Friday 10th May
At midnight, we crossed the Yugoslav border and were affirmed of the fact by an enormous guard waking us up to demand our passports in a very gruff voice. His sheer size was alarming. During the night we had passed through Macedonia, and early the next morning pulled into its capitol, Skopje, near the border with Kosovo. The countryside in Yugoslavia is very pretty. More lush, I think, than Greece. The houses are not square with flat rooves, but made of brick and plaster with red tiled sloping rooves.
About 8.30am our carriage filled up with people travelling to work, and I had this amazing conversation with a girl next to me, half in Serbo-Croat and half in German, because she knew no English. It was my first attempt at Serbo-Croat – I had chickened out with another couple an hour before – and was achieved with my head in the textbook most of the time and the girl writing down what I couldn’t understand. We got a little way with much laughter and gesticulation and I, at least, felt more confident.
The scenery is very much like Austria. Green and lush, lots of trees, houses which look pretty from a distance, market gardens, cows, sheep, pigs, and horse-drawn ploughs instead of tractors! I think it is a very poor land, judging by the farms and villages. The people wear drab, shapeless clothes, and headscarves. The old ladies, as in Greece, are often dressed in black.
Saturday 11th May
We dropped off some carriages along the way and picked up others,
so the train was eventually very long indeed, and too high off the ground to
get our luggage down easily. The third class sections filled up with many young
men dressed in green khaki uniforms all leaning out the windows, so that by the
time we pulled into Belgrade, the Hellas Express looked like a train from
‘Bridge over the River Kwai.’ The station itself was covered, and long enough
to match the train. There were a number of very tall men waiting around, not
thin, as tall blokes often are in Australia, but well-proportioned without
being overweight. Several taxi drivers standing on the platform asked Lyn if
she wanted a lift – notice, no one asked me; maybe they thought I was a local –
so we finally chose one, and were whisked off to the palatial Hotel Jugoslavia where we were waited on hand
and foot.
Although Belgrade looks a bit grotty near the station it is,
later on, a nicely laid-out city with wide streets, a big river crossed by many
fine bridges, and green lawns, shrubs and trees everywhere. This morning, we
went for a walk into town – about three kilometres – along the Sava River and
over one of its many bridges. Apart from the gardens along the bank, there was also
a large space of grass and woodland down from the hotel, and on this was staged
a military display to mark Europe's 40th Independence Day (8th May 1945). It was a huge
turnout. I haven’t seen crowds like it since Queen Elizabeth came to Australia
in 1970 and we went to see the fireworks. To make matters worse, many of the
locals are very tall and well-built, so for once in my life, I couldn’t see
over the crowds. There were jet displays with stunt flying, and red, white and
blur tail flares, missile exhibits. On the river zoomed speed boat tactics, tanks on
barges and pontoons. The land contents was a series of deafening explosions,
soldiers climbing up trees, radio controlled planes, tents and other equipment.
All this was accompanied by brass and military band music and a male chorus
that sounded for all the world like the Red Army Choir. There was dancing in
National Dress, too,
The city is cleaner than Athens and the buildings are nicer to look at, but to us it was still fairly drab. The older buildings have an interesting architecture and would look attractive with a bit of care.
Our planned tour of Yugoslavia began at the hotel at 6pm in
fine style: red carpets, room
service, chandeliers, beautiful blue and white damask table cloths and
serviettes. Drinks were followed by a speech from Saša,
our guide, and a four course dinner.
Menu:
Cheese and cured meat with bread.
Tomato Soup.
Skewered pork, beef and sausage, carrots, beans
and French Fries.
Chocolate layer cake with an uncooked meringue
topping.
I’m trying to eat half of everything so I don’t waddle off the bus when the tour ends. There are many Americans touring with us who can be, in some cases, overbearing. They think money can buy the world and the earth is America’s oyster. Joan and Don Taylor are a nice couple from Bendigo whom we have teamed up with. As with us, he works in a hospital.
Sunday 12th May
Today is Sunday and I haven’t been to church for three
weeks, which I regret. At eight we sat down to breakfast preparatory to two and
a half hour tour of Belgrade showing the old and new parts of the city. Belgrade
was extensively bombed during the war, and a lot of older buildings were
destroyed. “Belgrade” means “white city”, a name given to it because of the
white stone it was made of. Yugoslavia has had a long and checkered history. It
was settled by the Celts in the third century BC and then taken over by the Romans
in the second or third century AD. From then there have been Slavs, Turks,
Austrians, Germans, Hungarians and the modern people fighting for domination.
The history is long and complicated and needs a detailed study to understand it
correctly.
Belgrade is dominated in the new section by large areas of
parkland, un-kept, usually, dotted with huge housing complexes and sky scraping
offices rising out of the greenery. The parkland was once swamp which has been
filled in by sand and built on since 1948. In the older city are many large
public buildings and beautiful churches creating some interest in the otherwise
grey, straight streets.
The next stop was an interesting, if exhausting, hike to the
tomb of President Tito. This is a very sacred place for the Yugoslavs and they
come in large numbers to pay homage, often bowing before the simple white
marble rectangular tomb. There is a guard of four soldiers there 24 hours a
day, and the whole tomb, as we walked around it, was surrounded by beautifully
coloured, cultivated flowers. The effect is very nice and certainly reverent.
Tito obviously meant a lot to them. The hike, by the way, is because the tomb
is at the top of a hill in a densely wooded park. Since the weather is so humid
and the older members of our party so slow, I was pretty wacked going up and
down.
This evening we went to a lively and traditional area of the
city where crowds of people go to eat both traditional food and dishes borrowed
from other countries, inside or al fresco. Our restaurant was a lovely oak-panelled
room with frosted and patterned glass doors and soft romantic lights. Very like
something from the Orient Express. The band moved around the room, playing as
they went to various sections of our party, some of whom decided to dance. As
the band played, they often sung in rich voices and beautiful harmonies. There
was an excellent violinist, a guitarist, a dark ukulele, a double bass and a
piano accordion. All men. All the bands, inside and out along the cobbled
streets, were unamplified. Needless to say, the atmosphere inside our
restaurant, with the band and superb male singing was as near to heaven as I
could imagine. They sung fast, they sung slowly, loud and soft, mournful and
exciting. I was so wound up in thoughts and the spirit of the night that, when
the party rose to leave, I got such a surprize that I almost didn’t follow
them.
Menu:
Cheese, cured meats and polenta.
Salad, bread and sauerkraut.
Veal stew and red and yellow capsicum, with rice.
Apples stuffed with nuts, with meringue and cream.
We left the hotel at 9am and headed south west from Belgrade to Sarajevo where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held. Initially the fields were flat, cultivated by hand and horse-drawn ploughs, or occasionally primitive tractors. I don’t remember very much of the trip because I kept nodding off. Not because I was tired but because I was sitting in the sun and the bus was very comfortable.
During the last half of the journey, we passed through hilly country, and the road and the railway through the mountains near Sarajevo pass through tunnels cut into the rocks. When you consider that I’m used to seeing hills covered in dark Australian gum trees, the vivid green of these local trees was a striking contrast. The land is, apart from anything, very green, so different to home. Everything looks fertile. Among the hills nestle little towns with one, two or three storey houses and sloping rooves, very much like Austria. The difference is, again, that the people are poor and their houses are not terribly well kept. However, it is so green and relaxing, that I prefer it to the high rise dwellings in Belgrade. Notice how hay is stacked in tall, peaked domes, maybe six or seven feet high. Also note the many farm animals inside the rickety hand-made yards: cows, pigs, big black boars, chickens, dogs, ducks. Without the highways, these little towns and farms with their hand made buildings and fences, and especially the hand drawn ploughs, could be taken straight out of the seventeenth century.
The whole landscape is terribly pretty and scenic. Villages are set into the greenery of deep gullies and the caps of the distant mountains are snow-covered. In fact, there was still snow by the side of the road, although it had turned to ice.
Our hotel, the Holiday Inn Hotel, is even grander than the Hotel Jugoslavija in Belgrade. It is very modern with grand entry lobbies and stairs, even a series of small shops. The rooms have bigger beds than ours at home, with huge pillows, bionic showers that blast you with water – a bit violent maybe – and everything that opens and shuts. Even a fully equipped mini bar in each room.
Menu:
In one area of Sarajevo there has been, and still is, a heavy Turkish influence. Firstly you notice the mosques, but secondly, the dress of the women. They wear long skirts or billowy pantaloons down to their ankles and often little coloured slippers on their feet. While driving in, I saw a woman dressed like this drawing a wooden plow through a field – by hand!
Where was her husband?
Tuesday 14th May
The Serbian Orthodox church was founded originally in about the sixth century AD. It has been destroyed by fire several times since. Today’s edifice dates from 1730. Again note the beautiful interior with marble candle holders and many icons, like the Greek Orthodox. There are also small lit candles to offer prayer for the living and the dead. The atmosphere in the church, which was reverent and holy, was shattered by crowds of tourists, of which I, unfortunately, was one. The open markets were very interesting, and contained a lot of leather work and other traditional arts like macramé, copper work and wood work.
There are two drawly Americans behind me in the bus who express wonder and amazement at EVERYTHING and laugh at all the jokes from Saša, our guide, whether good or bad. I shall make a second determined attempt not to let them disturb me.
Joke 1: A JAT passenger jet was on its way across the Adriatic when engines one and two failed. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said the Captain. ‘All those passengers who can swim, please move to the right side of the plane. All those who can’t, please move to the left.’ Shortly after, engines three and four failed. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,' said the Captain. ‘Those on the right hand side, good luck! Those on the left, thank you for flying Jugoslav Airlines.’
Joke 2: An Irishman, an American and a Yugoslav were drinking and discussing the best thing that could ever happen to them. ‘Gorgeous girls and an endless supply of whiskey,’ said the Irishman. ‘Enough money so that I would never have to work again,’ said the American. The Yugoslav said, ‘A big black car drives up outside and shortly there is a knock on my door. I open it to find two large threatening men from the KGB standing there. “Are you Ivan Ivanovich?” they demand. “Not me,” I say. “He lives next door.”’
This unfortunate Ivan Ivanovich came in for a lot of teasing on the trip.
Late this afternoon we arrived in the Adriatic town of Dubrovnik, and are planning to hear a performance of the Four Seasons by Vivaldi after dinner.
