Hello all,
Next Monday I am travelling to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with my girlfriend.
Stories, photographs and many many more will be regularly published during and after our journey.
We will be back on the 14th September.
Always rely on my travel blog ;-)
Regards
Christophe
donderdag 30 augustus 2007
woensdag 22 augustus 2007
Some corrections
I want to thank Tom Tordoir for helping me with the spelling mistakes I've made in my blog . Most of them being just mistakes made while I had little time to manage my blog, I've corrected it all.
Thanks Tom!
Christophe
Thanks Tom!
Christophe
dinsdag 21 augustus 2007
One week after returing
Dear all,
It has been one week since I was racing trough Europe, coming back from Sarajevo. The trip back was a little hallucinating due to a light fever and the wrong food, but I made it in a relatively good condition ;-)
Life hasn't changed. Yet. I never had the guts to say that this travel was going to change something, but maybe now I have...It is just the fact that I'm becoming older, and within a few days, I will reach a new frontier: the age of 20.
I have done a lot before this age. Travelling, doing journalism, living, making friends,...It is just that travelling is one of the things in my life that brings on the deepest feelings, the most beautiful moments. This blog is a new start, the transcript of one journey, but it will become a major hub for more. Mostly travels, but who knows, what else...?
I am glad I received this great feedback on my trip. I hope you people keep on doing this. I also hope that you people keep on doing the things that you like and at which you're good at. Because this is what's life's all about. Doing the things you can, without looking back, and, without sorrow.
Greetings, all the best,
Christophe
It has been one week since I was racing trough Europe, coming back from Sarajevo. The trip back was a little hallucinating due to a light fever and the wrong food, but I made it in a relatively good condition ;-)
Life hasn't changed. Yet. I never had the guts to say that this travel was going to change something, but maybe now I have...It is just the fact that I'm becoming older, and within a few days, I will reach a new frontier: the age of 20.
I have done a lot before this age. Travelling, doing journalism, living, making friends,...It is just that travelling is one of the things in my life that brings on the deepest feelings, the most beautiful moments. This blog is a new start, the transcript of one journey, but it will become a major hub for more. Mostly travels, but who knows, what else...?
I am glad I received this great feedback on my trip. I hope you people keep on doing this. I also hope that you people keep on doing the things that you like and at which you're good at. Because this is what's life's all about. Doing the things you can, without looking back, and, without sorrow.
Greetings, all the best,
Christophe
vrijdag 17 augustus 2007
Sarajevo 2007: the journey in 10 pictures
Fresh water coming out a Habsburg fountain at Vrelo Bosna, Ilidza;
Typical Bosnian carpet at the Bascarsija
Sarajevo 2007: the journey in 10 pictures
Colourful life in Ilidza;graveyard in the outskirts of the city;
Sibilj fountain on a friday morning
Sarajevo 2007: the journey in 10 pictures
Signs of islam on the balkan: the beautiful Gazi Husrevbey mosque during last prayer
donderdag 16 augustus 2007
Back home; with a lot of stories to be told
Hello,
I am back at home, sitting in my room with the normal sight out of the window behind me, and my own laptop before me, which will allow me to manage foto's and other stuff on my blog. You ain't seen nothing yet...
The bus drive back home was a true nightmare. Suffering from a stomach disease, caused by a piece of pie I bought back there in Sarajevo, and which probably laid too long in the heath. For those who want to go to Sarajevo; NEVER buy your bread at "Pekara Edin", it is real sick-making food and the service is honestly unfriendly...
The last day in Bosnia & Herzegovina was calm. Just walking and looking what piece of traditional work I could take back home, tasting different sweets at a Slasticarna (sweet shop), and enjoying the moments on their own ... Feeling the breeze that travelling brings, hearing the sounds of an own atmosphere and living on the waves of the local energy.
I had a drink with Munira, the girl I met before while travelling to Sarajevo, and talked about life and the society in Bosnia & Herzegovina. She was a little angered when I said that most people in Sarajevo weren't friendly at all. But she could understand. She wasn't born in Sarajevo, but in Visegrad, a town close to the Serbian frontier. She wanted to return, but that was a difficult task due to the fact that Visegrad became an almost homogenic Bosnian-Serbian town after the war. Nowadays, she is living in France.
