In cleaning and organizing my room today, I came across the journal from my last Slavic journey.
Mostly mundane notes and poetic doggerel, but I mentioned in the journal an email to bid me joyous travels from a fellow named Tercek I know. He offered, as I recorded, Flirt with girls who don't speak English, sleep in seedy hostels, and never ever grow up. Then, as now, I reply to him, Czech, check, and cheque.
First Routine:
Monday 24 May 1pm > Tuesday 25 May 1pm
ILM>PHL>LHR>BUD.
Tuesday 25 May 10pm > Wednesday 26 May 7pm
Budapest > Beograd [night train]
Staying at the 3 Black Catz Hostel in Belgrade for two nights (maybe three if I've got something planned).
In novel terms, the flights and Budapest would be offered as opening prelude; Belgrade is the first chapter.
· • ·
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Maps inadequate for the territory...
Not only is travel information about the FYR difficult to come by, but a number of "authoratative" sources outdated or just downright incorrect.
Lonely Planet's website still lists Kosovo as Serbia, and has a grand total of two paragraphs about the entire country (or, in their opinion, region of another country).
Wikitravel has rapidly become the most current source of info on the area, with some singular reports from individuals via CouchSurfing. It seems that travel by bus is quicker than train in a number of locales.
Thanks to the British Airways strike, my flight plans are pushed back from 20 May to 24 May. This effectively eliminates Budapest from a multi-day exploration, but it looks like I'll get into that chain-bridged city at noon on one day and I can take the nighttrain to Beograd the next day, so I'll have about 34 hours to soak in a Turkish bath, eat copious amounts of goulash whilst downing an inordinate amount of Tokaji, and watch the sunset (and the lights of the bridge blink on) from Gellért Hill, and, I suppose, sleeping for a bit.
In Beograd, I'll stay for a few days and, depending on the schedule of others, stay through the weekend or visit Bela Crkva and a friendly CouchSurfing host there. The return to Beograd will conclude meetings with folks there or head on immediately, again, depnding on schedule of others. Ideally, I'd have my meeting with Kusturica following this—which means train/bus down to Mokra Gora and his entho-village near there.
I'll reach Sarajevo once before Vidovdan, but I'll certainly walk the former Appel Quay that morning, something I've had a morbid fascination of doing for more than twenty years.
Destinations without specific timeline:
Sarajevo (first visit)
Mostar
Srebrenica
Višegrad
Jajce
Dubrovnik
Krk
Bar
Prishtina
Like to, but unlikely at this point:
Zagreb
Vukovar
· • ·
Lonely Planet's website still lists Kosovo as Serbia, and has a grand total of two paragraphs about the entire country (or, in their opinion, region of another country).
Wikitravel has rapidly become the most current source of info on the area, with some singular reports from individuals via CouchSurfing. It seems that travel by bus is quicker than train in a number of locales.
Thanks to the British Airways strike, my flight plans are pushed back from 20 May to 24 May. This effectively eliminates Budapest from a multi-day exploration, but it looks like I'll get into that chain-bridged city at noon on one day and I can take the nighttrain to Beograd the next day, so I'll have about 34 hours to soak in a Turkish bath, eat copious amounts of goulash whilst downing an inordinate amount of Tokaji, and watch the sunset (and the lights of the bridge blink on) from Gellért Hill, and, I suppose, sleeping for a bit.
In Beograd, I'll stay for a few days and, depending on the schedule of others, stay through the weekend or visit Bela Crkva and a friendly CouchSurfing host there. The return to Beograd will conclude meetings with folks there or head on immediately, again, depnding on schedule of others. Ideally, I'd have my meeting with Kusturica following this—which means train/bus down to Mokra Gora and his entho-village near there.
I'll reach Sarajevo once before Vidovdan, but I'll certainly walk the former Appel Quay that morning, something I've had a morbid fascination of doing for more than twenty years.
Destinations without specific timeline:
Sarajevo (first visit)
Mostar
Srebrenica
Višegrad
Jajce
Dubrovnik
Krk
Bar
Prishtina
Like to, but unlikely at this point:
Zagreb
Vukovar
· • ·
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Connections
In the past week, whilst hobbling around due to leg injury resulting from a hit-and-run, I have encountered a medical doctor who served as an intern in Bosnia treating refugees from the war, a pharmacist's assisstant who's family fled BiH at the beginning of the war, and a Serbian wandering beach bum who returns periodically to Belgrade to resume his infamous career as a club dj.
The strings of synchronicty are often sticky silken threads that lead one to another. A pattern is forming.
Sarajevo is calling.
How can I miss a place I've never been?
