Dubrovnik at the end.

Visited Monstar, the city with the world famous one arch bridge that was completed  in 1556 as a way to show city pride and then as a way to attract tourist after it was destroyed in the Bosnia War in 1993 and rebuilt exactly the same way and using the same stones. There are men that jump from the center into the creek below after they collectively reach 25 Euros from people walking by. The height is 78.9 feet high and can be deadly, at least 1 person (mostly tourists) die every year jumping. It’s a right of passage for the young men in the city. 

Monstar has a cute old town with lots of shops selling Turkish Lamps, hand painted copper tea/coffee sets, and small trinkets. Robby and I wanted to buy everything since it was so cheap, but the shipping cost to the US would have tripled the cost of the items. We browsed and only bought small tea light holders as momentos.

Leaving Monstar, we drove along a mountain road with a green river on our left and about 50 man-made tunnels in front of us. Apparently they just blew holes in the mountain for the road and half the tunnels were open rock with no cement bracings. Interesting, but scary when the tunnels went forever with only select cutouts in the side for light.

We arrived at the Blagaj Dervish House in the Herzegovina providence of Bosnia. It was built next to a mountain wall with the Buna river flowing out of a cave and past the 2 story house. The locals set up a restaurant along the shore with trout being the speciality. We all shared one last meal with Zejko because he would be leaving us in Cavtat (Croatia) and driving back to Serbia in the evening. 

Robby and I convinced Dale, Jackie, and Cindy to tour the House with us. All the women had to put on head scarves and Dale had to wear a skirt to cover his legs. Apparently it’s a no-no to show your legs if your a woman or a man. The House was furnished with Ottoman type items to give visitors an idea of how people lived there in 16th century. This is not a whirling dervish house, much to the dismay of Robby and I. Whirling dervishes are most known in India and spin in a constant circle until they hear the word of God in their dizzy delirium. They can spin for hours. This house is just a normal monastery and resting house for practitioners. 

Back in the van, we quickly stopped at Pocitelj, another fortress; but we only visited the watch tower. After climbing 220+ steps, we reached the four-story tower that once had floors on each section, but now only has a cramped, steep staircase leading you up to the attic (the only room with a floor left, although rotting wood is a loose term for a floor). Robby and I had fun taking a bunch of photos of the decaying building that’s managed to survive for over 400 years. The late afternoon light was streaming through the window slats and showed us a great view of the Bosnian vineyards in the distance with the Adriatic just over the last mountain we had to drive across that evening.

With the sun setting, we checked into our hotel, one semi short hill away from the central walkway in Cavtat (saav-TAT) and also where all the boats come in. Louise walked us to the waterway and showed us the main spots in the tiny town. A chilly wind had sprung up, so most of us opted to go back to our rooms for the evening. Robby, Mary, Ann, and I did stop for gelato on the way back, but mint flavor in Croatia taste like toothpaste, so it was a disappointing dinner. 

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

In the morning the wind was still howling, so all the boats to Dubrovnik were not running. Poor Louise had to run around and find us a taxi to the walled city so we could spend the day exploring old town, which is now super famous due to Game of Thrones. We all went on a very informational walking tour of the city where we learned about Orlando’s elbow, the old trade unit of measurement that started around 1418 and was based on length of the most honest soldier’s elbow. There’s a monument of Orlando in the center of the city square and the first step is the exact length of his lower arm. People would lay their items along the step and go, “2 elbows is X dinar (dollars)”. 

Dubrovnik also has its own patron, St. Blaise. He was a real man that warned the city in 972 that the Venetians, who were only in the city to “restock food”, were in fact planning to conquer Dubrovnik. His warning gave the Senate enough time to mount an adequate defense and the city was saved. He is also the patron saint of sore throats because he once healed a child chocking on a fish bone. 

Dubrovnik is one of the oldest remaining living fortresses. People still live and work inside the protective walls, but more and more young people are leaving due to increasing costs of rent and the onslaught of tourists that make getting around difficult. The city of Dubrovnik is trying to bring back a semblance of order to the walled city by limiting the number of cruise ships allowed in the bay to a max of 3 a day and the cruise patrons visit times to 3-5 hour blocks in the Old Town. 

This is only a small help in stemming the streams of people wandering aimlessly in wonder and snapping photos abundantly without care to the working people trying to get places. But with such a short amount of time to explore, the tourists can just about walk the 2kms of the Wall and have a coffee before they have to reboard their ships. This in turn actually hurts the vendors and restaurants in Old Town because no one has time to shop or eat. So a city perceived as a top tourist destination can be a hardship instead of a blessing. 

Either way, we enjoyed the city immensely. We did have to weave in and out of large tour groups and oblivious wanderers, but we managed to see most of the city in the 1.5 days we were there. We bought a 1 day city pass that allowed us access to 8 museums, the City Wall, 3 art galleries, and a 24-hour bus pass. It cost us $5 more than just the City Wall ticket, so totally worth it; especially since our “1 day” started at 1pm, giving us time to visit some of the places the following morning before our afternoon ferry to Hvar Island.

The Marin Drzic House was mostly an art gallery for a random woman’s pretty paintings, but was supposed to be a memorial museum to Croatia’s most famous playwrights, Marin Drzic. The top floor had a replica of his writing room, but that’s about all we could find on him in the building.

The Archeology Museum was supposed to have an exhibit on the five phases of construction that shaped the Old Town, but it had an exhibit on the churches in the area, complete with relief pieces of the old buildings. Interesting in a way, but didn’t tell us much about Dubrovnik. However, the Maritime Museum showed pictures of the city from the 1800’s onwards and had hand drawn maps of the city dated even earlier. 

We learned that Dubrovnik was a major port city and they built their city walls to be firm enough to withstand most cannon attacks, but didn’t fortify the sea walls as well because they didn’t think anyone would attack them from the water. The city managed to abstain damage from all wars prior to the 20th century due to the imposing looking walls and the silver tongues of the city’s tradesmen, but it did concede to bombs from the 1991 Bosnian War. Croatia was fighting with Serbia and sort of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Around 417 people died, countless boats were destroyed in the harbor, houses caught fire, and the 11th century clock tower in the center was blown up. Man’s ability to create something magnificent will always be overshadowed by his ambition to be number one, so what is precious will most likely be destroyed by power, in time. Part of the reason why Robby and I travel so much is so that we can see that which remains - old ways of life, living ancestries, ruin cities that shout their stories if one is willing to listen, ancient societies - before they are taken away by greed or war or Mother Nature. If we don’t see what was, how will we learn from the past and grow to something new?