"War broke out fast here in B&H. Even faster than you can imagine, and in a way that we couldn't expect. Even our neighbours, who used to be friendly before, could be seen as new enemies. And the most saddest thing is that nobody of us wanted it, but that it just happened and you had to choose quickly, even too quickly what you were going to do", she said. So either you stay, and become a refugee in your own country, hunted because you have this wrong ethnicity, or flee, and become a refugee in another country, and begin another life.
On sunday I went to Mount Igman and Bjelasnica, and the surrounding villages. On my way I saw a lot of destroyed infrastructure from the 1984 Winter Olympics, be it hotels and skilifts, and several Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) graveyards. Igman was Bosniak territory, together with the Bjelasnica range during '92-'95, bordered by the Treskavica range, which was the frontline with the Bosnian Serbs, and changed hands several times. I was struck by the beauty and the pure nature. To go out and walking in this last named range without a guide would be an equivalent to suicide, because of the many minefields the mountain hosts.
There, before Treskavica, and just after Bjelasnica-Igman, you have Sinanovici, a small village, just a few houses and two streets, where you can still meet traditional highland people. I was observed while walking down the village, but it wasn't difficult to melt the ice, I just said hello and the serious faces turned into laughter...
The meadows just outside Sinanovici where good for a short walk. I sat for five minutes, enjoyed the silence and thought how fantastic it would be to explore these mountains. In front of me was one of the least explored ranges in Europe in modern times. Before the Bosnian war, Slovenia was linked to Macedonia with the traditional and well-maintained transversala , a network of walkways that led trough the whole of Yugoslavia. After the war, most of the trails disappeared due to a lack of maintenance or devastation.
When I returned to Sarajevo, Elmrid, the bus driver, dropped me off just before the Holiday Inn, after having raced the whole traject and driven some 100km/h on the former sniper alley, the now called Zmaj od Bosna, the central highway in Sarajevo. The red light of the sunset was beautiful, and captured the day and the past moments in an air of peace. This was the best photograph ever taken of my life. And it wasn't me who did it, but just nature. It will stay in my mind forever.
To be continued...pictures of my trip will soon light these pages up!
Christophe
I am back at home, sitting in my room with the normal sight out of the window behind me, and my own laptop before me, which will allow me to manage foto's and other stuff on my blog. You ain't seen nothing yet...
The bus drive back home was a true nightmare. Suffering from a stomach disease, caused by a piece of pie I bought back there in Sarajevo, and which probably laid too long in the heath. For those who want to go to Sarajevo; NEVER buy your bread at "Pekara Edin", it is real sick-making food and the service is honestly unfriendly...
The last day in Bosnia & Herzegovina was calm. Just walking and looking what piece of traditional work I could take back home, tasting different sweets at a Slasticarna (sweet shop), and enjoying the moments on their own ... Feeling the breeze that travelling brings, hearing the sounds of an own atmosphere and living on the waves of the local energy.
I had a drink with Munira, the girl I met before while travelling to Sarajevo, and talked about life and the society in Bosnia & Herzegovina. She was a little angered when I said that most people in Sarajevo weren't friendly at all. But she could understand. She wasn't born in Sarajevo, but in Visegrad, a town close to the Serbian frontier. She wanted to return, but that was a difficult task due to the fact that Visegrad became an almost homogenic Bosnian-Serbian town after the war. Nowadays, she is living in France.
"War broke out fast here in B&H. Even faster than you can imagine, and in a way that we couldn't expect. Even our neighbours, who used to be friendly before, could be seen as new enemies. And the most saddest thing is that nobody of us wanted it, but that it just happened and you had to choose quickly, even too quickly what you were going to do", she said. So either you stay, and become a refugee in your own country, hunted because you have this wrong ethnicity, or flee, and become a refugee in another country, and begin another life.
