sarajevo & mostar, Bosnia i Herzegovina

To go to Sarajevo the bus heads to the vast slabonija, through its plains and woods. At some moment in the night, it turns right, towards south, and goes down into the mountains of Bosnia, a fantastic land in between the heights. The average passenger can see the sunrise crossing valleys and fields, until he gets to Sarajevo, a long thin city builded following the shape of the river Miljačka, that runs inbetween the mountains.
The city started centuries ago on one point of the river, and it followed growing kilometers until the present. The old town, the turquish quartier, is in the first place, at the base of the hills.
Sarajevo was very interesting, i learned to speak croatian (that's not necessary the same as 'talk'); met two latvians hitchhiking from north to south, with whom we enjoyed a fantastic set of rakijas; and you could listen someone singing curly melodies from the top of the mosques, five times a day. Odlično!
I stayed for a couple of days there and went on a trip to Mostar, little city south of Sarajevo, in the christian region of Hercegovina, through one of the most beautiful landscapes i've seen from a bus or train. Two hours and a half of woods, lakes, bridges and tunnels; pure sun in the sky and some snow in the top of the mountains. After that, you reach a high plateau furrowed by the river Neretva. In center of Mostar there's an old enormous bridge, bombed down in the war and rebuilt some years ago. Very nice place, but the best was the way up there.
Back in town, i enjoyed some strong turkish kafa and a couple of šljivovicas in my favourite bar, Dva Ribara (Two Fishermen), next to the river; met some friends from Croatia and Serbia and went together to celebrate the Day of Communist Youth, May 25, date of Marshall Tito's birth. Fantastic.
The fifth night I left Sarajevo, wishing to come back soon. Anyway, Zagreb was waiting, that kind of strange place I liked to call home.
Ajde, bok!!




1+2. Sarajevo, Turkish neighborhood, early in the morning.


3. Bar next to the river, great for doing nothing for hours.


4+5. Curiosities around the bridges.


6. People playing chess in the parks. People around were and shouting about the moves, about what to do, what not to, etc, like in a soccer game.


7. Click on this one to see the detail.


8+9. Muslim tombs on the hills next to the Turkish quartier. Most of them were from 1993 to 1997. Very impressive.


10. Frizerski saloon where on of my friens worked.


11. Night falling in Sarajevo.


12. Tram interior... they were beautiful, noisy and slooooow!



13, 14 + 15. On the way to Mostar. Incredible landscapes, have to go back there sometime.


16+17. Mostar's traditional bridge, and mosque.


18. Peculiar looking gentleman that kindly gave me his bendition: "Jebi ga!" (something like "fuck you" in bosnian)


19. where are you?!


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belgrade, serbia

After having a great birthday party last week (thanks everybody for being there!!) , still with some hangover and the promise of a new one because of Torbjørn birthday, the expedition team headed to Belgrade, Serbia, on a sleepless night train.
Belgrade was the capitol city of Yugoslavia, country that ended quite sadly, with wars in the '90. You can still tell the importance of that city, it's in the buildings decorated with imperial eagles, in the size of monuments and avenues. Quite different to Zagreb. It's also a big city; again, quite different to Zagreb. From the moment you step on Belgrade, you can see the ex-comunist atmosphere around, the old cars, huge dark buildings, shitty trams, people of any procedence, all together... i loved that. In fact, i really liked Belgrade, there was something going on, in the sense i conceive it: street art, dirty alleys, some kind of social friction that makes sparks... I hope i might come back sometime. Besides, i got 1000 dinars left (=10€) that i would love to spend there.
A special mention deserves our host Zeljko, who showed us many parts of his city and guided to some special alternative bars. Viewed from outside, you hadn't given a penny for them; but once inside, it was quite different. Again, i'd love to come back to that place.

