Balkan Countries, Istanbul to Vienna

BALKANS

BULGARIA-BOSNIA-SERBIA-CROATIA

FROM ISTANBUL TO BUDAPEST

Continuing from my Turkey blog…

Before leaving Istanbul we changed our Turkish YTL to Austrian money at train station. Austrian money was the only money they would exchange. They would not exchange Bulgarian, Bosnian, Croatian. We didn’t know we were duped and given AUSTRALIAN money until we got to Vienna and tried to cash it. It was our own fault; we were careless and didn’t check what we were given. We never carry much cash so the loss was insignificant. Anyone want some Australian money?

We purchased our tickets at the station the morning of our trip. Cost for a sleeper including the train tickets was $69, reasonable for room and transportation to a new country. It is a very long journey, from 10:00pm to almost noon the next day. We had a private room, nice, slept good except at border. Read about this exciting middle-of-the night experience on my “Turkey-Istanbul” blog.

After more than 12 hours on the train, we arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria. When traveling the first thing we do find a clean bathroom, then coffee, then the “I” in train station to get a room. This has never been a problem for us. We have met many lovely people making extra money by renting out a spare room. The cost is less than a hotel room.

We enjoy being in a private home, living for a day or two with private citizens. We learn so much more about the people and country we’re in. Sofia was no different.

An older woman walked to station, and showed us the way-about five blocks. Nice room, friendly people. The woman was “sitter” for 11-year-old girl who spoke excellent English. Mother worked. At our invitation, the girl was in and out of our room, asking all kinds of questions about us, USA, talked non-stop about her life, school. Very nice girl.

We may not remember much about the City, but we will always remember this little girl and her zest for learning about America.

It was a nice two days. Sofia doesn’t have much to offer for excitement or beauty. It is just emerging into the world of tourism. We did walk through a large outdoor market (several blocks long). This was interesting and gave us a feeling about how the people live.

Our room was $53/2 nights. We enjoyed a German restaurant w/accordion music: 2 beer, 2 Coke, 2 appetizers tomato/blue cheese/other cheeses platter, lamb, chicken/mushrooms/sausage/gherkin pickles on hot plate-total $36. Excellent food, good music, charming restaurant, friendly people. No deer head on the wall in this restaurant.

On a beautiful, sunny afternoon, as we strolled down a busy street we noticed this building. It piqued our interest because it was out in the street.

What a treasure we found inside. The building was protection over the ruins that were found when digging up the street.

Our third morning we threw our day bags on a bus and headed for Niz, Serbia-3 hours. Driver took passports, looked at everyone. Then everyone got off bus taking own luggage out of luggage hold under bus, identified our bags to police. Some people were called into building. All back on bus, passports given back by driver. Another police came on, took passports again, called two people off bus. Finally the bus left. Drove about 100 ft. Same procedure again. No one had time to put passport away before police took again. This took long time because every time police took a passport, they opened and checked all pages. Same thing when passports brought back. Took 1.5 hours for about ten people on bus. I had no problem with my temporary passport. We were traveling from Bosnia to Serbia.

This is one reason we travel on our own with no set schedule. We want these life experiences in all the countries we visit. Every experience enriches our lives dramatically.

Per travel books, Niz is a fascinating town for an afternoon. The town is charming. It is a bit off the beaten path, especially if your time is limited. We took a taxi to “Tower of Skulls”-very interesting. Hundreds of years ago, dozens of men were taken hostage, murdered, heads returned to Niz. As memorial, Niz residents made a cement tower with skulls stuck in cement. At the time, heads were still identifiable so family came to pray for their deceased men. Now, of course, only skulls remain. Many have been removed by family and buried in family plots.

FUN! We got 2000 from ATM, receipt showed it was 25€ (about $35 in 2006); immediately got another 2000. Didn’t want too much Serbian money because we would only be in the country for the afternoon. No surrounding country would take Serbian money so we knew we would be stuck with whatever we had left. We needed enough for a meal, snack for the night bus ride and a taxi.

