Days 18-19: Belgrade, Serbia

I've fallen a little behind after 3.5 days with friends and family...which has meant more wine and less typing :) I thought I'd sum up Belgrade in one post, and do so by topic instead of as a chronological storyline...

Sierra doing her best "blue steel" as we wait for a taxi

First...our departure from Kotor on Sunday morning:

We wake up early to catch an 8:15am flight and find the weather to be much improved, so I'm able to snap a few shots of the hotel location. We get to the airport 1:45 before the international flight, and find that they don't open ticketing until 90 min ahead, and security until 60 min. Thanks for telling us to be here 2 hrs early, Montenegro air. Don't worry, you didn't charge for bags and we ain't mad atcha. We take off a bit late and have a bumpy ride, but we're off to Belgrade. 

View from our room, to the Bay of Kotor

View from the pier, some beautiful mountains nearby!

Our quaint little hotel

The view of the bay from the air. There are the two islands below!

Belgrade city and architecture:

We meet up with David (aka Davor), a co-worker of Sierra's who is taking a month to visit home. He tours us around the city, and has arranged for us to see a couple of concerts and to try some Serbian food. We get his input on the war, and it is definitely educational to hear another side of the story. His hometown is far to the East, near Romania, so they weren't directly involved in the war...but they of course were affected, and were stereotyped by Americans when they came to the states. It seems Americans thought Serbs were "the bad guys" in a war where there really was no bad or good. 

Here are some sights from the walking tour... 

St. Mark's Church...it was mostly empty inside while going through renovations. 

The walls of Kalemegdan. This fortress/castle was very large and expansive (and impressive). Maybe it was because of the weather, but I felt like we were at a Scottish castle. The pics don't capture it well, but here are a few. 

The wooden bricks on a bridge over the moat. A tree or something appears to have pushed these up into a big lump. 

A closer look at the bricks. We didn't realize they were made of wood at first. Cool huh?

This is the bohemian, artists street called Skadarlija in Belgrade. Great food and cool artwork on the buildings...and as you can see a pretty street to stroll along. 

A view of Skadarlija facing the other direction.  That's our wonderful friend and guide, David, showing us the city. 

The historic Hotel Mockba (Moscow), where visiting dignitaries often stay in the main part of town. 

St. Sava - it was also empty inside. I asked David why they were both empty and he explained that Sava was started in the 1930's and had to be stopped for WWII. Under communist rule, it was not continued.  In the 80's it restarted, then was stopped for the war in the Balkans. Now it is once again under construction. Good things come to those who wait I hope!

The food of Belgrade:

Our first stop with David was a little pastry and pizza shop. When we walked in, everything looked amazing.  David ordered us something I couldn't pronounce in several tries, but basically it's a flaky pastry full of meat, which he says is usually good for the end of a night of drinking (or 4th meal as some may call it). He gets us each a drinkable greek yogurt and tells us that we need to drink the yogurt while we eat. Although I wanted to order everything, we just had these pastries and loved them.  

That thing on the top is what we ate. Multiple times. 

It was rainy and chilly in Belgrade, so we spent a lot of time drinking Cappucino or Raki (sounds like "rrrah-KEE-yuh"), which is flavored brandy. David had some good quince brandy, but we also tried raspberry, plum, apricot, pear and walnut. Some were good, some tasted like fruit juice, some warmed your insides like a strong whisky, and some tasted like cough syrup. Two days of it did start to take its toll though, as we were essentially sipping 80-proof liquor after noon each day. We were good sports and tried many flavors...and may need a couple of days off ;)

Our first dinner at "tri sesira" (three hats) on Skadarlija. We try some more delicious food I can't pronounce. One was cheese and meat rolled and then fried. One was just some kind of delicious sausage, and the last was a meat and cabbage dish.

At Tri Sesira, David coached us on what to order, but he could apparently sense our apprehension about the dish he described as pig fat jello with meat chunks in it...so he didn't order that. At the next table over, a large man sat alone with two huge beers, and summoned the Serbian version of mariachis to his table to play romantic songs. Our guess is that he was heartbroken. He was pretty fuhshnickered, and sang along with the musicians who were a bit out of their element. 

After dinner we went back to David's place to have a drink and get ready for some "Turbo Folk" at his cousin Ivana's favorite bar. 

Before turbo folk music we stopped for some upscale fusion-type dining. It was delicious, and featured a live band playing some old-school Serbian music. We drank Raki apricot, walnut and raspberry.  I liked the walnut, but we all loved the raspberry because it tasted like fruit juice. That could cause some trouble!

