Balkan – Ontij

Impression – The Borders between the Balkan and Germany

Back home. Situation traveling on the way back from the Balkan to Germany. Crossing three borders – easy if you have the “right” papers and the “right” skin color.

Border Slovenia: a few 100 refugees, a LOT of cops, a LOT of press, and a LOT of volunteers. The volunteers (I saw cars with license plates from Bosnia, Croatia, Austria & England, FULL of blankets, food & drink, kid carriers and so on) were putting up tents.

I saw people with dreads and antifa-shirts working together with religious people. I saw people playing football with the refugees. A kid holding a huge yellow plastic ball.

Behind me in the bus sat a bosnian guy. When we were allowed to get out of the bus and wave our passports, he started talking to me in bosnian, with a sad face, looking to all the refugees that did not get through. When I told him I don’t speak bosnian, he simply looked at me and said “I’m a bosnian refugee”.

The border with Austria was empty. So were the border control stations on the german side. A few kilometer past the border btw.

And the crisis at the station in Munich? If there was any, it was caused by the 1.000s of visitors of the oktoberfest (in september, but anyway) in Lederhosen & dirndls…

But yah, glad I made it home…

(pics are here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207514489405216&set=a.10207385245814207.1073741842.1378531435&type=3&theater )

Impression – 6 Borders down, 3 to go

Zagreb, Croatia: 6 borders down, 3 to go. But they will be the hardest. Back in the EU, but since the membership states now are about to reinforce those oso open borders again.

Weird btw, I have to get used again to street lights, separate-your-waste-bins, five-lane streets, and shops which sell like at a least 10 brands of everything.

Didn’t miss these things the last few weeks. I rather realize a. there’s something like a Milky Way, b. it actually has colors :), c. can’t recognize the star signs since there are too many frikkin extra stars.

And I’ll miss falling asleep with the sound of waterfalls or rivers nearby, or waking up by the call for morning prayers, or the sound of nightly wild life sneaking around my sleeping place. Or bumping into a lynx (!) And the coffee won’t be that good, and I won’t taste yet another variant of fried cheese.

But the things I’ll miss the most are the general gentleness, friendliness & hospitality of random people I have met. I left bosnia with a vitamin overdose of all the fruit I got on the way, from the figs & grapes from the guy who gave me a lift to Mostar, the prunes from the bus station chef in Foca, the apples everywhere but most specially from the family who gave me a ride in Una park, and all the self-baked bread & cake (and baklava, or some local variant of crunchy pancakes filled with apples honey, MJUM) people put on a plate, in a bag or simply into my hand. My pockets are filled with telephone numbers of people I met when they gave me a ride, on the streets, in the buses, or hiking, all inviting me to stay at their place the next time.

Again, the rougher the landscape, the nicer the people (and unfortunately, as I found out by hitchhiking from Sarajevo, or in Sanski Most, the softer the landscape, the harder and more egoistic the people….)

Impression – Traveling: Small Town, Big Problems

Happy to leave Sanski Most behind me. Weird little town, full of big city problems. And I felt like the bone the dogs were fighting about. The only thing the dogs agreed upon was that it was not a tourist-friendly place (no kidding…) and there’s a lot of corruption. & since the waterfall was still another 20km away, skip it, next year, at it will be a day trip from the city where I am now.

Last stop in Bosnia is Prijedor. Here the people are utterly friendly again, the people at the train station loved how I tried my few bosnian words, and I could leave my backpack in the office for free to explore the town for the 5 hours I had to kill to catch the train to Zagreb. Where you can’t get the bosnian coffee anymore and no cats on the terraces, but the best espresso. And some strange pear drink, which is utterly tasteful, but also attracts a LOT of wasps…

Rant – Crossing Borders

Three weeks with bad internet connection. So three weeks without real “news”. Now, in the notsocheapmotel, I’m reading up…

Three week ago, I though I would be traveling against the stream of refugees taking the dangerous Balkan route. Well… I did. After the closing of the border of Hungary, I expected many refugees would try to go over Montenegro & Bosnia, but there weren’t as many as I expected.

But from tomorrow, I will join that stream. Though with a valid ticket. And with the “right” papers and the “right” color of skin. The worst I can expect is a traffic jam near the german-austrian border and I might miss the last train back home. But I won’t have to jump that train, or walk over the border. And I will “pass” any border controls.

I was thinking of going back for a longer period to help out in Serbia.

