KOSOVO, LITTLE MIRACLES Part 1

When we rented our car for our trip to the Balkans, the car rental company told us we could take it everywhere we wanted to go--except Kosovo, which is still considered a war zone. However, a few years ago when my brother-in-law Chris was on a work assignment for several months in Kosovo's capital city of Pristina, a native Kosovar named Inan translated for him and they became friends.  Chris contacted Inan and the two of them arranged a way for us to travel in Kosovo. What are the chances of all those pieces falling into place? It is a series of little miracles.

Inan and Chris

SKOPJE, MACEDONIA, Part 3

Skopje, like so many other large cities in the Balkans, has a large fortress that dominates the high point of the city. The first iteration was built during the 6th century, and later versions were built during the 10th and 11th centuries. It was partially destroyed by the 1963 earthquake and only recently restored, which accounts for the pristine appearance of the crenelations at the top of the wall.

We walked up to it from Macedonia Square in the evening, but it was closed. Too many attractions in Macedonia are not keeping Tourist Hours, something that needs to change as tourism increases. We did enjoy a walk around about half of the perimeter.

The Millennium Cross in the background.

MACEDONIA, Taxi Excursion Out of Skopje

Some young Germans staying at the same hotel as we were in Skopje suggested that we abandon the Vegas-like city center for a drive up the canyon to Lake Matka.  Bob also wanted to visit the St. Panteleimon Church, which overlooks the city from the top of Mount Vodno, so we figured we could combine the two excursions. However, our time was limited, and without a working GPS we were worried about getting everywhere we needed to go in a timely fashion. To be as efficient as possible, we decided to hire a cab for the morning. We covered quite a bit of ground over about a four-hour period and paid the driver $40. All things considered, it was a good investment.

We started by driving up the twisting, gut-sloshing road to St. Panteleimon Church, only to find that the church was closed until afternoon. One drive up that road could have been enough for me, but Bob decided we would return after making our trip to Lake Matka. (Ironically, St. Panteleimon is the Protector of Health.)

Supposedly, Lake Matka, a 30-minute drive from Skopje, is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Macedonia, but it was a ghost town (ghost natural wonder?) when we arrived on Tuesday, May 28th.

The dam on the Treska River at the front of the Matka Canyon . . .

 . . . forms a beautiful turquoise-colored lake bordered on both sides by towering cliffs. Note the low water line.

"Matka" is the Macedonian word for "womb." The still, enclosed water, humid air, and fecund hillsides do create a womb-like atmosphere.

SKOPJE, MACEDONIA

I grew up thinking of Macedonia as a region of the ancient world that was almost synonymous with Greece, and most of my exposure to it came through the many times it is mentioned in the New Testament. (See, for example, Acts 16:12, I Corinthians 16:5, 1 Thessalonians 1:8.)

To be completely honest--and I am really embarrassed to admit this--until we planned this trip I did not know that since it declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, there has been a country named Macedonia in the Balkans. In my defense, it's a pretty small country--about the size of Vermont. Also, there is some controversy over the name "Macedonia." Greece is ticked off about the use of that name as Greece still has a region named Macedonia, which includes part of the ancient Macedonia. See the green area below:

Many Greeks identify themselves as Macedonians and feel no connection to the Slavic people who are the residents of the country of Macedonia.

SERBIA: Parting Thoughts

To kick off this last post on Serbia, I will begin with a few of my favorite images from Novi Sad and Belgrade:

We saw only a two or three McDonald's the entire trip, and this may have been the only KFC, and we didn't actually see it, but we assume it was 250 m ahead as promised:

We passed the 35-story Genex Tower, also known as the Western City Gate, several times during our time in Belgrade. It was built in 1977 in the "Brutalist" style and has to be one of the most unique skyscrapers we have seen. That crazy rotunda between the two buildings is a revolving restaurant. We didn't know about this building when we were doing our planning, or perhaps we would have planned to eat a meal there. Now that would have been a unique experience.

SERBIA: VOJVODINA, Part 2

After our lunch we had a little time to walk around Sremski Karlovi, a small town of about 9,000  situated on the Danube. It was surprisingly quiet, perhaps because it was a Sunday afternoon and most of the residents are Serbian Orthodox.

SERBIA: Vojvodina Monasteries

Like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia still has some issues with what part of the country belongs to whom.  Montenegro, seen in the map below in the southwest part of Serbia, declared independence in 2006, and Serbia did not seem to object to much, even though it left them land-locked. It is interesting to me that in 1992, Kosovo had done the same thing, but with disastrous results: the Kosovo War, which led to NATO bombing the Serbian armies in Kosovo.

Kosovo and Montenegro shown on this map as part of Serbia

Vojvodina is a region of Serbia in the north that is similar to what Kosovo used to be (an autonomous province of Serbia). Unlike Kosovo, where the population was and is mainly Muslim Albanians and Orthodox Serbs, Vojvodina is both multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. And unlike Kosovo and Montenegro, it seems to be content (for now) to be a province of Serbia.

Vojvodina is the northern end of Serbia, shown here in pink.

As we left Belgrade and drove north, we traded mountains for rich, flat farmland edged with a polka dot border of red poppies: