the Laughing Boomer

Hi

Here our June travels.

I’m sending this from Casablanca, Morocco, where we are about to start another two-week GAP tour.

On another note, we will be returning to Vancouver for one month, starting September 15^th.  If anyone knows of a short-term apartment rental or of a house-sitting opportunity in the Vancouver area, please do let us know.  Our email addresses are mahara@laughingboomer.com  and kenandmahara@gmail.com.

We love to hear from you, even though we might take a while to respond.  Who knows what Internet connectivity might be like in Morocco? We shall see!

Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Slovenia

Our journey was basically unplanned.  We started in Croatia, drove down to Montenegro, back up to Bosnia-Hercegovina and then back to Zagreb, Croatia before dropping off the car and going by train to Slovenia.

We had a rather inauspicious beginning to our Croatian leg, arriving from Anconda, Italy in Split at 7 am after an overnight ferry line on Jadrolinija, a miserable ferry that needed refurbishing forty years ago. The Croatian grandmother that met us at the ferry with a room for rent was grumpy and disappeared without returning our 50 Euro note change. Our room was awful. The weather was terrible and so our sightseeing in the heavy rain that morning wasn’t much fun.

However, things did improve. Split is a beautiful city. The waterfront has wide long boulevards lined with attractive benches, flowers and large palm trees. Split’s walled town is quite extensive, a maze of streets with Diocletian’s Palace ruins as the centerpiece. We visited the Cathedral, some of the palace and wandered twisting streets. We also saw an exhibit of Marc Chagall, a lithographic pictorial representation of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe’s magnificent music. Croatia appears be a child-centred society.  Unlike the grandmother, most of the Croatians are very friendly and relaxed.

The next day our drive in a new Hyundai rental led us through small towns and villages along the famous Dalmatian Coast. We visited a few seaside towns, lunched in Makarska and felt we could fall in love with the many towns within days.  At first it felt a bit like the Okanagan valley, with the ocean on the left, but the land becomes greener farther south.

We took dozens of pictures as we made our way through the various areas, labelled the Makarska Riviera, and then south of Dubrovnik, the Dubrovnik Riviera. The highway is extremely close to the high sheer-cliff edges and with only metal barriers; I found the drive somewhat nerve-wracking. The mountains come right down to the sea in many areas. In other places there is a small ribbon of land at water’s edge with small bays, harbours and fishing villages. The water near the coast is pale jade green or turquoise. Offshore are lush islands, with holiday spots along the popular beaches. In the small towns, charter boats offer day trips to the islands. The Dalmatian Coast is one of the most beautiful coastal drives we’ve experienced.

Dubrovnik is the crown jewel of the Dalmatian Coast, another world heritage walled city, with coves, bays, and waterfront views everywhere. Picturesque white homes with red-tiled roofs dot the hillsides; the houses in this area appear to be tall, skinny and multi-storied, and cling to the coastal cliffs. We’ve seen walled cities at Rhodes and huge fortresses guarding the cities of Kos and Split, but this is truly a marble-streeted treasure.

We rented a room with a large rose-covered balcony and a huge chandelier. The house was in an old, elegant area called Lapad and the grandmother, who had lived there for fifty years, didn’t speak English at all. So we talked to her granddaughter by phone r about working the ancient TV and her son came by as well, and we all managed swimmingly. The son showed us where to go in Montenegro, and even helped mark our map.  What a treat to drink coffee on the balcony before exploring the Old Town, called Stari Graz. We love Dubrovnik for its character, friendly people and fabulous views. W e stopped at Cavtat, a small medieval town on the Rat Peninsula, (yes, Rat) for a fresh trout lunch before we entered Montenegro.

Montenegro

Montenegro is the newest country of the world, only created in 2005. It’s not yet in the EU but is working towards that status and uses Euros as its currency. Montenegro split from Serbia, although Serbian is the official language. The country only has about 750,000 people. The highway just below Croatia in north Montenegro follows the coast and is just as spectacular – it’s called the Tivat Riviera. We took a small car-ferry from Tivat to our destination Budva, the small town our Dubrovnik friends advised us to visit.