However, I’m also catching up with the mails of my friends volunteering in the giveaway shop and the foodsharing, One of the reports I read was from one of my colleagues now volunteering in the “Jungle” in Calais…

But I’m afraid I won’t need to travel to help out. There’s a lot of support needed, both in people as well as in goods, for those who have actually made it. One of the mails I read was about a group of 20+ minors (between 15 and 18) stuck in some sort of “vacation village” without any kind of support, not from the government, not from NGOs, and only 2 volunteers. Those kids only have summer clothing, one of them has no shoes, there’s no medical help, and two of them are seriously ill….

Nope. I won’t have to travel. Damn you Fortress Europe.

Blurp – Traveling – a short stop over in Bihac, Bosnia

Sitting on a terrace in Bihac, with a view on the turquoise, deep & utterly clear waters of the Una river. Sipping Bosnian coffee, and of course there’s a cat 🙂

People here are almost scarily friendly here, I can plugin my laptop, and well… I will prolly leave Bosnia with a fruit overdose.

The Bus to Sanski Most leaves at 15:15. The bus driver already packed my backpack with 3 weeks of dirty laundry inside, and since I couldn’t find a place to stay by the internet, he will arrange a room for me 🙂 Pity the bus will prolly arrive too late to hike to the waterfall in Sanski Most (2 hour hike, bus will be in the town at 17:30), and tomorrow it will rain… Plus, I need to be in Prijedor at the latest at 16:30 to catch the last, last, last possible train to Zagreb…

But I already had such a huge amount of beautiful nature here.

Impressions – Una National Park, Bosnia

Forget Plitivice. Here’s Una National Park. And hardly anyone around.

Utterly btw, I could do two waterfalls today, thx to almost EVERY car stopping when I was hiking & give me a lift. Really, it seems the rougher the landscape, the nicer the people 🙂 Including a guy bringing his really old, gold-toothed mum home, a young Saudi family, she was completely covered up, but started video-ing at the moment they stopped & asked me if I needed a lift (bye bye privacy 🙂 ), a little van with husband and wife who just came from fruit picking, so I now have ANOTHER kilo of apples to eat, the owner of a new campsite near this waterfall, a friend of the ranger (ok, he was friends of almost anyone we drove past..) and.. and.. and… I will leave this trip with a vitamine overdose.. I still haven’t finished the grapes and figs I got in Mostar.

Last big hike: Una Park in Bosnia, near the border with Croatia. On the croatian side, there’s Plitvice Lakes, lots of tourists. Here, hardly anyone…

Hiked towards Martin Brod, the southmost village in the park, and about 10 km walk in almost 40 degrees and no shadow. Again, proof, the rougher the landscape, the friendlier the people. Almost immediately got a ride from a man bringing his gold-toothed mom home, and a few km further, from a saudi family (and she making vids of me the whole time)…

Started walking around Martin Brod, a village just simply teeming with smaller and bigger waterfalls EVERYwhere. Got another ride back to where I slept in Kulen Vakuf. On both sides of the village there’s old Ottoman forts (like everywhere near the river) but it was just to frikkin hot to hike up that hill. So I decided to try for another waterfall.

Thx to another ride, of a local couple in a van full of freshly picked fruit (got another 2 kilos of apples), I made it to Ocasan, a village 20km north of Kulen Vakuf, with another Ottoman ruin, and the biggest waterfall nearby. The waterfall was supposed to be ca. 6km from Ocasan. There was supposed to be a hiking trail, but.. I didn’t SEE the trail, neither did I see any signs pointing out to it, so I kept following the maybe longer off-road along the river.

And though I was afraid I wouldn’t make it before dark, and certainly not back before dark, hiking along the river to Strbacki Buk waterfalls was frikkin 100% worth it. The Una River is blue blue blue blue. Locals kept telling me the waterfall was 3km away, and again 3km, and again. Luckily I got another ride from a local camping owner (who complained his camping site stayed so empty.)

Walk along the Una River. Listen to the sound coming from the hills on the other side of the river: that’s not a dog. When I came here, I saw my first glimpse of a wild lynx (omg, they are BIG cats). On the trail next to the river were signs, “watch it, bears crossing”. Guess no car could survive a collapse with a bear (pity I didn’t take pics of that sign). And I know there are wolves.. But maybe it is “just” a fox? Dunno what sounds they make. Later on, someone told me it was probably a deer in heat.