The Cultural Historical Museum told us a bit of Dubrovnik’s history. It was housed in the old palace of the town Rector, the deciding factor on important matters for the city. In the 10th century there was a lot of strife and a little corruption in the city government, so a Rector was selected to be the peacekeeper. A Rector could only be in office once a year for a single 1 month term, had to be over 50 years of age, and couldn’t leave the palace during his term except to celebrate city holidays, in which case he was carried out in a fancy box to greet the public. 

He lived in 8 or 9 rooms on the top floor of a marble Palace. Replicas of his rooms were set up showcasing elegant golden candle holders, Rembrandt-eque paintings of past Rectors, and beautifully carved wooden armoires painted with intricate flowers or shapes. The bottom floor of the palace held a dungeon and another exhibit on more hand drawn maps of the Adriatic. 

The National History Museum had a sound exhibit on insects, so I got to listen to the lullaby of cricket chirping and flies buzzing as I read about creepy crawlies daily lives. In the stairwell of the 4 storey building, we learned the story of all the past and present owners of the museum and that the museum’s location has changed about 8 times since its conception in 1872. It was started by a man that got random travelers to donate animals specimens they found all over the world so he could put them on display for educational purposes. 

We walked the crowded streets and admired the amazing architecture of the buildings and the wall that people whom fought with sticks and stones managed to create in a time of hardship and zero technology. Dubrovnik is a fantastic place to visit, but the crowds were a bit much, so we caught the ferry back to Cavtat with the Aussies mid afternoon. Ann and Mary walked up a hill in Cavtat to a cemetery where the dead had a beautiful view of the Adriatic; a nice resting place. 

In the evening, all 7 of us, plus Louise shared one last meal together as this was our last night of the trip and we all were going our separate ways in the morning. It was sad, but a great last evening together. Dale had devised a game where we all had to answer questions about the history of the places or people we’d learned about for the past 2 weeks. When he ran out of questions, everyone came up with their own. We were laughing and joking so long the waiter gave us sideway glances of “planning to leave anytime soon so I can clean the table?” 

All in all, the last 14 days were amazing with the Aussies, Louise, and Zejko. We saw 6 countries, learned about the 1991 war that mostly impacted 3 countries, found out how 25 million people feel about a Dictator, ate some yummy and not so yummy food, and got to know each other so that we are now an aloof, but welcoming family group. 

The all around beauty of Sarajevo

Sarajevo is a wonderful city. The people smile and say hello, help you with directions when lost, and are happy to answer most questions. You wouldn’t know that this city was bombed consistently for over 4 years, including a day when 2.5 bombs dropped a minute, from the outward appearance of the people. 300,000 citizens lived in Sarajevo at the start of 1992 and by 1996, at the end of the war, 110,000 had been killed via bombs, sniper fire, fire fire, and at the hands of men. 

The war started after the death of Tito, the dictator of Yugoslavia. He self proclaimed himself the ruler of Yugoslavia - 6 countries and 2 providences, inhabited by 25 million people in the 1940’s. For over 40 years, he was a pretty benevolent ruler. He allowed freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Everyone had jobs and was taken care of. He just demanded that no one spoke ill of him or his region, otherwise his secret police would pay you a visit and ensure you loved Tito as much as everyone else. 

In 1980 he died without a successor, so 8 presidents were elected from the various places (6 federations: Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and 2 provinces: Kosovo and Vojvodina) that were former Yugoslavia and a power struggle ensued. After small fights broke out amongst the different religious sects and countries, the Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, dubbed “Little Tito” (since everyone believed he acted similar to the real Tito), was elected to give a speech to bring the people together. It was immediately clear that after his first few words, he was anything, but Tito. 

Slobodan Milosevic speech can be summed up by saying that he believed the Serbs were the superior people, being Orthodox, and they would fight to ensure that Serbia came out on top of all the former Yugoslavian countries. This started the segregation of the Serbs from the others in Yugoslavia and an ethnic cleansing of the Serbian Muslims in Bosnia, known as Bosniaks, by the Bosnian Serbs and Serbians. The 4 year war that terrorized Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens ended in One day, after the signing of the Dayton Agreement forced upon the presidents of BiH, Serbia, and Croatia by US President Bill Clinton, France President Jacque Chirac, and various other countries. Croatia was also fighting with Serbia, but it was  over their independence from the rest of the Yugoslavian countries.

The agreement is said by the Bosniaks to have came about after a video leaked of United Nations soldiers working alongside Serbia soldiers illuminating Bosniak civilians being separated into women and men only lines. It is said, that the men and boys were then driven into the woods by the Serbian army, forced to strip naked while they dug their own graves, and shot dead. It took 6 days for the international community to do anything about the estimated 8000 men and boys that were killed after the video leaked. These people were hiding in Srebrenica, a city that the UN turned into a safe zone, after making the Bosniak’s 28th military division vacate. During the entire war, the 28th had managed to protect the city from siege and were considered the most powerful Bosniak army group in the country. According to the Serbians that we talked to, it is believed the war ended after the Serbians proved to the French President that more than 5,000 Serbians had been killed (they gathered any bodies they found as proof). 

The Aussies and us all learned our history of the Bosnian War from different BiH tour guides in Sarajevo, so the history was a bit one-sided. Zejko, a through and through Serbian, tried to set us straight with his version, but I believe each interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. In both version lots of people died, it just varies on how the war started and ended. 

We learned most of this history after going on a tour of the Tunnel of Hope. Since the Bosniaks were surrounded on all sides, the U.N. took over the Bosnian airport and helped the BiH citizens built a tunnel from the dangerous section to the free territories that stretched into the surrounding mountains. Anyone was allowed to transverse the 800 meter long tunnel that was only 1.6 meters high and 1 meter wide. A person could only go one direction in the tunnel at a time, and the direction changed every 2 hours. It took 4 months and 4 days to build the tunnel.

I had asked why people, who had to leave the safety of their homes, travel 12kms from the center of town, through sniper alley (yes, assholes shooting people), and avoid bombs, wouldn’t just stay in the free territories, but apparently there were Serbs hiding out there as well and the further people went into the mountains, the closer they came to being unwelcome by the Croatian army. So essentially, Bosniaks risked their lives several times a week or month to visit the black market sellers in the free territories so they could pay 3x the price for food and basic necessities before heading back into the fray of their beloved city. The currency of the war was not money, but cigarettes. Since everyone here smokes, I still can’t figure out how they didn’t light up all their “cash” before they had time to trade it. 

But people survived and they are now thriving. The town looks amazing; modern buildings are sprouting up all over to mix with the 1800’s looking brick and mortar and daily life is continuing - people go to work, kids go to school, there’s laughter in the cafes and chatting on cell phones in the streets. If it wasn’t for the brown paint on the buildings covering bomb holes (left intentionally as a reminder), the glaringly obvious bullet holes shot through most buildings, or the Sarajevo Roses (red paint on the ground highlighting spots where missiles killed people), you would think Sarajevo a quaint little city with whimsical neighborhoods and gothic architecture. 

Robby and I could have stayed there at least another day or two. We really only had one day to explore and we made the most of it. Did the walking tour in the morning which was overshadowed by an eerie wind, repercussions of the hurricane in Croatia the day before and Global Warming messing with the weather, so we spent most of the tour in a coffee house learning how to properly drink Bosnian coffee (like Turkish, but without cardamon). Apparently all of Europe was hit with strange weather and it went from 88 degrees to about 55, with our one day being raining, cold, and windy. But since we’re adventurers, we put on our rain gear and visited the Sephardic Jewish Museum, an 18 century home that had a film crew working in half of it, the newly built city library/antiquities museum, the Tunnel of Life, and we walked up a ton of steps to ride the newly reopened Cable Car to the top of Mount Trebević. We could’ve seen an amazing panoramic of the whole town had it not been covered in a layer of fog. 

At the top, we got a little turned around before finding the abandoned 1984 Olympic Bobsleigh track nestled amongst over grown bushes and shading trees. The giant slabs of concrete lay discarded, their glory days long forgotten, broken in pieces by war or nature reclaiming her land, but the curving tracks, now covered in vibrant graffiti, lives on in 1001 Instagram photos and videos. History never really dies, it just evolves. 

Robby and I had the whole track to ourselves as the stormy weather chased all the sightseers away. Apparently the track can get so swamped with selfie stick, photo clicking yuppies, you can never get a clean image. We did however manage to scare a family in a car as we walked out of the trees down the middle of the track that rose above the road they were driving on. I thought it was funny, not so sure about the parents. 

With more rain approaching and the sun setting, we bid adieu to the deserted history and headed to meet the rest of our tour group for a nice dinner at the local brewery. They produce Sarajevska beers, really delicious ales that have a minute sweetness to them and are similar to blonds and ambers. After dinner, Mary, Ann, Robby, and I wandered a bit before finding the waffle shop we’d seen earlier. We ordered decadent waffles slathered in Nutella, apple pie filling, cream, chocolate bits, ice cream, and various other things that probably jumped our glucose dangerously close to diabetes. All in all, it was a sweet ending to a fulfilling day. 

Leaving Albania via Macedonia and entering Bosnia and Herzegovina

Visited Berat Fortress (aka “The White City” - a large fortress on a hill in Albania where the architects were idiots and designed the whole place, streets and buildings, out of white limestone. I get that it was rock from the local area, but it is usually 105+F degrees in the Berat (even 10 centuries ago) and slippery, blindly white stones only increase the heat and are painful to the eyes. I have no idea how the villagers handled the city in the olden days if it rained, as we were slipping on the smooth stoned pathways going uphill in the sunshine. 

Berat used to be a bustling city of XXX people, but now only about 350 people live inside the Fortress walls, most of them are the older generation, as their children have moved down the hill since all the major schools, markets, doctors, etc. are situated in the valley below. The town is also nicknamed, “Town of 10,000 Windows”, as all the rooms in every building has multiple windows - bedrooms have 4-5 windows instead of the normal 2 or 3. Looking up at the buildings from the valley, it seems like all the houses flow into one another. 

The Osum River runs through the valley, segregating the 2 lower towns of Berat, and flowing past the 2 mountain ranges on either side of the Fortress. Legend says that once there were two brothers who both fell in love with a woman named Osum. When they realized they both wanted to marry the same girl, neither would concede their proposal, so they fought each other to the death: one was stabbed and one was shot. God was mad at the brother’s pettiness, so he turned the siblings into the nearby mountain ranges where one has slashes in the side and the other has a crater on the top. 

As for Osum, she got a bum deal; God told her she could see both brothers for eternity, but never be held again - he was going to turn her into the hill in the middle of the mountains that the Fortress now sits on. When Osum heard of her fate, she cried so much that her tears became the Osum River, and she is still crying today as the river is constantly flowing. The Ottoman’s God is vengeful.

After touring the whole White City, Louise organized a traditional Albania meal from a local restaurant in the Fortress. Again, this country seems to think people have 3 stomachs. Plate, after plate, of meat stuffed pumpkin, spicy eggplant, tomato and cucumber salad, appeared before the main course of baked lamb and chicken on a rice pilaf. The chicken and eggplant were very tasty (and all the Aussie’s loved the lamb, or possibly goat), but Albanian food is not a favorite of mine. Less agreeable or less pleasantly mixed flavors in dishes and strange consistencies of foods; one of the best veggie dishes resembled throw-up, but luckily tasted good.

Thoroughly stuffed, we hopped back in our van, which immediately lived up to its nickname (that I gave it) as “Narcoleptic Van”. We all seemed to nod off whenever we’re in it for longer than 15 minutes, and having full bellies did not help us stay awake. 2 1/2 hours later, we arrived in Kruje, a cute city on a hill with a small souk and, you guessed it, a Fortress. At Panoramic Hotel, we dropped our bags in our top floor room with a balcony over looking the Fortress and the valley below, before walking the closing souk and accompanying streets with Ann and Mary. Albania is a primarily Muslim country, so there were hardly any women walking around after sunset. All the coffee shops and restaurants held men drinking coffee and quietly chatting. 