Montenegro seems poorer than Croatia – some of the roads are potholed, the houses less kempt, the people less stylish and the public areas less elaborate. Montenegro has the usual fortresses and cathedrals. Initially we were unimpressed with Budva: the town seemed disorganized and the beach inaccessible. Finally on the outskirts of town we drove by a small cove with several beachfront hotels and a wide promenade with several open-air restaurants which featured live music. The stone beach was decked out with loungers and rows of straw covered umbrellas. Lots of kids played about; we noticed the next day that many school-aged kids were in the nude. We found that most strange.

We found a small hotel and settled in. We discovered an unexpected twist to Budva. A now-Canadian grandmother, wheeling about her grandson, told us that many Russians own homes and businesses there. One-thousand square foot apartments go for 350,000 Euros. We thought they might be worth 50,000 Euros. Then we started looking at the cars – several full-sized BMW’s, Mercedes, a Lamborghini and even a Bentley. Most had Russian licence plates. Although she didn’t state it straight out, the unspoken messages she implied is that the locals were being pushed out of their own country, not by the government, but by Russian money. We stayed a couple of days, enjoyed the sunshine, the Montenegrin hospitality and the food, and then moved on to Bosnia.

Bosnia Hercegovina

Our drive to Sarajevo was spectacular. We drove from Montenegro up the Croatian coast again and then turned into Bosnia Hercegovina. This country only has 26 kilometres on the Adriatic Sea with the same magnificent coastline as Croatia. The rest of the country is basically one hilly mountain after another, covered with both deciduous and coniferous trees.  The mountains are not high as in BC, and many had striated land formations.  The two-lane road followed the beautiful Neretva River, which is a lovely light green-blue shade. Our progress was slow as we went up and down the many mountains, and finally arrived at Mostar, an important historic town. We checked out Mostar’s mosque and famous town bridge. It was bombed during the war and has since been rebuilt.

Sarajevo greeted us, looking desolate and ugly with the usual soviet style apartment blocks, but without trees. We learned later that all trees not in the line of fire had been cut for firewood during the war. We saw many buildings that were bombed out or riddled with bullet holes. We drove around for quite a while looking for accommodation and finally relented and went to the huge yellow Holiday Inn, the newspaper correspondents’ headquarters during the war. When we found the price too expensive, the clerk quickly arranged for an agent to take us to another lovely hotel right in the centre of old town. Everyone was helpful and friendly.

Sarajevo is a wonderful city. My main impressions are of an energetic and happy people. Their old Turkish section has hundreds of sidewalk cafes, serving only drinks, not food, and is absolutely full of young people, night and day. Every evening literally hundreds of people saunter through the old town, arm-in-arm and socialize.  Even though youth unemployment is apparently thirty percent, the young people did not seem disenfranchised or unhappy.

We used our tourist map to see the mosques, orthodox and Christian cathedrals and synagogues, all within 500 metres of one another. However, as our guide later pointed out, B-H is not a religious country as the social-communist structure has been in place for forty-five years. We wandered old streets, watched the tin-men bang out their wares and checked out the squares, shops and monuments .We took a guided tour of the city and the 800 metre long historic tunnel that the people built under the airport during the war to survive.

The politics of this region are far too complicated to describe here, but basically the people of Sarajevo were attacked by their own army, or more specifically the aggressor Serbian factor, which set camps up around the city. Initially, as the army moved in, citizens were assured things were normal. Some people left when they realized the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population had begun elsewhere. Most people stayed, for several reasons: people realized too late what was happening, they believed the outside world would rescue them quickly and they also loved their city. Because the city is surrounded by mountains, geography plays a role as well, as the only escape route was a narrow corridor by the airport. They simply could not leave. Water, electricity and heat were cut off. Many people risked their lives simply going to get water and were killed by sniper bullets.

Eventually an 800 metre tunnel was built under the airport and supplies came in and out of the city via this route.  It was built in an old house belonging to the Kolar family, well hidden by just looking like an ordinary old house.  Over the three-and-a half year siege 11,000 people died, including thousands of children.  I read The Cellist of Sarajevo, by a Canadian writer, Steven Galloway, while I was there, which added a lot to my experience.

