Monday, December 28, 2015

Sarajevo: Scars

As my bus approached the outskirts of Sarajevo, it passed by a building with a gaping hole in the roof. Not far off was another building riddled with bullet holes. Once the bus entered the city itself there were no more damaged buildings, but the scars of war are not something you forget quickly. The Sarajevo bus station is located a ways away from the old city center (where my hostel was located) and I chose to walk the whole way there rather than take public transit. The sun was going down when I started walking and 35 minutes later when I arrived at the hostel it had gotten dark. The only notable thing that happened the rest of that day was that I talked with a guy from New Zealand and he was telling me about archaeologists had unearthed some sort of ancient underground tunnel network a few miles outside the city. He said he visited the site himself and the workers there allowed him to take a look around. Apparently there's some sort of wall/door into the tunnel network that seems to have been built with techniques for more advanced than what should have been around back then and there's strange things going on with the ground. I can't verify if any of this is true, and honestly it sounds like something that would be on that History Channel show Ancient Aliens. Alternatively, it sounds like the premise of a movie like The Mummy. Perhaps there's an ancient evil sealed within the tunnels and we are unwittingly setting it loose on the world. Of course, it's just as likely that the hoopla surrounding this discovery is way overblown and the tunnels are something mundane. It will likely be years before anything conclusive is known. My personal favorite (highly improbable) theory, which I made up myself, is that this is the world's most ancient practical joke, and the people who created the tunnels long ago set it all up just to mess with the people who would eventually find it.

On the following day I did my best to see as much of Sarajevo as possible. Although I didn't get to everything, I saw most of the biggies. Sarajevo sort of reminds me of Zagreb, but with a more eastern spin. This makes sense, of course, because for a long time Sarajevo was controlled by the Ottoman Turks. I started the day at the Sebilj Fountain on Bascarsija Square. The square was all torn up for construction but the water was still running in the fountain. I walked around, doing my best to stay out of the way of the workers, and visited some of the nearby streets that were full of shops selling various goods made of copper. From there I roughly followed a self guided walk from the pages of one of my guidebooks. I stopped briefly into the Morica Han, a former travelers' inn, and then moved on to the Gazi Husrev Bey mosque. The mosque is named for a local administrator from Ottoman times who built up Sarajevo and then willed his fortune to the city to continue building. While inside the mosque I overheard a nearby tour guide tell his group that at this particular mosque all the calls to prayer are prerecorded and then broadcast over the loudspeakers. The reason for this is that the local imam is very old and unable to climb the mosque's minaret. After leaving the mosque I continued west along the main pedestrian road and then turned south the check out the covered bazaar. Nothing caught my eye while passing through and I moved on further south to the Latin Bridge. Right at the bridge is the street corner where Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, setting off the chain reaction that would lead to World War I. Today there's a plaque that marks the spot where the assassin stood and a museum is on the street corner. I pondered for a few minutes these deaths which sparked a conflict wherein over 17 million people would die, but then I had to get back on schedule. I returned to the main road, and then went north to pay a visit to an old Eastern Orthodox church. After that I passed by the Sarajevo city hall and then walked up to a viewpoint on a hill. Along the way I passed through a graveyard that had been dug during the siege in the 1990s. There were a number of wild dogs in the graveyard but they weren't aggressive. In America there would probably be a public outcry if there was a pack of wild dogs wandering around town, but in Sarajevo no one seemed to care. The dogs were only in one part of town and I would hope there would be some program to get them spayed or neutered, but I really have no idea what, if anything, is being done about them. It was a cold, foggy day in Sarajevo so when I got up to the viewpoint I couldn't see the whole city. Sarajevo is in a valley between mountains with the oldest parts along the river in the middle and then as you look further out from the center the city gets more and more modern. There were a few skyscrapers in the distance that I could barely see through the fog. When I came down I walked over to Sarajevo's Catholic cathedral. There was a school group in there and a priest was telling them something. I assume it was a history lesson on the church. I looked around in there for awhile and next visited the Eastern Orthodox cathedral. The curtains to the back of the church were open, so I could see into the place where the priests perform part of the mass that is normally hidden from the public. Outside the orthodox cathedral is a city park where old men play chess with giant chess pieces. The game that was going on looked like it was most of the way over, so I joined the group of people standing around and watched. I've never been big on chess and don't claim to know much of the strategy behind it. The guy with the white pieces seemed to have his opponent on the ropes, having removed most of the black pieces from the board, but the other guy rallied and mounted a comeback before finally being outmaneuvered and forced into checkmate. With the match over and a new one about to start, I left the park and passed through a market hall and then a covered outdoor market. I didn't buy anything, but some of produce did look good. I kept going west and came to the eternal flame; one of several war monuments scattered across the city. The flame is in an outdoor alcove of a building with bullet holes that have intentionally never been repaired. Scars like these serve as a reminder of the siege, the longest in modern history, and the people who died in it. Down the street, past the Bosnian central bank, is a park with more makeshift graves from the siege and another war monument. At that point in the day I stopped my sightseeing. There were a few more things farther west in the city that would have been interesting to see, but I had gone through all the things I really wanted to do. That is, except for conducting more "research." I had passed by a McDonalds while walking around town and was really curious to give it a try. To my delight, the burger I got at the Sarajevo McDonalds was fantastic. I guess I shouldn't be surprised - Bosnian cuisine has a lot of meat in it so it would make sense that the Sarajevo McDonalds would use quality beef. After leaving McDonalds I slowly walked back to the hostel, taking in the city as I went. At the hostel I spent some time blogging and looking up potential hostels for down the line. Later that night a group of people staying at the hostel invited me to come along for dinner. Some of them were going to one restaurant in the Austrian part of the city and two of them were going to a place in the old Turkish quarter. The restaurant in the Turkish area sounded more interesting, so I went with those two people. We found the restaurant and ate a traditional Bosnian dish, which was meat wrapped in some sort of thin, flaky bread. We chatted for awhile about our respective travels, so I got to eat Bosnian food and practice being sociable. Back at the hostel I did some more work online and packed my backpack for the departure the next day.

