Category: The ‘why’ of FI. (Page 3 of 38)

Bosnia and Herzegovina has the same mountainous terrain as the other countries we’ve been in. It’s dotted with little villages, with some obviously being abandoned. Here, old stone walls are left on their own.

The quick answer as to why this country has such strange name is “politics.” The longer answer is that after the war in the 90’s, Bosnia had 3 major religions. The muslims and orthodox were fine with the name of Bosnia, but the Catholics , who were mainly in the Herzegovina region, wanted recognition.

So “ Bosnia and Herzegovina” it is.

Our local guide was proud to announce that Mostar has 300 sunny days a year.

Not today! Blogless Sandy and I ended up buying umbrellas as useful souvenirs.

Old Town was built in the Ottoman Empire

WW1 started here in the capital city of Sarajevo.

“We’re not proud of that.” 

Mostar was heavily affected by the war. The street we crossed was the line between the two sides. If you keep your eyes peeled, many buildings still have pockmarks in them from gunfire during the war.

Refugees from the war sometimes own property. They’re understandably reluctant to spend money on buildings they’re now half a world away from. Plus these particular buildings are heritage listed. They were originally in the Austrian- Hungarian style, which would cost a fortune to rebuild.

So they remain like this.

Our local guide said that his family fled the town when the war broke out, and he himself was born in Germany. When they returned, the whole city was filled with rubble. He and his friends, when playing soccer, used to use unexploded grenades for goals.

“We didn’t know it was dangerous.”

3 presidents here. “3 corrupt presidents.” Between the bickering and corruption, nothing gets accomplished in a timely fashion.

The Old Town is a UNESCO heritage site. Everything looks as it did before the war.

Even the old ladies shopping for tablecloths.

Stone roofs protect from the strong winds here. The town is in a valley set between very steep hills. The wind whips through.

1566 when the old bridge was built. 

The original architect used egg shells and stone, so the first 2 bridges collapsed.

Sultan Suleman told the architect “if it collapses again, I’ll have to kill you.”

So the architect, keen to keep breathing, used molten lead and stone for the third time, which worked.

The architect was so nervous that it would collapse again that he ran away just before the bridge was finished, so he never got to see his masterpiece. It stood for 400 years.

9 November 1995 it was bombed and destroyed by the war. People tried to protect it, but it was the most meaningful structure to the people, so the opposition felt that they had to destroy it.

20% of the original stone was used, and molten lead and stone were used again.

The original plans were used.

The raised strips on the bridge is for the donkeys. They used to bring everything in on donkeys’ backs, and this stops them slipping.

Plasma flavoured ice cream, anyone?

After we wandered around the market for a while, Blogless Sandy and I walked across the bridge and took the steps down to the beach by the riverbank.

There we saw the bridge in all its glory.

After yet another border crossing, we were back in Croatia and heading for Split, with many a nervous glance aimed at the steely grey clouds massing above. We have a nature walk booked in a national park tomorrow, and the weather forecast is pretty dire.

Still, we were afraid we’d get rained on today, but we’ve been lucky.

We made it into Split with a bit of time up our sleeves, so we checked into the hotel before heading down to the harbour to see the Roman palace. It wasn’t what I was expecting…

Diocletian’s palace was built in 3 AD to house Diocletian, his wife and daughter, and the servants and soldiers who served them. All up, around 200 people.

He was the last Roman emperor to persecute the Christian’s, and he was reportedly pretty vicious about it.
After he died, his palace was gradually taken over by the common folk, who over time moved in and started repurposing the building materials here.

Everywhere you look, you can see modern dwellings next to columns like these that have been moved to help support newer dwellings.

See?

Other things have been left alone for centuries.

This place has been continuously occupied since the 3rd century. Nowadays, around 3,000 people live here.

We rounded a corner, and there was a wedding! Jake said it was pretty small for a Croatian wedding.
“They tend to go for 36 – 48 hours. They start drinking in the morning and then they don’t stop until it’s over!”

This is reputed to be Diocletian’s bath.
It was found in the basement floor, which ironically is the best preserved part of the whole palace. Unlike the ground floor, which had people all over it for centuries, the basement floor was quickly filled with rubble and rubbish, which made it impassable.
It wasn’t until the 1950’s that it was finally cleared out.

What’s also ironic… or perhaps karmic … is what happened to Diocletian’s tomb.

He was popped into a sarcophagus, as was usual back then, and was laid to rest in this octagonal tomb.

But all too soon, the Christians took the building over and used it as a church. Sometime in the 7th century, they hauled what was left of him out of the coffin and chucked him into the sea.

The sarcophagi you can see around the outside of the building are all Christian clergy.

When the Romans were building the palace, they were on a tight time frame, so they went over to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and stole some columns and sphinxes to hurry the job along. These things were from 3 BC, so when I say there’s a mishmash of styles, I wasn’t overstating.

There are many buildings in the Venetian style of the 1500’s. It shouldn’t all work together, but oddly, it does.

Outside one of the gates is this massive statue of Bishop Gregor, a man who championed for the translation of the Scripture into people’s native languages.

I don’t know if this works, but I’m touching his toe for luck. Between this and touching the statue’s nose yesterday in Dubrovnik, I should be the luckiest woman alive!

This was an interesting place to visit. Blogless Sandy adored it.

I was torn between wanting the ancient Roman palace to be pristine, yet respecting the people who saw available building supplies and turned them to good use.