On sunday I went to Mount Igman and Bjelasnica, and the surrounding villages. On my way I saw a lot of destroyed infrastructure from the 1984 Winter Olympics, be it hotels and skilifts, and several Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) graveyards. Igman was Bosniak territory, together with the Bjelasnica range during '92-'95, bordered by the Treskavica range, which was the frontline with the Bosnian Serbs, and changed hands several times. I was struck by the beauty and the pure nature. To go out and walking in this last named range without a guide would be an equivalent to suicide, because of the many minefields the mountain hosts.
There, before Treskavica, and just after Bjelasnica-Igman, you have Sinanovici, a small village, just a few houses and two streets, where you can still meet traditional highland people. I was observed while walking down the village, but it wasn't difficult to melt the ice, I just said hello and the serious faces turned into laughter...
The meadows just outside Sinanovici where good for a short walk. I sat for five minutes, enjoyed the silence and thought how fantastic it would be to explore these mountains. In front of me was one of the least explored ranges in Europe in modern times. Before the Bosnian war, Slovenia was linked to Macedonia with the traditional and well-maintained transversala , a network of walkways that led trough the whole of Yugoslavia. After the war, most of the trails disappeared due to a lack of maintenance or devastation.
When I returned to Sarajevo, Elmrid, the bus driver, dropped me off just before the Holiday Inn, after having raced the whole traject and driven some 100km/h on the former sniper alley, the now called Zmaj od Bosna, the central highway in Sarajevo. The red light of the sunset was beautiful, and captured the day and the past moments in an air of peace. This was the best photograph ever taken of my life. And it wasn't me who did it, but just nature. It will stay in my mind forever.
To be continued...pictures of my trip will soon light these pages up!
Christophe
zaterdag 11 augustus 2007
It takes Ilidža to tango
Hi all,
It was less hot today, so the walking was a little more supportable than yesterday. I saw a lot today.
I woke up in a relatively bad temper. You just have these unfriendly people here downtown that screw some moments of your day by being lazy and sighing when you ask something, or even laugh at you in a weird way if you just try to speak a little Bosnian and do your utter best to be not that typical tourist.
But, as I said, Ilidža changed a lot. It is this nice suburb of Sarajevo, just before the Igman-Bjelašnica mountain range with that great athmosphere, noisy markets, old Ižetbegović-like people and coffee drinking Bosnians. A place where people help you and even offer you a cigarette because they are happy that they can help you and practice their English. Like Amrid, a Bosnian fellow that helped me while I was looking at the bus schedule as if it was the Rosetta stone. He even tapped me on my shoulder when I offered him a Bosnian coffee, and simply said that he was going back home to work, followed by a honest "nema na čemu" (Welcome)
You also had this guy, Islam was his name, who couldn' t stop saying that he was circumcised, pointing between his legs, and that he was proud of his name. Just to enforce his statement, he even showed it while I was sitting with my foot in hot sulphuric water. I ran away, maybe his name wasn' t Islam and maybe he was just the local fool of Ilidža, but sure this is a hell of a story.
This is the time to say goodbye for today. It was very busy and night has fallen over Sarajevo, with the Gazi Husrev Bey lighting up in all his glory, with that awkward little Turkish flag in Green and white on its top. Maybe the ghost of the Ottomans is coming back to Bosnia and Herzegovina, waken up by other ghosts in the form of bullets and bombs...
Goodnight,
Christophe
It was less hot today, so the walking was a little more supportable than yesterday. I saw a lot today.
I woke up in a relatively bad temper. You just have these unfriendly people here downtown that screw some moments of your day by being lazy and sighing when you ask something, or even laugh at you in a weird way if you just try to speak a little Bosnian and do your utter best to be not that typical tourist.
But, as I said, Ilidža changed a lot. It is this nice suburb of Sarajevo, just before the Igman-Bjelašnica mountain range with that great athmosphere, noisy markets, old Ižetbegović-like people and coffee drinking Bosnians. A place where people help you and even offer you a cigarette because they are happy that they can help you and practice their English. Like Amrid, a Bosnian fellow that helped me while I was looking at the bus schedule as if it was the Rosetta stone. He even tapped me on my shoulder when I offered him a Bosnian coffee, and simply said that he was going back home to work, followed by a honest "nema na čemu" (Welcome)
You also had this guy, Islam was his name, who couldn' t stop saying that he was circumcised, pointing between his legs, and that he was proud of his name. Just to enforce his statement, he even showed it while I was sitting with my foot in hot sulphuric water. I ran away, maybe his name wasn' t Islam and maybe he was just the local fool of Ilidža, but sure this is a hell of a story.
This is the time to say goodbye for today. It was very busy and night has fallen over Sarajevo, with the Gazi Husrev Bey lighting up in all his glory, with that awkward little Turkish flag in Green and white on its top. Maybe the ghost of the Ottomans is coming back to Bosnia and Herzegovina, waken up by other ghosts in the form of bullets and bombs...
Goodnight,
Christophe
vrijdag 10 augustus 2007
Up the hill in Sarajevo
Hi all,
My first full day in Sarajevo is almost over. Within one hour I will finish this day with a good waterpipe near the Gazi Husrev Begova, the oldest mosque in Sarajevo. A great experience, some moments that you ask yourself why everything is just feelings so...travel.
I did a lot today. Woke up early, took a quick breakfast and waited for the tram just outside my dormitory (for people who want to know, I am staying at the Ljubičiča hostel, situated on the Mula Mustafa Bašeskije road in the old town of Sarajevo) and went all the way to Ilidža, a suburb of Sarajevo.
Ilidža is oriental. The ambience on the market was one of different fruits, herbs, copper and meat for sale. While I was watching the locals buying, I drank a turkish coffee and just enjoyed the fact of being there, and feeling something you only have in these specific situations.
I wandered to Butmir, some 3 kms of Ilidža. All the way, and It was blistering hot. Looking for the tunnel museum, I just saw the airport on my left side, and nothing more but typical Bosnian houses.
The butmir tunnel was the only way in and out Sarajevo for its inhabitants during the war (1992-1995). It is something of 1,60m high and 1 m wide. Can you just imagine that this was the only entrance for food, water and medicines for a city of 400,000inhabitants under siege? It was hard to understand, but nevertheless true. During three years this tunnel under the airport runway was pure hope. hope, so that you just had not the feeling that the world forgot you.
After 30min: I hadn´t found the tunnel yet. Luckyili for me, a car with french people stopped and asked me where the tunnel museum was. I answered in French and they seemed happy to have the possibility to say i all in their native language. I could drive with them , they said, and after just a few minutes we found the museum. It was not a big deal, but it had a certain impact.
The museum is located in a heavily bombed house. Somewhere in the floor you could see an unexploded bomb sitting in the wall. Maxbe it was placed by the owner for some deadly humorous reason or maybe it was real. I don´t know.
We saw a film of the Sarajevo siege and after that we had a walk in the garden, that was bordered by the airport area. This side of Sarajevo was heavily damaged, due to two front lines just beside the airport runway that were occupied by the Bosnian serb army: it formed a small corridor, and you almost hadn´t a chance to pass these lines without being shot or wounded. The airport itself was UNO area, but wasn´t an option either.
We drove back to Ilidža where I jumped out. I tried to find the bus schedule to Bjelašniča, a mountain range outside Sarajevo. I would like to walk there tomorrow or something, but it is just too far and there are only two bus services a day.
After my lunch - tasty Krompiruša, burek filled with potatoes, I took a walk in the steep suburbs of Sarejevo near the Trebevic mountain range.
I bought a map of Sarajevo and vicinity, but it was worthless. The suburbs of this city is just one giant labyrinth. It took a while until I finally reached the place where the vegetation started and the city ended.
I spoke to some local Bosnians. They asked - of course - where I came from, and I offered them a smoke. One funny guy laughed when I let him see my pack of Bosnian Drina cigarettes and said that he would only like to smoke some Belgian stuff. Pleased by this short conversation - he also sai that I had to stick to the asphalted streets because of Mine dangers on Trebević - I continued. I was sweating like a horse. It was something around 35 degrees C. But I had some fun.
The people I met were first looking If a could have been some alien from Mars, but after a friendly ´dobar dan´ (hello), most of them answered. back with their dobar dan.