Sretan uskrs za sve! Happy easter for everybody!
p





















1a. Zemun in front, Belgrade behind (from the hill of Zemun). to your left, the Dunav (Danube, coming from Budapest); to the right (not in the picture), the Sava river (coming from Zagreb).
1b. crossing the Danube, arriving to Belgrad by train. 6am, no sleeping and a fantastic atmosphere of 'feeling tired as shit but i don't care a fuck'. Jigar (singapur) put his camera aside, but just for a minute.
2a. hotel of doubtful category, "Mr. President". anyway, the category of our hostel wasn't doubtful at all: it was 100% no-category.
2b. feeling arty argain, sorry. very alternative-yet-nice-clean bar. there i learned, at last, how to order coffe the way i like it. i should ask for a 'double macchiato' (mostly coffe with a little bit of milk) or 'turkish kava s mljekom' (simple kava is too short!)
3a. ortodox church... looks like an old-school beautiful church, but it's been built in the last years. inside it's not even finished yet!
3b. coming back from Zemun to Belgrad, in the coast of Danube. the name says it all.
4a. below the walls of the fortress that dominates belgrad, where once armies used to aniquilate each other, we have this cute tennis courts.
4b. some random street in the center of Belgrad with a beautiful statement.
5a. Zeljko, a serbian guy we met in Cvjetno (the students residence), was in Belgrad with his family. we went to his place for easter lunch, on Sunday. we were six hungry, messy, international loudy people, even one of us was a vegetarian! needless to say, they were VERY kind.
5b. in the top of Gardoš hill, the beautiful Gardoš tower. climbing a few more stairs, you can have the great view of [1a]
5c. good to know. by the way, in Serbia they write in cyrillics. serbian (that's not exactly the same as croatian) AND cyrillcs it's way too much. i think know i have a permanent brain damage.
6a. cyrillics strike back. i think the problem is that they are quite similar to latin characters, so you have like an automatic impulse to read them. i wouldn't happen with chinese, or arab, tell you that by experience.
6b. serbian expedition crew, from left to right:

Zeljko (serbia)
Anikó (hungary)
Torbjørn (norway)
Justyna (poland)
Gaëlle (france)
Jigar (singapur) was around, taking pictures probably

7a+b. great graffitti on some random wall. belgrad is full of graffittis, and many of them are these huge. The bottom line says "The saint of ("La Santa de", in spanish) Belgrade ("Београд", serbian cyrillics)". it was funny to translate this graffiti: Zeljko didn't know what the first part meant, and i didn't know the second one.
8a+b. on the opposite side of the Danube, quite near Belgrade, you have a whole neighbourghood of houses on the shore of the river, and boats instead of cars. this reminded me Buenos Aires and "El Tigre", even it's not so close (but remeber, Belgrade has 1.5 million people; Buenos Aires, 13)
9. where are we?

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ljubljana, slovenia

Couple of days ago, on Friday, we went to Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia. We went out early in the morning, having slept 4hs or less, after a heavy drinking goodbye party on the fifth floor, the only one which rooms have balcony and only one bed -lucky bastards! The expedition team splitted in two, some went by car and others (included me) took the train. 2.30h and 3 or 4 passport checks later, we arrived to Ljubljana.
It's a beautiful city, slightly smaller than Zagreb, with mountains all around. In one of them, of course, there's a castle (ca. 1500). Not far from it runs Ljubljanica river, crossed by several very nice bridges. People seemed a little more relaxed than in Zagreb, not to mention the average height was 25cm less than zagrebians. A little bit more like home, despite the fact of having a whole ocean inbetween.
We were walking loosely for almost 8 straight hours, so we spent the last hours in a bar, drinking delicious beer for a change.














1. from the train, already in Slovenia.
2. me (photo session in train's bathroom).
3. in front of an art gallery, some post-sovietish exhibition inside.
4. At a park, near the art gallery (Justyna, from Poland, taking 5 pictures per second).
5. From the same park, looking to the castle on top of the hill.
6. Ljubljanica river.
7. From the castle, looking at the city.
8. From the castle, looking at the castle.
9. where are we?
10. the crew (everybody but Justyna, who took the picture). from left to right:

• Bogdan (Romania)
• Nikša (Croatia)
• Torbjørn (just Teddy) (Norway)
• Jigar (Singapur)
• Anikó (Hungary)
• Gaëlle (France)
• Pablo (Argentine)
• Miloš (Serbia)

Everytime i see the list of countries, i think 'english is a blessing'.
Hope you like the pictures!

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