Tomorrow, we have a weather forecast of 9 degrees and rain, with a 7 km walk around a lake in the National Park.

Hmmm. Not sure how this is going to go…

Dad joke of the day:

Today was the day we’ve all been waiting for. We were spending the day in the Old Town of Dubrovnik.

Game of Thrones fans would know that the Kings Landing scenes were shot here. 

I read all of the GOT novels, but only watched the first series… (and the last couple of episodes of the whole show to see why people were upset.)

The Kings Landing scenes were enough to spark my interest into coming here.

Dubrovnik was founded in the 7th Century.

Napoleon conquered the city after hundreds of years of aristocratic independence. The walls around the city, as well as diplomacy, served Dubrovnik well until The French turned up.

Napoleon built a fortress overlooking the Old Town which is still there today. A chair lift goes up to it, but we didn’t visit it. We stuck to the Old Town and the old fort.

St Blaise is the city’s patron saint, and he’s found all over the place here. He’s always pictured with a model of the city in his hand, protecting it.

In 1667 there was a massive earthquake here, and parts of the city were destroyed.

The church survived the earthquake, but a fire decimated it. The only thing that survived was a silver statue of St Blaise. Of course, it was proclaimed as a miracle.

Today, the statue is coated in gold. It’s on display, but you have to pay money to see it, and it’s not included in the Dubrovnik Day Pass, so we didn’t see it.

Incidentally, if you ever come here, get a Dubrovnik Day Pass. It costs 40 euros, but it costs 40 euros just to walk the wall. When you factor in admission to the fort, the monastery, and all of the other things you can see, it’s definitely great value.

Here’s the first view of the town. Main st was first established in the 10th century. We were directed to look at the strange little stone down by the roadside.

The legend is that if you’re able to jump on top of this and stay there for a few seconds, you’ll be lucky in love forever.

Before you ask, I didn’t try my luck. I love it when people find love, but I don’t want a partner for myself. I think, after 29 years of being single, that I would be very hard work for any guy unfortunate enough to try his luck. 🤣

The fountain was built in the 15th century. The water is still drinkable and is free to anyone everywhere. Later in the day, we filled up our water bottles and the water was chilled and delicious.

I also like how there’s a dog statue on the top. It makes a change from all of the cat worship in the cities we’ve seen so far!

This is the Rector ‘s palace. They chose a new rector every month, to avoid corruption.

The city keys were given to him every night for safekeeping.

When the weather was bad, no work was done here, in case decisions were made that were badly affected by how they felt. When the sun came out again, the council would reconvene.

There was a huge earthquake in 1667.

This street wasn’t affected. See the stones on the street? They’re limestone and they are very smooth, due to the millions of footsteps they’ve had walking on them over the centuries.
I’m glad it wasn’t raining today! I imagine they might get a little slippery.

This isn’t just a tourist spot, though. People live here, usually in the second and third floors above the shops. Look at the line of washing fluttering above the street.

Apparently, Fortunate Frogdancer struck again and we had a beautiful day in Dubrovnik. The rain is going to hit tomorrow…

Jesuit steps: this is the scene of the walk of shame that Cersei took in Game of Thrones.

Most gardens are simply in pots.

Ugh. Yuck. Bananas. The Devil’s food.

Little cafés and shops are scattered throughout the town.

There’s also little hits of whimsy as well.

If I lived here, I’d SO have this sculpture on my balcony!

After our guided tour was over, we had 6 hours here. The first thing we did was leave the town and go over to the fort.
This was a 15th century build, but fortifications have been here for around a thousand years. Humans are a peaceful species, aren’t we?

“Freedom is not on sale for all the gold and treasure in the world.”

This is inscribed on the fort, which is a measure of the hundreds of years this city was independent.

A view of the city from the top of the fort.

Some of the walls were a bit tall…

Some of the people from our group didn’t go across to the fort, which was a shame. The sea was sparkling clear and the views of the walled city and the islands were spectacular.

The monastery – free with our day pass. It was a bit of a haven from the heat and crowds outside.

In the museum there, a reminder of the war.

Marin Držić, Dubrovnik’s Shakespeare. Guess which part of him brings luck when you touch it?

Handrails in the Rector’s Palace. I guess a good Dad joke is timeless.

Then 2pm arrived, which was the time Jake recommended that we walk the wall.
More bloody steps upwards…

Here was the view as we began.

The fort from the walled city. Just look at the colour of the sea.

It’s amazing how narrow the streets are.

I had a choice… do I keep going, or do I climb the tower?

Of course I climbed the tower! The view was incredible.

Look! A veggie garden! The only one I saw all day.

And zoom in to the middle of the picture. You’ll see a restaurant on top of a building. Imagine how lovely it must be to have a meal, surrounded on all sides by the terracotta rooftops.

This is Blogless Sandy and I clinking some bubbles after our 90 minute walk along the wall. A well-earned treat.

After a wonderful day, we drove across the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dad joke of the day:

Today we spent a few hours at the wonderful Old Town of Kotor. It was established 2,000 years ago.

It has been ruled by… “you name it, they ruled it!”

Square of the Weapons. 

There was so much fighting throughout the Balkans , especially during the Ottoman Empire.

700 years.  It ended in 1912 in Albania.

Venice was running Kotor for commerce. Albania fell to the Turks, but everyone else continued to fight. The ruler here allowed everyone to come and buy weapons, but they had to leave at a certain time.

If anyone did the wrong thing, they were subjected to public humiliation in the square.

Baroque palace. 