I had magnificent views on the city, but again fell a certain shiver, because the place where I was walking could have been a Serbian sniper post during the war. I looked at the city, and saw the capital lying int he valley, thinking that it couldn´t have been difficult to shoot people one by one from this spot. It was frightening.
Back in the centre I took a long shower, after that had some talks with two Belgian girls who were making a trip from Croatia to Japan. It is always while travelling that you hear the weirdest, but yet philosophical stories. If it weren´t for the world and the delights of travelling, my heart would break...
Christophe
My first full day in Sarajevo is almost over. Within one hour I will finish this day with a good waterpipe near the Gazi Husrev Begova, the oldest mosque in Sarajevo. A great experience, some moments that you ask yourself why everything is just feelings so...travel.
I did a lot today. Woke up early, took a quick breakfast and waited for the tram just outside my dormitory (for people who want to know, I am staying at the Ljubičiča hostel, situated on the Mula Mustafa Bašeskije road in the old town of Sarajevo) and went all the way to Ilidža, a suburb of Sarajevo.
Ilidža is oriental. The ambience on the market was one of different fruits, herbs, copper and meat for sale. While I was watching the locals buying, I drank a turkish coffee and just enjoyed the fact of being there, and feeling something you only have in these specific situations.
I wandered to Butmir, some 3 kms of Ilidža. All the way, and It was blistering hot. Looking for the tunnel museum, I just saw the airport on my left side, and nothing more but typical Bosnian houses.
The butmir tunnel was the only way in and out Sarajevo for its inhabitants during the war (1992-1995). It is something of 1,60m high and 1 m wide. Can you just imagine that this was the only entrance for food, water and medicines for a city of 400,000inhabitants under siege? It was hard to understand, but nevertheless true. During three years this tunnel under the airport runway was pure hope. hope, so that you just had not the feeling that the world forgot you.
After 30min: I hadn´t found the tunnel yet. Luckyili for me, a car with french people stopped and asked me where the tunnel museum was. I answered in French and they seemed happy to have the possibility to say i all in their native language. I could drive with them , they said, and after just a few minutes we found the museum. It was not a big deal, but it had a certain impact.
The museum is located in a heavily bombed house. Somewhere in the floor you could see an unexploded bomb sitting in the wall. Maxbe it was placed by the owner for some deadly humorous reason or maybe it was real. I don´t know.
We saw a film of the Sarajevo siege and after that we had a walk in the garden, that was bordered by the airport area. This side of Sarajevo was heavily damaged, due to two front lines just beside the airport runway that were occupied by the Bosnian serb army: it formed a small corridor, and you almost hadn´t a chance to pass these lines without being shot or wounded. The airport itself was UNO area, but wasn´t an option either.
We drove back to Ilidža where I jumped out. I tried to find the bus schedule to Bjelašniča, a mountain range outside Sarajevo. I would like to walk there tomorrow or something, but it is just too far and there are only two bus services a day.
After my lunch - tasty Krompiruša, burek filled with potatoes, I took a walk in the steep suburbs of Sarejevo near the Trebevic mountain range.
I bought a map of Sarajevo and vicinity, but it was worthless. The suburbs of this city is just one giant labyrinth. It took a while until I finally reached the place where the vegetation started and the city ended.
I spoke to some local Bosnians. They asked - of course - where I came from, and I offered them a smoke. One funny guy laughed when I let him see my pack of Bosnian Drina cigarettes and said that he would only like to smoke some Belgian stuff. Pleased by this short conversation - he also sai that I had to stick to the asphalted streets because of Mine dangers on Trebević - I continued. I was sweating like a horse. It was something around 35 degrees C. But I had some fun.
The people I met were first looking If a could have been some alien from Mars, but after a friendly ´dobar dan´ (hello), most of them answered. back with their dobar dan.
I had magnificent views on the city, but again fell a certain shiver, because the place where I was walking could have been a Serbian sniper post during the war. I looked at the city, and saw the capital lying int he valley, thinking that it couldn´t have been difficult to shoot people one by one from this spot. It was frightening.
Back in the centre I took a long shower, after that had some talks with two Belgian girls who were making a trip from Croatia to Japan. It is always while travelling that you hear the weirdest, but yet philosophical stories. If it weren´t for the world and the delights of travelling, my heart would break...
Christophe
donderdag 9 augustus 2007
Alive and kicking
Hi all,
Sarajevo has changed since I´ve last visited it. The former parliament building, destroyed in 1992 by Bosnian-Serb fire, has been completely restored. Everywhere in the city, you can see fresh new projects erecting from the ground. It seems that Sarajevo is completing a brand new skyline.
One of the first things I did when I arrived was drinking a hot turkish coffee, and it felt like I was somehow at home, a very comforting feeling. After the coffee time I managed a walk to the Jajce castle, high up on a hill above the city, and had some magnificent views. Tomorrow I will discover and explore more of this splendid city, but all I want now right at this moment is a hot meal, becaue I´m starving.
During my long bus trip (app. 26 hours), I met a woman, Mounira, who lives now in France but was going to Bosnia to visit her family. She told me about her country, about how war can destroy so many things. Maybe she can manage her brother to take me up on a drive to Igman one of the following days, but thats not certain at all.
While exploring the city, I was wondering how much I would have risked my life if I would have wandered on the spots I visited today, some 12 years ago. I almost reached the former front lines where Serbian snipers took so many life. It was an experience that gave me a shiver. A big contrast with the vast view I had, up on that hill, above a city that is trying so hard to be...a capital city of a European country...
More news will follow soon, maybe with pictures.
Regards
Christophe
Sarajevo has changed since I´ve last visited it. The former parliament building, destroyed in 1992 by Bosnian-Serb fire, has been completely restored. Everywhere in the city, you can see fresh new projects erecting from the ground. It seems that Sarajevo is completing a brand new skyline.
One of the first things I did when I arrived was drinking a hot turkish coffee, and it felt like I was somehow at home, a very comforting feeling. After the coffee time I managed a walk to the Jajce castle, high up on a hill above the city, and had some magnificent views. Tomorrow I will discover and explore more of this splendid city, but all I want now right at this moment is a hot meal, becaue I´m starving.
During my long bus trip (app. 26 hours), I met a woman, Mounira, who lives now in France but was going to Bosnia to visit her family. She told me about her country, about how war can destroy so many things. Maybe she can manage her brother to take me up on a drive to Igman one of the following days, but thats not certain at all.
While exploring the city, I was wondering how much I would have risked my life if I would have wandered on the spots I visited today, some 12 years ago. I almost reached the former front lines where Serbian snipers took so many life. It was an experience that gave me a shiver. A big contrast with the vast view I had, up on that hill, above a city that is trying so hard to be...a capital city of a European country...
More news will follow soon, maybe with pictures.
Regards
Christophe
dinsdag 7 augustus 2007
Off to Sarajevo!
Dear all,
Tomorrow I am leaving for Sarajevo, the magnificent capital of the stunning country Bosnia&Herzegovina.
It has been almost one year since I 've last visited this city. It struck me. Its beauty, its tolerance after a more than 3 year during siege, that took many lives, both physically and mentally. The cultural diversity, with mosques, churches and synagogues mixed in one area. And of course the hot and waking-up turkish coffees in the morning.
I will report my thoughts, wishes, stories and adventures regularly. This blog has been created for this travel, but will be used for future trips and future analyses of things related to my study.
So, watch this blog closely, and you will find all (mmm, not everything ;-) ) listed on this page.
Velika Hvala to all of you
Christophe
Tomorrow I am leaving for Sarajevo, the magnificent capital of the stunning country Bosnia&Herzegovina.
It has been almost one year since I 've last visited this city. It struck me. Its beauty, its tolerance after a more than 3 year during siege, that took many lives, both physically and mentally. The cultural diversity, with mosques, churches and synagogues mixed in one area. And of course the hot and waking-up turkish coffees in the morning.
I will report my thoughts, wishes, stories and adventures regularly. This blog has been created for this travel, but will be used for future trips and future analyses of things related to my study.
So, watch this blog closely, and you will find all (mmm, not everything ;-) ) listed on this page.
Velika Hvala to all of you
Christophe
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