The next morning I had to get up early for my flight to Istanbul. The hostel staff called and arranged for a taxi to pick me up and take me to the airport. If I had hailed a taxi myself of the street there's a decent chance the driver would have overcharged me, so I was appreciative of the hostel staff making sure I got a fair price for my ride. My driver spoke a little bit of English and a tried to converse as best I could using simple words and phrases. At the airport I had a few Convertible Marks left over and was hoping to spend them at the airport store, however everything there was for sale in euros. Thankfully the cafe was taking them and I bought a pair of sandwiches to eat later in the day. My last few "cents" I dropped in a charitable donation box. Soon enough, the plane to Istanbul arrived and I boarded. As I looked out the window I felt bad that I didn't have more time for Sarajevo, but then again I now have a reason to go back one day. The plane taxied around the airport onto the runway. Then it lifted off into the sky and I left Bosnia behind. Next in line was the finale of my time in the east: Istanbul.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Mostar: Cultural Bridge

I'm currently at my family's house, but I'll still update the blog when I can.

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I had passed through Bosnia while traveling between Split and Dubrovnik, and now it was time to actually stay there. From Dubrovnik my bus followed the coastal highway back towards Split but after awhile turned north and crossed into Bosnia. Since I had departed Dubrovnik in the late afternoon, it was nighttime when I arrived in Mostar. The rain was coming down and the ticket office had already closed for the day, so I would have to come back the next day to buy a ticket to Sarajevo. My hostel in Mostar was only a short walk from the bus station, but at night and in the rain it felt longer. The hostel itself was really nice and felt more like I was staying in someone's home. Despite the rainfall I ventured back out into the city and walked down to the area around the old bridge. Hardly anyone was walking around that night; understandably so. I got a few photos of the old bridge before returning to the hostel, at which point I was thoroughly soaked. A few of the other people at the hostel commended my fortitude but also said I was crazy for wandering around in the rain with no umbrella (I was wearing my shell jacket, but that was the only piece of waterproof clothing on me). Perhaps they were correct, but I was only staying a single night in Mostar, so I couldn't wait for the weather to improve.

The next day I had until the mid afternoon to see Mostar. Because I was only interested in checking out the bridge and the old town area around it, this wasn't a problem. Certainly there's more than that to see in Mostar, but it is the highlight of the city. I got some money from the ATM (in Bosnia the currency is called the Convertible Mark, and the abbreviation is BAM, which I found hilarious) and bought my bus ticket to Sarajevo. Back down at the old bridge I was able to find my way down to a better viewpoint than the night before, and while getting photos I got to see one of the town's famed bridge divers take the plunge. Mostar's bridge was originally built during Ottoman times but was destroyed in the 1990s during Bosnia's war of independence. After the war it was rebuilt using the same stonework as before and is again a symbolic bridge between eastern and western cultures. The city of Mostar itself is something of a cultural melting pot, with Catholic churches, Eastern Orthodox churches, and Muslim mosques dotting the city. When I finished at the bridge I spent some time wandering around the old town. Along the way I made a fortuitous discovery of an ice cream stand that accepted Croatian kuna, so I got to use up all but one of my leftover kuna... and eat ice cream. I also walked through part of the more modern section of Mostar, which is much like other European cities, except some of the buildings were used as sniper nests during the war. With some more walking I eventually wound up back nearby the old bridge and did some reading there, and even talked with a British couple whose photo I took for them. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was time to head over to the bus stop. When I got there I sat down in the back (all the other seats were filled) and waited for departure. Just before the bus was about to leave an elderly man came running up to the bus and got on. He moved to the back and sat down next to me, and proceeded to hurriedly tell me something. Since I don't speak Bosnian, I have no idea what he said, but I'm guessing it was a long story about what happened that caused him to nearly miss the bus. Part of me was flattered that he mistook me for someone who speaks Bosnian. Or, then again, maybe he was just being old and senile. Whatever the case, I just nodded my head and pretended that I understood. After a few minutes he calmed down stopped talking. All the while the bus was winding its way through the mountains and valleys of the Bosnian interior. Final destination: Sarajevo.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Dubrovnik & Montenegro: The Two Citadels