With all the money flowing into the town from the weapons, 110 families became rich .

Pima family had the longest balcony here, apart from the Prince’s.

This family were extremely distinguished… poets, businessmen etc, but now they’ve died out.

This cathedral is the heart of Roman Catholic Montenegro.

Patron Saint of the town is St Tripun, a Greek teenager who was martyred in the 300’s for being a Christian. He had his head chopped off and everything.

It’s giving me Notre Dame vibes.

An earthquake scoring 7 on the Richter scale destroyed the town in the late 1970’s. It took them over 20 years to rebuild the Old Town.

They’ve done a very good job. This place is wonderful.

This little church was built in 1195 . It’s dedicated to St Luke.

Interestingly, Orthodox and Roman Catholic both share it, which doesn’t often happen.

3,000 souls are buried here. They were cremated before being interred here, with large numbers occurring during the Black Death.

After our guided tour, we had a couple of hours to wander around. Blogless Sandy wanted to climb a certain way up the mountain path to see the view over the city. 

Not being a mountain goat, I wasn’t filled with glee about doing this, but I knew I’d regret it if we didn’t go. She pointed to a spot on the map and we set off.

This is as high as we got. There was a man charging 15 euros to go higher.

It was my lucky day! No way we were going to pay that.

There are sections of the old wall that you can walk on.  We ambled along here, 

This is very much a tourist town, but as you can see, people still live here.

Here’s a close up of the city walls as they wend their way up to the top of the hill where the fort is. Two thousand steps were mentioned, but that seems a bit too few for me.

The town is squashed in between impossibly high hills, as well as the sea.

This cat statue is very appropriate. I’ve never seen so many stray cats as I have in the Balkans. They’re very friendly, though, and both stray cats and dogs are looked after.

We had a few minutes up our sleeve before we left, so we walked along the harbour.

I took this shot to show you the cliffs. The town is encircled.

After a 90 minute border crossing into Croatia, we arrived at magical Dubrovnik

This was our view of the Old Town as we drove into Dubrovnik.

omg. Can’t wait till tomorrow.

Our guide recommended a restaurant by the water.

It was a glamorous way to celebrate reaching Dubrovnik.

Dad joke of the day:

Well, what a fizzer!

We have 2 nights in Budva, so today we went on an optional excursion to Lake Shkoder for a boat trip. We were there yesterday, you might recall.
Here’s how it was advertised in our itinerary:

Optional Activity: Virpazar Traditional Villages, including a boat ride to Shkoder Lake
Virpazar is a gateway to Skadar Lake National Park, offering boat tours that explore traditional villages like Karuch and the lake’s unique ecosystem with a wide variety of birds and water lilies. The boat trip includes scenic routes through narrow channels, visiting historical sites such as the medieval Kom Monastery or Lesendro fortress. A boat ride, park entrance and transportation are included

Reading this, it sounds like it would be worth 40 euro.

It was an absolute rip-off.
Nearly 40 people were crammed onto this little boat. We went out onto the lake, did a big circle…

… slowed down to view this monastery (I assume.) We had absolutely no commentary from the driver.
We then completed the circle and were dropped back off at the town.

Where were the traditional villages? Where were the “scenic routes”?

We paid 65 AUD for an hour long circle on a lake.
Sixty five dollars! We didn’t even get a sandwich and coffee for lunch. We had to go and buy our own.

I wasn’t happy. Tripadeal will be getting a sternly-worded email when I get home. The thing that stings is that this was a newly added trip that we had to pay for in cash. I wish I had my time over again. People were saying that you can get a 2 hour boat trip, exploring 3 caves, for 15 euro back in Budva.
TripaDeal need to change their provider, pronto.

The Balkans are littered with ancient forts. I saw this fort as we were headed out to the lake, when we were still naive and full of hope that we’d have a good day. Blogless Sandy made sure to get a snap on the way back.

Me? I was having a Power Nap.

Yesterday, when we were standing on the top of the Old Town walls, we saw people walking along a path winding around the cliff base. It seemed pretty popular, so we decided to follow suit.

We found The Ballerina. Isn’t she marvellous?

It didn’t hurt that we also had an absolutely wonderful view of the Old Town behind her.

The rock formations of the cliffs were so pretty, like a Sara Lee pastry in that old ad.

”Layer upon layer upon layer.”

The path ended at another beach, but just before then, there was a rocky outcrop right at the water, where a few people were sitting, enjoying the sun.

I sat there, gazing out at the Adriatic Sea. Soon, Blogless Sandy joined me, and we sat chatting with a nice Irish man who was here on holidays with his brother.

After a while, we were joined by some local boys.

School was out for the day, so why not? What could possibly go wrong?

We walked back through the Old Town, intending to have a Quick Look before getting dinner out in the town.

But then,

we saw another little ballerina outside an ice cream shop.

We sat down and had a drink. We became at one with our chairs. We ordered dinner – a marlin salad with wine. Delicious!

Parents with their phones.

More phone work.

Oh no! Clouds.

We’re bracing ourselves for a cold snap that’s on the way. We have Dubrovnik tomorrow, so fingers crossed we get to see it in sunshine…

but yeah. I’m still salty about getting ripped off by that boat trip.

Dad joke of the day:

We were at the border crossing between Albania and Montenegro. The Albanians told the bus driver that they would have to make him take out all the suitcases for them to inspect before we could go through.

They were after a bribe. They got it.

When someone on the bus expressed surprise, Jake shrugged and simply said, “It’s the Albanians…”

We saw this pretty couple on our walk through the capital city of Montenegro. It was a dull place, with it’s only redeeming features being this sculpture…

… and this old bridge.
When Montenegro was part of communist Yugoslavia, they ripped down all of the interesting old buildings, just as they did in Albania.

It’s a city with many communist-era buildings like this. It’s not really worth the effort to go.

However, on our way out of town, we stopped for 30 minutes at Lake Skadar. It was very pretty.

As we continued driving, we saw our first glimpses of the Adriatic Sea.
Italy is just beyond the horizon.

One lucky bugger was paragliding. Remember when I signed up to do that in Borneo and it didn’t happen?

Finally, we arrived at the very fashionable town of Budva. As soon as we checked in, Blogless Sandy and I hot-footed it down to Budva Old Town.
It was fabulous.

The old city walls still surround the town. It has been here for around 2,500 years and the sense of history is palpable.

The streets are labyrinthine, curving in around each other. It covers quite a small area, but it certainly fits a lot in.

We entered by a side gate.

This place. Is filled with restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and bars.
It reminded me of Venice, in that it’s impossible to take a bad photo here.

The whole place is designed for photography.

We walked around, taking everything in.

Then we realised we’d walked the length of the town. Here was a side gate, leading out to the sea.

I dipped my hand into the Adriatic Sea.

Our next quest was to find the citadel and walk on top of the city walls. When we were on the beach, we could see people up there.

Look at how this tree is growing from a crack in the cobblestones.

Up on top of the walls.

The afternoon was simply perfect, even though my expression might not make you think so!

All of the roofs have the same terracotta tiles, which ties everything in together.
Beyond the terracotta, the modern world.

We decided to treat ourselves and have dinner in this beautiful space, instead of walking back into town to look for something a bit cheaper.
Aft all, when are we likely to be back here again?

(Well, we’re here in Budva for another night; but you know what I mean.)

We had dinner here, and it was very nice. I didn’t realise until I was going through my photos, but I took this shot almost as soon as we arrived in the old city, because I liked the writing on the guy’s top.
We ended up eating dinner at the empty table in the foreground of the photo.

As we left Old Town to walk up the hill to our hotel, I looked back.

There was another paraglider, high in the air.

How lovely!

Dad joke of the day:

Albania has always been occupied by larger powers as it occupies a strategic position in Europe. From the Greeks to the Romans to the Ottomans to the Nazis to the Communists… it’s been like a revolving door of oppression.

After WWII, Albania was like North Korea. Until 1991, they were in a communist dictatorship.

They were totally isolated from most of the world outside the communist bloc.

The communists destroyed everything that remained of the Byzantine and Ottoman buildings. There are only Italian Fascist and Communist remaining, which, when combined with the modern buildings now being built is interesting. Still, when you hear of the old Byzantine markets being destroyed in the 1950’s because Khrushchev made a visit… it’s a shame.

This duo of squat blue blocks is called the twin towers. They were built after 9/11. Make of that what you will.

I was walking with the local guide and I asked about the wars Albania has gone through. Then, we saw this guy walking ahead of us.
“Oh. Do you think he would have been a soldier?” I asked.

”Probably,” he replied.

A Catholic Cathedral dedicated to St Paul was our first stop. Mother Teresa is also venerated in this country, as after she left for Calcutta, her mother and sister moved here.

It wasn’t a smart move, as soon after they relocated, the communists banned all religion from Albania. Mother Teresa was never allowed to see her family. They suspected that she was religious, so the government refused her many applications.

She was an absolute cow to her patients in India, denying them pain killers because “It was God’s will that the poor should suffer”, but I did feel for her being unable to see her family ever again because of a regime change.

Albania was officially atheist during 1967 to 1991. Over 2,000 churches and mosques were destroyed. Anyone caught practicing religion would be jailed.

Nowadays, it’s very easy going. For example, the country is 70 % Muslim but only 7 % practice. Our local guide is orthodox Christian, and is married to a Muslim. They celebrate Christmas, Ramadan, Easter…. It’s all good.

This is one of the few Muslim countries where it’s ok for people to enjoy a raki (like grappa: but stronger) with their coffee without it being an issue.
Honestly, isn’t that how it should be?

Albanian is considered one of the oldest languages in the world. It has no relatives anywhere. It’s thought that it is derived from the tribes of the Ilan people, who were cut off from everyone else, back in the day.

Written Albanian was forbidden to be used by the Ottomans for over 500 years. It’s quite amazing that it survived.

North and South Albanian dialects are very different. Sometimes they need translators to understand each other.The southern dialect is the official one.

There are bunkers all around the city, because during the Cold War the government was paranoid. They were sure that the great powers of the USA or Russia would invade, so they started a program ensuring there’d be enough bunkers for the whole population.

There are also tunnels between the government buildings, for the same reason. Nowadays, they are museums. This is the ceiling of the bunker we saw.

A few fun facts about Albania:

1 coffee shop for every 108 people.

Albanian is part of NATO, but is regarded as one of the poorest nations in Europe.

500 euros / month is the minimum wage.

750 euros / month is average.

It’s an agricultural economy.

Tourism is number 3, and is rapidly growing.

1 in 4 civilians were spies during the Cold War. You know, like the Stasi in East Germany. Grim times…

Housing here is expensive. 1,200 euros per square metre.

150 years wages to pay for a 100 square metre apartment.

Florence is the most expensive city in Europe. Tirana is close to that.