After the concert we would go to the pastry shop and order more meat pastries, greek yogurt and delicious pizza slices. On our last morning we tried more traditional Serbian comfort food and I had a glass of Raki with David before heading to the airport. 

The music of Belgrade:

We hit up a local bar with David and his cousin, Ivana, who had arranged for the table right in front. The place was very smoky, but once the music picked up people put out their cigarettes to start dancing.  The music was awesome, the singers were talented and we had a blast! We have several videos to share, but essentially turbo folk sounds a bit like Mediterranean style music with fast keyboard/accordion music and impressive vocals that we couldn't understand but all the patrons sang along with. 

Night two, we see "S.A.R.S" with David and his other cousin. They are more like Serbian reggae-alternative and are really good. They sound like Slightly Stoopid and have quite a following. We had a blast, witnessed a proposal during a slow song and sang along to the only song we kind of knew...which was about a guy who wants to eat but all he has in his apartment is moldy bread (nom nom nom).

All in all we had a blast in Belgrade. It was a different visit than our past several cities: our first real party nights and sleeping in late.  David was a fantastic host and it was nice to see a city with a local. Thanks David!  On to Greece :)

Day 17 - a rainy day in the fjord

Sierra and I were happy to be in the warm, dry bus and out of the rain!

Day 17 wasn't much walking and I forgot to capture the miles walked...but it wasn't much. Some new metrics:

Umbrellas destroyed in five minutes: 2

Articles of clothing soaked in 5 minutes: all

Rainfall before 11am: a billionty cm 

So I opened the door to see what all the noise was, and it was a river running down the stairs. I made the mistake of saying the rain wasn't too bad...but in fact the rain was bad and the wind was worse. We only had maybe 1/4 mile to the bus stop, but by the time we were at the end of the alley we were toast. Thankfully a lot of our clothes are in ziplock bags and our backpacks provide a small amount of insulation. 

We saw 10' waves crashing into the fortress and into each other, rivers rushing down hotel steps, and people frantically running with umbrellas in a futile attempt to not get absolutely drenched.  

We take the city bus to the main station, where supposedly there was an 11am bus. Since our scheduled bus in Split didn't exist, I was adamant that we be there before 10 even though our bus was at 11. When we arrived the bus time was correct but my master plan to use the time for breakfast backfired since we wouldn't dare leave the station in this downpour. The station had a smoky waiting room, but then we found a caffe. Unfortunately the caffe had no food and was a closed off room with smokers.  The magazine stand had just candy bars.  I used the wifi to message the hotel asking for a restaurant recommendation for a place with a fireplace :) 

At 11:20 our bus arrives, and the driver shows his lack of concern for the rivers across the highways. 

The recurring wave coming from our bus onto houses nearby. 

Tough to get good pics of the bay of Kotor when the window is covered in rain. I could see how this would be beautiful on a sunny day!  That's one of two little islands in the bay, complete with a little church. 

Upon arrival in Kotor, we look for a bevy of taxis and there was none. We see many driving by but can't flag one. We're getting soaked. Sierra gets a guy at a hot dog stand to call a cab and I hail one a few seconds later. The cab that was phoned also immediately shows up, honking and yelling, but we're getting soaked so not in the mood for a cabbie argument and proceed to get into the first cab and go to the hotel. 

We check into our hotel and it was warm and the towel heater and room heater were on. Our host was very nice, and says that for dinner just go to the water (about 50 yards) and turn right to find a restaurant. We find the first one:  Caffe del mare. It was somewhat warm and cozy and had views of the beautiful bay, but it was still too wet to go out and enjoy it. What we did enjoy was the hits of the 80's. 

Think of this as one of those old TV commercials for a 1980's consolation CD. "We've combined our favorite epic movie soundtrack hits from the 80's, combined with a few Yugoslavian hits from the 80's as well!  You'll receive such hits as:

Bonnie Tyler - I need a hero

Yes - Owner of a lonely heart

Laura Brannigan - Gloria

Donna Summer - on the radio

Terence Trent D'arby - sign your name 

Chris Rea - the road to hell Pt. 2

Depeche Mode - Just can't get enough

U2 - in the name of love

Kenny Loggins -  footloose theme song

***PLUS! YOU'LL RECEIVE TOP YUGOSLAVIAN HITS OF THE 80's, such as...

Boris Novkovic - Kuda Idu Izgubljene DJEvojke

Novi Fasili - Ja sam za ples"

So Sierra and I enjoyed these amazing jams, and she had a strange hot chocolate...

