Category: Childrens Crusade Page 3 of 7

Italy to the Holy Land, and then on to India

Kosovo

On July 7, 2008

Got to Kosovo yesterday morning on an overnight bus, and am mostly recovering from the late night border crossings. Crossed from Bosnia to Serbia at about 2am; everyone got off the bus to smoke, and I urinated on the junkyard right next to the border. Then we piled back in the bus and tried to sleep for a few more hours, until we got to the Kosovar border.

On the Serbian side, which they don’t recognize as an international crossing, there is a small shack with two policemen and a tiny car. On the Kosovar side, there is a row of barbed wire, sandbags, and armored personnel carriers. The border is actually staffed by UN officials (the guy who checked my passport was Kenyan, and the guy who checked the bus for drugs was Bangledeshi), and the troops are NATO. They stamped UNMIK on a separate sheet from my passport, as there can be issues re-entering Serbia with what they consider this illegitimate stamp.

Got to Pristina and were dead tired from the lack of sleep and uncomfortable seats. Found a taxi driver to take us to “Pansion Professor”, a relatively cheap guest house. The driver agreed, as soon as his friend returned from an errand. Smelling scam, I backed away and started searching for someone else. But just then, another taxi drove up and produced a coke bottle full of gas. The driver poured it into his tank, and we were good to go.

There’s not too much to do in Pristina besides look at the UN buildings and try and figure out how to get inside. We did stop by where we think Chris Hammond works, but the guard didn’t believe our (admittedly shaky) story. Went out for Chinese food, as Hannah and I are bored by the Balkan standard meat, filo dough and yogurt combinations. Seriously, I have eaten so much yogurt. Yogurt drink for breakfast with burek, yogurt for bread dipping at lunch, and yogurt on top of veal burger for dinner. I love yogurt!

Today we took a bus to Gracanica, a Serbian enclave inside Kosovo, and the home of a 14-th century monastary covered in frescoes. I found it more impressive than the much more famous Giotto chapel in Padua. It is guarded by NATO, Swedes in this case, because there has been anti-Serb violence in the past.

Then we found a taxi to take us to the Gadime caves, which are not particularly spectacular compared to some of the other caves I’ve seen, but a welcome change from the church-mosque-museum beat. The stalactites all grow at strange angles, which is apparently something special. Our guide spoke “not so much” English, but was happy to tell us the same three things over again. Still, nice to be out of the sun and somewhere cool for half an hour.

For our afternoon in Pristina, we wandered to the Kosovar Museum, which has a great collection of pre-Medival finds from the area. Here, as in Israel, archaeology is profoundly political, as each side tries to find a historical basis to their claims. The museum captions were pretty one sided, but shows how the Illyrians turned into the Albanians at the fall of the Roman empire, and how they successfully defended the area from the Slavic “barbarians”. Sadly, the collection is mostly missing, as they transferred the best stuff to Belgrade for safe keeping from the NATO bombing campaign, and then the Serbs refused to give it back. There is a large poster pleading for help from the UN, which doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.

Hanging out at the hostel tonight, as Hannah and I feel pretty done with this place. Having a hobo dinner of pasta, tuna and weeks old pesto. One more bus ride to Nis, and then a train to Istanbul. The crusaders march on!

Stuck in Macedonia with the Turkey blues again

By Josh

On July 8, 2008

In Childrens Crusade

Due to our relative lack of understanding of the political situation, our best laid plans were waylaid this morning. Looking at a rail map, the best clear route from Pristina to the real rail network, and east to Istanbul is through Nis, a city in Serbia. At the Pristina bus station yesterday, I was told there wasn’t a bus to Nis, but I thought they meant that day, not ever. Finding a person who spoke more than a little english, we were able to piece together that the bus doesn’t go through that border crossing. My requests were something like asking to go from Jerusalem to Gaza on public transit, without understanding that it simply isn’t done. So, lesson learned, we took a bus to Skopje, Macedonia, from where we can catch a train to Nis and parts beyond.

Skopje is a stellar example of Communist architecture. The city was virtually destroyed in an earthquake in the 1960’s, and rebuilt in the style of the period, to the delight of architecture buffs, but probably the detriment of the citizens. The opera and ballet house has been described as just like the one in Syndey, except square. Hannah and I spent the day in our conspicuously clean but slightly creepy HI hostel, and ventured out after the heat of the day to find sustenance in the form of food, phones and internet. One down, two to go.

The Orient Express

By Josh

On July 10, 2008

In Childrens Crusade

Got up bright and early in Skopje, and prepared for our journey to the East. Our train to Nis departed at 6am, and was supposed to arrive at 11, in plenty of time for our connection to Istanbul. But thanks to the Macedonian rail service, we sat in a railyard for two hours, making our connection much tighter. Luckily, the connecting train to Istanbul was also late, so we had plenty of time to stock up on supplies (water, pretzels and chocolate, we weren’t brave enough to eat prepackaged train station sandwiches).