For my final few days in Croatia I stayed in the city of Dubrovnik. The bus ride to Dubrovnik from Split followed the scenic coastal highway. As some of you know, Croatia does not control the entire stretch of the Dalmatian coastline and the bus had to pass through the small strip of land owned by Bosnia. This awkward piece land ownership goes back hundreds of years to when Dubrovnik was an independent republic. There was a massive earthquake (I think it was in 1667) and the city was so badly damaged that the leaders of the republic were concerned that the Venetians might seize the opportunity to march in and take over. To prevent this, the republic cut a deal with the neighboring Ottoman Empire and gave them that little patch of land to form a buffer zone and discourage Venice from getting any ideas. Dubrovnik and Croatia never got the land back and today it's owned by Bosnia. Thankfully when you pass through that stretch of Bosnia there's just a token passport check, so it's not a big inconvenience. The bus station in Dubronik is next to the modern harbor, (where the bigger ships dock) so upon arrival I caught a city bus to the old city. My hostel was within the city walls, near the north end of the old city, which meant I had to go up some stairs to climb to get to it. With the few hours I had remaining that first day I walked around town and got photos of much of the old city. The weather forecast called for possible rain over the next two days so I wanted to grab some photos while to town was still dry.

I lost some sleep going into the next day because another person's phone alarm went off early in the morning and they weren't in the room to turn it off. I had hoped it would just stop on its own but after a few minutes it was clear that it was just going to keep going so I got up and took the liberty of turning it off myself. It would around 9:30am when I would leave the hostel and I was pleased to see no rain clouds overhead and the forecast had adjusted to just rain the next day. I went over to the city walls entrance near Ploce Gate and went up the walls. By this time of day the tour groups had arrived in town and I would have to deal with them. The city walls offer a great view of Dubrovnik, though it seems that the tour groups tend to do only about half the length of them. It was a fairly warm day but it felt warmer on the walls. There's almost no shade or cover up there and from what I'm told, the stone traps and reflects back heat such that during the summer it can be like an oven up on the walls. I did a full circuit of the the city walls. If you just walk and don't stop it takes about an hour to walk the whole length, but I was stopping frequently for photos, so it was just after noon when I finished up and came back down. The tour groups also slowed me down and a number of times I had to wait for them to pass so I could get some room to maneuver. I returned to Dubrovnik's main street, called Stradun, and got some ice cream. After that I visited the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was the first Eastern Orthodox Church I visited during my time in Europe. It was small, but I recognized the iconography from the brief bits of eastern church history I learned back in high school. Next I went over to the fort of St Lawrence, which is just outside the city walls. My entry ticket to Dubrovnik's city walls included entry to the fort and I spent some time in and around it. There's very little of interest inside the fort but it does have a good view of the city. As it was looking out on Dubrovnik it occurred to me that maybe I should have watched an episode of Game of Thrones before coming to Europe. I know that Dubrovnik it used for one of the cities in the show, but having never watched it, I don't know what to look for. When I was done with the fort I returned to the hostel to do some photo uploads to social media and later in the day I got on the gondola up to Mt. Srd, a tall hill overlooking the city. During the siege of 1991 Mt. Srd was the only high ground held by the Croats. There's a large stone cross up there which replaces another one that was blown up during the siege. I got photos of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area as the sun was going down and then took the gondola back down to the city. With that I had largely finished all my Dubrovnk sightseeing, and there were still 1.5 days left before departure. I could have just sat around but instead I got a ticket to be part of a tour group visiting Montenegro the next day. Normally I would organize this sort of thing myself via public transit (and if you've read the previous blog entries you've probably noted that I don't much care for tour groups) but getting to and from Montenegro by bus or train was looking problematic, so this would be a significantly easier option.