Healthcare and education is free. That’s something, I guess…

Look at this!! The local guide and I were talking about North Korea, when we rounded a corner and there was a propaganda mosaic.
“ This is SO North Korea!” I said.

He chuckled. “Communist propaganda,” he said.

Unlike Macedonia, the Albanians only had ONE statue in the main square. He is their National hero.
Gjergj Kastrioti (also known as Skanderbeg; c. 1405 – 17 January 1468.

He was taken by the Ottomans after they killed his family. He rose to be a general under them, even gaining the nickname of Alexander The Great because he was so good at Generalling.

Later he escaped from the Ottomans and came back home. He joined the factions and started a resistance movement that fought against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years. A mouse fighting against a pride of lions.

But look at how the Albanians have honoured him. Not just with a statue…

This apartment block overlooks the square where his statue is, and it depicts his face.
That’s pretty cool.

We were there on a Sunday, so I don’t know if the vibe would be different during the week, but the city was buzzing. People were out enjoying the sun, eating out and generally having a good time. It was a pleasure to be there.

The inner part of town was alive.

I guess Pokémon is international.

On the way to our evening stop, we saw Rozafa Castle. It was originally built by the Ilyric tribe 2,000 years ago, and then subsequent invaders kept it going.
The legend is that the castle was bing built by 3 brothers. Unfortunately, the walls kept crumbling.
They sought help from a holy man, who said that one of their wives needed to be sacrificed and buried under the walls for them to stay strong.

The oldest two princess told their wives to stay away from the castle, but the youngest one forgot to mention anything to his wife about this disturbing prophecy.

The next day, his wife and toddler son rolled up to the building site to bring her husband’s lunch. Big mistake.

When a mob surrounded her, baying for blood, she accepted her fate, but asked only these things:

That she be left with one eye, to look upon her baby boy.

To be left with one breast, to be able to feed him.

To be left with one arm, to cuddle her son.

To be left with one foot, to rock his cradle with.

It’s one of the first legends to describe sacrifice for the common good. Though to this day, it’s reported that the inside of the walls run with breast milk…

We went out to the pedestrian precinct for dinner, and we had a lovely meal. It was bustling, and alive with music, local families, tourists, stray dogs, and food thieves.

YES! We were sitting with a couple from Sydney and an old woman came up, started ranting at them and then swooped in and stole one of Carol’s cabbage rolls off her plate and ran off.

The waiter said she is a local woman who lives with her family but is insane.

We also had a couple of child beggars coming up to our tables, asking for money. That was sad.

Tomorrow we leave for Montenegro.

Dad joke of the day:

There is a downside to staying in a hotel close to a mosque, in a room that doesn’t have a plug low enough to plug a kettle in.
It was 4 AM, when the mosque started up again.We started laughing and gave up trying to sleep.

The internet at the hotel wasn’t cooperating yesterday, so I was frantically downloading the photos for yesterday’s post while most people were off the internet. Meanwhile, Sandy REALLY wanted a coffee.

What could she do?

There’s always a way around everything!

This country is officially called North Macedonia, but everyone drops the first word. The reason ‘North’ is there at all is that Greece has a region called Macedonia, where Alexander the Great came from. So when Yugoslavia fell, they objected strenuously against Macedonia being used. In order to get into the United Nations, a compromise had to be found.

Though a few years ago, just to rile the Greeks, Macedonia put up a statue of Alexander the Great.

Classic trolling.

The plan for today was a free morning, grabbing lunch before jumping on the bus for a few hours drive to Ohrid. Sandy was googling and planning while I was blogging, so our morning was productive.

Here is the Alexander the Great statue, with Blogless Sandy helpfully standing at the bottom to give it scale.

Skopje is a city that likes a sculpture. Our bus driver is from here. As we were driving in yesterday, Jake said, “Our driver doesn’t have a statue of himself in the city… yet. Just give it two or three years and he will have!”

There was also a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, like in Pyongyang.

Here we are posing on the Bridge of Civilisation, which has lots of ancient Greek guys on it.

My jeans are rolled up to try and stop them getting wet. I gambled that the rain wouldn’t come, and although it was spitting, the rain held off. As I’m wearing merino again on this trip, that made me happy. Smelling like a wet sheep isn’t great.

We’ve noticed many stray dogs here. They appear to be well fed, which is surprising, given that this country is heavily Muslim. I remember in Zanzibar that dogs were never to be seen.

It was nice to see this kennel.

The Art Bridge is way famous. It’s lined with artistic Macedonian guys from all branches of the creative arts.

Unfortunately, some of the plaques have come off. I don’t know who this man is, but even as a statue his gaze sees right through you.

This one was cool. Swishing his arms around like that.

Action shot.

Zoom in on his little pointy shoes!

Meanwhile, the artistic women were chucked up on top of a building…

Mother Teresa was born here. There’s a Mother Teresa House here, but I’m not terribly interested in a woman who denied medicines and pain killers to sick people because it was god’s will that they should suffer. These quotes are all you’re going to get, I’m afraid.

The ancient fort was built in the 6th century. From the outside it gives Tower of London vibes, with the old stone walls within a bustling modern city. I didn’t go inside. By all accounts it hasn’t been well looked after, so it’s not worth seeing.
I’m sure when they get sick of making statues – or they run out of room – they’ll get around to some restoration work here.

On the way back to the hotel, we bumped into Jake leading many of the group down to see the sights.