Robby and I woke up early the next morning to explore the souk when it was open before meeting up with everyone else for a tour of the local museum, but we apparently woke up before even the shop sellers, so instead, we decided to climb to the top of the lookout tower at the Fortress and have a nice coffee before meeting the others. The museum guide said he wouldn’t give only 7 people a tour, so we settled for reading the semi ok English interpretation placards on the walls of the museum.

The museum is dedicated to Albania’s National hero - George Castriot Skanderbeg. In the 15th century, his father had a disagreement with the Ottomans (him being a Christian, not Muslim), so they took one of his 4 sons, Skanderbeg, as a blood tax. Skanderbeg was forced to convert to Islam and enroll in the Ottoman army. He fought against the Turks until he was 32-years-old, when he deserted during the Battle of Nis (along with 300 of his friends) and went back to Kruje. For the next 25 years, he lead an army of 10,000 Albanians in various rebellions against the Ottoman Empire. He protected his hometown of Kruje against 3 different attacks. He sadly died around 62 years of age, not from battle, but from Malaria. 

Across from the Skanderbeg museum was an ethnography museum - essentially an old Albania house with furnishings like the 1500’s, to give people an idea of how the Kruje people lived in the past. There was a large tour group with an English speaking guide wandering through all the rooms that Robby was excited to tag along with, but the rest of us tried to avoid any room they went into as a 10x10 space is quite uncomfortable stuffed with a bunch of people. Hearing about the history of the house was not worth being smothered.

Before driving to Montenegro, we had just enough time to pop our heads into the souk shops and see that most of the stuff was tourist trinkets - magnets, postcards, plaster Fortresses, but there was also pretty silver jewelry as well. We looked, but did not buy.

3 hours later, with a lovely 1.5 hour wait at the Albanian border exit, we arrived in Kotor, the City by the Bay. We did stop for 5 minutes to drool at st. Stephen XXX, a private island outside Budva, where you can’t step foot on the land without paying for a thousand dollar+ a night room at the hotel that covers 90% of the island. So, basically rich people and important people stay there while all us others daydream about what it would be like. 

Louise put us up in a nice apartment complex about a 15 minutes walk from Stari Grad (old town) in Kotor. Once we settled in, she lead us on a small orientation walk. We walked down the apartment driveway and ended up at the waterway. Most of the walking path was about 4 feet wide with restaurant tables on one side and the actual water on the other. Every time a bike or jogger came by, we were scared we’d get pushed into the lake. But the water was about 60 degrees and crystal clear. During the day, many locals and visitors set up their towels on the pebbled shores and head for a swim.

There’s over 1350 steps that lead to the top of the Fortress and an amazing viewpoint for the town and bay of Kotor. If we started hiking before 8am, there wouldn’t be a ticket guard asking for the $11 entry fee, so we all made a plan to head over there at 7am the following morning. For the evening, we ate local seafood and enjoyed Montenegro wine while listening to the waves lap against the stone walkway.

When 7am came the next morning, I did not leave my bed. I had spent most of the night in the bathroom and begrudgingly opted to sleep away my sickness. It sucked because I was the one who had been pressing everyone to hike the steps with me for days, even wanting to hike at 5am, so I could be at the top for sunrise, and here I was dying in a small studio apartment. Robby came back 4 hours later regaling me with tales of her grand off trail adventure of jumping through a 16th century church window and onto the old road of Kotor - literally the only way to the castle besides the steps since it was built 500 years ago. She explored all the house and church ruins near the steps and then came back to the Fortress grounds for the iconic picture at the top.

In the afternoon, I managed to make it to the apartment courtyard for an impromptu picnic lunch with everyone else. They’d all visited the farmers market after their hike and had piecemealed veggies, bread, salami, and fruit. The owner of the apartments donated a bottle of homemade wine (very sweet so Robby loved it), and we submitted chocolate. With food in my belly, I thought I was strong enough to make it to Old Town and maybe walk the steps. I instead made it half a mile from the apartment, stopping 3 times to rest and had to take a taxi back to the apartment after stocking up on medicine from the pharmacy. 

Robby and the Aussies went on a private history tour of Kotor while I tried to sleep, but instead made a pilgrimage to the local hospital for fluids and more drugs. Everyone said I had a 24-hour bug (possibly from accidentally drinking Albanian water), but I was paranoid. The 22-year-old doctor didn’t seem too worried when she saw me, so I shouldn’t have worried. Luckily the next morning, I was actually feeling 80% better and managed to walk to Old Town without stopping once. We went early since we were heading to Sarajevo at 10am and got to explore an almost empty town. What was apparently crowded with tourists the day before was peacefully void of foot traffic at 8 in the morning. 

On the way to Sarajevo, Louise surprised us with a 5 minute boat ride out to Our Lady of the Rocks church on a small manmade island off of Perast. In the 16th century two brothers saw the image of the Virgin Mother in the rocks of Perast, so they convinced the town to build a church in honor of Mary. But since everyone was building churches on land, the brothers started off a 200 year construction of an island built on the bones of broken ships and rocks where the church would live. When everything was finished in the 1700’s, people left gifts of silver or priceless art works in honor of the Holy Mother. It’s said that whomever leaves a silver trinket will have their ailments cure. I had truly wished I had silver on me when we went through the halls so I could walk away 100% better. Next time. 

We had a tradition Montenegro lunch - trout and veggies or lamb and potatoes with local wine, at Izlazak Etno Village. We essentially drove on a small road, where one car had to back up to let us pass, to reach a restaurant on top a hill over looking the most torequise lake I’ve ever seen. The lake is part of the Piva River and the “Piva” is solvic for beer; just kind of funny. Montenegro food is way tastier than Albania food and the beautiful setting helped make lunch a hit with everyone.

We drove for an hour until we hit the Bosnian border and a ton of traffic that didn’t move. Zejko said we could get out and have a coffee at the roadside cafe because he could see us in his slow crawl towards the checkpoint. 53 mins later we were through and weaving our way past a tree covered National forest and small villages on our way to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. He arrived at dusk and had time to walk the souk and eat a good meal before calling it a night.

Macedonia with Lake Ohrid and Kruje

Drove from Skopje in the afternoon to Ohrid, an adorable resort city on the shore of Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. The drive took about 3 hours, so we didn’t get to town until twilight, but it was a beautiful sunset - reds blending into oranges, sinking below the Albanian mountain range across the lake. Louise set all of us up at Alekanders, an excellent restaurant 10 feet from the water and just off the start of the walking promenade in town.

