For the first time I find a quiet moment to write a little post. Probably I was mistaken and naive in thinking that it would be easy to feed this blog frequently. Finding an internet access which actually works at a decent speed is tricky. For now I cannot fulfill my promise and post pictures. It would just take forever and be expensive. I hope I can do that back in Tachkent when I’m at the embassy.

What has happened so far?

I arrived with my mum in Dubrovnik about two weeks ago. This old fortressed city surrounded by the sea was even more beautiful than I imagined. The old town (stari grad) is a gem with it’s picturesque narrow streets and numerous churches (which often have been modified into art galleries etc.) Yes, it is a touristy place, the Croatians are by now professionals and know their business. Still, I enjoyed the very early morning hours when the city was deserted. The sea was awesome, sparkling clear turquoise water, no sandy beaches just rocky cliffs. We visited several old monasteries and went to a little island named Lokrum nearby.

Then we made our way to Montenegro. The bus trip was neverending due to problems at the border. Montenegro is a funny place. Although still far from being in the EU, they have already decided autonomously to introduce the euro. The bus trip along the only mediterranean Fjord to the town of Kotor was magnificent… medieval fishing villages and monasteries/churches on little islands in the sea. Although our accomodation was great with a great view on the Fjord I was however a little disappointed of Kotor, which has also a nice fortressed old town, but is for the rest a loud and dirty place. Maybe it was not the right moment, because there were crowds of local tourists. The same night of our arrival there was a big carnival going on, which was fun to watch though – also coming from Cologne I need to say that I was impressed.

Another highlight was the time spent with my Italian friend, Elena, and her boyfriend, Francesco, who also came over from Croatia. One morning we did a great hike together into the mountain to the fortress overlooking the entire fjord.

The same day we set off to Bar, another town on the Montenegrean coast. From there my mum and me took the overnight train via Serbia to Sofia. This trip would need a chapter on itself, for it was a real adventure. Due to a lack of time just a summary: the trip Bar – Nis is one of the most beautiful train journeys I ever made, past the spectactular black mountains (crna gora) – now you know why the country is called Monte – negro and also past the massive Skudari lake which we literally traversed. The entire route to Belgrad has over 200 bridges and around 400 tunnels. In order to have a bed, my mum had to bribe the conductor. If there is something she is good in, then it’s that ;) Balkan mentality, some would say. How often did we hear that, if buses are not arriving, or all over sudden you have to pay additional fees for your luggage (which you obviously refuse) or when the train has a negligeable delay of 5 hours… it’s the Balkan, man!! We nearly missed our train to Sofia. All in all there is a huge difference between Montenegro and Serbia and e.g. Croatia. Especially in Serbia you can easily get a wrong impression, seeing it’s dirty, the mentality somewhat rude and sober, the local trains being towed only by diesel locomotives and not electrical. However short my stay was I believe you got to look behind the facade. And luckily enough I met the first Serbian ever in the train who spoke exceptional English and told me so much about history, the war, current problems in this country that I could not but modify some of my previous views on Serbia.

Having arrived in Bulgaria after a 5 years absence and seeing all the differences moved me immensely. I’m running out of time, so I will restrict myself to the following remarks: a few things are progressing, such as a brandnew airport in Sofia, new shopping malls and western standard for those who can afford it, but to be honest there was more that shocked me. The situation in the neighbourhoods offside the representative parts of the city are decaying, infrastructure on the brink of falling apart, very dirty and lots and lots of poor old people. Bulgaria has turned into the most materialistic country on this planet, the gap between rich and poor in my opinion can nowhere be felt so extremely. And then I was on the countryside in Northern Bulgaria. It made me sad. Everybody knows about urbanisation. But you see it in front of your eyes, that a once prosperous blooming village has been abandoned by all the young people, only old folks are left in my mother’s village of origine. 50% of the houses are empty, entire streets are overgrown by weed. And where Bulgarians have left often gypsies have taken over.

Nevertheless not everything was depressing. It was great to see my relatives, enjoy melons, grapes, fresh vegetables, rakiya…summa summarum the best food in the world is Bulgarian :) Then we did some history and culture. Finally I visited the old capital, Veliko Tarnovo. It was good to see that things are well preserved there and at least Unesco is doing its job. With my cousins we also went to Plovdid, and strolled through the old town and I caught up with Bulgarian history in the local somewhat forgotten history museu, where it looks like they have a visitor every two hours. We picked up old socialist books on the revolutionary uprising and found out how brave our forefathers fought for national independence and freed themselves from Ottoman rule.

I left my mum in Bulgaria and flew to Istanbul. Unfortunately this time the stopover was too short to go to the city centre. However I promised myself to do that on the way back. Well, and then a new episode started – my arrival in Uzbekistan. And this is worth another blog, but I will postpone this to my next time online, cause for now I’m simply overwhelmed by this entirely new world somewhere between orient, occident and sovietically impregnated.

ok, taking into account the title of this post, I will stop myself here stating only that I would need so much more time!!! Almolst every place I visited so far would deserve a lifetime in it’s own way… I rediscovered my own Balkan spirit feeling somewhat at home, even if things in this part of the world do not always work as they are supposed to and behaviours so often cannot be explained rationally – maybe that’s why it’s charming, no?