Our guided tour took us through the town and past the marketplaces where people were massacred, and the bombed-out buildings, especially the library, which had a huge emotional impact when it was bombed. The newspaper building was also extremely important, because it represented hope that people of the world would learn of their plight and care enough to do something about it. We rode along the three-and-a-half long sniper’s alley, which people needed to pass through to gather water. We then drove out past the airport to the Kolar home and walked in the tunnel. The story of how this city was taken over suddenly was quite moving. Our young guide had been sent away to Split with his Mom at the start of the war. Finally, after 44 people were killed in a market, NATO came in and the war was over in 3/1/2 weeks. Since the war there have been many U.N, NATO and other NGO’s in the city. The old-Turkish section has returned to a busy town centre.

The drive from Sarajevo to Zagreb is only 319 km long. We were warned it would take seven hours, and it did, almost all at 40km. Bosnia’s main highway is two-lanes, through small towns with skola zones, along the river and up and down the mountains.  It’s spectacular country. We passed by fishing towns, many mosques and Muslim graveyards; water sports facilities and small villages. B-H is noted for adventure tourism and especially winter sports. Road signs are written two ways – with Roman lettering and Cyrillic lettering underneath when the area is Bosnian, and the other way round when the area is Serbian. As we drove out of Sarajevo, many of the Cyrillic signs had been spray-painted out.  By the time we reached the north near the Croatian border we couldn’t read the signs at all and found it difficult to figure out the last few miles. When we reached the Croatian border the landscape became flat and the Croatian toll highway with speeds of 130 km meant we did the last 100 km quickly.

Zagreb was shocking. The graffiti is the worst I’ve seen anywhere in the world, covering most buildings. The outer edge of the city has grungy typical-style high-rise apartments. Old Zagreb has hundreds of examples of classical architecture, but most of it is in very bad condition. Zagreb could be a lovely town - the bones are there, the city park elegant, and the buildings potentially beautiful.  All it needs is a multi-million dollar power wash, paint and anti-graffiti campaign.

We didn’t like Zagreb at first, and because it has few hotels we had a difficult time finding one. But, the city did grow on us – by the end of the second day, we figured out where a few things were, found an underground shopping centre and enjoyed a great meal in a restaurant started in 1907. We took an old 1888 funicular up to the Upper Town and saw a few gothic churches and great city views. The Mimara Musej is excellent, with a large Impressionist collection, but again, with probably ten visitors when we were there, overlooked and in need of refurbishing. The energy of Zagreb is also different, and experiencing Sarajevo and Zagreb side by side helped in thinking about it. Sarajevo’s centre is “old town”, like a small village with a social atmosphere. The people of Zagreb seemed serious and independent.

Slovenia

Our two-hour train ride to Ljubljana went through unspoiled old countryside that seemed out of the last century. Five sets of guards/police/customs officials checked and stamped our tickets and passports.  The countryside is idyllic – no development really, just green rolling hills with tiny homes along a silver green river, lush and lovely. Much of the countryside is unindustrialized, relatively unpopulated and pastoral.

Ljubljana is another delightful city of around 250,000 people. It’s situated along the curving Ljubljanica River with a great pedestrian-only old town. Our centrally located hotel meant we could walk everywhere. Both sides of the river had dozens of charming sidewalk cafes, sheltered by huge old trees. The architecture is gothic and surprisingly, Art Deco. The people were friendly and we can see why it’s a favourite weekend destination. The Ljubljana Castle was a bit of a miss-“enhanced” with crowd-control and modern cafes, although the brand-new funicular was interesting. We lunched from the fruit and veggie market right in the centre of town. Cherries and blueberries are already out, so we had a good feed. The peaches and nectarines here come from Spain. The weather was warm although we had a fantastic thunder, lightning and hail storm one evening.  A cultural festival was in progress and we watched Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet performed in the public square.

After a couple of lovely days in Ljubljana, we left for Trieste rather suddenly when we learned that the Sunday bus only ran at 5 am.  And so we said goodbye to our four Eastern countries.  We drove almost the whole Dalmatian coast and the full length of Bosnia-Hercegovina and rode for several hours through Slovenia. We had a positive experience; the focus here was not so much on majestic architecture but on interacting with the friendly people, magnificent nature, and enjoying the smaller cities. We loved that we were not hassled to buy, eat here or go there. In every country internet access was good, much better than in Italy. Prices are lower, although not substantially and the people seem genuinely happy, involved with families and enjoying life.