Category Archives: Travel

Belgrade to Sofia, Bulgaria

November 22, 2014Bulgaria, Travelsleeper car, Sofia, St. Alexander Nevsky Church, Trainkarenfranza

11/21 – We walked back to a very quiet train station at 9:30 last night to board our overnight train to Sofia. This was my first time on a sleeper train, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The conductor handed us each a sheet and pillowcase, and motioned us down the car to our compartment, where we found the seats folded down to make bunks, a pillow and a heavy woolen blanket. We had the lower berths, but there was no one on the uppers, so we had the compartment to ourselves.

We made up our bunks and settled in. I wasn’t expecting to sleep well, but the gentle rocking of the train had its effect, and we both got a pretty good night’s sleep. At 6:30am we stopped at the border for Bulgarian passport check, and by mid-morning we were in Sofia.

We were greeted by another cold, grey day. The sun is not expected out while we are here. The Sofia station had not a trace of western alphabet, and looked very much like a dreary communist-era building.

We walked the two blocks to our guesthouse and were pleased to find it clean and warm, with a little fridge and dining area. The all-in-one bathroom was the first we’d seen this trip – the faucets for the sink also control the shower hose, and the water just runs down a drain in the middle of the floor. An efficient idea, except the floor stays wet and slippery, so you must be careful.

We found a Bancomat (ATM) and a place to change our leftover Serbian marks to Bulgarian lev. We met a street performer on his way to work, and I took his picture. He immediately demanded payment, so Jim gave him all our Serbian coins.

We took a walk to see what facilities were close by, and were happy to find a Billa (high end grocery). Like our supermarkets, Billa sells a variety of hot foods – cooked chicken, pork chops, sausage, and side dishes like scalloped potatoes with goat cheese, spanakopita, and sauerkraut. We were happy because we don’t see many cafes or restaurants. We do, however, see lots of casinos – anyone up for a Bulgarian gambling vacation?

We walked over the Lion Bridge into the city center.

Our goal was the St. Alexander Nevsky Church, which we had no trouble finding, because a) it is very big, and b) our GPS works in Bulgaria. Thanks TMobile!

Inside was candlelit, making it hard to photograph, but so beautiful.

On our walk we admired some of the city statues.

We wanted to see more, but it was too COLD! Our fleece jackets just can’t stand up to 30 degree weather. We’ve been putting off buying winter gear, but it looks like it’s time to get some…

Thursday in Belgrade – St. Sava and Nikola Tesla

November 20, 2014Serbia, TravelBelgrade, St. Sava, Tesla Museumkarenfranza

11/20 – today is cold and rainy. It feels like an Eastern European grey day. We struck out to find the Temple of St. Sava, still under construction, the biggest Eastern Orthodox church in the world. When complete, it will hold 10,000 people, and the choir will hold 800 singers.

Inside is lots of scaffolding, hammering and drilling noises, but a steady stream of worshipers come in to kiss the icons and pray.

We stopped for lunch at a gyro shop, and watched as the proprietor fashioned each roll with loving care, and wrapped them as though they were his babies. It seemed a shame to eat such beauty, but gosh, they were delicious!

Walking across town, we came upon some buildings still scarred from the bombing during the 1990s war. We were told that they have not been repaired to remind the people of Serbia’s struggle:

Then we set out to find the Nikola Tesla Museum, one of Belgrade’s top attractions.

If you don’t know about Tesla, he invented EVERYTHING: the motor, alternating current, radio, wireless transmission, vertical take-off aircraft – hundreds of patents and 700 more never finished. We took an English-speaking tour from an engineering student from the University who spoke with passion and reverence. She also demonstrated neat stuff, like lighting a neon sign remotely:

Powering fluorescent bulbs by generating lightning with a huge tesla coil:

Having 100,000 volts pass through our fingers:

The museum also holds his books, papers, personal effects, and his ashes, displayed in a golden orb. It was a neat place, made extra special for me as Nikola was the spitting image of my dearly departed Alan, who would have loved this museum.

Now we are packing up to catch the overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria. A new experience for me!

Wednesday in Belgrade – a Fortress and a Princess

November 19, 2014Serbia, TravelBelgrade, Belgrade Cathedral, Fortress, Residence of Princess Ljubicakarenfranza

11/19 – Belgrade (or Beograd, as the Serbs call it), was the capital of Yugoslavia when I was in school, and now is the capital of Serbia. It is a big city. There are things we would like to see here, but without our GPS and not being able to read the road signs, we’re feeling a bit daunted. We walked back to the train station, and decided to take a taxi to Kalemagdan Park to see the Belgrade Fortress. Online, we were warned to use a government regulated taxi with a meter, but all the cabs at the station were meter-free. “How much to take us to the fortress?”, we asked the first cabbie. 800 dinar (8 dollars). The second cabbie said 700, the third offered 500. Sold! Crosstown ride for 5 bucks. He brought us right up to the entrance.

