Sarajevo - revisited

We spent so much time watching the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s that its almost as if we are going back to a city we know. I remember the nightly coverage of people risking their lives just going to the market while Serb snipers tried to pick them off, the incompetence of the UN and the tunnel under the airfield that saved the city Nowadays the city has largely recovered its glory and is being rebuilt but the hills are white with the graves of 10000people who died in the siege.

The final photos in the blog are - the Latin bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and WWI started and A 'Sarajevo rose' caused by a mortar hitting the pavement.

Something not quite right

There is something strange about the new bridge. It should leave you breathless with its beauty but it doesn't. Apparently it will take 12 years to settle so may be its is just too new. There has been lots of rebuilding but there is enough war damage to give some idea of the hell these people went through. As does the cemeteries full of those whose lives ended in 1993.   Unfortunately the Christians haven't learnt much and have built a fuck-off cross on the very spot where the Croats shelled the Muslim part of the town. They have also built a new church with a spire that mimics the minarets on the other side of the river. The good news is that they built it so quickly and badly that it is starting to lean

Mostar the long way

'Go to Ulcinj you can get a bus to Mostar from there'
'No not Ulcinj you need to go to Budva, two hours up the coast'
'Yes there is a bus but it leaves at 8.30 and gets in at 3am'
By now we were knackered so decided to stay a night and try again next morning. We were assured, and we checked with 3 different people, that there where lots of buses to Mostar from Hercog Novi. So we took the 4 hour ride along the coastal car park that in Montenegro passes as a road. We arrived at 4.30 and found that a bus left in an hour. According to the Lying Planet guide book it would get us in at 9pm. Great, the timing was perfect. Just one thing wrong, instead of continuing north into Croatia the bus was going south. After some frantic map pointing with the conductor he got me to understand what to him was obvious - this bus became the 8.30pm Mostar bus from Budva. We had spent the whole day on buses just to end up where we started from.

Sometimes you have to accept your fate so we found ourselves dropped off on the Mostar by-pass at 3am. The other passenger who got off the bus beat us to the only hotel and grabbed the last room. We had no choice but to walk down an unlit dual carriageway into Mostar, arriving just in time to meet all the pissed kids spilling out of the local club. When we eventually found the only open hotel, at 4.30am, we walked into a Bosnian wedding in full swing.

We had taken 16 hours to travel 120 miles. We also had had two bus breakdowns, a broken seat, no loo breaks and 8 hours sitting next to a Bosnian who spent the time showing me his porn collection stored on his mobile

We love Albania

A walk across the border, a lift with some workmen and we were in Albania. All our preconceptions were wrong. Since Hoxha's government fell Albania has had the pyramid selling disaster that saw most Albanian's lose all their savings, riots which included looting most of the army's weapons and a increase in blood feuds after the elders allowed people to use contract killers instead of having to do the revenge killing themselves.

What we found was people who are delighted to have visitors (and their cash), miles of unpopulated and unspoilt beaches, stunning mountains and a country that is changing fast.

We spent our first night in Gjirokastra, a stunning Ottoman town under a great brooding castle. If it was
anywhere else in Europe it would have been full of tour coaches and groups with badges following a guide with a flag. Here, there was just us, a Scottish couple who are touring Europe on motor bikes and men playing backgammon on pavement tables

Travel was easy, just stand by the road and flag every vehicle that passes. Eventually you will get a lift in a bus, furgon (minivan), taxi or even private car. Once a suntanned wiry little Albanian in a beaten up car stopped and said 'would you like a lift' in a perfect, plummy English accent - apparently he had read Economics at Kings College Cambridge.

In places Albania looks like a massive building site.  There has been some sort of land distribution but to try and ensure ownership people build a two story concrete frame. They cant afford to complete it so they live in a shack on the first floor while they wait for money or a developer.

In addition to being the only place on the planet that Bush can get a friendly welcome Tirana is a fascinating mix of 3rd and yuppy worlds. Blloku used to be reserved for the Communist hierarchy but is now full of expensive, trendy bars and restaurants and the roads chocked with Mercs and Porches.

Of all the places we went to in Europe this is the one we will come back to.

Greece - sand, sea and the dangers of sailing

Like most of the passengers we thought the overnight Brindisi-Corfu took 8 hours and a cabin was a good idea. So the 3am arrival came as a bit of a shock. Some people in the bar had a waiter tell them not to bother going to bed because he was starting to wake people up.

Corfu Town at 3am is not much fun especially with a port full of depressed, pissed Liverpool fans lost on their way back from the cup final

Stayed in a lovely, very cheap apartment (93 pounds for the week) with a beautiful pool. It was very quiet, surrounded by countryside but only 5 minutes from the beech and bars. Spent a week doing very little, playing bingo, pub quizzes and watching pirate versions of Pirates of the Caribbean

Met our sailing friends in Lefkada Town. Lovely to see them all again and to be with a crowd. The sailing was lovely, jumping off the boat into a deserted bay is always a highlight, although having to swim round the occasional turd concentrates the mind and takes the edge off the fantasy of the perfect Greek island bay.

It was less eventful than other trips having realised it is a good idea to tie the boat up when you leave it in a storm. But Admiral Bob did manage to provide an entertaining evening by crushing his finger in between the wheel and the boat.

WARNING - the following photo may upset some people. It really is the offending finger and has nothing to do with the Roman items in the Napel Musuem's Secrete Room