Istanbul and The Balkans

We are flying from Istanbul into London, at the end of nearly 4 weeks of traveling. We started with 2d in Istanbul, then 5 in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Lake Palic, with a side trip into Szeged, Hungary [country #50 for JC], and Smederevo) 4 in Bosnia (Sarajevo, Mostar, Medugorje [no, Virgin Mary did not make an appearance to me, continuing instead only with her daily apparitions to the six former 1981 teenagers, now wealthy businessmen, my explanations to some of the believers that her appearing to me would have a greater effect on my life than her appearing to anyone else in town would have on theirs obviously failed to reach her ears], and quick stops in the picturesque Ottoman village fortress of Pocitelj and canoeing thru the Hutovo Blato wetlands), 2 passing thru beautiful but over-touristed Dubrovnik, Croatia (I thought it was crowded in 1998, however the locals kept telling me numbers were still way down from the war- they were right: the previously spectacular circumnavigation of its walls was now a large traffic jam, tho kayaking outside them afterwards was considerably better) en route to amazing Montenegro for the last 9.

History, both medieval and recent, is everywhere in The Balkans. I always thought that the Western media did a very poor job of explaining to us just who were the Bosnians, Serbs and Croats, and why they hated each other so much, so I will give you my simplified summary. Ethnically, they are essentially all the same- South Slavs, hence Tito’s attempt at unification in Yugo(=south)-slavia. However their cultures, and especially religions (big surprise!), have taken different paths due to the Balkans location at the crossroads of history. It starts when Emperor Diocletian (Constantine’s predecessor) split the Roman empire into two halves, which later served as the division between Holy Roman Catholicism in the west (with Croatia at the border) and Byzantine Greek Orthodoxy in the East (with Serbia at the border). Bosnia, in between, had its own form of Christianity with a much weaker church, leading to most Bosnians being converted to Islam, with its material advantages, shortly after the Ottoman conquest. Yet there remained significant Bosnian Serb, and Bosnian Croat minorities with corresponding religions and geographic pockets. Next is the fact that the region for centuries was the frontier between Christianity and Islam, namely between the Ottoman empire and the Catholic Austro-Hungarian Hapsburgs (recall that WW1 was started after a Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand). Serbian lore views itself as having saved the west through its 1389 sacrificial defeat to the Turks in its southern heartland fields of Kosovo (accounting for Serbian opposition to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, despite the fact that the region is poor and populated mostly by Albanian Muslims, “1389” graffiti is still widespread in Belgrade), and was not happy under either empire. There is a photo in Belgrade’s military museum displaying WW2 Croatian Ustashe soldiers “posing over killed Serbs, Jews and Roma[=gypsies]”. Despite his faults, Tito tried to whitewash over all of this with his communistic, atheistic Yugoslavia, however after his death the old animosities rapidly reappeared with their well-known results.

Today the distinctions are not easily seen by visitors (most Muslims wear western clothes), tensions are not visible, and when asked all acknowledge the need for peace. On the other hand the physical scars of war are quite visible, many buildings in Sarajevo have bullet and shell holes, the drive up to its Olympic ski-hills is blanketed by red skull and cross-bone land mine warning signs (I guess it is a good thing that Jiak Chin didn’t let me stop to take a leak!), while the frontline in downtown Mostar still has numerous buildings that remain completely blown-out (video of its famous bridge, now rebuilt with part of the billions received in aid, collapsing under Bosnian Croat shelling was especially moving, having just photographed and crossed over it). The Sarajevo “Tunnel of Life” running underneath its airport, the city’s sole link to supplies from the outside world during its 3yr siege, is also a sober tourist attraction. The most disturbing story I heard (with footage, but I couldn’t find anything about it on the net) was of a Russian “poet” partaking in “dark tourism” behind a sniper’s gun from the Serbian-controlled hills in Sarajevo’s outskirts and stating that he killed at least 10 along its central ( and wide- leading to the nickname “sniper’s alley”) boulevard. Our hotel was on that street and had been destroyed as well.

Altho interesting, we did not find travel in Serbia, and especially Bosnia enjoyable. Our main problem was the lack of no-smoking areas in hotels or restaurants in countries where virtually everyone smokes everywhere (many Serbian restaurants comically have no-smoking and yes-smoking signs right next to each on their front doors, while in Bosnia the concept of no smoking is really not even understood- there was even smoking in small museums- they reeked on entry to the point where we turned back from one, and hurried thru 2 others). We only learned about Rick Mercer’s “Oda Eaters” afterwards- we really could have used a box!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGrgj7sGAU

Driving habits similarly did not recognize any restrictions- such as the white line in the middle of the highways (we saw 2 accidents)! Hotel Zira, our 1st stop (and therefore underappreciated at the time) in Belgrade was the region’s shining exception being completely non-smoking and also offering not only free breakfast buffets, but also free dinner! (although not free beer- which was given at Captain Milan’s apartments in Kotor, Montenegro, while Miho-our Dubrovnik apt landlord gave us a bottle of wine!) Zira, not to be outdone, however, does offer free international phone calls to any landline- unfortunately the system was down while we were there (despite our skepticism, this was real). Prices were cheap and food (where accompanied by breatheable air) was very good, especially seafood on the Adriatic coast and our gourmet dinner in Hungary.

Highlights included in Istanbul cruising the Bosphorus, and the previous day having ferried across it landing in Asia (for a 20minute stay!), seeing Justinian’s huge underground basilica cisterns, which provided water to the city ~500A.D., and of course seeing its mosque-filled skyline by sunset. Our afternoon in Szeged (Catholic, and therefore nearly empty on Sunday); seeing its art-nouveau buildings was an enjoyable and much needed reprieve from the Balkans, as were wanderings thru some of Serbia’s monasteries in the Fruska Gora region. History aside, views of Mostar around its bridge do live up to billing, as does much of Bosnia’s picturesque mountain and canyon-filled countryside.

Montenegro was like a different vacation. [hotels non-smoking, to be fair so was Croatia, where we were only briefly as I traveled it extensively in 1998, and our short stay in Medugorje {4000 inhabitants, 18000 hotel beds}- which is more like being on a different planet with elderly Italian, Croatian and other pilgrim tour-buses, row after row of tourist shops filled with nothing but hundreds of virgin Mary statues, and- as I had hypothesized, in part leading to our decision for the slight detour to overnight there- no smoking policies with very few smokers to start with.] Montenegro’s history is slightly different with its dramatic mountainous core having been the only Serbian region not to fall under Ottoman control, while its incredibly beautiful Adriatic coast was under Venetian control, resulting in several still remaining equally picturesque walled, stone, car-free, and steep mountain-backed old towns including Herceg Novi, Kotor and Budva. It had a much smaller role in the 90’s conflict, and split peacefully from Serbia in 2006. We spent 5 days relaxing and exercising (swimming off the terrace just across the quiet street from our apt, kayaking and hiking in Mt Lovcen NP) on the Adriatic coast, and took a sunset motorboat ride to see the beautiful, fishing village turned exclusive hotel small island of Sveti Stefan,1 kayaking interior lake Skadar (lots of litter) NP, then the night in the tourist-free but lively (till 3am, ruining our sleep) downtown of the small capital Podgorica, then the last 3 in spectacular limestone Durmitor NP, with its gleaming 2000-2500m peaks and impressive nearby canyons. The driving alone in this small country is unbelievably scenic- esp the 25 hairpin turn, 1 shared lane, road from mountain-ringed Kotor Bay up to Mt Lovcen, the 1965m pass exiting Durmitor NP (also 1 shared lane, and with no signs for direction, in a hailstorm, and then later, on descent, extreme fog and uncertain gas reserves till next possible fill for added adventure), and a more proper 2-lane hwy along Piva and Tara canyons heading back to Bosnia to fly out. The older Dutch couple staying for their 3rd consecutive yr at the apt next to ours at Kotor Bay, asked us how we managed to find the most beautiful place on earth- despite my extensive travels, I felt no need to argue with that opinion.

Until next time,

Stu