Then we walked far too many miles (just around the corner, right?) to a newly discovered archeological site. No one there, nothing much done. Disappointing. Worst of all, we had to walk all the way back to civilization. Where’s the bus/taxi when you need one. We were pooped when we got back to town center. Ate and enjoyed the ambiance.

Took night bus to Sarajevo. Supposed to have airplane-type seats (no way!). Slept little. $52/2p.

Sarajevo worthy of more days. A woman at depot shared her taxi and took us to the “I” in town, then went on her way. Lovely lady at the “I” found us a room within walking distance. Below is the "I".

The town center is nice, restaurants, some small businesses, markets.

Our room and hill we had to climb several times a day. Love the pictures.

We took one tour-the war tour with a short tour of town included. We were ashamed that we remembered nothing of a war. All we remember is that Olympic hopefuls were trapped in Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. In Dubrovnik they trained in hopes of being allowed to compete, but, in the end, they were not allowed to leave.

In Sarajevo, the training Olympic runners risked their lives every night to run with water buckets to the only well in town, getting as much water as they could under cover of darknes

We realize we only have the Bosnian side of this war to tell you about so remember this as you read on.

Our guide was a young Sarajevo woman who was 9-11 years old during the war with Serbia. Others on tour were young backpackers from several countries. We were the only people who knew nothing of the war. Sarajevo was surrounded by Serbs for over three years. 12,000 men/women/children killed by snipers and bombs. Jewish cemetery above town, stones riddled with bullet holes.

The city was cut off from the world and quickly ran out of water and food. No phone, electricity, heat.

UN dropped supplies into “free zone”. Bosnians had to cross the airport which was controlled by the Serbs to get to free zone. In four months they dug a tunnel under airport into free zone. Half-mile long, 3 feet wide, 4 feet high. The tunnel was open 22 hours a day and 2 hrs maintenance.

By lottery 3000 people a day were allowed through to get as much as they could carry back through the tunnel. This is how they survived. Our guide’s mother got their supplies. Packs weighed 77 pounds each.

Our guide talked about the former Yugoslavia, the dictator Tito, and what happened after his death in 1984. She said Tito was such a strong leader that he was able to hold the areas together without conflict. When he died, Yugoslavia broke up into several countries. Then Serbia invaded Croatia, and then Bosnia. Someone in our group spoke what we were all thinking, “Tito was a Communist dictator; how could he be good?” Our guide said, “So?” He was strong, and held off all challengers. There was no war and everyone had jobs and food to eat. They were better off under Tito.

Well, I’m reporting what our guide said. We have no opinion; we don’t know enough about the countries’ religious and political makeup and other factors. It is interesting though, isn’t it?

Sarajevo “rosettas”. Bomb markings in cement sidewalks, etc. They radiated out from center. The rosettas where people were killed were painted red.

The war is over. It is safe for tourists and citizens. The countries are focusing on improving their economy and getting into the European Union.

There is so much to see in Sarajevo; we barely covered the basics in our time there. We would have stayed longer but we were already short days because of my passport problem in Turkey.

On to Mostar, Bosnia, on a morning bus, $10 each. Several books report this is a lovely small town. It is. This town was heavily damaged by the war. Both Mostar and Sarajevo had many bombed out buildings and buildings with bullet holes.

Sarajevo to Mostar: rugged mountains (southern end of Alps) look nothing like Swiss Alps. Beautiful,rugged mountains. Road went along glacier-fed river all the way. 9% grades. Difficult to take pictures of the mountains. Regional buses are not like tour buses. They do not stop for Kodak moments.

There were several women jockeying for position as people got off the bus, all with rooms to rent. A mother-daughter combo was too much for us. We went with them in their auto. We were three blocks from town center, shops and restaurants.

Mostar interesting small town with river running through, cobbled streets. Very pretty.

Mostar was also devastated by the war.

The next day our mother-daughter combo picked us up at 6:00am for trip to bus station. We bought some biscuits, sweets, coffee before entering the bus for our ride to Dubrovnik.

It’s been six days since we left Istanbul. So far the Balkan countries have fascinated us, such nice people, breathtaking beauty (mountains), wonderful bus system between cities, again, the people.

With adventure in our hearts we look forward to what awaits in Croatia.

It is evident to us that the people of the Balkan countries are working hard to improve their economies with the goal of joining the EU. We heard it in every city. They want and need tourism to help them meet their goal.

Bus to Dubrovnik $36/2 people. Temp nice, about 50 degrees 7:00am, 3-3.5 hours. Dubrovnik is a beautiful city. Scenery between Mostar and Dubrovnik breathtaking.

Another delightful landlady, an elderly woman who spoke no English, but did invite us into her kitchen for tea. There were pans of sliced fresh eggplant everywhere. She was drying them for storage. On her patio we saw strings of green beans drying like clothes on line. We went with this lady because she looked so poor and she promised A/C and clean bathroom. A/C did not mean heat, which is what we needed. The room was very clean. $30

An older man from Berlin was in the room next to us. He was bicycling through Balkans. We shared the bathroom.

No this is not the bathroom we shared; this is in a restaurant.

Experiences like this can’t be bought.

We walked through all of Old Town Dubrovnik in the afternoon. Walked the entire wall, ate ice cream, had lunch w/lovely British couple from Newcastle. Talked to many young backpackers bussing through the Balkans.

Streets in Old Town very shiny and grey. All streets looked like highly polished stone. We really like Dubrovnik. It’s worth several days, especially if you want to visit the islands which we did not do.

Another morning bus, this time to Split, Croatia. Beautiful, along the Adriatic. We’re loving these bus rides, lots of time to reflect on yesterday’s events and contemplate tomorrow’s. Breakfast at the station.
Interesting!

Scenes along the way to Split.

When we arrived in Split I was coming down with a bug of some kind. I sat on a bench and asked my husband to find a room with HEAT. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I sat and people watched-interesting sights. He was gone so long I thought he was lost, but after about 45 minutes, he hopped out of a car and said, “We have a room with heat!” Music to my ears.

Then an older man jumped out of the car and started speaking GERMAN, no English. I looked at my husband and he said, “It has heat.” Off we went. I knew enough German to understand and communicate with the Herr. His Frau was in backyard cracking walnuts. A friend had given them a large gunny sack full of nuts. Later that day a knock on door and Frau gave us a bag of nuts. We cracked them from Split to Vienna.

Split is a nice town. We’re split on which town we like better, Dubrovnik or Split. Streets shiny like Dubrovnik. Shops built into walls of large castle in ruins. Very scenic and charming. It’s a seaside town on the Adriatic. We stayed two nights.

Busy fish market in Split.

Goodbye to our German zimmer frei and the lovely couple who run it.

On to Zagreb via bus. This is just a stop-over because of distance to Budapest. We had a lovely afternoon and evening in Zagreb.

We’re tired, need to do laundry, ready to settle down in our timeshare in Budapest. We left home on September 26, it’s now October 20. Time to regroup.

In the Balkans, people do not eat breakfast, they eat course, under baked (chewy) pita, perhaps a little cabbage. Food was hearty and filling, not great, but not bad either.

Older women meet the buses vying for your bodies to sleep in their beds. Most were quite aggressive in a friendly way.

The Balkan countries took all money except USD making it easier to move from country to country.

Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia have little infrastructure and are not equipped for much tourism. Tours are limited. That said, we loved it. We are confident that within five or six years there will be major accomplishments in the tourism industry.

People very friendly, kissing on both cheeks with our hosts.

Our most interesting sight was the altar beneath the street in Sofia. Finding it was such a surprise. Our favorite place was the Old Town in Dubrovnik, within the walls, although Split was a close second. Prettiest street was in Mostar. Favorite B&B: that's a tough one, we enjoyed them all.

Traveling like this can be scary. You have to really have confidence in yourselves, know you can get out of difficulties when they arise, and they will. Know you will be totally out of your comfort zone and know you can handle it. It’s definitely not for everyone. But if you think this is for you we highly recommend it.

7:20am train to Budapest (no buses) 5 hours, $74/2 people 2^nd class.

Read about Budapest, Hungary (two cities Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River).