We were glad that we chose to see the city while it was uncrowded. I’m finishing this up while lying on my bed. I’ll have a short Power Nap before we check out and move onto the next town.

It was my turn for the window seat. It was a shame that I was so sleepy after our early morning call to prayer.

We drove over the mountains and they were wreathed in cloud. We stopped halfway for a toilet stop, and when we headed off again, practically the whole bus fell into deep sleep. I know I did. I was dreaming, and a couple of times I surfaced, realising that my mouth was wide open, which is a sure sign that you’ve been sleeping sitting up.

When Jake woke us all up, the sun was shining and we were 10 minutes away from the ancient city of Ohrid.

This place is a popular tourist destination for the area, with plenty of people from Serbia, Albania and Turkey wandering around. It was a Saturday, and I imagine in high season it must get packed.

This statue is a celebration of the activity they do here on the 19th January. Epiphany- the baptism of Jesus.

A bishop drops a wooden cross in the freezing water. Over a thousand young people jump in after it. The one who gets it will be lucky forever.

We began our walk into the old city at the waterfront, then moved up the hill, heading for the amphitheatre.

Along the way was the church of St Sofia. This one has a fantastic story.

St Sofia was originally built in the 11th century, but before this, there are ruins showing that 3 Christian churches were also on this site.

Underneath those ruins, there are the ruins of pagan temples. This has always been considered a holy place.

It’s famous for its fresco paintings. These originate from the 11th and 14th centuries.

The Ottoman Empire changed the church into a mosque. Rather than demolish the church, they covered the frescos with white plaster, because mosques always have plain white walls.

It remained that way until after WWII.

An international team saved 60% of the frescos. Can you imagine how carefully they must have worked, chipping away at that plaster??

I really wanted to see those frescoes.

We were heading off, so I raced down to the door and snapped this. It was a tantalising sight, but I couldn’t linger. It was off up the hill again.

There are many pearl shops here. Our guide explained that these are hand made. They take a granule of mother-of-pearl, then coat it in many layers of a compound they make from fish gills. Each layer takes 45 minutes to day before they can add another one.

There are over 100 churches in the Old Town alone. This why this town is known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans. This is one of the smaller ones, built in the late 19th century and consecrated to Saint Barbara.

Wood fires…

… and an Hellenic amphitheatre. This pre-dates the Romans.It was built in the 3rd century BC by the Greeks.

When the Romans came, they kept it and used it for gladiatorial games.

When the Slavs arrived, they used it for public executions.

It was deliberately covered by the traumatised population and was forgotten about for centuries, until it was rediscovered in the 1970’s.

The original stones are below. The seats are new.

Church of Saint Jovan the Theologian at Kaneo. This, according to the local guide, is the biggest tourist attraction in the city. To be honest, I’m not sure why.

I would have thought that the thousand year old frescoes in St Sofia would draw the crowds. The views of the lake outside the church are very pretty, though.

On the way back down, we passed this stray dog. The strays here are beautifully mannered and are cared for by the community. When stray dogs are collected, instead of being euthanised, they are sterilised. That’s what the tag on its ear signifies.

When we got down to the harbour, I had great news. Instead of taking us straight back to the hotel 4 kms away, we were staying in town for 90 minutes for dinner and exploring.
I couldn’t see the frescoes after all! Blogless Sandy and I didn’t waste a minute.

Imagine being hidden for so long?

I took a video, but it wouldn’t upload no matter how many times I tried,,, and I tried a lot of times.

I guess you’ll simply have to go there yourself,

Then it was dinner on the waterfront, with a beer for Blogless Sandy and a pink gin and tonic for me, because that’s how we roll.

in a place like this, dinner by the water is practically mandatory, isn’t it?

Dad joke of the day:

This morning was a replay of yesterday. We headed off for a walking tour of the old town of Sofia, going back over much of what Todor and I covered yesterday.

The good thing was that we had 3 hours afterwards to see whatever we wanted, before we had to get on the bus and leave Bulgaria forever.

Before we separated, the group went through the Alexander Nevsky church (again.) It turned into being one of the funniest churches I’ve been in.

Look at the face of this guy.

Now look at Jake, our guide. He comes from Croatia, but he must have a great-grandfather who had a secret second family in Bulgaria.

He laughed when I said this. “ Who knows? It’s very possible,” he said.

A painting of a Tasmanian.
That’s an Australian joke.

Look at the strained expression on this poor little lion.

He’s holding up a lot of marble.

“Who farted??”

See? This church was hilarious.

As we wandered through the parks, there were lots of interesting sculptures.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, I’m partial to a sculpture or two.

As we were walking back towards where our meeting point would be, we saw the church of St George. It’s is a late antiquered brick rotunda in Sofia, Bulgaria. Built in the early 4th century CEas Roman baths, it became a church inside the walls of Serdica, capital of ancient Dacia Mediterranea during the Roman and Byzantine eras.[1]The early Christianchurch is considered the oldest building in modern Sofia and belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Here is a better view of St Sofia than the one I took yesterday. She is the patron saint of wisdom, which is why she has the owl perched on her arm.

Blogless Sandy wanted to go back through the Roman ruins, while I wanted to go back to St Sofia church and have a good look at the interior, without a funeral getting in the way. I also wanted a photo of the decapitated president.

Look at what I saw! What a great name for socks. 🙂

Seeing as the church was the furthest away, we walked there first.  As you can see, it doesn’t look terribly impressive from the outside.
the wreaths are from the equivalent of our Anzac Day from a couple of days ago.