Basically warmed pudding that tasted like unsweetened bakers chocolate. But it says "hot chocolate" on the glass so it must be the right thing!

We had some rich pasta dishes then did what you do after rich cheesy pasta on a rainy day: we want back to the hotel for a warm winter's nap. It was fantastic. 

We were cozy in our room and had the only English TV we could find (and first TV of the trip): the Food network.  I now want to try calamari with spicy Piri Piri sauce, but may have to figure out how to get to Mozambique.  After our nap and slowness to wake up, we go to a cheesy bar for dinner and it was another one that was similar to our Bosnian experience: very much like an Applebee's or BJ's or some other american chain. Only with lots of male chain smokers. We wonder if there are women in Kotor, until a group of three walks in. I'm sure the fellas were pumped. 

We head back to the hotel and arrange for a taxi to pick us up at 6:15 am for the airport tomorrow, and got all packed and then went to bed. :)

Day 16 - Exploring the old city of Dubronik

18,055 steps, 7.85 miles, 52 floors

The views from the top of the mountain overlooking Dubrovnik

The door to our place. The alley was about 200 steps up, covered in foliage, but right inside the walls near the Main inner Street. 

We woke up and had omelettes for brekky right next to our room, then brought the car back to Avis, which is about 2.5 miles away. Thankfully they gave us no trouble with the fact that we weren't able to return last night, and also refunded money for putting extra fuel in the car. That's a first! 

The walk back was a nice way to see part of the city outside of the walls. Most of the walk was the super high-end resorts and swanky restaurants, but we did see some sweeping views of the coastline. 

These are now everywhere...and have really lost their uniqueness. Nowadays you just grab a padlock, write your initials and your sweetheart's, and then lock it onto any man-made material near a body of water. 

When we get back, we pay for a ticket to walk the walls, and make a loop around town. There were two other couples that we saw the whole time...otherwise it was empty but for 4-5 construction workers. This man of apparently asian descent was dressed in what I would describe as a combination of "ridiculous" and "awesome" and maybe a little "omg."  Once again I snapped no picture despite my eagerness to do so. He had a baseball cap that said "so fresh", some cool 80's sunglasses, straight-line bangs, and some funky red starter jacket. It was a nice pick-me-up to start the day. 

The view just outside the old town walls

For those of you too young to have used a phone booth, this is what they looked like before the dawn of cell phones. 

There were cats everywhere in Dubrovnik, milling about like they own the place. Here are a few pictures, out of about 300 we could have captured:

A black and white cat saying "Oh hello, I didn't see you there. Care to provide me with some milk or perhaps a pile of wet meat? In return I would be most obliged to let you share this seat with me...if only but for the moment to enjoy these sweeping views of the Dalmation coast."

An orange cat trolls through our breakfast spot...

Then...blast off!!!  The Croatian space program is doing quite a lot of research on putting cats into a lower-earth orbit. 

I took a picture through a hole. In the days of yore, archers could fire flaming arrows from here into the yachts of celebrities who were attempting to pillage and plunder the town...for great deals on designer clothing and Dubrovnik-shaped magnets. 

Some Croatian youngsters showing their stuff on the pitch. Pretty sweet place to play if  you ask me!  Basketball hoops are all over the country, providing clever decorative accent to places where people play soccer. 

After seeing the walls we have some much-needed and rare downtime to relax and maybe plan a bit for the next few days. But mostly relax. By the time we motivated again, we caught the very last tram to the top of the hill at 4:30pm. It didn't give us much time to go to the museum, but despite the ticket lady's discouragement I bought two tickets to the war museum at the top. Up we go!

The panoramic views from the top of the museum. 

A door. 

The museum was pretty interesting. It was all about the battle in Dubrovnik in the early 1990's. Few expected an attack on what is probably the crown jewel of the Adriatic, however the Yugoslav army (fighting for the Serbian side, under Slobodan Milosevič) began to pound Dubrovnic with air strikes, bombs, etc. the townspeople banded together and fought back, and used this hill as a strategic point to defend their city. It was, I believe, the only time that Dubrovnik's centuries-old fortress was ever attacked. Originally they didn't have many weapons but some brave souls snuck out into the night with hunting rifles and surprised Serbian forces. 

Not everything in the museum was in English, and we ran through very fast...so we didn't gather an holistic understanding of the battle, but the Croatians lost many lives yet in the end kept their city. Today you notice that some roofs are a brighter red, which typically means they were replaced after being destroyed in the 90's. 

The phrase above is a catholic statement made famous by St. Francis, which in Latin means "peace and good," or sometimes translated as "peace and salvation." 

We took some pictures from here, and took in the sweeping views of the beauty while also imagining this as a military position. Crazy to think of this one spot in two very distinctly different ways. 

When we went back to town we stopped into a place for a glass of wine and some appetizers, but they only had seafood to eat so we just stuck with wine. I have occasionally tried some local fish, but Sierra isn't a seafood lover and the seafood here isn't the kind for someone who isn't a seafood lover (lots of heads, skin, bones and they like the fishy flavors).  We would later learn that we missed out on an epic fresh seafood platter at this place.  After leaving there we search for Taj Mahal, a Bosnian restaurant we saw earlier and both thought sounded fun to try.  

After some searching, we find Taj Mahal and go inside, and it has six tables and a total of 6 other people inside. The waiter is in a traditional black vest and everything inside seems pretty old school. We spoke to our neighbors who are from Minnesota and own a Spirit Halloween store and are traveling toe Czech Republic and Transylvania after the Balkans. We try to figure out what language the two blonde girls near us are speaking...it's very unique...and we ultimately decide they are Finnish. But we never bothered to ask. Another American-sounding, hipster-looking young guy rolls in and sits where the English couple had been. I ask why it's Taj Mahal if it's Bosnian, and the waiter says that the Taj Mahal was built as a gift for a man's love, and the owner built this restaurant for their love of Bosnian food. It's his/their "Taj Mahal."  

The food was nothing short of fantastic, and everything was in traditional-looking plates and bowls. We each had a fantastic soup and then shared a couple of dishes, including the house specialty, which was meat wrapped in a fluffy croissant-like dough, and topped with a tzatsiki-like topping. It was incredible (the next day we would be told by a friend to try Taj Mahal, and to specifically try the house specialty...glad we did)!

Our soups and the house specialty in the middle. 

We went to bed and set our alarms for a morning bus departure to Kotor. 

Day 15 - an educational and impactful trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina

11,679 steps, 5.29 miles, 30 floors

Sierra's pic of the Stari Most ("old bridge"), which signifies the unity of Serb, Croat and Bosniak cultures in one city. 

We wake up and go to the bus station to catch the 9:30, but it doesn't exist--so we hop into a cab. The airport is further than I realized, but we're there before 10am. We pick up the little rental and head on our way, hoping to have minumal issues with directions. 

On the way to Bosnia-Herzegovina we stop at two highway toll booths and 4 border control booths. I've lost count but I'm guessing we hit about 12-14 border control booths in the next 48 hours. 

I thought that said "mocrap" at first. The cool countryside, and probably the last sign we would see for Mostar before the "you'll figure it out" style of directions kicks in. 

Bosnia was much more up-scale than expected: lots of neatly-manicured yards and pretty houses. We stopped for construction and waited for a green light...unsure if it would ever come. It appears they are beefing up the highway system to try to make Mostar more accessible.  We come to a semi truck driver just parked blocking 2 of three lanes. People started to go around us, so we went into oncoming traffic and passed. It wasn't as scary as it sounds as we could see the oncoming lane, but it was funny to see this guy just parked in the way.

We get to a little town and don't see signs for Mostar, so we stop to eat. Maybe 1-in-5 people speak English, but the town looks clean and the restaurants seem nice. We see a lot of dudes in track suits, which is kind of a running theme around here. Sierra orders what the waiter recommends, because we can't understand the menu at all. We get a nice pizza and salad, and it feels like we're at BJ's pizzeria back in the states. 

The weather is beautiful and this little Bosnian town seems the opposite of shady: couples with young kids in strollers, wifi, clean streets. Parallel parking is kind of a free-for-all, which is entertaining to watch. They basically just get within a few feet of parking and some park diagonally on a street-side parallel spot. The waiter tells us how to get to Mostar (no street signs) and we get on our way. 

The drive through the countryside contained many vineyards, churches and a beautiful teal green river the entire way. The directions were weird (Rick Steves had warned us that drivers can get a little stressed trying to find their way around). My map says we're close, so we park and walk. 

The first area we walk through is this cool, contemporary street packed with folks out on patios enjoying the sun. 

We walk towards the old bridge, and our first view urges a brief moment of silence (as we drove here, and along the way, we continue to learn about the war and specifically the tragedies which occurred in Mostar). We walk down coppersmiths street, "Kujundžiluk," which is a cool round-stone street with the feel of a Turkish bazaar.  

Kujundžiluk, before we come to Stari Most

We walk a bit further and find a terrace overlooking the old bridge, and get the best table in the place. 

Stari Most was destroyed in the early 1990s, and a temporary wooden bridge existed. This is the bridge which was rebuilt in 2004, symbolizing the reunification of Mostar and the opportunity to rebuild trust and peace in the Balkans. 

We saw this one on the side of a building. I believe the two dots represent the coming together of people from opposite sides (Bosniaks and Croats, most likely) and meeting on the bridge. 

Many of our pictures of the city show clearly the religious diversity of Mostar, including iconic images such as the cross on the hill over the city, as well as a mix of mosques and Christian steeples. We decide that selfies seem a little disrespectful to a city which has gone through so much. Moments later we see a group of four super makeup'd, Kim Kardashian-wannabe looking women making duck-face poses and tons of booty-flexing, back arched, turned-to-the-camera selfies on the bridge.  Then of course there were men staring awkwardly at them. If experience is any indication, all of them were also probably smoking. 

I needed at least one picture to show you how beautifully green the water is. This river ran all the way along our drive from Croatia, splits through the city of Mostar and has streams and waterfalls integrated into the west side of town. 

A shot of Stari Most from the south--the right side is mostly Muslim and the left side is predominantly Christian. 

We walk down south to see another angle of the bridge and the river. Then we cross over to walk to the Bulevar. It was once the bustling Main Street, until this war made it the division between Croats and Bosniaks (right after the Serbian military were forced out). My understanding is that the Croats had more firepower, had snipers and had electricity. So the Bosniaks on the east side of the street (which included both banks of the river) were in constant fear of going outside. They only went out at night in all black, and only out of necessity. Below are just a few of the many buildings left as a reminder of what can happen when people turn on their own neighbors and relatives...

A building on the Bulevar, completely decimated by Croatian artillery. 

I still need to figure out who that is in the spacesuit, but the words say "give me back my clothes."  These buildings (on the Croatian side of the street) are intermixed with new buildings, creating a moving image of reconstruction. 

Right on one of the main intersections. I think this one was a bank. 

As we walked along, we saw a lot of old and a lot of new. We wondered if we looked odd standing at a main intersection, photographing buildings. Through a hole in one building I could see the old hot water tank in the bathroom and a sink on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a building that had been annihilated. All in all, it was a sobering reminder that anyone who lived here during the early 90's spent most days in fear for their life, and most likely lost many friends and loved ones. 

It was difficult to capture how far this went.

On the way out of town we passed a cemetery which was a park pre-1991, and was converted to a cemetery for those who died in the 1991-95 time frame. Apparently the trees provided cover from Croatian snipers to allow families to bury their loved ones.  

We left town at about 4pm and were happy to have enough light to make our way to the ocean before dark. Continuing the theme, we passed a number of border crossings. At the first one, we think it's a toll booth and offer him money, and he says some things and he and his friend giggle the whole time. Apparently we may have just tried to bribe a federal officer. Then we had to pull over and have our car searched.  The border guard said: "No cigarettes, alcohol, drugs?" Sierra replies with "No." To which he said "Why?" Hahaha...apparently these guys have a sense of humor. 

That's the guy searching our back seat. I hope he doesn't take my bag of mixed nuts, apple or bottles of Italian wine. 

Shortly after that, we drive through some mountains and then along the coast to Dubrovnik. The sunset was beautiful so we snapped 100's of shots:

Heading out of the valley to the Dalmatian coast 

Weaving along the coastline, looking back at the sunset. This is the part where we go back into Bosnia-Herzegovina for about 10 miles, before being in Croatia again. 

One of many cool towns on the water

Looking south as we close in on Dubrovnik

The final Croatia checkpoint, probably our 12th of the day: Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia-Bosnia-Croatia today. Each time with 2-4 booths and passport checks.  

When we get to Dubrovnik it's dark. We go to return our rental car and no one answers the door, so we park it in old town and head to our room. We can tell already that we are really going to love Dubrovnik.

Our first glimpse from inside the walls. We'll grab an omelette at that place on the left in the morning. 

We get lured into an alley for dinner and it turns out to be a really cool spot. We have a nice Croatian dinner and some wine, then head to bed, ready to return the car and take on Dubrovnik in the morning.