as chasing any car that dared to drive by.

So we had pets and protection, good start. We also had an excellent tour guide. Mihal was the friendliest, most welcoming guide one could hope for. Our tour went much longer than usual because we were talking for so long. Mihal brought us to a restaurant and treated us to rakia, Balkan alcohol made from plums, grapes, or other fruit. He said we’d take a 20 minute break there. We ended up staying for an hour and twenty minutes. Of course stopping there is just part of his standard tour, but getting an in-depth, fairly unbiased, explanation of the issues around the name Macedonia, was a bonus.

Also as part of the tour we got a coupon for free rakia, and one for free beer. Although the value of such things was $3 max. But I drank well that day.

Anyhow, back to the statues. There’s a massive equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, but it’s officially called “Man on Horse” or something, so as not to bother the Greeks who think they own Alexander and the name Macedonia. There is a fountain with four statues of Alexander’s mother in it. There is a statue of his father. There are two bridges with about 30 statues on each of them. There are countless other statues. There is a triumphal arch, even though Macedonia has had no military triumphs in the last 2000 years.

Even knowing none of the story behind how silly all these things are, it still feels pretty absurd. When I first walked into the centre I was thinking “what the heck”, at every turn.

There are a handful of actual historical buildings still remaining in the city. One famous bridge, the large fortress, and many buildings and streets in the Old Bazaar area.

The Old Bazaar is windy cobblestone streets with shops and restaurants crammed into every available space. Apparently restaurants don’t have to pay taxes in the bazaar if they keep their building in its original condition, so prices are very cheap. It’s the perfect place to sit outside sipping a glass of Turkish tea or rakia, as the mood takes you, and watching the bustle of people.

Some fun facts about Skopje. Mother Teresa was born here. After the 1963 earthquake, because Yugoslavia had relations with both the USSR and America, relief was sent from both countries to Skopje. As a result, American and Soviet soldiers shook hands for the first time since the Cold War began.

All of the city’s buses were destroyed when their garage collapsed in the earthquake. So London sent some of its double-decker buses to help out until Skopje replaced their fleet. Now, in the last few years, Skopje’s newest buses are double-decker and built in a retro style to look somewhat like London’s buses of the 60s.

I highly recommend Skopje. You’ll never see another city like it.

Photos. Barely capturing the oddness.