Saddle ridge
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I had to hike this ridge to get to Schlithorn. Not in the direction of this photo, though.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Signposts
Signposts
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I went hiking on my full day in Gimmelwald. I hiked to the top of Schlithorn, which is where they shot the end of that 007 movie, "Her Majesty's Secret Service". The trails are all well posted in this area. I had to cross through fenced grazing areas, closing gates behind me. Cowbells and the rush of meltwater fill the air in Gimmelwald.
Glaciered peaks
Glaciered peaks
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
This is the view from Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald.
I had an overnight train ride to Switzerland from Slovenia. When I woke up from my cramped seat, I saw the sky lightening to reveal steep craggy peaks outside my window. I went to Gimmelwald, a village south of Interlaken, in the mountains. Interlaken was pretty and very posh. I paid 11.50 SF (1.2 SF = $1) for 30 minutes on the internet. Gimmelwald, on the otherhand, is really a cluster of farm homes on steep grassy terrain and a few pensions. There's a school there and that's about it. I had to take a gondola to get up there. The hostel was full of North Americans who all thought it was the best hostel in the world. It was full of flies for some reason, so I didn't feel the same. The views, however, were fantastic.
Church of the Assumption
Church of the Assumption
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
There was a National Geographic exhibit in town and they had photos from Slovenia from 1970. Lake Bled looked exactly the same.
Bled
Bled
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
An hour north of Ljubljana is the beautiful lake and town of Bled. It has a castle on a cliff and a small cathedral on an island. Peaceful and cooler, even the weekend crowds can't ruin a visit to this town. I visited during the day, before my night train to Switzerland.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Slovenia is another former republic of Yugoslavia, along with Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia - Hercegovina, Macedonia, and Croatia. It had a relatively quick 10-day revolution and has emerged scathfree from communism. Ljubljana is small and beautiful with close proximity (about an hour or less) to the coast, mountains, skiing, and "western Europe". Two summers ago, the downtown area was devoid of tourists, but it has been discovered, and more and more tourists have been showing up. All in all, however, it is nothing like western European cities in the summer time.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Small world
Small world
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I was walking across a bridge in the old town when I heard someone calling my name. It was Jenny, the British medical student I met in Mae Sot in May 2005. She had just graduated from medical school and was travelling in the Balkans for a few weeks. We had only a short time to catch up before her train to Croatia. It's a small world.
Leaving Bosnia-Hercegovina
Leaving Bosnia-Hercegovina
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I took an overnight bus from Sarajevo to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It was wonderfully air-conditioned. The bus slowly crept along small roads until it reached the Croatian border. From there to Ljubljana, we sped on a multi-laned highway. The passport control officers were pretty lax about stamping passports.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Melanie and Javier
Melanie and Javier
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Melanie was from Perth, Australia. She was a surgical nurse working in Belfast, Ireland, but she had spent the last few months teaching NATO soldiers how to dive in Croatia. Javier, a Spaniard, whom I met on the bus from Belgrade, was a clinical psychologist helping battered women. We had drinks and dinner from a hill above the old city.
June 28, 1914
June 28, 1914
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I coincidentally visited this site on the 92nd anniversary of the start of World War 1.
Sonny, the guide, at sniper hill
Sonny, the guide, at sniper hill
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Serbian forces occupied the surrounding hills and used this to their advantage with 50 tanks and snipers. Sniper alley was an area around the Holiday Inn Hotel (the yellow building), occupied by foreign journalists, that was within range of snipers that camped out in the Jewish cemetery.
Map of Sarajevo during the siege
Map of Sarajevo during the siege
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
The story of Sarajevo in the 1990's, is a sad story of a city surrounded by Serbian troops and tanks. I took a day tour which was fascinating and informative, especially with heart-wrenching personal accounts by Sonny, the guide, who was 13 years old at the time.
The tour started at the Tunnel Museum, which was at the site of a tunnel that ran for 800 meters under the airfield, to Bosnian territory. For three years, this was the lifeline for the citizens of Sarajevo. UN planes that were allowed to land at the airport only brought 300 grams of food per person per day in Sarajevo, and half their payload had to be given to Serbian forces.
Sarajevo "rose"
Sarajevo "rose"
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Scarred cement from mortar explosions. These "roses" remain as memorials for those who died at these sites. They are scattered throughout the city with a plaque on a wall with the date and number of people who died there.
Sarajevo
A seven-hour sticky bus ride from Belgrade brought me to Sarajevo. I saw the beautiful red-tiled rooftops of the city from a mountain ridge, but then the bus dove down the other side of the mountain and stopped at a bus station in a village. It turns out that the buses to and from Serbia stop at a Serbian bus station outside of town. It reminded me a bit of the division in Jerusalem between the Israelis and Palestinians.Sarajevo is the beautiful capital of Bosnia-Hercegovina, and was once the cultural capital of the republic of Yugoslavia. It held the 1984 Winter Olympics, but under went a four-year siege from 1992-1995, surrounded by Serbian forces, but held in an awkward stalemate by UN peacekeeping forces before NATO forces bombed the Serbian forces surrounding the valley late in 1995.
The city sits in a valley next to a clear river. Minarets and church steeples make up the skyline, and fields of clustered white tombstones can be seen scattered on the surrounding hilltops, a reminder of the price the 300,000 occupants paid while the rest of the world sat and watched. This city has been compared to Jerusalem, as a city of tolerance with a Jewish synagogue, mosque, and churches within a hundred meters of each other. Bullet-scarred, but rebuilding, it is a tourist city again.
Entering Bosnia-Hercegovina
Entering Bosnia-Hercegovina
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Crossing the Drina river brought me to Bosnia-Hercegovina. I ended up holding up the bus for an hour as the immigration officials were confused with the legitimacy of my supplemental pages taped into my passport.
Monday, June 26, 2006
I arrived in Belgrade (Beograd) stiff from the dry crust of brine on my skin from the days long sweat at 2230h. It was not what I expected. It is modern, clean, and safe. There is a good night life here everynight of the week.The city sits on the juncture between the Sava and Danube rivers. It is quite easy to walk around in the downtown area in a day.
Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and Montenegro (although a referendum passed this spring allowing Montenegro independence, and soon Kosovo may be allowed to vote for their independence). It sits alone now, more than 15 years after the civil war that broke out in Yugoslavia back in the early 90's.
Train problems
Train problems
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
The train stopped for about two hours at a small town. I don't know what was wrong, but everyone lounged around on the tracks. I decided to change seats and moved to a different train car. It didn't have air conditioning, but it had windows that opened, which was much nicer.
Leaving Hungary
Leaving Hungary
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
After five nights in Budapest, I headed south for Belgrade, the former capital of the former republic of Yugoslavia. The weather has been in the 90's all week, and the broken air-conditioning unit in my car didn't help.
Szechenyi Furdo
Szechenyi Furdo
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Thermal springs are everywhere in Budapest. This one in Varosliget (city park) is one of the more famous ones. They offer medicinal massages, thermal baths, and swimming.
Hosok Tere (Hero's square)
Hosok Tere (Hero's square)
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Constructed to honor the millennial anniversary of the Magyar (Hungarian) conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 1896, it sits between to museums and the entrance to the city park.
Kiralyi Palota (Royal Palace)
Kiralyi Palota (Royal Palace)
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
No longer a palace, this place has a few museums. At the time, they were preparing for El Jefe's visit.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)