The next day the rain finally appeared. It was raining when I woke up and it didn't stop at any point during the day. The tour bus to Montenegro was scheduled to leave a hotel outside the city walls at 7:30am so I got up early and did my best to be stealthy and not wake up the other people in the room. The tour would take me and the other people in the group into Montenegro and then across the Bay of Kotor to the town of Budva, and then to the town of Kotor before driving around the Bay of Kotor and back to Dubrovnik. It was about a two hour ride to Budva and along the way the tour guide gave an abbreviated history of the region. I was intrigued to learn that Montenegro uses the euro for its currency, though it didn't get permission from the EU authorities to do this. On one hand their economy is fairly stable being tied to the euro, but on the other hand the government can't print any money. When we got to the Bay of Kotor the bus drove onto a car ferry and while crossing the water I stood outside the bus taking in the scenery. The Bay of Kotor is a lot like a fjord, though technically it's not a fjord due to the lack of glaciers. I got some photos but it would have been nice if it was a clear day. On the other side of the bay, we drove to Budva, a seaside town. Budva is an up and coming resort town with a small old town and lots of new buildings going up in the modern part of the city. With Croatia having been thoroughly discovered and developed for tourism, it seems Montenegro is the next country in line on the Adriatic Sea to get the tourism nod. I can only imagine the travel snobs lamenting how Montenegro is getting "discovered" but they can console themselves by telling everyone about they went to Montenegro before it was cool to do so. Personally I didn't find Budva very interesting. Being a rainy October day, there wasn't much of anything going on in either the old or modern parts of the town. With the summer over, many of the businesses were either shut down or operating on minimal schedules. There wasn't anything notable about my time in Budva and when the time came I returned to the bus. Thankfully Kotor was much better. Although the continual rain put a drag on the experience, I found Kotor very interesting and I hope to one day go back and spend a night or two there. Kotor is similar to Dubrovnik in that they are both fortress cities that still have their old walls. However, Kotor's walls run right up the mountain next to the city. If it hadn't been raining I would have climbed them. We got a forty minute guided tour of the old town and then afterwards we had an hour of free time before departure. Like Dubrovnik, Kotor has both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, so you can do some comparisons between the two styles. Perhaps the most notable thing in my mind was how the Eastern Orthodox churches didn't have any pews, as their masses are normally done with everyone standing. I tried to explore as much as I could, but the rain had me stopping several times to get indoors for a few minutes to dry out. Despite my best efforts, I was thoroughly drenched when I left Kotor. The bus ride along the Bay of Kotor was, like the ferry ride, scenic even with the rain. When we got back to the Croatian border we ended up stuck for an hour. As best as I could tell, the Croatian border cops were understaffed and there was a long line of cars and buses that moved very slowly. It was dark and still raining when I arrived in Dubrovnik. I went straight to the hostel and started drying off as best I could. There were no more expeditions that days; I had gone through enough rain for the day.

The next day I didn't have to be at the Dubrovnik bus station until 4:00pm. I checked out of the hostel in the late morning and left my backpack behind. With my primary sightseeing in Dubrovnik already finished, I passed the time visiting some smaller sights like the Dominican monastery. I also walked out to the port and then to the breakwater. Although it wasn't raining, the storm clouds were still passing overhead and the waves were larger than usual. I saw a few other tourists get wet from these waves, which on one hand is funny, but on the other hand that happened to me once, so I know it's not amusing for the one getting wet. As I walked around Dubrovnik I was also trying to plan out how I would use up the last of my kuna. I needed to save a few to store my backpack in the luggage compartment of the bus but I wanted to try to use up the remainder as well. A spare kuna or two would be ok as a souvenir, but more than that seemed like a waste. After some thinking I thought I had it figured out. Passing by the St Blaize Column, I saw some people dressed in traditional outfits and putting on a folk dance performance. I spent some time watching that and then returned to the hostel to make use of the internet one last time. 4:00pm eventually came and when it did I was at the bus stop. Surprisingly, the bus was charging one euro for luggage rather than the standard seven kuna, so my scheme to use the last of my kuna on the bus came to nothing. Granted, seven kuna is roughly one dollar, so it wasn't like I was wasting a lot of money, but I was feeling strangely defeated at that moment. But I also knew that there were far worse fates than wasting a dollar, so I just paid the one euro and got on the bus. I was going into Bosnia for a few days, and my first stop was the city of Mostar.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Split: Rematch

