Sept 5/24

 In Sarajevo 

This morning, after breakfast we all met in the hotel lobby at 9:30 AM and met Mustafa ( our guide for the day)

The next four hours were the best part of the trip so far as Mustafa guided us (while in a mini bus) to two main locations in the area. The first was the tunnel under the airport runway; dug and used by the Bosnians during the siege of Sarajevo. Not only was the story of the tunnel really interesting but Mustafa’s stories as a young teenager during these same times were super compelling and really brought home the reality of living with no electricity, no running water, virtually no food and constant shelling from the surrounding mountains by the Serbians. He stated he just missed getting shot by a sniper while going to school, his house’s upper floor was destroyed by a Serbian shell, neighbours and friends killed by bombing or being shot. Considering everything he went through as a kid he seemed very normal. 

The tunnel ( we walked through a 130 meter remake of the actual 800 meter tunnel) was built (initially) undetected by the Bosnian army in order to bring in supplies relatively safely from the surrounding area ( Sarajevo being surrounded almost completely except for the airport which was under UN control ). 

The pink area is the Serbian Army positions surrounding the city

The red line in the middle of the photo is the location of the tunnel which allowed Bosnian Army to access the Bosnian controlled side in the upper right hand corner in the photo above the airport photo. Occasionally civilians were allowed through to buy supplies from these Bosnian controlled villages (14 year old Mustafa and his Mom made this trip through the tunnel once).

People going through the tunnel risked getting shot by snipers on both sides of the tunnel (note the bullet holes in the wall of the house which was near theentry point).

After that visit we went up into the nearby mountains ending up at the Bobsled track where we snapped a few photos and heard the stories of this (at the time) marvel of engineering. 

At a viewpoint on the way back we stopped for a city view. The green looking space in the photo below is the location of the Olympic stadium which became a huge cemetery for many of the Bosnians killed in the war. 

Upon return, Caro and I went shopping, enjoyed some kind of rolled toffee,nut, caramel  candy that you have to buy by weight. It was wonderful. 

After that we split up for a hour with me going to the see the locations of the assassination and the museum right next door. Caro wandered around for a bit

Once back together we walked to the nearby city hall and paid to look around inside. The building is stunning and has been rebuilt after being totally gutted in the war. This is the same building that has the Sarajevo sign in front of it (photo in yesterdays post)

We had an early supper in one of the many restaurants here. We were very happy with what we had chosen (Bosnian food of course).

There was a thunderstorm around 5PM which was OK as we were back in our room.

The rest of our group headed out tonight at 7:20 for supper however we preferred to eat earlier. 

After the rain we walked the streets of the old city, first enjoying some ice cream, and then later some Bosnian baklava (we think).Totally awesome!

Below are some random images I took tonight

We leave at 11. AM tomorrow so after breakfast we have some things we are looking for.

Belgrade to Sarajevo

Wednesday. We were on the mini-bus at 0800 and provided a bagged breakfast ( not really very good)

Caro is still coughing a lot however she is feeling better, so good news there. 

We travelled out of Belgrade and were on very good highways for 90 minutes. 

After we turned off the main highway we travelled on slow secondary highways through quite few small villages. There were lots of small farms there. 

After a pit stop at a popular gas station (where we spent the remainder of our Serbian money on junk food) we were soon at the border with Bosnia. 

We stopped at the Serbian border where the border guard made us get off the bus, took our passports in his hand and walked back to the office while we climbed back into the van and waited. Shortly afterward he brought the passports back, we drove across the Drina river and this time our bus driver took all our passports into Bosnia passport control and brought them back stamped.

We followed down the Drina River which is the border between Serbia and Bosnia+Herzegovina.

The far side of the (now) dammed up part of the Drina River is Serbia

Now the countryside looks like I expected all the Balkans to look (instead of flat, like Saskatchewan)

Following are some random photos of the countryside.

We arrived in Sarajevo at 4PM-an eight hours drive (which included two stops).

We went out together for a nice supper. Caro and I splurged and had steak with wine,

We had our first rain of the trip and it was so heavy some of our group had to move because the sheeting above them wasn’t sealed properly and the rain was coming inside.

Afterwards we had a two hour walking tour given by a fellow who is considered the top guide in the city. He was extremely passionate and not scared to talk about the war (his grandfather was killed in 1992 during the war). We showed him the sign on the store wall in Belgrade and he got quite animated, showing a couple truly horrific photos of the war carnage.

He showed us the spot where ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand was shot and the original attempt to kill the Arch Duke occurred. I plan on going back the tomorrow in the daylight to get better photos than tonight.

The final location tonight was City Hall (all lit up). This building also played a big role on the assassination.

Caro is in bed early tonight to try to get completely over this cold.
 

Part 2

 I had issues with “Blogger” and had to start a new blogpost to finish off the night.

We walked for a bit and came back to the hotel where we relaxed.

At supper time we headed up the local street a short way and with many restaurants to choose from we chose one that had a lot of people (figuring the food was good).

The meal was awesome as usual (i found that I really like Serbian food- at least the food that I tried)

Below is a photo of our dessert (Serbian cream pie-YUMMY)

We walked a little bit more on our street. Below are photos taken just now

Tomorrow we head into Bosnia and we don’t have cell data (supposedly) for the next three days.

Sept 3rd i n Belgrade Part 1

A group photo of most of the group. The man in the blue shirt is the fellow from Millwoods

Caro and I had a nice breakfast after an “OK “ night. Caro’s cold is still quite impactful

We went to the Center part of the city (which is near us). We need to buy some more hot weather clothing. I had brought only one pair of short pants and it looks to be very hot the whole time we are in Europe. 

We didn’t have too much luck and Caro needs to get more sleep so we went back to the hotel and after a short while I left her to relax and I started walking around the city. 

I realized after a bit that I had forgotten to put on sunscreen so I popped into a “Apoteka” (pharmacy) and purchased a bottle. 

The streets here are like any old city and consequently I soon realized I was going the wrong way ( which was to get to the bank of the Danube and find a nice path or something), I had to use Google maps to get me redirected and once near the river I realized there was no walkways in that area so I ended up going back to the fortress area where we were on our guided tour yesterday. 

Caro had just woken up from her nap when I was returning after two hours of walking so we went down the street corner and had local ice cream in an outdoor patio setting (this city has outdoor patios for drinking and eating everywhere).

Novi Sad to Belgrade

I had a fabulous sleep last night but Caro did not ( she is coming down with a cold and we have visited pharmacies to get her medicines). 

After our hotel supplied breakfast we headed out to walk as much of the streets as we could. 

The synagogue was very important before WW2 and while we couldn’t see inside, the information boards outside were very descriptive ( and sad).

We had to check out at 11AM and our mini-bus didn’t leave until 1PM so we all just left our luggage at the hotel and Caro and I continued walking until returning to the street nearby where we had another pizza and some lemonades. 

The highway speed is 130 Km/hr here ( but not for minibuses unfortunately LOL)!

The highway was really good. I was surprised to see so much corn being grown! I also noticed many more sightings of small towns and industrial development as we got closer to Belgrade.

We got into Belgrade in the early afternoon and after a short break we met up with the group and had a guided tour of the down town where we talked about the city’s history and all the wars that have happened here. I was wondering why the recent civil war is NEVER discussed by any of the guides and then we saw this; (note the writing on the store side has not been removed so must have some kind of permission)

“The only genocide in the Balkans was against the Serbs” written in English and a fallacy IF you believe the International Court in The Hague (which names a few Serbs in that terrible war about 25 years ago).

Obviously a real sore point for the people here.

We made our way on the tour to the fortress. This city was the border between the Ottoman Turks- (Muslim) and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (Christian/Jew).The view is outstanding of the Danube and a tributary which joins the Danube right below the fort

The streets of the old city were nice to walk and not too crowded

We went out as a group to a nearby restaurant. While the group sat together Caro wanted the two of us to eat separately as her cold really hit her and she doesn’t want to pass it along (and as I finish off this blog post at 9 PM she is fast asleep already.

The meal (authentic Serbian cuisine) was really wonderful. We split an appetizer and a main course,with Caro also having a salad and me having a rum (I wanted Serbian rum but apparently it is not made here). Total cost with tip was around $70 .

We stopped at a kiosk on our street and I bought some home made (what turned out to be) brandy. It is quite tasty and the lady selling it really wanted me to know that “there was no sugar added” and that her family made it

Tomorrow is an off day as far as anything planned with the group so we are going to do as much as we can to get Caro feeling better.

Sunday night in Novi Sad, Serbia

On the road

Last night I forgot to write  that we had walked 12.6 km (19400 steps) during the day. 

We had a terrible night of sleep ( probably one or two hours each). Jet lag issues still. Pretty cool to see Lisa,Pat and family at the Pink concert from Commonwealth stadium at 0400!

We got up early to have a big breakfast and then relaxed until we left the city at about 9 AM on our way to Serbia. Our travel group totals 16 people. We are the only couple although there are a number of travel buddy couples (all female couples). Totally weird but there are five from Alberta,  one from Saskatchewan and one from BC.

There are only three men; myself ,one fellow from Millwoods and one from Los Angeles. Most everybody appears to be “nice people” and we are definitely in with folks who travel as much as us and more.The fellow from Millwoods has been to 75 countries!

The highway to Serbia (M5) was a four lane divided. The countryside was mostly farming. I was actually quite surprised at the lack of towns along the way

Getting stamped out of the euro zone and then stamped into Serbia took about an hour which we were told is pretty good ( can be up to 3 hours)

Novi Sad is a beautiful city. After a checkin to our hotel we went out to get some Serbian cash.

Our tour guide took us to a local restaurant . Caro and I shared our meals and enjoyed them.

Menu before using google translate

Menu item after using google translate!

A local guide met us at the restaurant and we had a two hour walking tour of the beautiful downtown and then up to the fortress. Our local guide was awesome. It turns out she was the guide for when the French President and Serbian president got together here.

The tour finished at the fortress and most of us stayed there in a cafe having beers etc and watching the sunset. Caro and I left the group and walked back across the Danube River to the main downtown area (and our hotel is right there as well). We stopped to have a pop and to try Serbian pizza. It’s was really tasty!