This sign gave us pause:

The fortress was built around the year 535, then rebuilt every time it was attacked. It oversees the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers. The skies over the city looked a bit smoggy.

The fortress is part of a big park with lots of green space, walkways and benches. It contains a military museum, and lots of tanks, armaments, and WWII stuff.

There is a zoo, with some pretty impressive reptiles:

From the park, we could see the spire of the Belgrade Cathedral of Michael the Archangel, so we walked over to take a look. An Eastern Orthodox Church, there was no high altar, and no seating, but lots of beautiful artwork and gilded icons.

Down the street was the Residence of Princess Ljubica, which was a museum on our list. It showed a typical upper class residence of the early 1800s, and is full of uncomfortable-looking furniture, but some pretty neat indoor plumbing and a Turkish bath.

Jim was able to navigate us home without any trouble, and we’re feeling a little more confident about the city. Tomorrow, we’ll explore some more!

Split to Zagreb to Belgrade, Serbia

November 18, 2014Backpacking, Croatia, Serbia, Travelbackpackers, Belgrade, hostel, Split, visas, Zagrebkarenfranza

11/17 – we got up early for the 8am train back to Zagreb. As soon as she heard us moving about, Pera brought down a tray of Turkish coffee and cookies to see us off. What a nice lady! We will miss her smile. If you’re ever in Split, you can’t do better than Apartment Pera. We found her on Booking.com.

When we were almost to Zagreb, we were informed that we would, once again, have to get off the train and get on a bus to get around a track problem. That’s the third time in a week! We hear that trains get less reliable from this point on, so this may be our new reality.

Got back to Zagreb in the late afternoon, where we are staying one night at the Palmer Hostel right near the train station. Very convenient, with a private room, and shared kitchen. We had a nice conversation with a retired Chinese couple who have been touring Europe for two months. They were excited that the U.S. and China had just extended visas for our respective countries to 10 years. Next year they plan to spend a nice long vacation touring the U.S.

This made us think about visas. We are swiftly running out of Europe, so I spent most of the evening looking into which countries in our near future require special visas, and how to get them. Turkey is first, and we secured that one online in about 10 minutes. The biggest problem looks like it’s going to be China, as you are supposed to apply from your home country. We couldn’t find any backpacker advice online that would help. Once we get to Istanbul, we will visit the Chinese Embassy, and see what alternatives are available to us.

11/18 – came downstairs for breakfast at the hostel, and someone had stolen our bananas! On closer inspection, Jim had put them on top of the fridge, which had a little sign that said it was a Free Food area. Oh well, some deserving backpacker was probably really happy to get some free bananas…

The train took us through some really pretty Croatian countryside, with the first sheep, pigs and horses we’ve seen in a while.

By 3pm we crossed into Serbia. Now we have been in three of the countries that used to be called Yugoslavia: Croatia, mostly Catholic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, mostly Muslim, and now Serbia, mostly Orthodox. We understand that Serbia shows the most scars from their war in the 1990s. Tomorrow we shall see.

Arrived in Belgrade on time (!), in the dark (streets not well lit) and cold! As in Brrrrrr! I’m going to need a hat! We had the street address for our apartment, but once we got there, it was in a big apartment building, and we could not see a way in. A young woman offered her assistance as we stood outside the door looking cold and confused. She called the phone number Jim had written down (our TMobile world plan doesn’t work in Serbia either), and told the landlord we were waiting outside. Our first Nice Person of Serbia! The landlord explained that he was illegally renting the apartment, which explained why there was no sign. Sheesh!

So now we are in our new cozy apartment, well fed with the omelette Jim fixed with supplies from the little market right down the street. We traded in our kuna for dinar, and we are ready to see Belgrade in the morning!

Medjugorje back to Split, Croatia

November 16, 2014Backpacking, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Travelbus, clouds, Medjugorje, Splitkarenfranza

11/16 – well, there are things you can do, and things you can’t do, and it looks like traveling overland through Bosnia is one of the things we are just not going to do. Not impossible, but our options were limited and sounded unpleasant, so we opted to go back the way we came.

We got on the bus at Medjugorje for the four hour ride south to Split. Boarding with us was a man from Italy, who had filled up his entire rolling suitcase with big, dinner plate sized rocks taken from Apparition Hill, and had filled several plastic shopping bags with his displaced clothing. The bus driver told him the charge for stowing luggage was 8 kuna per bag, so he proceeded to unload the rocks one by one into the storage compartment, grunting with exertion, with the argument that if the rocks weren’t in a bag, he shouldn’t get charged! He went on to explain that he was bringing the rocks home as an inspiration to his poor, aged mother…. I think the driver gave up and let him stow the rocks. I would normally look aghast at someone helping themselves to parts of a shrine, but that hill won’t miss a few big rocks!

Unlike our ride north earlier in the week, the sun was shining and the clouds were awesome. Don’t you agree? These pix taken through the window of the moving bus:

So now we are back in our comfy apartment, and our lovely host Pera has left us more oranges and candies. It’s nice to be back home, if only for a day! Tomorrow, we take the train back to Zagreb.

The nature of things (Medjugorje 3)

November 15, 2014Bosnia-Herzegovina, TravelMedjugorjekarenfranza

From Jim…

Beinghere

We are in Medjugorje (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the place where six children began having visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. Karen had strained a muscle in her hip and I was hoping that she might be cured by the healing water that comes out of the statue of the Risen Christ. She took some more ibuprofen and we walk toward St. James Church, on our way to Apparition Hill, where the first visions occurred.

The streets are lined with souvenir shops. Medjugorje attracts over a million visitors a year but the shops are empty because not very many pilgrims come in November.

The shops sell post cards with the image of the Virgin Mary, as described by the children.

There are also posters for sale with her image.
“She doesn’t look like a Palestinian Jew, does she?” I remark to Karen.
“Michelangelo used the people around him for his…

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Saturday in Medjugorje – Apparition Hill

November 15, 2014Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hiking, TravelApparition Hill, Medjugorje, Pilgrimskarenfranza

11/15 – another warm, sunny day, and my hip is feeling better. Today we will climb Apparition Hill, where the six teens first saw Our Lady, Queen of Peace. It’s a two mile walk to the base of the hill, past hotels, souvenir shops and cafes. We are concerned that there don’t seem to be enough pilgrims to keep all these places in business. There are several new buildings that look like construction was abandoned halfway.

On the road we spied this sign, which leads me to think that the Last Trumpet will not be blown here!

We reached the foot of the hill, and tried to determine the best route up. No clear trail has been established – people just start climbing from wherever they are.

Not too far up the hill are two blue crosses, which mark the spots where two of the children received their visions. Many stopped to pray their rosary here.

Despite the sharpness of the rocks, some, young and old, climb the hill barefoot. Many are assisted by their grown children or grandchildren. Many walk with a cane. There are reliefs depicting the mysteries of the rosary as we ascend.

At the summit is a life sized statue of Mary, on a base shaped like a star. Many are praying, kneeling and weeping here.

Behind the statue is a crucifix, where others kneel on the rocks.

We made our way back down the hill, passing those on their way up. I can feel my feet bruising from being squeezed in rock crevices and hitting sharp rock edges. I’ve turned my ankle, and can’t imagine what those in bare feet must be feeling. I consider that Medjugorje asks more of its pilgrims than the other Marian sites we’ve visited.

In the evening, we returned to the church. Jim wants to see if the Risen Christ statue is still seeping. He purchased some little cloths with the statue imprinted on them at the souvenir shop, sold expressly to catch this moisture. There are many more people now, and we have to wait in line for a turn near the knee. The knee is not seeping now.

The other Marian sites had large areas for lighting candles. We know there must be one here, but haven’t seen it. We walked all around the church until we found this little area tucked away in a corner, with a flowing fountain. Very pretty and very peaceful.

Friday in Medjugorje

November 14, 2014Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hiking, TravelCross Mountain, Medjugorje, Pilgrims, St. James Churchkarenfranza

11/14 – happy birthday Lauren! Love you!

Today is warm and sunny, a total contrast to yesterday’s grey skies. Shirtsleeve weather, no jackets required. My hip is still troubling me, but improved since yesterday. I plan to take it easy today.

After breakfast, we walked the half mile to St. James Church, in the middle of Medjugorje. This very modern church was built prior to the start of the apparitions in 1981. It is said that the building of the church, way too large for the size of the small town at the time, and it’s dedication to James, the patron saint of pilgrims, are part of the miracles of this place.