There was a large guy sitting next to me on the bus from Zagreb to Split, so I was feeling cramped for much of the ride. I arrived in Split, which is on Croatia's famous Dalmatian coast. And no, it's not full of dalmatian dogs like the ones from that Disney movie. The bus arrived in Split just before 7:00pm. I was staying at the hostel I lodged in the last time I was in Split, which is in a pink house just up the street from one of the city's beaches. Like Zagreb, Split felt very familiar and I remembered the way to the hostel, even though it was getting dark. When I got to the front door I rang the bell. The hostel manager, a woman known as Ladybird, answered the door. "I have returned" I said. "So you have" she replied. Given how many people pass through the hostel each year, I was impressed that she remembered me, but then again I was probably a more memorable visitor, as the last time I was in Split I cut my foot open and had the pleasant experience of digging sand out of my own flesh. In an interesting turn of events, I got the exact same bed as the one I had the last time, (downstairs, next to the bathroom, lower bunk) which makes it officially a legacy bed. After I got settled in and ate dinner, I joined a small group of other guests who were playing a game of Mafia. For those that don't know, Mafia is a group game that splits people into two groups: mafia and townspeople (and each person knows what they are but doesn't know what everyone else is). There are many variants and house rules that people have developed over the years, but the basic idea is that the mafia are trying to kill the townspeople and the townspeople are trying to identify and kill the mafia. Good times were had by all, even the one guy who kept getting killed at the start of each game. As the day ended I looked ahead to the next two full days I would be in Split. Like Zagreb, I was returning to Split not so much for sightseeing but for a very specific mission. In this case, it was a rematch of sorts. The last time I was in Split I went for a swim and ended up losing some blood. This time I was going to go for a swim but I didn't intend on giving this city a single drop.

The city of Split only has a few historical attractions and is something of a laid-back beach town, so there's little reason to get up early. On my first full day the weather was gloomy most of the time with gray clouds covering the sky. I passed by the beach and went over to the area around the old town, which used to be the retirement palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. After the western part of the Roman Empire collapsed, nearby peasants moved into the now-abandoned palace and converted into a small town out of which the modern city of Split would eventually arise. As I came up to the palace I checked out the outdoor market that was going on and then passed through the palace on my way over to a hill that overlooks the city. I don't remember the name of this hill, but it has a lot of stairs to get to the top. There's a few small chapels up on the hill, which appear to be abandoned but I'm not sure about that. Before I reached the top I also passed by the small zoo that's up there. At the highest point of the hill is a flat area with a flagpole. The view of the city is fairly good, however it's much better for just a view of the greater region around the city. You can take in the dry, rocky landscape that characterizes much of this part of Croatia. Rather than come back down the way I came, I decided to hike down the other side of the hill. This took me down an offroad trail and I honestly don't exactly know where I was because I was beyond the range of my map. I was never truly lost, as I knew the general direction I needed to go to get back to the main part of Split, but I didn't know what to expect as I walked around back there. Eventually I got on one of the main roads and made my way towards the harbor. By the time I got there, quite a few hours had gone by (since the start of my initial climb up the hill) and it was already the late afternoon. I stayed in the harbor area a little while and then walked back to the beach near the hostel. There were a few people there, including some guys playing the official sport of Split. I don't know the name of the sport, but the idea is that you have a team of five guys standing in the shallow part of the water and they hit a small ball back and forth to each other with their bare hands. The objective is to keep the ball from touching the water for as long as possible. Also I think there's a rule that you must wear a speedo, as all the guys were wearing them, but then again maybe that's just because it's Europe. Apparently each summer Split hosts an annual tournament for this game. When I returned to the hostel I chatted with some of the other guests before picking up some food from the grocery store and eating dinner. The rain started to come down around then, so I didn't go for a night walk around the old town.

I had expected the bad weather to continue into the next day, so I was surprised to wake up to sunshine. Realizing that it would only last for a few hours, I quickly got ready for the day and then went down to the beach. I spent ten or so minutes lying out in the sun and then it was time for my rematch. The water at this particular beach in Split stays shallow for much further than you'd expect, so you have to walk a ways out before the water level gets above your waist. The water itself was a little cold but nothing I couldn't handle. If I was in Split in July or August the water would have been warmer, but I was there in October so no warm water for me. When I got far enough out I took the plunge and started doing laps up and down the beach area. I passed by the pillars in the water that gave me trouble last time. They're covered in clams/muscles with sharp edges, which is how I slashed my foot last time, so I avoided them this time. My swimming was the most workout (upper body wise) I had gotten since the start of the trip and when I finally came out I was tired, but felt like a winner. No foot injury and no blood loss equaled successful rematch in my book. I returned to the hostel to clean up and afterwards got a meal at a seaside restaurant. In western Europe I normally avoid sit-down restaurants because of the cost, but in eastern Europe they only cost a fraction of what they do in the west. Also I normally don't like to spend time just sitting around, but on this occasion a long victory meal was in order. As I ate the clouds moved back in and it started to rain, but I didn't care since I had already gotten my beach time in. The rest of the afternoon was spent back at the hostel, talking to people, doing laundry, and working on the guest computer. The rain finally stopped after dinner and I was able to do a walk through the old town before going to bed.

