Well the little lady hasn't arrived yet, so looks like we can get another blog update in. Our last leg of the trip took us up from Croatia into Bosnia, Serbia, and back to Bulgaria before we headed back to Istanbul. Bosnia & Serbia were quite the highlight of the trip, not because of any vacation-like qualities, but because we got to learn some things we didn't know. Being in Croatia, you can hardly see any signs left of the major conflict that went on in the region within our lifetime, but you can certainly see the signs in the other places we visited. I guess tourism dollars make a big difference.
After crossing into Bosnia & Herzegovina at a tiny mountain crossing where no one stamped our passports (we were confused?), our first stop was Medjugorje. The small town in the hills of southern Bosnia is a pilgrimage site for many who believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to six children on a hillside in 1981. For the past 30 years those same people claim to have continued to receive the apparition, and supposedly she gives them prayer missions and other messages. So, there's a REALLY big outdoor church space, as lots of big tour/pilgrimage groups from all over the world come to pray and celebrate Mass at the site. You can climb up Apparition Hill to the site of the first visions, and also buy lots of cheesy souvenirs. Not being there as part of a religious group, the place probably didn't have the same effect on us. But it was definitely cool to see.
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| Medjugorje |
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| We climbed Apparition Hill, quickly. It was quite rocky and a difficult-ish climb. We saw several people doing it barefoot as part of a (self-imposed?) penance. It was humid. |
After Medjugorje, we continued on (through an awesome rainstorm) to Mostar, which is a cute little town with a lot of history.
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| One of many buildings in Mostar that still shows signs of the war in the early 90's. |
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| Mostar is a town of many religions (kind of like Bosnia itself). You can hear the church bells and the call to prayer right after each other sometimes. As a reminder, Croats (even Bosnian Croats) are Roman Catholic, Bosniaks are Muslim, and Serbs are primarily Eastern Orthodox. |
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| The famous bridge! Stari Most was built originally during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificant in the 16th century. It was destroyed in 1993 during the war by Croat tank forces, and then rebuilt in 2004 with great ceremony. |
After Mostar, we moved on to Sarajevo. Driving around Bosnia is interesting because it's not really a unified country. The road signs would suddenly switch to Cyrillic each time we entered the Republika Srpska (the Serbian-allied regions of Bosnia). Just gave us an inkling of how really complex the politics and relations are between the different ethnic, religious, and national groups in the region. It was gray & rainy in Sarajevo, which totally contributed to the "recovering-war-torn-city" vibe. We visited a really great museum dedicated to the war with Serbia.
Sarajevo was held under siege by the Serbs for 3 years during the war. The city was completely surrounded by Serbian forces except for a small part on the other side of the airfield south of town (leading up to the mountains where Croatian forces were able to help send in provisions). But the airfield was not crossable above ground due to sniper fire, so the Bosnians built a secret tunnel under the runway. We went to this dude's house - he said he helped build the tunnel - and got to watch a video & take a look around. The tunnel eventually was an important supply route for the military, and also carried pipes & cables for fuel and phone lines.
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| This Holiday Inn is where all the journalists were holed up during the siege. Still yellow. |
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| Sarajevo has older history too. The Muzei on the corner in the middle of the photo marks the spot where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, leading to the start of WWI. |
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| Old town Sarajevo. Feels a lot like Turkey in parts, which just means you feel the Ottoman influence from all their years of controlling the Balkans. |
Next stop, Belgrade, Serbia! Turns out there's not a "main road" or highway connecting Sarajevo and Belgrade. You'd think maybe those two countries weren't the best of friends....After some wandering around, some wrong-ish turns and lots of google maps squinting, we made it to Belgrade.
Our Airbnb apartment was really nice on the inside, less so on the outside. We drove past a run-down looking building several times before realizing that was the place. Maybe it discourages burglars? The city itself was very nice and modern, with a pretty pedestrian area with lots of shops and restaurants. Also, we could eat large portions of tasty pork here. (not in Bosnia, of course).
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| You can only see part of it from this angle, but I didn't want to make the guards angry. Serbia has not repaired some of the damage done by the NATO airstrikes (near the old US Embassy), maybe to keep a reminder around of the "War of NATO Aggression" as it is called in the military museum here. |
Other highlights from Belgrade include the Cathedral of St. Sava (unfinished still), which will be/is the largest Orthodox church in the world, and the Nikola Tesla Museum, which we visited with Mike and Caryn Anderson of Belgrade (Olmsted '13). Here, Mike and Dennis are helping demonstrate some sort of physics thing. They all held flourescent bulbs that lit up due to the electric field caused by the magnetic coil zappy thing above. Paul was not impressed by the loud noise it made. We were lucky enough to get to hang out with the while we visited. We hope to see them in Istanbul!
Last stop, Sofia, Bulgaria! We were generously hosted by another set of Andersons (of the Mark & Megan variety, Olmsted '12) who took us on a walking tour of their lovely city.
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| Megan and I were chatting most of the time so I have no idea what these buildings are. This one looks churchy. Upon proofreading, Dennis says it's the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which was built mostly by the Russians about a hundred years ago. It's the biggest church in Sofia. |
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| This one looks really old and also churchy. Maybe some Roman ruins? Nope. Dennis says Byzantine time frame, which probably means around the 500s. Although the Byzantines did call themselves Romans. |
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| While in Sofia we took a day trip down to the Rila Monastery, founded in the 10th Century. The founder, Ivan the Hermit, supposedly lived in a cave up in the mountains. We were going to hike up there but it was muddy. |
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| The main church of the monastery was amazing -- the architecture looks sorta mosque-like to me, especially the white & black arches and the little domes. The frescoes on the portico were really cool. |
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| Such vibrant colors. |
That's the end! It was an incredible trip, and we are so lucky to have this time to be able to take a month-long journey like that. Truly a highlight of the Olmsted experience.
Got a couple more to post about...i.e., all our trips from this summer, plus Israel & Jordan, and our winter trip to Vienna, Prague, & Berlin. Hopefully you'll get to read about those within the next 3 to 6 months or so!
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