Our long ride to Istanbul involved two cabin switches, and some late night border crossings. The accomodations in the regular cars seemed fine, but the cars kept being disconnected from the train at the station, so we would be woken from our slumber and moved to another car. This is the reason to buy a sleeper, not because it is necessarily any more comfortable. On one of the swaps, I appear to have lost my cell phone, which made me angry more than anything else. I got another in Turkey, spending twice as much for a phone that is half as good.

We did have an interesting experience at the Bulgarian/Turkish border. They informed us, at 2am that we could no longer ride on the train because our car would be disconnected and there were only sleeper cars going to Istanbul. We got up to purchase sleeper seats, but just then the border guard took our passports. The train conductor demanded them minutes later, to allow us to upgrade our seats. We followed the man with the gun, deeming his access to our documents more important. However, he tired of us following him through the train, and told us to stay. Thus, we waited in the hallway for fifteen minutes, to be told that we could no longer loiter. We bought the sleeper supplement without documentation, by flashing some of our emergency cash, got a cabin that was only mildly more comfortable, and hoped we would get our passports back eventually. We did just before the train pulled off, as the Bulgarian guard greeted us with “friends!”, and we collapsed in relief. Of course, we were awakened minutes later to stand in line at the Turkish border for a visa, but this all went without a hitch.

Seven hours later, we pulled into Istanbul at Sirecki Gar. Tired, smelly, and finally in Istanbul.

Istanbul

By Josh

On July 10, 2008

In Childrens Crusade

After arriving in the morning, we trekked to our hotel. It’s in the touristy backpacker zone, but a little bit away from the central madness. In an incredibly cute wooden house, on a narrow cobblestone lane. Dropped our stuff, and went out for lunch at a place of Hannah’s choosing, and she couldn’t have done better.

The rooftop terrace at DoyDoy (stupid name, excellent food), had an amazing view of the Blue Mosque. About halfway through our meal, which was a welcome change from the heaviness of Balkan food, the midday call to prayer began. While this was old hat to the other diners, who were mainly businessmen, we were pretty astonished. The warbling tones sound so similar to Jewish prayers, it’s a wonder we can’t all get along. Why can’t we focus on the things that unite us, like falafel?

Then we went to the underground cistern, which was famously used as a chase scene in From Russia with Love.

While there are walkways instead of just boats now, it’s still an amazing place. Just meters below the surface of the city, there’s a cavernous space supported by columns reappropriated from ancient temples. It’s dimly lit by red and yellow spotlights, and the arabic music adds to the ambience. Tried to get some pictures of the reflections, but without a tripod it’s darn near impossible.

Above ground again, we ventured into the Blue Mosque.

Hannah claims this is the most spiritual place she’s been, and I think it gives Notre Dame a run for its money. The dome isn’t as big as that in St Peters, but the airy design gives a better sense of the space. And because there are lights around head level, it brings things back to a human scale. The Ottomans certainly win this engineer’s admiration.

Had dinner at an excellent fish restaurant right near our hotel. Hannah sure can pick ’em, fancy cars kept arriving at the valet. I tried to get them to bring me their most expensive car for us to depart, but without a make and model they were unwilling to bring it around. Seriously, excellent fresh snapper makes me much happier than yogurt covered whatever. I could get used to this.

Istanbul

By Josh

On July 11, 2008

In Childrens Crusade

After waking up in our tiny bed, my admiration for our hotel is slightly diminished. However, the excellent shower and breakfast on the terrace overlooking the Bosporus begins to make up for it.

Went to the Hagia Sophia in the morning, which is the originator of the multidomed design. Because it’s older, it doesn’t have the grace and lightness of the Blue Mosque, but the sheer size of the place is still overwhelming. It’s near impossible to take effective pictures inside, as the central scaffolding for the perpetual renovation blocks the view.

However, I did get a good picture of this Jesus mosaic. You know what they say about a savior with large feet?

Big sandals.

After the Hagia Sophia, we followed our trusty Rick Steves book on a tour of the Grand Bazaar. In a quiet corner, we found Osman’s Carpet Shop, where Hannah and I both fell in love.

After seeing dozens of fine specimens, we each had our heart set on the first carpet we saw. Hers is a red and black prayer rug made for a baby on their birth, and mine is a blue nomadic design with orange highlights. I am now a much poorer man, but how else am I to furnish my abode with artifacts from my adventures? Besides, Harvey Keitel shops there, and I don’t want to mess with the Wolf.

After the Grand Bazaar, we walked to the mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent. Hannah wants to add that honorific to her name, but I’m not convinced it’s better than “Emperor of the East and the West”, or even “Supreme Allied Commander.” The mosque is actually under renovation, so it’s distinctly less magnificent than intended. However, the tomb of the sultan and his empress are both quite impressive, so we got a sense of his magnificense.

Had dinner overlooking the Golden Horn, which separates the new and old parts of the city. Again, the food astounds me with its lightness and simple but evocative tastes. On our walk home, we saw a whirling dervish, which only made me want to lay down. Sadly, Hannah had her camera stolen on the tram, which made us both want to kill someone. However, at least it wasn’t money or her passport. She will just have to endeavour to go back to Paris and recreate all those arty shots of La Tour Eiffel.