The next morning I had a few hours before my bus was scheduled to depart to get in a few bits of sightseeing. I paid a visit to the St Dominus Cathedral, which might be the tiniest cathedral on earth. It used to be the mausoleum of Emperor Diocletian but it got converted to a church in the medieval period. Nearby is the St John (Baptist) baptistery, which was once the temple of Jupiter. At the baptistery, and many other places across Europe, I couldn't help but notice all the coins people throw away, and part of me wishes I had an industrial strength magnet to recover them. The final sightseeing item I did in Split was to climb the cathedral's bell tower. As I was up there surveying the city, it occurred to me that I really don't know exactly what it is about Split that I like, but I do hope to keep coming back to it from time to time. I came down the tower, went back to the hostel for my backpack, said goodbye to Ladybird, and then walked over to the bus station. Next in line was my final Croatian city: Dubrovnik.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Zagreb: Stone and Water

After being gone for nearly a week in the San Francisco area, I am back and once again slowly grinding out these travel log posts. Now, where were we?

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It was a scenic bus ride for most of the 3.5 hours between Rovinj and Zagreb. When I arrived it was late afternoon. Zagreb was exactly as I remembered it from my last visit and I hardly used the map as I made my way from the bus station to my hostel, which was two blocks off of the main square. As the capital of Croatia, Zagreb has a much more modern look than some of the other major cities in the country. Even the older parts of the city don't feel that antiquated. For an evening meal I went to a fast food place that I had ate at on my last visit, though I think the shop went by a different name back then. Maybe it's not the same shop, and it actually was replaced by the current one. Anyways, this place specializes in french fries with chicken nuggets and other things. Back at the hostel I made arrangements for a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park for the second full day in Zagreb. My throat was still bothering me and would continue to do so for the whole duration of my time there.

Clouds and rain moved in the next day. It was like the weather was trying to mirror my health. I knew that I just had to wait it out with my throat problems, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant. My energy felt a bit sapped, but that wasn't much of a problem because I didn't plan on doing too much sightseeing in Zagreb. That wasn't a judgment against Zagreb itself - the city is a nice place - but from my last visit I knew what the city had to offer and there was nothing I was dying to see. The main reason I was in Zagreb was for my day trip the following day to Plitvice Lakes. Still, even with my sickness and lack of motivation, I did a decent amount of sightseeing on the first full day. In the morning, after buying food and some cough drops, I went over to the main square and checked out the market that had been set up there. Outdoors was mostly produce and indoors was mostly meat and cheese and a little seafood. It's rare for me to actually buy food from these markets but I always like visiting them. As it got close to noon I walked over to St Mark's Square as I had read that on some Saturdays there is a mini changing of the guard ceremony. I got there late, so I don't know if I missed the ceremony or if it wasn't being done on that particular day. The church on St Mark's Square has a colorful roof with the national and city emblems on it, though the church itself is closed to the public. Apparently the priest who administers the church does not want to deal with the hassles that come with tourism, which I can understand, even though it would be nice to be able to take a look inside. The Croatian national parliament is also on St Mark's Square, though it too is not open to the public. I think I only saw two or three cops on patrol outside the building, so it struck me as under-defended, but maybe there's more security than I could see. When I finished at the square I went over to the nearby Museum of Naive Art. In this case, Naive Art refers to art done by Croatian peasants with no formal art training. Most of them were poor and painted on glass, which was more available to them than standard canvas. There's also a lot of winter scenes in their paintings because the rest of the year they were busy working their farms. The museum itself isn't very big so I was done in half an hour and then I walked east, passing through a stone arch and by the altar of Mary that's in the small tunnel connecting two of the main streets (sorry, I know these descriptions won't mean much to most of you). A few people were praying at the altar and it reminded me of how Croatia is still a majority Catholic nation, which contrasts with the largely secular western Europe. With a bit more walking I came to the Zagreb Cathedral. The last time I was in Zagreb the city was doing restoration on one of the cathedral's towers and while the work still wasn't finished, I could see that they had made progress. Outside the church there's an exhibit showing how badly the stonework of the church has been eroded over the years and what the restored exterior will look like. Part of Zagreb's old city wall is also next to the cathedral, along with a large clock that was stopped at the moment the 1880 earthquake struck the city. In some of the crannies of the wall there were Legos that were filling the gaps. I'm not sure if it was some sort of art project or just people messing around. Inside Zagreb Cathedral it was fairly dark until someone turned on the church lights. On one of the walls near the exit you can see a strange looking inscription that looks like some sort of alien language. It is actually written in Glagolitic, a script created around the 9th century AD, probably by the missionaries Cyril (the same guy who created the Cyrillic Alphabet) and Methodius. Since the Slavic languages eastern Europe had sounds that didn't match up the the standard Latin-based alphabets, Glagolitic and other scripts were created. These days Glagolitic isn't used, but it's considered an important part of Croatia's national history. Once I was finished at the cathedral I returned to the main square and saw that some sort of ceremony was taking place. I couldn't tell what it was for, but based on the emblems being flown and all the guys in wheelchairs, I'm guessing it was a tribute to wounded soldiers. A folk band and choral group performed and speeches were given. I started feeling really sick after a few minutes and returned to the hostel to sit down for awhile. When I was feeling better I went back outside and did one final bit of sightseeing by walking along the "Green Horseshoe" of parks, which is a long series of parks that look like a large U when viewed on the map. Along the way I passed through a small botanical gardens. Back at the hostel I researched and made reservations for some of my upcoming hostel stays in Spain and printed out directions to the next several hostels I was going to be staying in. I also got some blogging done and uploaded photos to social media. It struck me then that, for a vacation, I seemed to be doing a lot of work. That night I went to bed hoping that rest would do me some good, but I had a bad feeling about how the night was going to turn out.

