Heading East (or getting out of the Schenghen Zone)

IN BRIEF

So from Italy (as I take it where my last update left off) we headed the call of the East, where even the non-smoking rooms smell like nicotine. First stop:

Belgrade
for the Belgrade Beer Festival, or the Poor Man's Oktoberfest, as we liked to name it.
Now there's not actually a lot that I can pad out about things that we did in Belgrade... because, well, there's not a lot there to do. Seriously, we tried. But being there from the 16th till the 21st of August, all we managed was to see the military museum, decide against viewing some serious breaching of Animal Rights at the Serbian Zoo, attempt to find a book about Eastern Europe, make scrambled eggs, drink lots of coffee and attend the beer festival. Sorry Belgrade.
But the Beer Fest was still pretty good... Picture a free-entry fair ground with over 75 beers on offer (all around 1 euro for a pint), beer pong, show rides and a HUGE stage which is graced by the likes of Serbian's best rock music, the drummer from the Ramones (can anyone say old, drug-abused looking over the hill musician....?) and a Blues Brothers Tribute Band (my personal favourite, who managed to stay on till 4am... crazy Serbia)... anywho, here's a visual.

So after all this song and dance we went Bosnia-ward... venturing right into the heartland, firstly through Sarajevo to
Mostar
Famous for its bridge which was destroyed in the 1990's conflict. We were only there long enough to stand in awe at the beautiful mountains and rivers surrounding the town and to realise that Bosnia is Beautiful... or as Dan liked to express it 'Bosnia ticks all the boxes' or 'Bosnia-Underrated and Most Improved Award'. Leaving there we headed for
Konjic
a small town inbetween Mostar and Sarajevo. Getting off the bus we were greeted by a man who spoke no English, but some how managed to explain that he would take us to our lodging, which just happened to be situated right on a beautiful lake, where NO TOURISTS GO. What a luxury. The next morning we were picked up in a van and taken to Neretvera River where we donned the wetsuits they gave us for our White-Water Rafting Adventure! Meeting our shirtless (read sexy) guide Selcuk, we jumped in and were off. Here's Dan and Pip on our Badzo Raft adventure:



So after a cruisy day down the river, some rapids and compulsory screaming on my part, we went for a lake swim ate some Bosnian pie and swapped opinions on whether this was the best day of our trip thus far... mutual decision concluded it was definitely up there.
Driving to the bus stop the next day, we were on the way to

Sarajevo
and this was where the history lesson really begun. Obviously we were all interested in the 1990's conflict, but didn't really understand it, and Belgrade hadn't really offered up a lot of information... But here we really got into history AND food. Bosnia dished up both in great spades. The most eye-opening experience was a war tour we went on, organised through the hostel... More on that in the 'Points of Interest Secion'. Other then that we went to the Tunnel Museum. This places houses the Tunnel that was built underneath the airport (the only neutral space during the Siege of Sarajevo) which was used to get supplies in and out of Sarajevo.

With only a limited time frame in Sarajevo, we ventured back through Belgrade (which was a very different experience the second time around, understanding the history quite a bit better only a week alter) and right on through to

Timisoara, Romania!
Where we started our ROADTRIP BABY!!!
Picking up our Skoda the next day, the first few hours of driving had us questioning the full extent of the insurance policy we had got... Did it, for instance, cover us for collisions with horse and cart/cattle/old woman/other crazy Romanian drivers who overtake up to 10 cars around corners, on a single lane highway when it's dark (this is no joke).
Our first night was spent camping out and crapping ourselves for fear of what lay behind the distant yelling, dogs barking and other strange Romanian noises. We concentrated around Transylvania where the mountains are high, the valleys low and the roads are rough (well actually, I think that's all over Romania). Hitting up Sibui, Bran (home to Dracula's Castle), Sinaia, Brasov, Sighisoara and Cluj-we had a fair few car hours under our belt. We managed to drive up the Tranfagarasan (see the In Detail section), which is an absolutely mental road up the side of a mountain range, camp climb some seriously steep hills (including the 'Seven Steps to Death', which left us literally clinging via a chain to the side of a mountain), get some great views and get lost on the dreaded 'white roads' (all in only a few hours). Here's a picture of our lunch spot:

Ending up in Cluj-Napoca a student town in the North West, we did some couch surfing (in detail below) and then separated ways as I left the Roadtrip for Pastures in the land of Hungary... namely

Budapest
Where I was for not nearly long enough, but where I managed to hit up the main sites... The House of Terror to learn about the Nazi and Communist years, Buda and Pest, The Palace, Ruin bars and, of course, the baths (below) where you shake off that groggy feeling from the night before and have fun switching between the 80 degree sauna and the 16 degree plunge pool (freezing!)

Quick stop, gotta go, off to...
Ljubliana (capital of Slovenia)
and yes, Slovenia is probably not regarded as Eastern Europe (as a book shop lady so rudely pointed out to Pip in Belgrade), but for ease of writing, it is for this blog.
There I met up with Dan and Pip and we all met a crazy guy called Maryn (see further details below). We ventured out to Lake Bled, which must seriously be made for tourists- a beautiful lake with a island with a church on it in the middle. We fitted in some bike-riding in the Triglav park, some casino-ing, some winning at roulette and some self-congratulatory cosmopolitans (Dan's favourite) to wish Pip and goodbye as she left for Croatia the next day!
Back in Ljubliana for a day or two we checked out the Hippy Commune and managed to run into Julia Walsh AND see a concert of the Wombats and the Editors (which just happened to be playing! Crazy)...

Wishing Dan a goodbye as I got my trainto Milano, and started flying solo... but more on that in a few days... Bye for now. This has been a long one. Thanks for listening

POINTS OF INTEREST

 War Tour-Sarajevo

It's hard to explain this tour without putting in a totally frustrating didactic explanation of the confusing history of the conflict. Leaving that, I'll just explain that Sarajevo was in 1984 the host of the Winter Olympic Games and by 1992 under seige from Bosnian-Serb troops.

 The hostel we stayed at was owned by a Sarajevan war veteran. Now, his English wasn't so great, so he told his son, who was 20 and much better at English, all of his stories from the war, and his son took us on the tour. He drove us up into the hills around Sarajevo and showed us the barracks that the Serbs used, as well as the old bob-sled course which was then used as a second-front-line by the Serbs and was now left in total disrepair (below).

Everywhere we walked Jan told us stories of where his father and his father's friends had faught, and gave us a run down of the hardship and history surrounding the whole battle.

Everywhere we went he pointed out landmines which were just left littering the countryside and told us about some of the cruelest war crimes committed during the 3 year seige. He also walked us through a huge minefield, the no-man's land, between the two front lines, warning us not to step off the path for the surety we would step on a still-active mine.

So obviously it was pretty harrowing to hear all these stories, and unimaginable to think that such a thing could have occurred in Europe, in the 90's, in the age of the internet... but there's no use dabbling in hind-sight..

I think the most interesting message that Jan left us with was his complete lack of belief in patriotism, nationalism or religion. From what he'd seen, it had only been used to divide people, to urge them to commit crimes upon one another and to allow him to grow up in a war zone. As he put it 'There's no use in patriotism, everyone runs when they see a tank coming towards them'.

The Transfagarasan

So whilst flitting around in Romania's Dracula country we managed to stumble on what Top Gear has voted to be 'The World's Best Road' (no biggy... watch below)... The Transfagarasan... or as we liked to call it, 'The Transfag'...