Blogless Sandy visited it yesterday, but didn’t realise there was the crypt beneath it. So she prowled through the ancient graves, while I wandered around and drank in the beauty.

“ You went all the way to Sofia, and all you brought me was this lousy cross?”

Todor pointed this sculpture out yesterday.

The “decapitated” Bulgarian leader sculpture is a bronze monument in Sofia’s Kristal Park dedicated to Stefan Stambolov, a 19th-century Prime Minister known as the “Bulgarian Bismarck”. Unveiled in 1995, the sculpture features a severed head with a split, commemorating his 1895 assassination where he received 24 fatal knife wounds. 

I liked this view of the Russian church.

We wandered through the Roman ruins, both underground and outside. 

Blogless Sandy contemplating her own mortality.

Putting my foot over an ancient Roman mosaic floor was a bit of a thrill. 

Ancient water pipes for indoor plumbing in the 3D century. Amazing.

Remember the tiny church built on a hill with a dug out floor? This is the back of it. 

I liked this view of the mountains. Both modern and ancient people had the same view.

On the road again! Snow-capped mountains on one side …

… and a Smokey power plant on the other.

After a one and a half hour border crossing … no, I’m not joking … we were in Macedonia.

A charming thing we soon noticed was that there were poppies along the sides of the roads.

“When my mother was young and kids were sick, the adults used to grind up a few poppy seeds to get them to sleep,” said Jake. He also mentioned that Albanian has poppy fields for the heroin trade.

After we checked into our hotel in Skopje, we gathered in the foyer and walked 5 minutes to the old town, where we found dinner. Macedonia has its own currency and we were warned that it might be difficult to find a place that would take euros.
But we’re only in the country for a couple of days. I didn’t want to risk being left with money I couldn’t use. So we decided to risk it. After all, if all else failed, I had protein bars that taste of chocolate flavoured plaster board to fall back on.

The first place we asked, they were happy to take euros as payment. I mean, they’d be stupid if they didn’t. They’d be actively turning away business.

Again, dinner was lovely and pretty cheap. Nothing like the shock of Icelandic prices, thank god!

We walked back to the hotel with the wailing call to prayer from the local mosque ringing in our ears.

We went to bed and we’re just drifting off to sleep when this hit.

Honestly, all you can do is laugh.

Dad joke of the day:

After 30 hours of travel time – we made it! Blogless Sandy and I are in Europe.

Fortunate Frogdancer struck again. We arrived here mid-morning, with the official tour starting tomorrow, which meant that today was a free day. Todor, a Bulgarian friend I made on the Greenland tour last year, offered to show me around.
Speaking of Greenland, the cruise ship that has had the hantavirus outbreak is the same one that I went to Antarctica in 2022 and Greenland only last year. I guess I got lucky with the timing of those trips! Who knew?

Blogless Sandy headed off with Brian and Quinh, who were on our Taiwanese trip in March, while Todor and I jumped in his car and went looking for a parking space near the sights.

As we were walking along, he pointed out this building. It was originally like a Master Craftsman building, where if you are given the nod as being a skilled worker, you had to work on the building in some capacity to showcase your talents. Nowadays, it’s a bank.

We walked to the door and entered, only to be told by a doorman that we couldn’t come in. There was a bit of back and forth in Bulgarian, then Todor pulled out his phone and made a call. The doorman instantly changed his tune when he saw who came down the stairs to greet us.

We were shown some lovely period details.

The colours! The ceilings that were so high you could have fitted another whole floor in!

They seem to be fond of the gold leaf in this country.

Look at this stunning wisteria! The trunk was huge, so it must’ve been there for ages.

”You’ve chosen the right time to come to Sofia,” said Todor. I was pleased. It’s the first thing I google when I’m considering a place to travel to.

Sofia has lots of parks and trees, as well as plenty of paved squares for people to gather together. Like Melbourne, it has its fair share of graffiti. Blogless Sandy said that Brian said that if they cleaned the place up a bit and gave everything a fresh lick of paint, it would be a stunning city.

It has a lot of buildings that were put up in the late 1800’s, with that simple, classical design.

Not that this is an example of simplicity.

The first church we went into was the Russian church, with the fabulous name of The Church of St Nicholas The Miraclemaker. It’s a Russian Orthodox Church.

It had art everywhere, covering the walls and ceilings. The lighting was dim, but maybe that was the fault of the day being a bit overcast.

It’s a bit hard to miss this cathedral… the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. He was a Russian saint who defended the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Catholics in the 13th century. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire until very late in the game, with the city of Sofia being designated as the official border between the two brands of Christianity.

Consequently, Bulgaria has very few Catholic churches.

I’m sure Nevsky would appreciate this church being given his name. It’s a landmark – you can see the gold domes from our hotel room.

But for me, the pick of the churches was the one that the actual city of Sofia was been named for.

The church of St Sofia was built in the 4th century and is still in use today. There was a funeral going on when we were there, which is why I don’t have many photos of the interior. I want to come back tomorrow to really have a good look around. That brickwork is stunning.

It’s had a tempestuous history, starting off as Christian, then becoming a mosque in the 16th century before reverting back to the Christians in the 19th century.

However, the crypts underneath the church are interesting, with the work coming from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

The graves are all empty now.

Still pretty.

I took this video to show you how it felt being underground in the place where who knows how many people have been laid to rest, hearing the funeral being performed above my head. It was quite eerie and beautiful.