Or, as some who have me phrase that question:
How can I miss a place I've (seemingly) never been?
[-19 days]
· • ·
The strings of synchronicty are often sticky silken threads that lead one to another. A pattern is forming.
Sarajevo is calling.
How can I miss a place I've never been?
Or, as some who have me phrase that question:
How can I miss a place I've (seemingly) never been?
[-19 days]
· • ·
Monday, April 26, 2010
Preparing ourselves for the journey.
Ordinary facts are arranged within time, strung along its length as on a thread. Yet what is to be done with events that have no place of their own in time: events that have occurred too late, after the whole of time has been distributed, divided, and allotted; events that have been left in the cold, unregistered, hanging in the air, homeless, and errant?
Could it be that time is too narrow for all events?
Could it happen that all the seats within time might have been sold? Worried, we run along the train of events, preparing ourselves for the journey.
—Bruno Schulz
· • ·
Could it be that time is too narrow for all events?
Could it happen that all the seats within time might have been sold? Worried, we run along the train of events, preparing ourselves for the journey.
—Bruno Schulz
· • ·
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Slavic Proverb
Literally:
The church is near-
but the way is icy.
The tavern is far-
so I have to walk carefully.
but the way is icy.
The tavern is far-
so I have to walk carefully.
· • ·
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Excerpts from the ~Sarajevo Survival Guide~ (FAMA, 1993)
[As written (mostly) by Miroslav Prstojević. Originally published by FAMA; reprinted by Workman Press, NY.]
CLIMATE
Sarajevo's climate is very continental, with a short hot summer, when the nights are still cold due to the constant breeze coming from the surrounding mountains. Winters are rich with snow, from November until April. Snow has been recorded in August and in June--a fact which can be found in old Sarajevo chronicles. War so far hasn't changed the climate. The moon is still shining, the sun rises, rain falls, and it snows, too.
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN MALE
He has accreditation [ID], weapons, a good car, and a complete uniform. The owner of a bullet-proof vest is regarded with respect. One who doesn't wear a uniform has an ax in his right hand for cutting down trees, and a series of [water] canisters on his left shoulder. His image would be complete with a mask against poison gas.
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN FEMALE
She cuts wood, carries humanitarian aid, smaller canisters filled with water, does not visit a hairdresser nor a cosmetician. She is slim, and runs fast. Girls regularly visit the places where humanitarian aid is being distributed. They know the best aid-packages according to their numbers. They get up early to get water, visit cemeteries to collect wood, and greet new young refugees. Many wear golden and silver lilies as earrings, as pins, on necklaces.
Sarajevo is a city of slender people...wearing youthful clothes of teenage size. Sarajevans have lost about [8 million pounds]...They greet each other with--TAKE CARE!
TOBACCO
The tradition of famous tobacco from Herzegovina and more than a century of the existence and production of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory left a bad impact on Sarajevans. It spoiled them--people were used to the best cigarettes and tobacco for which special pipes, cigarette-cases and cigarette-holders were made.
Today, cigarettes are the biggest luxury and need. No one is quitting. You can buy them on the black market. Members of the army and of the police get them daily or weekly. There is no possibility of regular purchase. Matches too are to be found only on the black market.
On some markets you can find tobacco dust, which before served as a high quality fertilizer for plants and vegetables. Today, that dust is precious and hard to find. Tobacco leaves are even more expensive and very rare.
The most passionate smokers are smoking tea. They are drying chamomile, Swiss chard, leaves, and cut it into "tobacco." That tobacco is then being rolled into regular paper or daily [newspaper]. Filters are made of toilet paper which comes as a part of lunch packages. It seems to be easier to find a pipe.
BOOKSTORES
There are two that are working, and one "Book-Club"...in which the number and selection of books is rapidly diminishing. All the storefronts in the bookstores are gone, but no one has been stealing books. The storage of the biggest publishing house in Sarajevo is now in occupied territory. The destiny of those books is unknown. What can be seen is the growing interest for foreign books, and dictionaries. Everybody seems to be interested in the languages of the world. Price does not matter.
SOUVENIRS
The most desired are the shrapnel, which can be found everywhere: on the sidewalks, on the streets, balconies, apartments. Bullets are popular, but have a somewhat lower price. Some take with them food coupons. Other 'trophies' include war issues of OSLOBODJENJE [the newspaper], pedigree dogs, shoes made of snake-leather--excellent for running at crossroads.
GIFTS
A bottle of clean water, a candle, a bar of soap, shampoo, some garlic or an onion. Passionate love is being expressed here by a handful of wood, a bucket of coal, a complete edition of books that lack humor or poetry. Could you spare some Vladimir Illich Lenin? Last winter has proven that his books burn well.
RECREATION
Wear and Footwear
Everyone is in sports clothes, for they are warmer, more comfortable, and enable you to run quicker. Most of the members of the Bosnian Armed Forces wear deep white sneakers with the logo of Yugosport. Their uniform, at the beginning, consisted of jeans, [camouflage] ingeniously [improvised] of bright colors. Bulletproof jackets are very rare...Citizens renew wear and footwear by moving into abandoned apartments.
Walking
Six kilometers a day--that is the average for those who don't need to go very far. Some believe it helps to keep you in shape.
Running
That is the favorite sport, practiced by everyone in Sarajevo. All cross-roads are run through, as are all dangerous neighborhoods. One runs with stolen wood, to the line where others are standing. Something is for sale, and you will know [what] it [is] only when you join the line.
Rock-climbing
Urban rock-climbing is a compulsory sports discipline. Instead of adequate ropes, one uses sheets. Climbers [negotiate] distances between balconies, from higher to lower ones which are not yet reached by fire.
Soccer
Often played with soldiers of UNPROFOR. On the other side--Bosnian Armed Forces, police and professional city players who are still here. Games take place in the hall of the burned Skenderija. The game is hard, masculine, with lots of injuries. Foreigners lose here, as they always did.
Chess
Played on staircases, in basements and in shelters. Sometimes even in the chess club Bosna, which has a good and very expensive buffet.
Tree-cutting
An entirely new city discipline. Tools for this sport are an electric saw and axes, small and big. One gets trained by cutting, trimming, splitting, and piling wood on a balcony or in a room, where they don't suffer so much humidity. Wood is stacked in the bedroom, hall, living room, in the next apartment whose owners have left or disappeared.
GAMES
Cards
The basic mode of comradeship during the long winter nights. Takes place on staircases where it was the first possibility for frightened neighbors to finally meet each other. For those who know how to play and win, it becomes part of the survival-struggle. No one plays for money, but for a lunch packet, canned fish, a liter of oil--that is serious capital!
Billiards
Banned in the nineteenth century, today it is the favorite time-killer for the jobless, school-less people. Some of them might become world champions.
Pinball Machines
They work despite the electricity. Their owners learned how to solve that minor problem.
Children's Games
Counting of grenades fired on the city, trimming fallen trees, collecting bullets, shells...Exchange of collections.
Speed
Dismantling the parts of abandoned cars and taking them away, into "security." Rules of the game: as quickly as possible. No age limits.
Ladies' Talk
Exchange of war recipes: who can prepare the better meal made of nothing?
RUMORS
Rumors are the most important source of information. They spread with incredible speed and often mean more than news transmitted through the official channels. They regularly--"this time for sure"--report on military intervention, on the siege of the city being lifted, on establishing corridors and safe havens. And they are regularly, each time "for sure," wrong. Rumors are spread by all: housewives, university professors, teenagers, doctors. No one is immune. They travel the city quicker than you will be able to, and they are mostly optimistic. Only later you might hear opinions that they were too optimistic.
· • ·
CLIMATE
Sarajevo's climate is very continental, with a short hot summer, when the nights are still cold due to the constant breeze coming from the surrounding mountains. Winters are rich with snow, from November until April. Snow has been recorded in August and in June--a fact which can be found in old Sarajevo chronicles. War so far hasn't changed the climate. The moon is still shining, the sun rises, rain falls, and it snows, too.
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN MALE
He has accreditation [ID], weapons, a good car, and a complete uniform. The owner of a bullet-proof vest is regarded with respect. One who doesn't wear a uniform has an ax in his right hand for cutting down trees, and a series of [water] canisters on his left shoulder. His image would be complete with a mask against poison gas.
THE MODERN SARAJEVAN FEMALE
She cuts wood, carries humanitarian aid, smaller canisters filled with water, does not visit a hairdresser nor a cosmetician. She is slim, and runs fast. Girls regularly visit the places where humanitarian aid is being distributed. They know the best aid-packages according to their numbers. They get up early to get water, visit cemeteries to collect wood, and greet new young refugees. Many wear golden and silver lilies as earrings, as pins, on necklaces.
Sarajevo is a city of slender people...wearing youthful clothes of teenage size. Sarajevans have lost about [8 million pounds]...They greet each other with--TAKE CARE!
TOBACCO
The tradition of famous tobacco from Herzegovina and more than a century of the existence and production of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory left a bad impact on Sarajevans. It spoiled them--people were used to the best cigarettes and tobacco for which special pipes, cigarette-cases and cigarette-holders were made.
Today, cigarettes are the biggest luxury and need. No one is quitting. You can buy them on the black market. Members of the army and of the police get them daily or weekly. There is no possibility of regular purchase. Matches too are to be found only on the black market.
On some markets you can find tobacco dust, which before served as a high quality fertilizer for plants and vegetables. Today, that dust is precious and hard to find. Tobacco leaves are even more expensive and very rare.
The most passionate smokers are smoking tea. They are drying chamomile, Swiss chard, leaves, and cut it into "tobacco." That tobacco is then being rolled into regular paper or daily [newspaper]. Filters are made of toilet paper which comes as a part of lunch packages. It seems to be easier to find a pipe.
BOOKSTORES
There are two that are working, and one "Book-Club"...in which the number and selection of books is rapidly diminishing. All the storefronts in the bookstores are gone, but no one has been stealing books. The storage of the biggest publishing house in Sarajevo is now in occupied territory. The destiny of those books is unknown. What can be seen is the growing interest for foreign books, and dictionaries. Everybody seems to be interested in the languages of the world. Price does not matter.
SOUVENIRS
The most desired are the shrapnel, which can be found everywhere: on the sidewalks, on the streets, balconies, apartments. Bullets are popular, but have a somewhat lower price. Some take with them food coupons. Other 'trophies' include war issues of OSLOBODJENJE [the newspaper], pedigree dogs, shoes made of snake-leather--excellent for running at crossroads.
GIFTS
A bottle of clean water, a candle, a bar of soap, shampoo, some garlic or an onion. Passionate love is being expressed here by a handful of wood, a bucket of coal, a complete edition of books that lack humor or poetry. Could you spare some Vladimir Illich Lenin? Last winter has proven that his books burn well.
RECREATION
Wear and Footwear
Everyone is in sports clothes, for they are warmer, more comfortable, and enable you to run quicker. Most of the members of the Bosnian Armed Forces wear deep white sneakers with the logo of Yugosport. Their uniform, at the beginning, consisted of jeans, [camouflage] ingeniously [improvised] of bright colors. Bulletproof jackets are very rare...Citizens renew wear and footwear by moving into abandoned apartments.
Walking
Six kilometers a day--that is the average for those who don't need to go very far. Some believe it helps to keep you in shape.
Running
That is the favorite sport, practiced by everyone in Sarajevo. All cross-roads are run through, as are all dangerous neighborhoods. One runs with stolen wood, to the line where others are standing. Something is for sale, and you will know [what] it [is] only when you join the line.
Rock-climbing
Urban rock-climbing is a compulsory sports discipline. Instead of adequate ropes, one uses sheets. Climbers [negotiate] distances between balconies, from higher to lower ones which are not yet reached by fire.
Soccer
Often played with soldiers of UNPROFOR. On the other side--Bosnian Armed Forces, police and professional city players who are still here. Games take place in the hall of the burned Skenderija. The game is hard, masculine, with lots of injuries. Foreigners lose here, as they always did.
Chess
Played on staircases, in basements and in shelters. Sometimes even in the chess club Bosna, which has a good and very expensive buffet.
Tree-cutting
An entirely new city discipline. Tools for this sport are an electric saw and axes, small and big. One gets trained by cutting, trimming, splitting, and piling wood on a balcony or in a room, where they don't suffer so much humidity. Wood is stacked in the bedroom, hall, living room, in the next apartment whose owners have left or disappeared.
GAMES
Cards
The basic mode of comradeship during the long winter nights. Takes place on staircases where it was the first possibility for frightened neighbors to finally meet each other. For those who know how to play and win, it becomes part of the survival-struggle. No one plays for money, but for a lunch packet, canned fish, a liter of oil--that is serious capital!
Billiards
Banned in the nineteenth century, today it is the favorite time-killer for the jobless, school-less people. Some of them might become world champions.
Pinball Machines
They work despite the electricity. Their owners learned how to solve that minor problem.
Children's Games
Counting of grenades fired on the city, trimming fallen trees, collecting bullets, shells...Exchange of collections.
Speed
Dismantling the parts of abandoned cars and taking them away, into "security." Rules of the game: as quickly as possible. No age limits.
Ladies' Talk
Exchange of war recipes: who can prepare the better meal made of nothing?
RUMORS
Rumors are the most important source of information. They spread with incredible speed and often mean more than news transmitted through the official channels. They regularly--"this time for sure"--report on military intervention, on the siege of the city being lifted, on establishing corridors and safe havens. And they are regularly, each time "for sure," wrong. Rumors are spread by all: housewives, university professors, teenagers, doctors. No one is immune. They travel the city quicker than you will be able to, and they are mostly optimistic. Only later you might hear opinions that they were too optimistic.
· • ·
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