So this is what the road looks like on a map:

And here's how it turns out in real life:

Now this spaghetti-like piece of bitumen is the brain-child of the one and only Romanian Communist Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. He wanted to be able to see the top of the mountains, but didn't want to have to climb them. So in a typical beaux-art 'Man overpowering Nature' type megalomaniacal effort he ordered the building of this road... One of many crazy things he did before the 1989 revolution. So no buses go down this route, and because it gets cold in winter, the road is actually only open between July and August, perfect timing for us! Lucky ducks. So the road was pretty much empty when we ventured and Dan had a bang-on time trying to navigate the corners in our little Skoda, whilst we all just made brrrmmm brrrmmm noises in the back and looked out the window with expressions of 'Oh my God'/'woahhhhhh'/'holy cow' passing our lips infrequently. So, because the Skoda did so well, I thought I should put up a glory picture of it.

Nice one Skoda.

Couch-Surfing with Akos, Anna and Agnes!

Another experience of note was our most enjoyable stay with our new adoptive Romanian Family, inclusive of Akos, Anna and Agnes. The warmly welcomed us into their house in Cluj-Napoca (North-West Romania) for three nights. It was so nice to jump right into a family and do everything together: drinking beers in town, going to a salt mine, eating watermelon, gorge walking and our big day of hiking (25 kms). Here's us all at the top!

And of course, indulging in the 11kg watermelon Akos presented us with! Romanian specialty.

Mostly I think we were all just astonished at the generosity of strangers. For so many reason, couchsurfing shouldn't exist, but it does, and it's so dependent on blind trust. A fantastic opportunity that seriously made our time in Romania!

That Crazy guy in Ljubljana...

So here's how we arrive in Ljubliana. I travelled from Budapest on a night train which was supposed to arrive in at 2am, unfortunately I missed my stop, leaving me waiting alone for an hour in a random station in Slovenia for a train back to Ljubliana, where I eventually arrived-sans sleep- at 6am. Dan and Pip arrive at around the same time after some awesome awesome awesome guy on their bus into Slovenia decides to hop on without a passport... story said, everyone is totally tired, drained and exhausted. We locker our bags and head in for a look at old Ljubbers (without doubt the most difficult to pronounce city I have been to thus far). Meandering around the market and trying to buy figs we hear this 'YOU WANT TO BUY FIGS!???!' yelled in English. We turn around for our first glimpse of Maryn Simcic, a grey-bearded fellow, with studious glasses and a love of yelling things to unsuspecting English-speakers (pictured below). Making polite conversation we ask what his suggestions are for stuff to see in town... his answer is 'I'll show you'... and for the next two and a half hours we were his. We had no idea what we were in for as we were led around town by this Food Science Professor.

  

Here is just a brief list of places we went/stuff that happened that we were not expecting:

-we collected unpasteurised milk from a machine

-we stood inbetween three birch trees in the centre of town and felt the 'energy' of the town, which centred on this spot, where both lines of feminine and masculine met according to Vladic's plan of Ljubjana...

-we 'felt the machine of the building' by being allowed into the National Library (Vladic's design) reading room (for students only) and the archives

-we met the head of the communist party of Slovenia

-we just hopped on into the schmickest hotel in Slovenia and sat in their courtyard and were served juice

-we went through all the back passages of the Ljubliana University and saw the balcony where Bill Clinton was declined speaking rights from.

-we were given postcards and a book by the famous Slovenian poet Perseveran.

Yes, a ridiculous array of happenings, and all whilst Maryn continually grabbed my camera and took photos from ridiculous angles in front of this or that monument or with random people... Exhibit A and B:

Where did he get the artistic license for these angles?

No, we do not know that woman on the end... but yes, she does have a bottle of milk that we just gathered from the machine behind.

Needless to say, that was the most spontaneous, crazy and ridiculous tour I have ever been on. Afterwards, when Maryn had left, we all sat there stunned, unable to take in the extreme babble of information, words, paparazzi-type picture taking and absurdity of it all... Who was that guy?

ART-WANK

Like Morocco, I think our interests in the East lay elsewhere, therefore, nothing to add here... sorry.