As feared, that night was miserable. I got very little sleep and kept having to get up every hour to use the bathroom. There was no stealthy way to exit the room, so I probably woke up the others repeatedly that night. When morning finally came, I remember looking in the mirror and seeing bloodshot eyes staring back at me. I was tired and felt awful, but I had a trip to Plitvice Lakes planned and nothing short of being hospitalized was going to keep me from following through with it. To get to the bus station rode the tram and once there I found the bus and got on. It was about 2.5 hours to the lakes and during the ride the bus passed through parts of the Croatian interior still scarred by the war in the 1990s. If you go through there you'll see a normal looking house and next to it will be an abandoned house with bullet holes and sections of the walls or roof blown out. From what I've read, most of the derelict houses belong to Serbians who fled the area during the war and have never come back. When the bus reached Plitvice Lakes National Park, it dropped me and everyone else off on the road, towards the west end and Entrance #2. My plan was to start hiking at the trailhead at Entrance #1, so I had to ride the park shuttle and then do some walking to get there. At Entrance #1 I made my way down a series of switchbacks down to the water. I had seen photos and video of Plitvice Lakes in the past, but being there is something else. When you're not on a regular trail you're on these wooden walkways directly over or next to the water, so you get real close to the scenery. There are also no guardrails on the walkways over the water, but they're wide enough that I never felt in danger of falling in. I went over to the largest waterfall, called Veliki Slap and climbed up alongside it to an overwatch point. Not too many people make the climb, so I was by myself for most of the time I was up there. When I came down I followed the "B" route, which was supposed to take about three to four hours to hike. You could probably do this route in a little less time than that, if you can somehow stop yourself from pausing to take photos. I seemed to be stopping every few minutes, as every turn of the path yielded another great photo opportunity. Plitvice Lakes has the highest concentration of streams, lakes, and waterfalls I've seen anywhere. The water is also very clear and full of calcium carbonate, which explains much of the rock formations in the park. As I hiked along the trail I photo-bombed a group of middle-aged Asian women who were taking a group photo. Another item checked off the bucket list. The trail moving west from Entrance #1 towards Entrance #2 is uphill, but easy. Personally I think this is the better way to do it, because if you're moving east then you'll keep having to turn around to see the waterfalls. After some hiking, I came to the boat landing P3 and caught a boat across the largest lake to the landing at P2. At this point I was near the end of the B route but I still had over an hour before I needed to leave the park and go to the bus stop, so I looked at the map and decided to loop north around two of the upper lakes. There weren't as many people hiking around the upper lakes region as the lower lakes. I hiked past the two lakes and a large waterfall, up to an intersection with another trail going even farther north. If I had more time I would have kept going but by then I needed to start making my way back. I arrived back at the P2 boat landing and got on a boat to P1, which is near Entrance #2, and from there walked to the bus stop. Generally it's not advisable to be doing lots of physical exercise when you're sick, but in this case I was feeling better overall when I left Plitvice Lakes. My throat wasn't bothering me so much, though my nose was running a lot. Back in Zagreb I was able to get to bed at a decent hour and slept a lot better than the night before.

My bus to Split wasn't scheduled to leave until 2:00pm the next day, so I slept in and after I got up I didn't leave the hostel until the late morning. I made use of the guest computer to publish a blog post, print my travel visa for Turkey, and book a pair of hostels for my upcoming time in Spain. With the little time I spent outside the hostel I went up the Zagreb Eye, which is an observation deck on a tower on the main square. The guy operating the tower's elevator asked me where in the United States I was from, and I told him Colorado. I don't know if it's funny or if I should be concerned, but the first thing he knew about Colorado was how we had decriminalized marijuana. After getting some photos from the observation deck, I came down and got a meal from a place nearby. Then I went back to the hostel for my backpack and went over to the bus station. It was time to head to the Dalmatian coast.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Rovinj: Transition

To say the ferry ride from Venice to Rovinj was bumpy would be a severe understatement. I'm not sure if we passed through a storm or if it was just the nature of that part of the Adriatic Sea, but the boat was bobbing more dramatically than any I've been on. It took about 2.5 hours to reach Croatia and the sailing got a lot smoother once the boat was back in coastal waters. Before arriving in Rovinj, the boat stopped at another town on the coast and there was an ambulance waiting at the dock. A guy was put on the stretcher and then everyone else who was getting off at that town exited the boat. After that it took fifteen minutes for the boat to reach Rovinj.

The town of Rovinj is in the region of Istria, which is towards the northern end of Croatia's long coastline. The city has an Italian feel to it, which is probably due to the fact that it was part of the Venetian republic for a long time. For me, Rovinj marked a major point in my journey as I transitioned from western Europe to eastern Europe. When I arrived in Rovinj it was already dark so I couldn't see much. I was staying at a room I had found on Air BnB and my host met me at the ferry dock. He walked me over to the room, which was inside Rovinj's old city and gave me some basic information of the neighborhood. Nothing else happened the rest of the night. Most everything was already closed so I would have to wait until the next day to get to work.

The next day there was a lot to do, and much of it was not sightseeing related. That said, the old city of Rovinj can be seen in just a few hours, so there was no real issue. One of the main things I had to get done was to purchase a bus ticket for the following day to Zagreb. While in much of Europe I normally travel by train, in Croatia the train network is more limited and buses generally are the better way to travel. To buy the bus ticket I also needed to get some money from the ATM, as Croatia does not use the euro. On the plus side, the Croatian national currency, called the kuna, is worth much less than the euro or the dollar and everything is cheaper in Croatia than in western Europe. This was especially welcome after my time in Venice, which financially was akin to me setting my wallet on fire. Once all the necessary mundane work was done, which was around 1:00pm, I finally got started on exploring Rovinj. I started at a parking lot, of all places, outside the old city walls which has a great view of the old city. Nearby it is a monument from the old communist days, recalling the time when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. There's also an outdoor market out there. I took a little time to peruse the stalls and noted that oils were the most common ware being sold, so maybe they are a local specialty. From the market I followed Garibaldi Street to the "Square at the Bridge," which is not so much a square as it is a confluence of several streets. From what I understand, there used to be a waterway dividing the old city from the surrounding land and Square at the Bridge is where the bridge over the water was located. Further south is Tito Square, which as a water fountain that commemorates when the city finally got running water. From there I entered the old city under the Balbi Arch; a former city gate. At the top of Rovinj's old city is the St Euphemia church and after checking out the church I climbed the bell tower. The stairs in the tower are not so much stairs as they are wooden slots sticking out of the walls and they can at times be tricky to climb and descend. When I came down and finished with the church I went down the northwest side of the city to a path above the water. I passed by a rocky area where a few people were lounging by the sea. After walking around the old town some more, I went back to my room and then went for a bike ride on the bicycle my host had let me borrow. Like the one I borrowed in Amboise, the bicycle was not in the best shape, but I wasn't going to argue with a free bike ride. I followed the coast for awhile and then turned onto a bicycle trail that went through a forest/park. Some distance up the trail I decided to turn back and then I rode the bike all the way back to the room. By then it was time for dinner. Later that night I walked around town, though Rovinj doesn't have much going on after dark. The day ended and I felt like I had gotten done everything I wanted to.

I slept in until 9:00am the next morning. My bus wasn't until 1:45pm and there wasn't anything urgent left to do in Rovinj, so there was no need to hurry. My host didn't have anyone reserving the room that night and I took my time getting ready for the day. After packing up and cleaning the room, I spent my last bit of time in Rovinj walking through both the newer and older parts of the city. While I was out I also got some medication for my throat, which had started to bother me in Venice but had now turned into a standard sore throat. On my last trip I had gotten sick briefly in Milan, so with this ailment I guess I created a tradition of getting sick while overseas. I also visited St Euphemia one more time before leaving, and then went back to my room, got my backpack, and walked over to the bus station. The little town of Rovinj had taken me in and welcomed me to the east. Ahead was Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.