Hi everyone,
I seem to have been on the go with this Eastern European trip for ages but no it's only been a week!
Maybe because each country /city had similar attractions - a castle/ fort built by the latest conquerors on top of the hill and then a tragic history of wars. This area has had a war every 37 yrs on average. !!!
Budapest was very pretty and historic and touristy, but it is less so as we move across. Croatia was expensive, Serbia was cheap - a poorer country but improving apparently, and Bosnia where we are now is cheap too and has lovely mountainous countryside. Except for the housing style - Swiss,German you could be in NZ.
Relations between the Serbs - Russian Orthodox and Croats-Catholic go between tolerable to totally separate depending on which country it is.
Here there is a major Muslim
Population also thrown in.
All the big cities of each country were bombed, there are many deserted vacant buildings, others under repair with shell holes to be seen.
Here in Sarajevo they fill in the shrapnel holes around the main explosion with red concrete putty stuff if the victim died and call it a Sarajevo rose!
Some literature refers to the '90's war as the Homeland War which is an interesting way of putting it.
There seems to be more tolerance here
in Sarajevo but Mostar where we are going tmw was described as Iran in one side if the river and Hollywood on the other!
The bazaar here is like a mini version of the Istanbul one , very Turkish souvenirs and crafts etc.
We went to a village beside the airport runway . In the war the city was surrounded by the Serbs and under seige for over 3 yrs and they couldn't get supplies in until a tunnel 800 m long was made 5 m deep under the run way which allowed a route in from the mountains. 1 end came out in a house which is now a museum.
Amazing stuff. 11,000 people died here in that war. I went to a Cemetry today where some of those people were buried.
1 week later.Dubrovnik now where there was yet another nasty war in the '90s with most of the city bombed .
It is lovely here , on the coast , but no real beaches. The old city is surrounded by 2 kms of massive walls.
It is full of churches, monasteries and palaces.
I walked up a Mt to a fort under the Gondala car access and got a great view and then went into the war museum to see what happened here.
We were in Kotor previously down the coast which was historic also. Another good fort on a hill to climb up to. All these towns have forts/castles/Cathedrals 100 yrs old, usually all damaged in the war.
2 of us did a side trip down the coast to an island which turned out to be a hotel now. We had an expensive lunch there just to get access.very nice too.
We finished the 1 St trip today and then another starts tmw going to Albania and then Greece.
All is well, lovely weather, sun etc
Xx