The Beginning of the Balkans: Serbia

After an eight hour train ride from Budapest to Belgrade on July 2, we began what was an incredible five week trip through the Balkans.  We had traveled to Serbia earlier in the year for four days, so this was a quick stop before moving on to other countries we had yet to visit.  It was fun being back in Serbia where we had such a wonderful first impression of the people and the food.

I think a lot of people in the west have a really negative view of Serbia because of their involvement and aggression in the Balkan War of the 1990's. Somehow in many people's mind this translates to the country being unsafe and the people being evil.  I actually found the people to be extremely nice and so welcoming to foreigners; almost as a way to show others that they don't want to forever be seen as the bullies and aggressors, and want to make a new impression worldwide. Well they made a great impression on me. One quick note though related to the war that I found to be extremely interesting, but not entirely surprising. In Belgrade we went to the military museum and were expecting some revisionist history, but it was more severe than we expected.  There was an exhibit called "UN and Western Aggression Towards the Republic of Yugoslavia,"  and the whole exhibit showed war trophies won by Serbs against UN troops and war crimes committed by UN fighters in Serbia, yet there was no mention of what brought on the UN intervention.  Essentially they mentioned the abandonment of Communism in 1989 and a run-in with the UN in 1999, but nothing happening in between. All that could come to mind when seeing this was a line that a good German friend of ours always says (and I believe was a line from Family Guy) "Nothing happened. Everyone was on vacation."  This absence of information became even more interesting as we traveled through the Balkans and visited various museums in different countries, trying to piece together all the different perspectives and interpretations of the war.
*Note: The pictures below are from our first trip to Serbia because our camera broke when we were in Serbia the second time.

Belgrade Fortress

The tiger habitat at the zoo in Belgrade was actually within the original fortress walls

Davolja Varos - Rock formation in Southern Serbia (also known as petrified wedding guests)

Bubanj Memorial Park in Nis. Commemorates the execution of over 10,000 Serbians during WWII

Burek is a popular food throughout the Balkans, but I can say that Serbia has THE BEST burek.

What a Whirlwind

Kotor Bay, Montenegro

I have so much to write about from this summer that I don't even know where to start.  I guess I can start by saying that traveling for six weeks straight has its ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs. Sure, there was a broken down bus, a trip to the hospital, and being stranded at a border around 1am; but this list is so small compared to all the beautiful wonders, delicious food, unplanned experiences and incredibly kind and welcoming people we met.

We left Hungary on July 2 to begin our trip through the Balkans with a rough idea of where we wanted to go, but essentially had nothing booked except a one-way ticket from Thessaloniki, Greece to Budapest on August 5.   It was both exhilarating and daunting not having plans set; on one hand we had to constantly try to figure out bus timetables, accessibility to sites we wanted to see, and finding affordable hotels at the last minute, but it also afforded us to take an extra day somewhere we loved, go further off the beaten path with recommendations from locals, and take the time to pause and soak it all in.  Our itinerary ended up looking like this: Serbia - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Croatia - Montenegro - Kosovo - Albania - Macedonia - Bulgaria - Greece - Turkey.

I still cannot believe how much we ended up seeing, and am truly humbled by and grateful for the openness and kindness that was shown to us by complete strangers. Traveling has a way of strengthening my faith in people to a level greater than I ever imagined possible .  My greatest joy in life is being surprised by the good that I know exists in us all; and this trip reminded me that this doesn't have to be a rare occasion. 

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina 

Rila Mountains, Bulgaria

 

Nemrut Dagi, Turkey