Don't believe everything that you hear

Those words were uttered by a local in reference to the information presented to tourists during guided tours of the city. ( Sarajevo)
 A similar comment was made by a local merchant during a visit to Mostar- Be careful what you buy, half this shit these other stores sell comes from China.
  Mostar, located approx. 115km west of Sarajevo is a town with a rather drab exterior which surrounds a very colourful old town dating back to the Ottoman Empire, Its key feature is a single arched bridge spanning the Neretva river, The original bridge was constructed in the 16th century but was almost totally destroyed in the Bosnian Conflict. It and much of the surrounding town was rebuilt over a period of several years. Thus while the old town appears to represent several hundred years of heritage and architecture, little of what we saw was (re)built within the last 10 years. Keeping true to a concept that required the builders to maintain accuracy, the buildings and bridge were restored using techniques which excluded modern "shortcuts."

Sarajevo- beauty and conflict

One doesn't come close to major historic events all that often but today I found myself standing almost on the exact spot where Gavrilo Princip stood to make his mark on the world. 100 years and 2 months to the day ( June 28th 2014) earlier he raised a pistol and fired 2 shots that would bring the Western World to the brink of chaos.
 Following a failed bombing attempt earlier that morning Archduke Ferdinand and his Wife were shot as their motorcade travelled through Sarajevo. An event that triggered the start of World War I.
 This was just part of a walking tour of the town led by a young local girl who was too young to have seen the later conflict in the '90's but still had a good knowledge of the events. Two hours later enriched with a better knowledge, but not neccessarily a better understanding our group broke for lunch.
 On a side street in the old quarter I was introduced to a local traditional meal Cevapi- local skinless sausages ( lamb and veal or lamb and beef) inserted into a local pita bread with onions.

 Following the meal and a brief sista back at the hotel, our group set out again for a minivan tour of the project known as the Tunnel of Hope. This was hand dug by inhabitants of the city during the seige of Sarajevo, an event that lasted 1425 days during 1992-1995. built directly beneath the main runway of the town airport by local military and common folks, It served as a lifeline to the city for food and essentials from the adjacent 

          free areas of Bosnia. The tunnel  entrance was (is) located in the back yard of a house which bore the marks of bullet holes and mortar attacks. In the back yard a local guide explained his perspective on the seige. A local who witnessed the conflict as a child, he was wounded while playing soccer on a town street.

Approximately 11,000 people, many civilians were killed during the conflict, their bodies intered at several massive cemeteries clearly visible on the slopes leading down to the town from the upper hills.

 Following a walk through the accessible part of the tunnel we returned to the city via a circutious route which offered views of the town and a visit to the remains of the bobsled run from the 1984 Olympics- now much in ruin due to shelling in the conflict.                                                                                                                       

The road to Sarajevo

We left Belgrade at 10:30am Wednesday- 2 mini vans- 14 people including Gordana our G Adventures guide. The first part of the trip to the border was a rather dull ride through areas of farming- mostly corn, and small, non descript villages. The land was relatively flat with the odd curve or traffic light to break the boredom.
 Once we passed the border into Bosnia- Herzegovina things changed fairly rapidly. The road hugged the border and an adjacent river for about 30km before it began to climb and wind through a couple of mountain chains-the Sodolac and Romanija mountains. It didn't take long to convince me that there wan't a flat or straight piece of road in the entire country.
Occasional stops for gas and pee breaks brought us into small villages where we could see the effects of the ( now 30 year old) war. Many buildings bore the scars of various attacks by mortar and bullets. Some still stood as burned out shellsof their former selves, untouched and abandoned by their former occupants. Who knew if they had died in their homes or if they fled the conflict, never to return.
 We arrived in Sarajevo around 5:30pm, tired but eager to explore.
 After checking into our hotel, the Hecco 2, located on a hill 3/4 of a km above the old town, we met the rest of our group at the main fountain of the old town and crossed the river to spend the evening eating and enjoying the local beer in a tavern adjacent to the local brewery. After that the younger members of our group wandered into town, while us "older folk" hiked back up the hill to rest up for what would be a long day on Thursday

Bombed out building close to Bosnia' Serbia border

Pub in Sarajevo

Church with shell damaged building in background

Fruitstand in Old Sarajevo

Tuesday Evening- Belgrade

Tuesday 26th August,
                                        Today was spent inflicting pain on my body!
An organized city walk took our group from the hotel to the downtown area of Belgrade where we visited a number of the major tourist attractions, the most significant of which was the Fortress, a very imposing structure overlooking the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. A multiwalled structure dating back several hundred years , it is part military museum, part park. It also contains a zoo and various monuments and churches.
 Following a lunch break Susanna wandered off with a few of the women in the group, leaving me to explore at my own speed. A fairly long walk across the river to New Belgrade brought me to a shopping mall where I picked up a bus pass which allowed me to cover the 5km trip to the small city of Zemun where I spent a couple of hours wandering through various churches, cemeteries and touristic areas along the river bank. A bus ride back to the city centre was followed by a walk along one of the main avenues exploring and photographing various churches, government buildings and parks before limping the last km. to the hotel. All in all, about 8km covered on foot, a bit more than I had originally planned.

                                                         St Marks Church, Belgrade

                                                    Old Church- Zemun town

Fortress Gate-Belgrade

                                                   Church Interior- Zemun

Belgrade (Beograd) Serbia

After fighting with Microsoft for a week they have figured out that I am not aRussian hacker and I am now allowed to post to my blog.
  After almost 4 full days in Budapest we
travelled by train to the "White City" of Serbia.The coaches were reasonably modern, but a little cramped. The journey took almost 8  hours for the 230 km trip due to customs stops on both sides of border lasting approx 45 minutes each.
Arriving at 9 pm left us with little energy or enthusiasm for dinner, so most of our group crashed for the night.

 Our travel companions include 4 Aussies, 1 Irish girl, 1 new yorker, 1_Swede, 5  womCanadians and 1 Japanese. The women outnumber the men 10:3 so it isn't a fair fight!
I'll fill in the Budapest part of the trip when time and connections permit.WiFi is often WiBother due to speed issues. Loading pictures to face book and google photo has been painfully slow, video absolutely impossible.
Rolling on for midnight so signing out from this brief update.

Its up again- the travel blog- August 2014

Today is August 9th and that means it is 10 days before I hit the road for another adventure, The route will traverse Europe and land me in the eastern bloc after a bit of a convoluted trip through Finland and Austria. With the current situation in the Ukraine I wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of landing in Budapest- that's just a tad close ( about 200km) to the Ukraine border. I realize most of the fighting is at the other end of the country, but I am not taking any chances. I don't imagine dissidents would be interested in taking out a bus travelling between Vienna and Budapest.
The purpose of the trip is to join a G Adventures group tour which starts in Budapest on August 24th and works its way through Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia, with a final destination of Split on the Adriatic. After lazing around there for a day or two a flight back to Vienna will allow three days to explore before hopping a FinnAir flight back to Canada.
  While this will mark our third stop in Budapest, the rest of the route will be virgin territory. The last trip to this area was with Insight Tours- a bus load of Asians and Aussies with a couple of other Canucks and a token Yank that everyone wanted to string up by his ankles because he was such an asshole.
  This trip, the group will be limited to a much smaller number- 15 vs 50 and I am putting some serious money on the fact that I will be at least 20 years older than the group average. That being said, I hope that they will be able to keep up with me.
  As is usually the case, internet might be a little sketchy. The first hotel, at the Vienna Airport, wants 18 Euro a day for internet access. As if the $200 a night room rate wasn't enough.
So, barring a major surge in Ebola and massive flight restrictions, I think I can start packing.