Hiking back from Strbacki Buk waterfalls (try to pronounce it… took me quite a few tries, prolly lost the skill by now), I got company from another doggie showing the way. And got another ride back all the way to the main road. To view the sun slowly setting over the old town in Ocasan.. and just on my way to Kulen Vakuf, I got another spontaneous ride (this time, I did not see a lynx, like yesterday). To arrive in Kulen Vakuf just to see the sun set over the fort (with the moon sickle above it) and the river..

At the guest house where I was the only guest, and the lady didn’t speak english (my bosnian is very slowly improving…) I told where I hiked today. The conclusion was I obviously was in need of a lot of calories :). And got crunchy pancake is filled with honey, nuts & apples and very yummy.

Impression – Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (Reprise)

Had to get up early to start hitchhiking, since the people at the bus station in Sarajevo told me it would take me over 16 hours by bus to get to Bihac, which is like a 5 hour drive. They told me there was no direct connection between Sarajevo & Bihac, and only way to get there was to get another bus in Jajce, and I would have to leave Sarajevo at 7:30, and arrive at 22:00 in Bihac).

So I decided to take some local transport to just outside of Sarajevo & start hitchhiking. After all, I had such wonderful experiences in Montenegro and the east of Bosnia.

Well.. 3 rides later, of each 20km or less, and 3 guys trying to grab me or otherwise being sexist assholes, I arrived in Visoko. Where there are two roads leading out of the town going northwest, and all the time the locals telling me “wrong road” & I went to the other, where again I heard “wrong road”..

After one hour of walking back& forth, and meeting the local hippie (nice guy btw), who told me he never saw hitchhikers in this part of the country, I decided to give up after one more annoying guy bringing me to Kakanj and, while standing there near the (right) road, some idiot doing rounds in his car around me.

Ok, 100% idiots, plus another idiot checking on me all the time, there’s risks I take, and risks I don’t. Time to find the bus station. And guess. There ARE direct buses between Sarajevo and Bihac. And they only take 6 hours. So far for getting the right information from the people from the Sarajevo Bus Station… Ah well.. at least I will arrive in Bihac.

Though again the people from the bus station itself were utterly friendly, also in Kakanj, where I had to wait 5 hours, I magically attracted all the males thinking with their underbellies. Happy to get on the bus, where I met a NICE older musician speaking german, who lived in Travnik, and I had the usual experience of getting lots of local info, someone being proud of his town, and an invite, which I turned down, since I still wanted to make it to Bihac. Poor guy, because of the not so nice experiences I had that day, I almost didn’t trust him…. Oh, btw, pf course I drank a lot more bosnian coffee while waiting ;).

So, except for not seeing the waterfall near Sanski Most, everything will be alright :).

Impression – Sarajevo, back to base

Sarajevo. Again, that feeling I have “arrived” I dunno why this city does this with me. Actually thinking of canceling my plans for Bihac (no cheap hostels there either) and staying here with coffee & cats. Looking up from my favorite hostel towards Mount Trebevic, where I last year spend that magic day on the bob sleigh track.

Weirdly enough, the street dogs which were here in abundance have almost completely disappeared, and Sarajevo is a cat city again. Met a proud tomcat, who, as the guy working in the coffeeshop told me, was unfortunately badly kicked by some idiot, and now has a broken tail. And, though halfwild, used to be very trusty towards humans, now not anymore.

Four years ago, I met a black kitten at a cemetery near my favorite hostel. Last year, I arrived in Sarajevo, walked past the cemetery, made the calling sound I always use for cats, and he came running to me. Now again :). He’s half-wild and his fur is rough, but the sound I always make for cats made him look up, put his tail in the air, and immediately come to me :). And of course got some well-deserved attention. I was afraid, since I didn’t see him yesterday, he might be gone forever, though I saw a LOT of young black cats around the cemetery, so he left some offspring 🙂 .

My poor boots suffered and suffered, especially while hiking for 8 hours in the rain in Durmitor. But they got some (free!) love from a shoemaker in Sarajevo

In the evening I had to save a kitten from some nasty kid throwing stones at it. Good thing that the “teacher’s eye” works in any language…

Impression – The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Arrived in Mostar safely and yes, got a good internet connection & a great (new!) hostel with a very friendly host and a gooooooooood shower.

Had one hell of an amazing time hiking in the mountains in Zabljak and Sutjetska. And today a crazy day of hitchhiking from Sutjetska to Mostar. Did I already mention my guardian angel? He must be banging his head against the walls again :).

At the busstation in Foca, again, that hospitality & friendliness. Though I speak like 3 words of bosnian, and most people don’t speak english or german, the busstation chef not only got me a relatively cheap ride to where I was supposed to stay, about 30km more south, but also threw about two kilos of fresh prunes in a bag of the huge carton box he had in his office to give to passengers (No pesticides he kept telling me 🙂 ). I will so have to get used to “normal” hospitality back home.

This time I was in Sutjetska on my own, and on my own two feet. Not with a jeep like last year. Though my goal was the mountain of Maglic, this was too much for one day on foot. One day, I WILL make Maglic..

The Czech people I met hiking with full backpacks up towards Maglic, and we chatted and chatted, so even though they were a lot slower because of their heavy backpacks, I stuck with them, and said goodbye when they were preparing to make camp. The officially restricted path into primeval forest Perucica with the remains of another partizan monument wasn’t actually guarded, so I sneaked in for a couple of 100 meters until it became too overgrown, and I didn’t want to damage anything there. Made it down just in time again, and back before nightfall to the place where I slept, thx to (again) some people who just stopped and offered me a ride.

Since I promised my host in Sutjetska to text her that I got safely back down from the mountains, but my phone died after being completely drowned by the hiking-in-the-rain in Durmitor, and no internet connection, I had to find some sort of human contact. So I hiked back in the pitch dark, over a scary, scary, wobbly bridge of which I knew from daylight, was full of holes in the wood, towards the main road. Here I found a restaurant where the cook not only spoke dutch, but turned out he used to live 3 streets away from where I lived in Rotterdam. And I got another variation of the fried cheese, or “kaassoufle” as the cook called it.

Went back through that same pitch dark to the guest house where I was staying, and spend the night looking at simply amazing stars. It being pitch-dark has the advantage of being able to see the milky way (I forgot it has actually a lot of different colors), and just too many stars to recognize the star signs. Even caught the last bits of what is actually a minor meteor storm…

Next day, I left Sutjetska. Took a quick peak at the partizan Monument in Tjentiste, since I was near anyway. Again, people from a little coffee shop down didn’t speak english or german, but too friendly, and guarded my backpack when I went up here in the burning sun.

Got a ride from a truck carrying fresh ALIVE baby fish in the back. Because of the blazing sun, we had to stop regularly to check if the fish were still alive (and boy, were they trying to jump out of those tanks!), and feed them oxygen from rusty gas tanks.. The truck driver didn’t speak english or german, but he was so happy every time I wowwed about the next view on the dried-out mountain highlands of Bosnia (those views… those VIEWS).

The truckdriver dropped me off at Gacko since he was traveling to the sea to deliver the young fish to be grown up. Got a very fast ride from Gacko to Nevisinje from 3 bosnian guys. None of them spoke english or german, so I had to improve my little bosnian fast.

Got a ride from a wonderful guy who not only gave me the ride, but insisted on buying me good bosnian coffee on the way, insisted on inviting me in his house for food and more coffee, and gave me two kilos of grapes and figs before he dropped me off close to the hostel in Mostar. And though we didn’t speak each others language (he had 3 words of english and german, I had, again, to pick up bosnian fast… hitchhiking is a frikkin good way to be forced to learn a new language quickly!), we got along really well, he had great music in his car too :). The hospitality here is making me feel reaaally guilty. (and no, not once I could sense some “hidden meaning” behind his friendliness)

Everywhere in Mostar you see posters with “Refugees are welcome”. Yep, even though Bosnia isn’t the richest country *cough*, they ARE welcome here. Just as the host of the hostel where I stayed said, yep, we know what it is to live in a country at war.

In Mostar, at the ruins near the bridge, someone called me “hippie girl” and invited me to smoke pot….. “Hippie girl”. HUMPF. I’m 48, all dressed in black, with worn down boots, smelly and sweaty.. and I’m a “hippie girl”?

A portuguese couple from the hostel offered me a ride from Mostar to Sarajevo. Original plan was to go to Kravice first, but since that was 3 hours back end 3 hours forth, we decided against it, and in favor of another tourist attraction, a 15th century monastery half in a cliff near Mostar. Well. tourist attraction indeed. But beautiful, yep.

Between Mostar and Sarajevo, every time you think: I’ve seen enough beautiful mountains, I’m immune to it by now, there’s another view to prove you wrong…

Sometimes during my trip even I myself thought, FUCK, I’m insane. Hitchhiking on my own through wild, empty mountains and hills in a country I don’t speak the language….

But I keep meeting the most wonderful people…

Impressions – A Tourist Haven in Montenegro

Tara Bridge. The bridge is amazing, it’s actually a WOODEN bridge… All of a sudden I’m in tourist country. Souvenir shops and the like. Yep, time to leave Montenegro, though I most definitively will come back.

The busride was fun, again, the hospitality and helpfulness of the people here is amazing. They helped me make sense of the bus system, for the second leg to Tara bridge (turned out I the bus I took from Kolasin actually went further in the right direction) I didn’t have to pay. Left the minibus with telephonenumbers of people who said I should please stay with them the next time, and should consider moving there. And the couple I stayed with in Kolasin not only brought me to the bus station, but they packed me a HUGE lunch with still warm, self-made sweet bread (sort of an “oliebol” for the dutchies) and home made plum mousse. I keep getting adopted….

Zablak/Durmitor Park used to be a popular holiday destination for eastern europe people. Therefore, there’s still a lot of abandoned hotels and the like around. For the “new” western (more spoiled?) tourists, they build new hotels and apartment buildings. Good thing I immediately started hiking, since the next day these mountains were hidden in the clouds. But it was VERY touristic… Did one day of hiking and decided to move on.

The mountains are extremely beautiful, but even after the tourist season is actually over, the place is still crawling with them. And the village looks like it gets a lot of them, unfortunately. So, no matter how beautiful it is, and again, the people here are so friendly it’s almost scary, I will leave for Bosnia on Friday. I sorta prefer the less busy tracks, such as Mrtvice canyon where I actually left a piece of my heart. A Serbian couple I met told me later Mrtvice means Little Dead Things.. Weird I always find the morbid things the most attractive 🙂

The internet connection here is not trustworthy, also the electricity doesn’t work 100% of the time (and the water switched off between 22 and 6). Here up in the mountains the people are preparing for winter, it’s almost zero degrees at night and the wooden furnace, which is used both for cooking and heating the house, is blazing hot.

It was a rainy day in Durmitor National Park. The bad side was the paths were slippery and the clouds hanging too low, so no beautiful views, & I had to cancel any ideas about hiking the high mountains. And well.. I was wet to my socks.

The good thing was, even though the village was crawling with tourists, only hardcore idiots like me were still doing the trails. Plus, my feet loved me for not doing elevations of over 1,000 meters. Plus, actually walking THROUGH the clouds has its own charm. So I only did three of the seven lakes.

Crno Jezero (Black Lake) was a beauty, even without a view on the huge mountain peaks around it (good thing I saw them yesterday), and the easiest accessible. The other two were actually a disappointment after that, though the hike through the misty forest was very beautiful (though…. yes.. WET).

The second Lake, Zmijinje Jezero, in Durmitor National Park is not as deep blue and beautiful as Crno Jezero, and a lot harder to find and reach (especially because the forest paths were slippery from the rain), still very beautiful.

The third lake was Barno Lake. Well, actually more a swamp. A very dutch lake imho. I was already pretty wet after 7 hours hiking in the rain. Trying to reach this one and sinking knee deep in the swamps soaked my socks.

Utterly btw. WHY do I tend to pick places with names with dark associations? Crna Gora (Black Mountain), Crna Glava (Black Peak), Mrtvice Canyon (the canyon of little dead things) and now Crno Jezero, Black Lake?

And last but not least :(. Sitting with my hosts in their living room I saw what the rain did to the refugees in Belgrade… I tried talking some german backpackers, who were still undecided where to go next, one of them wearing a “Refugees Welcome” shirt, into going there & volunteering. I still sorta feel bad about traveling on for my own leisure, & not staying in Belgrade or Budapest to try to support them.

But one of my plans when I go back home, is not only to try to find a way to get necessary stuff (of which we have more than plenty) on a structural basis to Belgrade, but maybe, if the situation continues, or worsens, to apply at my work for a 3-month “sabbatical” next spring/summer, and go there..

Leaving Zabljak by minibus. The roads were good in Montenegro, notably worse in Bosnia, where I had a good view from the window of the minibus HOW close we where to the edge sometimes. Crossing the border and getting a stamp in my passport without any trouble…

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