All of us enjoyed some local Macedonia wine and beer while the Aussie’s ate meat things, Robby and I got to have delicious vegetables. It’s nice to eat something besides a tomato, cucumber, or chicken sometimes. After dinner we all walked along the water back to our swanky hotel - Villa Arte. Even though it’s at the far end of town (5 mins from the center of town) and you walk out the back door, through someone’s backyard, and down a sketchy looking street to the beach 25 yards away, the hotel is lovely. Comfortable patio chairs under a shaded awning and then a breakfast area set up in the main lobby with a 24 hour bar. We all enjoyed sharing travel experiences over post dinner drinks and ice cream in the hotel lobby, before bed. 

The following morning, Zejko, our van driver, elected to spend his 1 day off chauffeuring all of us to the tourist sites in the area (we would have had to paid $13 for the sightseeing boat otherwise). First stop was the Monastery of Saint Naum. Was established in 905 AD for the Bulgarian Empire by St. Naum himself (I don’t really know what he did, but people liked him). He is also buried on the grounds. His church resides on a hill overlooking the crystal clear blue water of Lake Ohrid and has a quarter mile tree lined road leading up to the front doors that conmen try to entrap tourist with paying for a cab to take. Along the road are souvenir shops, restaurants, lookout points, and live peacocks. 

There’s also a calm lake that only row boats are allow on, one in which the Aussies and us took to see underwater springs - bubbles coming up from the bottom of the 3 meter or less, lake floor. Since no swimming or motors are allowed in the lake (not Lake Ohrid), the water is extremely clear and a whole plant civilization thrives underwater. 

From the Monastery, we drove back to town, via a mini stop at the Bay of Bones - what was once a thriving city where people lived on reed islands on the water, is now only a small replica of one island with fake furnished houses and remains of bones from the animals the people ate (what anthropologists found when they dug up the society). I think there’s a mini museum as well, but none of us actually went to visit the site, we just stopped atop the hill to take pictures of the village and the lake, much to the dismay of Robby.

Back in town, instead of making us walk from Ohrid’s new town to Samuel’s Fortress, the capital for the first Bulgarian Empire back in the 10th century, Zejko kindly drove us to the start of the old city walls to begin our hike up hill. The large and empty Fortress sits on top a descent size hill at the end of old town and is a great lookout point for the whole city. The new city sits on the water, but for 1000’s of years there has been a town at the base of the Fortress, this town still exist today and is where we started walking half a mile to the outer walls of the Fortress for a 180 view of the surround areas. Lots of newer houses to one end, the lake and Albania in the middle, and the newer part of town at the other end. 

Robby and I had fun climbing up the watch towers and stopping at every crevice hide-E-hole that might have been used for storage or a bathroom, or a nap room at the Fortress. The torret at the top over looked all those wanting to enter the gates. Back on the ground, we descended through the forest, on the backend of the Fortress, to one of Ohrid’s most famous churches- Saint John at Kaneo. This Macedonian Orthodox Church resides on a cliff over looking Kaneo Bay on Lake Ohrid and was built sometime around the 1440’s. It’s dedicated to John of Patmos, the man who wrote the book of Revelations. The Church is made from red bricks layered between stones and topped with red tiles. A crowned torret sits in the center and arched window inlays surround the whole building. If there weren’t so many selfie stick, iPad snapping, moronic tourists about, it would have been a lovely place to sit and be one with your thoughts for a bit.

Since that wasn’t the case, we headed back to new town along the lake, walking across wobbly planks of wood and past delicious smelling seafood restaurants to the promenade. Robby and I stopped for huge scoops of homemade gelato that costs about $1.50 before sticking our heads in a few of the local silver and pearl shops. Apparently the famous Ohrid pearl is manmade using hand-me-down methods that might involve hand painting ground shells with an emulsion derived from fish scales. All I know is, the pearls are a lovely, shiny charcoal color and look nothing like the typical white kind posh people like to wear.

We didn’t buy anything, but sometimes it’s fun to browse. For the evening, we caught the tail end of sunset, the fiery ball sinking quickly below the Albanian mountains leaving streaks of red, orange, and yellow in its wake over the calm blue water. If I wasn’t so lazy, I would have walked the mile back to the Church just to photograph the sunset behind the building, but I’m on vacation and one more mile, after walking upwards of 10 miles a day for the past 2 weeks, is just one more mile too many. Although, Robby and I did decide to turn left at the water’s edge, instead of right (towards new town), and we ended up walking at least a mile along a modern walking, biking, running pathway bordered by a grass field on one side and the lake on the other. We finished the evening with a Macedonian pizza dinner - thickish dough with toppings. I had an amazing olive oil garlic pizza while Robby got tomato sauce and canned mushrooms. Not a top favorite pizza.

Devil’s Town to Skopje

Today, we visited Devil’s Town on the way out Serbia. Legend has it that there was a peaceful village up in the mountains where everyone lived happily, but of course, the Devil came and corrupted the people. A brother and sister wished to marry each other, but God told them it was wrong (along with all the neighboring towns). Instead of listening to anyone, the siblings proceeded with their wedding and on the wedding day, God had no choice but to turn the happy couple and all the guests into knobby, crooked, stalagmite looking rock formations. They now remain as a deterrent against wrong doings. 

In order to visit the rocks, we hiked through a lovely forrest area alongside a creek (which also happened to be swarming with mosquitoes) and then up 250 steps into burning sunlight. Even with the sunburn and the itchy bites we acquired, the rocks were interesting to see and located in a vast forest valley that stretched in every direction. Back at the entrance to the trail, a nice shop keeper let us try different variants of rakija - honey, mint, plum, etc. Most of them still taste like liquid fire, but the seller also sold syrupy fruit wines that were ok and would be delicious poured over ice cream. Robby and I each bought one.

We hopped back in the van and easily drove across the Serbian border and into Kosovo, a country that asked for its independence from Serbia in 1999, but only had it granted in 2008 with help from the United Nations. Serbians still do not recognize Kosovo as its own country and they’ve pulled all their ambassadors from all countries that do. Right now on 3 countries: Syria, Serbia, and one other country do not recognize it as its own place. So, us crossing the border was interesting because you can go from Serbia to Kosovo, but you can not go from Kosovo to Serbia. It would be like you sneaking into Serbia since the Kosovo stamp isn’t recognized on a passport.

We stopped in Pristina, a kind of cute town with, of course, a walking promenade. After realizing all the shops on the walking street were mostly touristic or restaurants, Robby and I found a semi cute coffee shop and tried Kosovo pizza; tastes like Boboli with tomato sauce and spicy peppers. 

We visited the National Kosovo library on the local University’s campus because of its unique architectural composition - like the designer thought that piling a bunch of metal and rock squares on top of each other in a ziggurat formation, then toping each square with a white opaque dome, and finishing by encasing the whole thing in metal mesh fencing, would look ok. The inside was surprisingly clean and kind of empty; an open foyer with a pretty star pattern on the floor, then stairs leading to quiet (pin dropping quiet) study rooms equipped with individual desks all lined in rows. We saw a few shelves with books, but I’m sure the main ones, on Kosovo’s history, are housed in the bowels of the building. 

There is also a Bill Clinton Blvd that ends at a statue honoring the man since he helped Kosovo (Serbia at the time) during their separation from Yugoslavia in 1999. We tried to find the statue, but ran out of time and energy to wander the traffic laden street when it was 85 degrees out and humid. So, back in the van we went and onwards to our third, and final, country for the day - Macedonia. We ended the day in the heart of downtown Skopje, the town of 200 statues, and the capital. 

Apparently no one wanted to come to Macedonia, (a country that’s only been around since 1991) so the government somehow got other people to donate lots of money to their country and instead of using the money to fix roads or build schools and houses, they did the sensible thing of creating over 200, 45-100+ foot bronze statues and placed them all around town to attract tourists. Much to the dismay of the Macedonian people, the ploy worked and tourists flocked to the city to see what creations were erected. 

The most notable statue is “Warrior on Horse”. It is really a statue of Alexander the Great riding his horse into battle, but Macedonia is not allow to say it is Alexander because they are in a copyrights war with Greece over anything that was/is considered Greek. So Greece has not given permission for the country of Macedonia to officially use the name, since it belongs to an old Greek Kingdom, and therefore Macedonia is technically call “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Also, calling statues Greek names such as, “Alexander the Great”or his father, “Phillip II”, whom died over 2000 years ago, is forbidden. The “Warrior on Horse” statue sits a top a large water fountain that produces a mini Vegas-esque water/light show. Quite pretty, but not worth the 8 billion dinar (about 800 million dollars) they spent on making it. 

Skopje is also the birthplace of Mother Teresa. In the middle of a large side square, half covered by a souvenir cart, there are four bronze “L’s” on the ground in a square pattern; these mark the house Mother Teresa’s lived in until 18. When she was 18, she immediately signed up for a nunnery and began her lifelong servitude to God and helping people. She was selected to teach at a private school in Darjeeling, India a few years after she became a nun. But while she was there, she noticed all the homeless youth and the terrible conditions of the Indian people, so she asked the Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation in Calcutta, which would become the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa spent her whole life helping the less fortunate, mostly in Calcutta. She was announced as a Saint 3 years after she passed away and she won the Nobel Peace Prize for all her good deeds. 

Skopje also has a Fort, although basically the walls are the only thing that remain today, which we found out after walking up the hill to see the Fort, and the 2nd largest souk (bazaar) in the the world. Streets weaving into other streets all filled with little shops selling pretty much everything. Unlike Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar (and the biggest in the world), this souk is all out doors with cobblestone walkways and sunlight. Everyone on the tour wandered it for a bit the night before while we looked for a nice dinner spot and found a tasty place serving cevapi (rolled meat sausages) that everyone but Robby and I enjoyed, cheese bread, and nicely grilled chicken. It was a relaxing evening with everyone chatting, drinking, and eating merrily. 

The history of Belgrade and Zemun

Today was the day we got to meet the people on our tour. Since the Balkans make up so many different countries that all have their own languages, histories, currencies, and customs, I thought that it would be kind of complicated to try and navigate the cities, buses, and borders without a little help. After researching how to get around on our own and realizing that bus stops were, “past the red building, down one block, and next to the rock”, I realized that we would waste about 4-5 days on just traveling to places if we tried to do this 30 day trip without help. With a tour company, we could get to some of the out of the way touristic sites that a non-tour traveler would have to catch 2-3 different public buses to, in about a 3rd the time. Plus, a tour company would know how to handle all the border crossings efficiently and quickly and have helpful cultural and culinary knowledge for all the cities we’d be going to.

I spent about 4 months researching various tour companies, going a little OCD with all my numerous spread sheets, before booking Borderlands Travel. The company is owned and run by Louise, a British woman who fell in love with the Balkans after traveling here about 7 years ago and whom decided to share her passion for former Yugoslavia with the rest of the world. Our tour will take us through 9 countries with 5 other people, so there’s only 7 of us in total (well, 9 if you include Louise and the van driver) along for this 15 day adventure. So out of all the tour companies, Borderlands seemed awesome because the tour is a mix of full day sightseeing trips mixed with free days to wander cities while all the hotels, border crossings, and transportation is taken care of. Plus Louise speaks perfect English, unlike a lot of the tour companies based in the Balkans. 

But before we got to meet our fellow tour acquaintances, we had to pack up all our crap (we tend to have our suitcases explode all over the bed and floor every time we step foot in a hotel room), and hike a mile up and over the hill from our current hostel to our new hotel. We ditched the bags in hotel storage and headed off to the Nikola Tesla museum. We left about 50 minutes to walk about 1.2kms and get coffee, but with our shitty sense of direction and inability to read a map without being properly caffeinated, we took 45 minutes of wandering in circles before arriving 5 minutes before the museum tour started - so no coffee for me. 😩

The Tesla museum showed us an interesting 15 minute video on Tesla’s life - in short he grew up in Serbia with a supportive family who realized early on that he was a genius and encouraged him to work on his weird inventions. He went to school in Prague and tried to convince people in Europe to use alternating current for power, but no one wanted to change what they knew worked for something that sounded absurd, so Tesla ended up in New York being an apprentice to Thomas Edison. They were both A-type personalities, so inevitably they ended up competing against each other to convince the world on who’s power source was better - Edison with his currently used DC, or Tesla with his previously thought to be unattainable AC. Tesla won the War of the Currents with the help of investor and inventor George Westinghouse, whom had also been feuding with Edison.

The museum guide showed us a few of Tesla’s early inventions and demonstrated how the Tesla coils - the giant balls of lightening hitting a metal ball seen in old films - worked. He told us that for the first Star Wars film, they didn’t have electricity in the light sabers (no batteries back then), so the actors held long tube lights which were powered by a Tesla coil that expelled harmless energy to the actors, who were the energy conductors, and the “sabers” lit up.

With a few hours to kill before officially meeting the other people on our tour for our welcome dinner, we did a little illegal bus riding to the town of Zemun. We tried to pay the drivers on 2 separate buses, but they blatantly ignored us, so we just sat in the back and hoped no one asked to see our tickets. Apparently you are suppose to pre buy bus tickets at the numerous water kiosks around town. 

For Zemun, a small fishing village, I had read that we needed to catch a bus from a station near a park. We got semi directions on what bus went to the park, but as we were riding said bus, we passed the park. I shrugged my shoulders and said we’d get off at the next stop and catch the bus back to the last stop and then walk to the park, but our current bus decided to go across a long bridge and the park got very small. We did get off at the next stop, but immediately a new bus showed up and the sign said, “Zemun”, so we just hopped on and hoped the bus went to the part of town we wanted. It did, but only after we took it to the very end of the line - basically a water stand and some creepy communistic looking apartment complex’s next to dirt fields, and had to take the same bus back 7 stops.

We wandered the back alleys and pedestrian only shopping streets (apparently all cities in Serbia thus far have had a section where people can shop without fear of being run over by the crazy drivers) before hiking up a crazy amount of stairs to the Millennium Tower. Zemun is most know for a large hill called Gardos in the urban neighborhood of Gardos that houses the Gardos (Millennium) Tower. It’s like the Serbs gave up on naming things. The Tower was built in 1896 to celebrate a 100 years of Hungarian settlement in Central Europe. It held a lovely view of the Danbue River and the red terra cotta roof buildings of town. 

With 2 more hours to kill before the meeting time, we went back to Belgrade and wandered around the Belgrade Fortress located inside Kalemegdan Park. The Fortress sits atop a hill over looking the Sava and Danube rivers- they meet in the middle, but do not mix. The Fortress has been around since the 3rd century BC and has housed numerous armies; most recently the Turks and Ottomans. Now-a-days the Fortress is essentially opened to everyone 24/7. It’s crumbling walls are intwined throughout Kalemegdan park which also includes tennis courts, a animatronic dinosaur park, a concert field, and a military museum.

I ended up being extremely lazy from walking over 8 miles during the morning that when we were offered a ride on a mini car train around the park, I was all for it. Turned out to be a great option for letting us see an overview of all the things the park had to offer, but terrible for our butts as the narrow wooden plank we sat on didn’t do anything for comfort as we bounced along the cobblestone walkways. 

At 6:30pm, we finally met our fellow tour travelers. All 5 of them are Aussies. Dale, Jackie, and Cindy all know each other and then Mary and Ann know each other. Louise, the owner of Borderlands, is our tour leader and she took us on a 20 minute walk back up the hill to the Skadarlija neighborhood (literally across from our old hostel) for a traditional Serbian dinner in the oldest restaurant on the street. 

Apparently in Serbia, people believe that everyone has 2 or 3 stomachs because the pre-meal salads are bigger than lunch plates. Our prefix dinner was a giant tomato and cheese salad followed by a huge bowl of coleslaw-esque salad, then an 8oz piece of salmon with fresh veggies, and dessert. Plus unlimited drinks. Good thing we were allowed to be there for a few hours. 

After dinner, Louise took us to Globetrotters - an underground pub in the basement of an apartment complex. During the 1990’s Yugoslavia war, people couldn’t really go outside because of the bombs falling everyday, so a resident of the building said he would supply the booze if every resident in the building brought a piece of furniture from their apartment to use in the pub. So the bar is a mix of different furnishings and wall decorations. The building still has actual residents living in it, which was only slightly an issue when we arrived because there’s no sign on the door and Louise didn’t know what button to push so we could be buzzed in. She didn’t want to wake up anyone as it was about 11pm. Luckily the top button, written in pencil, said “Klub”, so we took a chance and pushed it. Turned out to work and down into the basement we went. 

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

We decided to take the free city history walking tour the next morning which was semi ok. Kind of like the guide only knew cursory bits of knowledge on every place that we went, but didn’t know to elaborate. We did learn that in the late 90’s only the businessmen and macheesemo thugs had money, so they would hang about the one neighborhood in town with the best restaurants. Most of the city’s vapid, implant enhanced women flocked to the area in hopes of attracting a rich husband, and so the neighborhood became known as Silicone Valley; a slightly different one than the one in California. 

Our afternoon underground tunnel tour took us through 3 different areas under the Belgrade Fortress. There’s apparently tons of hidden rooms and passages under the fortress, but most people don’t know about them because they were classified military secrets or covered by nature for so long that they were only accidentally rediscovered after someone’s fell through a hole in the ground. We saw an old military bunker that was built to protect Tito from Stalin incase Russia attacked Belgrade since Tito was not interested in becoming one, big happy communistic country with the USSR. Luckily the war never happened and the bunker was never used as a hideout, only military storage.

The second place we saw was an old cavern that housed a bunch of grave stones, sarcophagus’, and other old relics. The cave was used as a night club with guest DJ’s and super loud music. People used to dance around the relics and leave a shut ton of chewing gum on the ground. The place closed about 10 years ago because the music became so loud that the support pillars started to crumble. We also saw a Roman well that was neither Roman or a well. Serbians though everything that was built well was Roman and that the hole they found would contain water if they only dug far enough. So they named it “Roman well”; but after 60 meters of digging, they realized there was never going to be any water, so it was used as storage and place to kill people. The last stop was an old cave turned into a bar and then a wine cellar. 

After the tour, we explored the 2 month old abandoned train station across the street from our hotel. This was the train station we were suppose to use to get to Novi Sad, but it closed because a large waterfront housing and shopping development was in the works and a shady government deal included the selling of the land that the train station was on. Now the central train station is located 10kms outside of town, much to the dismay of the Belgrade citizens. 

The old railroad station looked like it had been abandoned for years with knee high grass growing between the tracks and cracks in the asphalt. As Robby and I took pictures I kept looking out for the zombies, as this is the perfect place to film an “end of the world” horror film, but we only saw a few beggars. It was sad and neat at the same time.

After exploring, we had a nice dinner (after climbing the damn hill again) and then Robby had to get a diabetic waffle dessert thing stuffed with ice cream, caramel, Nutella, and Oreos. Placated by delicious sugar coma happiness, it was off to bed for the night. 

Leaving Prague and entering Belgrade

For our final day in Prague, we spent 45 minutes on a train to Karlstejn Castke in the countryside. This castle was home to Charles the 4th, King of Bohemia and Emperor elect. He had 4 wives because they kept dying and he needed to have a wife to maintain his Kingly air, plus it didn’t hurt for him to marry the daughters of his enemies to ensure peace. He was also a sportsman, loving combat games like horse jousting, which caused him to become quite disfigured. He ended up with a hunched back, a smashed jaw, and a neck that tilted to the left. His 3rd wife was only 14 when she married him at 37 and his 4th, and final wife, was 17, while he was 47. I feel bad for the wives, but that was life in the olden days. 

Apparently we got to Karlstejn town so early I had to beg a restaurant just opening for coffee. Not many tourist were there to hike up the windy road to the top and entrance of the Castle that early, so we got some nice photos of the town without people in them. We went on the history tour and learned that the Karlstejn included about 4 main buildings and was mainly built to protect the Czech jewels - a crowd and scepter with very large gemstones, including one that is said to have a piece of Jesus’ thorn of crowns inside. We got to see a replica of the jewels since the real ones are housed in Prague proper and very rarely on public display. Robby waited 6 hours to view them 20 years ago. 

After the tour, we took the train back to Prague central, looked around the all shop-lined cobblestone alleyways, starred disappointedly at the clock tower under heavy construction, and ate caloric waffles with ice cream and vanilla sauce before going back to Pavel’s where Robby and him competed on who could make the best Smazak - chunks of thick cheese dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried in oil. We ate it with mashed potatoes and prayed our hearts didn’t give out with all the heavenly gooeyness.

After dinner we had to say goodbye to the cute, but naughty wolf dogs, and then to Pavel and Jana for being amazing hosts. We had a great mini trip reconnecting with family and revisiting the main sites of Prague. Pavel drove us to the airport, where we boarded our 1.5 hour flight to Belgrade, Serbia. I had arranged a driver from our hostel to pick us up from the airport because the taxi’s with a flat rate only took you to the main square in Belgrade and since we arrived at 11:30pm, we did not want to figure out how to walk 1 km to our hostel. 

Skadarlija Sunrise Hostel turned out to be located in the heart of the Skadarlija bohemian sector, on the main pedestrian walkway with the oldest restaurants and coffee houses surrounding it. At the hostel’s garden bar, we were invited to try a free shot of rakija (raa KEE ah) - the national drink of Serbia, a fruit brandy that tastes like minutely fruit flavored ethanol. Plum is the main flavor (very gross unless up want hair on your chest and have no tastebuds), but apricot turned out to be palatable. After visiting the castle, flying, and drinking highly alcoholic gasoline, we called it a night.

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

I had organized an underground tunnels tour of the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, a town said to be an hour and a half away by train from Belgrade. Unfortunately when we asked to get to the train station, which was suppose to be 1 mile away from our hostel, we were told it moved 10kms outside of town. Ugh, but they said the bus was better and left every 30 minutes, so the only issue we faced was trying to find the station. Serbia is a country where everything is written in Cyrillic, and sometimes Latin. The tourist map we had only told the streets names in their Latin form and the actual street signs were periodically posted on the sides of buildings in mostly Cyrillic. Needless-to-say, our 1 mile journey turned into 2 miles due to us going up and down the streets and playing numerous games of charades with the locals to figure out that the bus was up the hill from our hostel and then down the steep other side towards the water.

We bought our tickets 5 minutes before the bus left, which worked perfectly. Unluckily, the AC on the bus was broken, so it was about 85 degrees outside and a smelly, humid 95 inside. Everyone was dripping with sweat and we’d drunken the last of our water walking to the station, so we were parched by the time we exited the bus in Novi Sad. Our tour was at 1pm at the Fortress, but due to the traffic on the roadway, we arrived with 50 minutes to figure out where we were and how to get to the Fortress. 

We asked a bunch of people which bus took us to the Fortress and on our 5th try of miming and fake sign language, we found that if we caught a bus two long blocks up from the bus station, it would go to the Fortress. In reality, it went by the fortress and we had to guess at which stop to get off at. Turns out we choose the back end of the surrounding fortress grounds and had to hiked 15 minutes up the hill to the museum where our tour started. Luckily, Serbians don’t really follow exact times and things don’t start on time, so us being 8 minutes late was no issue.

Along with several college students, we delved into the old military hallways under and along the fortress walls. 16km of tunnels throughout 4 levels were constructed in the 1700’s, but we only saw about 1 km. The Austrian army would employ people with super hearing to be an early warning system for enemies approaching. Soldiers used to train in the dark, walking the corridors and stairs blindly so they would have an advantage if their enemies ever snuck in. Lanterns were not allowed and people would typically train for 2 weeks at a time. Sounds super dreary, plus when you completed training you were given a shovel and told to muck out the stables. 

There is also the reverse clock, a.k.a. The Drunken Clock, that sits at the edge of the Fortress grounds, over looking the Danbue River. It was given its nickname for 2 reasons: 1) In order for the local fisherman to see the time from far away, the minute hand was designed as the little hand and the hour hand was created as the larger hand. And 2) the clock runs via a temperature mechanism, so in the winter, the clock could be 40 minutes slow and in the summer, 40 minutes ahead. The locals said it was bad to plan your Dates by the clock.

Novi Sad has a cute little artist/historian area with pedestrian walkways, numerous cafes, and historical church’s and museums. We wandered around for a bit, but most things seemed to be closed, so we decided to walk back to the bus station, a mere 2 Kms, and pray our bus home had AC; luckily the gods heard us. We found a lovely coffee shop/bar for dinner, that served us a kilo (seriously, 1 kilo - like 15 pieces) of amazingly delicious chicken wings for about $6.80. We could not finish them. After that, it was bed.