In the courtyard in front of the church is a statue of Mary. You can see construction of a hotel right behind.

Inside, a mass was in progress in English, with folk guitar accompaniment. The church is very plain, with arched windows and an arch over the altar, but no large crucifix or statuary. There is a Mary chapel off to one side, adorned with many flowers.

Behind the church is an outdoor amphitheater with a Jumbotron and seating for thousands. This was added once pilgrims started coming in large numbers, following the Bosnian War in the early 90s.

There are gardens behind the church with Stations of the Cross and walking paths with mosaics of the life of Jesus. Walking, praying and quiet contemplation are encouraged.

Water seeps from the knee of this statue, erected in 1998, considered to be a miracle of this place. You can see where the color of the metal has changed from all the hands that touch this knee. People leave pictures and written prayer requests at the foot of the statue. Yes, we saw water seeping from the statue.

On Friday afternoons, the faithful climb Cross Mountain, where they observe the Stations of the Cross. The large, concrete cross was erected in the 1930s, and is not connected to the apparitions, but the erection of the cross in this town is said to be part of the miracle of this place.

Unlike Lourdes, which caters to the wheelchair-bound, Medjugorje pilgrims must be fit. It is a two mile walk to the base of the mountain, and a steep, rocky climb to the top, which is more than my hip will allow me to do today, so Jim goes up alone. Some of the faithful go up barefoot, and many kneel on the jagged rocks at every station.

Here are Jim’s pix from the top of the mountain.

Split to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

November 13, 2014Backpacking, Bosnia-Herzegovina, TravelCroatian Riviera, Medjugorje, pilgrimage, Split, Virgin Marykarenfranza

11/13 – yesterday the skies opened and the rain poured down, so we stayed close to home in our cozy apartment in Split. Our gracious landlady came down to make sure the water wasn’t coming in anywhere – there had been trouble with flooding before. We were nice and dry. She offered us more schnapps. Gotta love this place!

I spent most of the afternoon trying to plan the next leg of our journey. Jim wants to go to the pilgrimage town of Medjugorje, (Med you GOR ya) where the Virgin has been seen or heard daily for over 30 years.

We can get there easily enough on a Croatian bus from Split, in about 4 hours. The problem is where to go from there. Looking at a map, it appears to be a straight shot from there to Sarajevo, then northeast to Belgrade in Serbia, which is where we’d like to go. However, the nice folks at EuRail tell us that this train doesn’t run anymore, and the website for Bus Bosnia suggests that we rent a car! Oh well. The Bosnian infrastructure may have some issues. I’ll keep working on it.

The bus ride was tranquil, taking us up the coast advertised as the Croatian Riviera. Lots of posh hotels, casinos and yachts in the harbors. Only got a few pix, due to the rain.

After a short border check, we were in Bosnia, and the rain stopped. By 4pm, we found our apartment in one of many new buildings erected to support the influx of pilgrims. We have a brand new kitchen, and a washing machine that looks like a deluxe cheese grater!

Unfortunately, I hurt my hip lifting my pack this morning, and have been in considerable discomfort all day. I hope I can walk to the pilgrimage sites tomorrow.

Medjugorje was a small village prior to 1981, when six teens started reporting communications with Our Lady, Queen of Peace. The messages, sightings and miracles have been occurring daily since then, and over 40 million have visited the town, which has grown to support all the pilgrims who flock here. If you are not familiar with the history of the apparitions, you can read up on them at Medjugorje.org.

Monday in Split – Marjan Hill

November 12, 2014Croatia, Hiking, Travelcaves, Church of St. Jerome, hermitages, Marjan, Marjan Hill, Splitkarenfranza

11/10 – at the edge of the Riva is a staircase to Marjan (marYAN) Hill, Park and Forest, originally a recreational are for Emperor Diocletian and his people.

As soon as we started to ascend, we left the tourists behind.

About halfway up the hill is a small chapel of St. Nikola, and a Jewish Cemetery, both locked.

A gorgeous day.

Taking Our Time

Seeing the World, Nice and Slow

Category Archives: Travel

Belgrade to Sofia, Bulgaria

Thursday in Belgrade – St. Sava and Nikola Tesla

Wednesday in Belgrade – a Fortress and a Princess

Split to Zagreb to Belgrade, Serbia

Medjugorje back to Split, Croatia

The nature of things (Medjugorje 3)

Saturday in Medjugorje – Apparition Hill

Friday in Medjugorje

Split to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Monday in Split – Marjan Hill

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