Reports from Central and Eastern Europe

[+ Pensant]

I keep in touch with people I’ve met during my travels via WhatsApp. Some interesting items:

 

Kyiv: unprepared for a surge, but thankfully the caseload is manageable. Worried about a weakened US and NATO leading Russia to grab more of the Donets.

Kraków: everyone must wear face masks in public. All parks and gyms still closed.

Montenegro and Serbia: Schadenfreude at the US’ predicament. They still haven’t forgotten the NATO air raids on Belgrade in 1999.

Salzburg: easing restrictions. No tourists expected for a while. Only Germans allowed in at the moment.

[+ WilliamM]

I keep in touch with people I’ve met during my travels via WhatsApp. Some interesting items:

 

Kyiv: unprepared for a surge, but thankfully the caseload is manageable. Worried about a weakened US and NATO leading Russia to grab more of the Donets.

Kraków: everyone must wear face masks in public. All parks and gyms still closed.

Montenegro and Serbia: Schadenfreude at the US’ predicament. They still haven’t forgotten the NATO air raids on Belgrade in 1999.

Salzburg: easing restrictions. No tourists expected for a while. Only Germans allowed in at the moment.

 

How about Serbia attack on Bosnia?

[+ Pensant]

How about Serbia attack on Bosnia?

I spent time mountain biking in Bosnia-Hercegovina in August 2018. Really enjoyed Sarajevo but it was a sad place with the Bosniaks resigned to a tough future without NATO and US protection. They’re worried that Serbia and Croatia will absorb most of the country, leaving a Muslim rump state. They know they’ll never be admitted to the EU. The Serbs already have 51% of the territory in their Republika Srpska. It’s an ancient history. The Serbs have always considered the Bosniaks as traitors to Orthodox Christianity and resented their privileged status under 5 centuries of Ottoman rule. They also despise some Bosniaks for their collaboration with the fascists during WW2. There was even a Muslim SS division (Handschar). So, it’s an ancient hatred, ameliorated only under the Tito regime, which many in the former Yugoslavia regard as a golden age.

[+ WilliamM]

I spent 10 days in Bosnia in 2013 driving from Mostar to Sarajevo. Sad place? Perhaps. After all, Sarajevo is full of cemeteries from the war with Serbia.

 

People in Sarajevo wanted to talk about what happened in that city. Mostar too.

Edited April 27, 2020 by WilliamM

[+ Pensant]

I rode my mountain bike to the top of Mt Ígman, which was the only open supply route to Sarajevo during the siege. I saw the remains of a French APC in a deep gully. The area around Sarajevo is breathtakingly green and beautiful. The people were really warm and friendly. After much research, I found that the Bosniak militias also ethnically cleansed Serbs from villages, although that’s not ever reported in the West.

[+ WilliamM]

I visited the former Olympic site in Sarajevo, where most of the area still contains land mines from the war. The airport is closed.

 

The historical bridge in Mostar was destroyed and now rebuilt - a symbol of the rebirth of Bosnia.

[+ WilliamM]

I rode my mountain bike to the top of Mt Ígman, which was the only open supply route to Sarajevo during the siege. I saw the remains of a French APC in a deep gully. The area around Sarajevo is breathtakingly green and beautiful. The people were really warm and friendly. After much research, I found that the Bosniak militias also ethnically cleansed Serbs from villages, although that’s not ever reported in the West.

 

Too bad we can't ask Richard Holbrook.

[+ Pensant]

I visited the former Olympic site in Sarajevo, where most of the area still contains land mines from the war. The airport is closed.

 

The historical bridge in Mostar was destroyed and now rebuilt - a symbol of the rebirth of Bosnia.

Yes, I also hiked up to the top of Mt Trebević, and walked along the luge track, then took the gondola back down. Saw some shelled houses on the way up. The Sarajevo airport wasn’t closed in 2018, because I flew into Sarajevo from Zagreb and flew out of it a few days later to Belgrade.

[+ WilliamM]

Yes, I also hiked up to the top of Mt Trebević, and walked along the luge track, then took the gondola back down. Saw some shelled houses on the way up. The Sarajevo airport wasn’t closed in 2018, because I flew into Sarajevo from Zagreb and flew out of it a few days later to Belgrade.

 

I rented a car in Zagreb and drove to Dubrovnik, but first to the Austria Slovenia border and Lake Bled.

[+ Pensant]

I rented a car in Zagreb and drove to Dubrovnik, but first to the Austria Slovenia border and Lake Bled.

I’m a big Ljubljana fan. Passed Lake Bled en route from Salzburg to Ljubljana on ÖBB train. Gorgeous!

[mike carey]

I’m a big Ljubljana fan. Passed Lake Bled en route from Salzburg to Ljubljana on ÖBB train. Gorgeous!

Off on a TOTAL tangent, a couple of weeks ago I was watching a news item about the situation in Italy, and they were filming at a station somewhere in central or northern Italy (I can't remember where) and an ÖBB train went through the station. (I'm not a train spotter, it had ÖBB on the side in large letters.)

[+ Pensant]

Off on a TOTAL tangent, a couple of weeks ago I was watching a news item about the situation in Italy, and they were filming at a station somewhere in central or northern Italy (I can't remember where) and an ÖBB train went through the station. (I'm not a train spotter, it had ÖBB on the side in large letters.)

You can’t miss their red and white livery. Österreichisches Bundesbahnen-Austrian Federal Railways.

[mike carey]

You can’t miss their red and white livery. Österreichisches Bundesbahnen-Austrian Federal Railways.

Yes, it was certainly conspicuous in the news coverage.

[+ Charlie]

Off on a TOTAL tangent, a couple of weeks ago I was watching a news item about the situation in Italy, and they were filming at a station somewhere in central or northern Italy (I can't remember where) and an ÖBB train went through the station. (I'm not a train spotter, it had ÖBB on the side in large letters.)

Probably in Alto Adige, the area that used to belong to Austria.

[+ WilliamM]

I’m a big Ljubljana fan. Passed Lake Bled en route from Salzburg to Ljubljana on ÖBB train. Gorgeous!

 

Like Ljubljana also. In truth, I wish I had flown to Belgrade even if only for a few day.

[+ Pensant]

Like Ljubljana also. In truth, I wish I had flown to Belgrade even if only for a few day.

I liked Belgrade a lot. Great food and people. Stayed in an awesome Airbnb a few blocks from the main pedestrian street and the hip Skadarska district.