I was wearing the same ring back in 2015 when I touched Jane Austen’s writing desk.

A statue of Mercury.

A puppet in a shop window.

St Sofia in the middle of town.

Like in Rome, Sofia still has a flourishing water system from thousands of years ago. These fountains continuously provide hot mineral water, with people leaving big plastic bottles there so people can take some home.

Naturally, I took the chance to fill in my water bottle.

This is the very elegant bathing building for the hot springs, where you can almost see all of the Regency ladies moving in and out, taking the waters for their health.

The Banya Bashi mosque.

Luckily for me, they had a selection of head scarves out the front.

The acoustics were pretty good. I coughed, and the sound wasn’t lost. It must sound amazing in here when they’re preaching.

I’m really starting to struggle with jet lag, so the rest of this post will be brief.

A while ago, Sofia discovered the remains of the Roman ancient city when they were building a subway. The station exists side by side with the ruins, with archeological discoveries continuing to be made.

I love the way Sofia has accommodated the past into the present.

This little old church was built at a time when there was a law stating that a church wasn’t allowed to have a roof taller than a warrior on a horse. So rather than have churches where everyone had to crouch to fit in, they simply built them on high ground and then dug the ground out from under them, rather like digging for a basement.

There’s always a way around anything, isn’t there?

And to finish – a few murals.

Phew! Finished.
I’m getting really sleepy, but we agreed to go out for dinner with Brian and Quinh at 6pm. That’s only 20 minutes away, but with Melbourne time being 12:40 am, we’re going to struggle.

I hope I don’t face plant into my dinner…

Dad joke of the day:

Today Blogless Sandy and I parted company. She was keen to climb more steps on a hike near Taipei 101, the building we visited on the first day here. I wasn’t enthusiastic, but I was going to go with her until Mel said that she was going to get new glasses.

We’d had the option to do that in China but we didn’t do it. I’ve always looked on that as a missed opportunity, so I ditched Blogless Sandy, and a small group of us set out in search of a clearer world with sharper edges.

Getting new glasses fits nicely into my habit of buying useful souvenirs.

Most shops in Taipei don’t open until 11am, so we dawdled our way to the department store. We killed some time at Daiso, where I bought a squeaky toy for the dogs; a hair clip for Georgia31 for looking after them; a nonstick spatula to replace the one I bought in Pyongyang in 2018; and the perfect gift for Tom34 and Sophie. I can’t tell you what it is, as he may be reading this. I’ll show you a photo once I give it to them. It made me laugh.

Mel, being a millennial, had googled where to go to get glasses made on the same day, so we followed like ducklings.

I decided that I wanted everyday glasses, as well as reading glasses, so here I am walking around the shop, seeing if the lenses were ok.
Being a frugal person who still likes her reading glasses frames, I simply replaced the lenses on those.

Oh! See the lanyard my phone is hanging from? We were given these when we rode the Breezy Blue train. I’ve been thinking about getting one, so I was rapt.

Here are my new “everyday “ frames.

Everyone was sharing what they were doing on WhatsApp, so we shared too.

We walked back to the hotel and I did what I did in Copenhagen… I gave myself half a day to rest. I read the most amazing book… The Push, by Ashley Audrain, I napped and decided to write this post. In 2 days I’ll be back home, so I wanted to recharge my introvert battery before it all starts again.

A few things about Taiwan I’ve forgotten to mention:

1. The garbage trucks play music, just like our Mr Whippy trucks do. Imagine how many disappointed children of Australian tourists there must have been over the years.
2. Their attitude towards the Japanese occupation is very different to China and North Korea’s. Japan conquered the other two countries and treated them terribly, but Taiwan was ceded to Japan and was considered as fully part of Japan. For the 50 years that the Japanese ruled Taiwan, they invested heavily in infrastructure. The Taiwanese seem to regard Japanese rule as a mere fact, not a mortal insult.
3. People here are really open and friendly. Even though Taipei, for example, is a big city, it feels safe and welcoming.
4. The pedestrian lights here have that wonderful feature of letting you know how many seconds there are to go before the light changes. I wish they’d do this in Australia. It’s really handy.
5. It’s not as bad as in Japan, but there are not many public bins around. We’ve learned to be prepared to carry our waste paper etc around with us.
6. Food is incredibly important here. The department stores make more money from their food courts than they do from the actual things that they sell. People are constantly snacking. I have no idea how they stay so slim.

This photo was posted in WhatsApp, with the caption, “Look Frogdancer! An easy 600 steps to the top!”

I was so glad to be in the glasses shop when that came through. What a horrible set of stairs, I thought as I was happily trying on different frames.

Later, when Blogless Sandy came back, I heard the full horror.

There was no let up to the steps. No flat portions to give people a breather. It was 600 steps straight up. Even she said that if she’d known that, she probably wouldn’t have done it.

But she did, and said the thing that every fool who climbs up a crazy hill says.
“The view was worth it.”

We decided to give the night market a miss on our last night, and instead we went down a tiny lane close to our hotel, to a place Mel told me about.

She’d had beef noodles there the night before and said they were good.

Beef noodles is apparently the most Taiwanese thing you can eat. So far, I’d never had it, so being our last night, it was now or never.

This was beef shank with flat noodles and it was delicious. This bowl cost $120 NTD, or $5 AUD.

Afterwards, my little addict and I went back to the bubble tea place, where, after counting her coins, she was ecstatic to realise that she had enough coins left for another bubble tea tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport.

Dad joke of the Day: