Day 11 - Sunday 7 April 2019 - Vienna

Another beautiful spring day, really pleased I brought a new coat and cold weather gear for this trip.

Today I decided to do the free walking tour as recommended by Lonely Planet.  The tour was led by a delightful young Hungarian girl by the name of Regi.  She is a uni student studying international politics.  We visited a number of the interesting sites on both the Buda and Pest sides of the Danube.  These tours are promoted as free.  The way it works is that at the end of the tour you pay the guide what you think it is worth, technically you could walk away without paying anything although I doubt that many would.

Our tour guide, Regi

Neither a castle or a mountain, but they call it castle mountain

Parliament across the Danube

Hungarian soldier guarding something

Fisherman's bastion, guarding the Danube

We went up the stairs!

During the tour Regi mentioned the famous Hungarian soccer (football) team of the 1950's.  I told her that I came from Melbourne Australia and that we had the Olympic games there in 1956.  As soon as I told her that she immediately said that she knew of the 'blood in the water' water polo match between Hungary and Russia at the Olympics.  She said that the Hungarian water polo players from the 1956 olympics are still national heroes in Hungary and there have been many books written about them and movies and documentaries made about them.

As a bit of background to this.  Russia occupied Hungary at the end of the 2nd WW and in 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary against the Russian occupiers, this uprising was brutally put down by the Russians with the loss of many Hungarian lives.  So you can imagine the feelings of the Hungarian water polo players when they came up against the Russians at the Melbourne olympics.

I realised today that I haven't had much of a whinge about anything, well, cobblestones are still giving me the irrits, there are lots of touts around the town flogging various touristy things but they are more an irritation than anything else, but so far nothing serious to complain about.

For dinner tonight I went to a 'traditional' Hungarian restaurant and taking Flashy's advice on board that I have been eating too much pork I had roast duck, with potato rosti and a mountain of red cabbage, and it was all delicious.  (I asked the waiter if the duck was wild, he responded 'well he wasn't very happy when he was put in a hot oven sir', crikey we laughed).

Anyway, at this particular restaurant was a traditional 'gypsy' orchestra, 2 violinists, a cello and a bloke playing a stringed instrument that he hit with little hammers.  The lead violinist wandered around the restaurant playing at the various tables and asking for requests.  He asked me if I had any requests and I said yes, go away!  He asked where I was from and I told him Australia, he went back to the orchestra and they started playing, you guessed it, Waltzing Matilda.  They had the tune right but weren't too good with the words.  After wiping away a sentimental tear and thanking them profusely (and buying a gypsy music CD) I headed off into the night and back to my hotel.

Fun facts:  1) I reckon that I have taken more photos here than I have taken in any other European city.

2) Waltzing matilda is not played in waltz time, as some of the Europeans pointed out to me last night.

Number of Steps: 10,713 at 4.09 pm.  About 6,000 of these steps were going up the hill to the palace precinct and coming back down again.  Do I hear you say, 'Graeme, how are your dodgy knees and ankles holding up'? Thank you concerned reader for asking but they are holding up OK.  

Observations: Lots of ladies and gentlemen in town for bucks and hens parties.  Cheap airfares have ruined Europe.

Days 9 and 10 - 05 April 2019 Sarajevo to Budapest and 06 April 2019  Budapest

I have decided to combine Friday's and Saturday's blog as Friday was a disaster and doesn't deserve a mention of its own.

Lets get Friday out of the way.  First of all my flight from Sarajevo to Vienna was delayed by an hour meaning I missed my connecting flight from Vienna to Budapest, which meant I arrived at my hotel at Budapest at 11.00pm instead of 6.00pm.  No worries I thought, quick check in quick unpack and still time for a beer in the bar, but oh no, my lock on my suitcase was jammed shut and I couldn't open it.  I took my still fully packed suitcase down to reception and there the nice young night shift guy, the security guy and myself tackled the lock with knifes, scissors and other implements of mass destruction until we forced it open, but stuffing the lock in the meantime, which means buying a new suitcase here in Budapest.  When you have got some time to spare ask me about my adventures at Vienna airport.

Anyway, on to Saturday, breakfast in the hotel, again a mixture of cooked breakfast and European cold cuts, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, pickled herrings and some things that I couldn't quite identify.  Suitably fortified I set forth to visit the tourist highlights of Budapest and to keep an eye out for a new suitcase in the process.

My hotel is on the Vaci U which is one of the premier shopping streets in Budapest, it is also very touristy with lots of souvenir shops and bars and restaurants.  Unlike Melbourne's pedestrian precincts it is actually traffic free.  At one end of this street is the big market that appears in all the travel shows about Budapest, it is massive and extremely busy with both tourists and locals.  It is mainly a meat, produce and fruit and vegie market, but great to walk around.  I was extremely disappointed with the lack of free samples.

Goose Liver anyone?

I had a tour of the Parliament building booked for 3.30pm, which I had booked some time ago.  So I decided that I would walk there taking in some of the touristy sites along the way and include some lunch in there somewhere as well.  Like so many of these European cities Budapest is a very walkable city and there is always something to look at. 

Buda from Pest across the Danube

Lunch anyone?

The Hungarian Parliament building is massive and very ornate, as the tour guide explained it was built when Hungary was part of a large and important European empire, that is not the case today.  (As I said under my breath, that is what happens when you lose wars that you start).

After the tour I decided that I would walk back along the Danube to my hotel.  This took me past the 'shoes' Jewish memorial on the banks of the river.  During the 2nd WW the Hungarian government were supportive of Germany's plan to rid Europe of its Jews.  So the Hungarians rounded up its Jews and sent them to the concentration camps, however some they shot on the banks of the Danube, they then dumped the bodies in the river, the only remains were their shoes on the bank of the river.  As a memorial these shoes have been preserved in metal and remain on the bank of the river.

On a lighter note, further along the river was busker playing water filled glasses like an xylophone and he was very good as well.

I am typing this in the hotel bar over a couple of beers so please forgive any spelling, grammar, history and continuity errors. 

I had dinner tonight in a really nice restaurant, one with table cloths and all.  I had a pork dish that in the English menu translated as 'rustic pig', it tasted far better than it's description, this was accompanied by a rather cheeky local merlot.  I also chatted to about 11.00 with an Irish couple sitting next to me, initially about Brexit but then about all manner of things, nice couple similar age to me and semi retired from the Republic of Ireland.

Then walking back to my hotel I was propositioned (twice), so all in all a very nice day in Budapest.

Fun Facts: You can get a suitcase open with a pair of scissors and a blunt knife.

Step Count: Friday 5,507, most of which were in the bowels of Vienna airport; Saturday 15,423 as at 5.30pm in the bar of the Budapest Mercure,

Observations: Budapest is actually made up of two cities, Buda on the western bank of the Danube and Pest on the eastern bank of the Danube.

Day 8 - Thursday 04 April 2019 Sarajevo

After a leisurely breakfast and dropping off some laundry at hotel reception I wandered down to the tour office to join my Times of Misfortune tour.  This tour was primarily about the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 until 1995.  Domir was our tour guide and he had been a police officer during the siege.  Domir is a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and although it was obvious where his sympathies lay he presented a balanced view of the conflict.

The circumstances surrounding the siege are difficult to explain in a few words and don't think that I have a complete grasp anyway.  The whole thing came about as a result of the collapse of Yugoslavia and the component countries trying to go their own way.  This resulted in a resurrection of the ethnic tensions that the old Yugoslavia kept a bit of a lid on.  These ethnic tensions resulted in a number of atrocities committed by all sides in the name of ethnic cleansing.

Anyway to cut a long story short this ethnic cleansing ended up with the Serbians (orthodox) laying siege to Bosnian Sarajevo (primarily Muslim).  Did I mention that there is a religious element to all this as well.  Sarajevo sits in a river valley and is surrounded by high ground pretty much all around.  The Serbians held the high ground and located their artillery, mortars and snipers on this high ground.

View of the city

The siege lasted for 1,425 days and 11,541 people were killed.  The city was under constant artillery and mortar attack, some of it random some of it aimed.  About 250,000to 300,000 people lived in the city during the siege and the only source of supply was through the airport that was controlled by the UN.  The UN and the airport could only provide a minimal amount of humanitarian goods to the city, around 200 grams per person per day. During the siege there was no electricity or running water, water was supplied from the brewery which had access to water from some deep wells.  I have attached a photo of a signboard showing a map of the siege and providing some details.

Remember this was all happening in a European city in the late 20th century!

Many of the buildings in the city still carry the scars of this fighting.  Some spots are marked where mortar shells fell, particularly in one of the markets where 10s of people were killed by a random attack.

Typical building in central Sarajevo

Same building showing shrapnel damage from the siege

One of the sites we visited on the tour was the tunnel under the airport.  One of the only gaps in the Serbian siege lines was at the airport, but this was controlled by the UN.  The Bosnians came up with the idea of digging a tunnel under the airport runway, so over a period of 4 months they dug a 800 metre tunnel under the runway.  This tunnel is a metre wide and 1.6 metres high.  We walked through a 25 metre section of it, I only banged my head about 5 times.  Impossible to imagine people making numerous trips through this tunnel carrying heavy loads.  As time went by they ran a small pipe to pump some diesel through for the hospital generators and a cable for some electricity and even some primitive rails so they could move some supplies on makeshift hand carts.

Some detail of the siege

The tunnel

The siege ended with the Bill Clinton brokered Dayton agreement, our guide was grateful that this agreement stopped the siege and the fighting however he was critical of the terms of the agreement that has made Bosnia difficult to govern and for the economy to develop.  This is something that I will need to investigate further at some time.

Fun Facts:  The Sarajevoeans are very very proud that they hosted the the 1984 winter olympics and see this as almost a counterpoint to the barbarity of the siege.

Step Count: 7,347

Observations:  Corruption is rife and is holding back economic development, international businesses are loath to invest until the corruption and nepotism is brought under control.  Our guide told us that as he had been a police officer during the war he was offered a job with the post office (which would have been a very good job here), however there was one catch, it was going to cost him E10,000 up front, he declined and borrowed some money to buy a van for tours etc.

Day 7 - 03 April 2019 Sarajevo

Breakfast in the hotel this morning as it is included as part of the tariff.  An interesting selection of tradition 'english breakfast' including fried eggs, but also the European style with cold meats and cheeses and also what I would call a middle eastern selection.  Understandably there was no bacon, but I did have a choice of chicken ham or turkey ham, but no ham ham.

By no stretch of the imagination would you call Sarajevo a pretty or attractive city. But, it certainly is interesting.  The cultural, religious, racial and architectural mix, plus the history certainly makes it interesting beyond its physical appearance.  The buildings range from influences of the Ottoman empire to Austrian (think grand Germanic) to communist minimalist, many of which still bear the scars of the war and siege of 1992 - 1995.  The various occupations by foreign powers and wars loom large in the Bosnian psyche and cant be separated from modern Sarajevo.  I am doing the Times of Misfortune tour tomorrow and hopefully have a better understanding of the recent history after that.

Ottoman style

Soviet brutalist with war damage

Austrian imperialist

Warning, some history stuff ahead.

I did the assassination tour today.  A young Bosniak by the name of Faruk was our guide and there was myself and an older Belgian couple on the tour.  The tour took in the major sites involving the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.  He also explained the incredible range of coincidences that led up to the assassination.  We stood at the corner where the Archduke's car attempted to right hand turn instead of going straight ahead.  When the driver realised that he had made a mistake he stopped the car and attempted to reverse back to the proper route.  However one of the conspirators, Gavril Princip, was having coffee and cake (possibly because he was diabetic and needed the sugar) in a cafe on the same corner.  Young Princip looked up and saw the Archduke's car stopped near where he was sitting, he seized his moment of opportunity, leapt up, approached the car and fired two shots from his pistol killing the Archduke and the Archduke's wife Sophie, and so history was made.  A string of events initiated by this assassination led to the TGW.  It is worth considering what would have happened if the driver had driven straight on as he was supposed to and driven straight past Princip sitting in the cafe enjoying his coffee and cake.  Would TGW with loss of millions of lives, massive amounts of property and the disappearance of great empires have still happened?  Obviously I have my opinion and I will let you consider yours.

The archduke's car was coming down the road towards us

The driver did a right turn into this street, Princip was in the cafe where the museum is now.

During our mid tour coffee (Bosniak style, hot, thick and bitter, sounds a bit like my first wife, as we all know that is a joke). Faruk was happy to talk about life in Sarajevo and its recent history.  He explained that unemployment was very high, particularly among the young folk, something like 60% unemployment for under 24 year olds.  A waiter would earn approximately E300 to E350 per month ($480 to $550 AUD).  Faruk also said that his grandmother, who is 73 years old looks back fondly on the old Yugoslavia days under Tito.  When I mentioned that Tito was an oppressive communist dictator who only stayed in power with the support of the secret police and the military and violently suppressed any political opposition he just sort of shrugged his shoulders.  I think that Faruk may also have longed for the Tito days even though he was born well after the death of Tito and the collapse of Yugoslavia.

I have located a nice little bar just around the corner from my hotel, hidden in one of th lanes of the Bascarsija (or Turkish quarter).  In my mind the Bascarsija is similar to the souks of Marakesh, although smaller, and as I have never been to Marakesh I am only guessing.  Anyway it is an area of small lanes with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, shishka bars and some doubtful looking characters hanging around on lane corners.  It was initially easy to get lost in there and difficult to find the same place twice.  Luckily I have been able to find my little bar more than once.

Meet me in the Casbah

Fun Facts: Baldrick's interpretation of the start of TGW is not correct.  I discovered today that a bloke called Archie Duke did not shoot an ostrich because he was hungry.

Number of Steps: 13,220 (if I keep this up I will return home svelte like a racing greyhound).

Observations: The street sweepers here still use 'switch brooms', like something out of the middle ages or a brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Day 6 - 02 April 2019 Vienna to Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina

Checked out of the Mercure in Vienna this morning and caught a cab to the airport, check in and security was relatively quick and painless.  

After an hour or so flight and a plastic glass of white wine we landed at Sarajevo, this was a bit like landing at Albury or Mildura airport as it had a bit of a regional feel about it.  Anyway they stamped my passport I got some Bosnian Marks from the ATM and was in a cab before you could say welcome to Bosnia.

The drive in was, as they say interesting.  Through what appeared to be some of the poorer parts of the city.  Many of the buildings are still damaged or only half rebuilt from the war and the siege.  I may talk about the siege on another occasion, when I have had a bit of a chance to come to grips with it.

The economy here is really battling with high unemployment, low GDP, low wages, high levels of organisational inefficiencies and corruption at many levels.  But apparently it is gradually improving.

My hotel is one of the newer ones in Sarajevo and is on the river and on the street that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were driven down before their cruel assassination.

My hotel room

View from my hotel window

This is a very exotic city with a mixture of religions, muslim approx 50%, orthodox 30% and catholic 20%.  I am having a beer in the hotel bar and looking across the river at a mosque and minaret.  My room also faces in that direction so I am a little worried about what time in the morning is going to be the call to prayers.

I am doing a couple of tours over the next two days which will hopefully fill in some of the blank spots about the history of the city and of which I shall share as much as possible with my dear readers.

I had dinner this evening at a restaurant behind the hotel.  I tried one of the local delicacies which was a bit like a beef stew with potatoes and carrots, accompanied by a couple of the local beers.  The local beer is Sarajevsko and is either bottled or draught, served cold and very drinkable.

Where the Archduke and his wife were shot

A bit arty from my hotel window

Fun Fact: A 1/2 litre of beer in Sarajevo is 4 Marks, about half the price of the same beer in Vienna.

Number of Steps: 6911

Observations:  Vienna airport still has a smoking room.  It appeared that most of the people on the plane were young things working for various NGOs.  

Day 5 - 01 April 2019 Vienna

Last day in Vienna and the good weather continues.

Easy day today and I decided to do the extended Danube canal and Danube river cruise.  The Danube runs along the northern edge of Vienna, however it used to run through the old northern suburbs, it used to also flood a lot.  When the flooding only affected the poor folk living on the river flats nobody used to worry about it too much.  However the river flats became prime real estate and the rich folk moved in, couldnt have flooding then could we.  Huge works were undertaken to control or prevent the flooding.  This comprised of turning the original river into a canal and diverting the river a bit further to the north and building a huge barrage across the river.

I boarded the boat in the Danube canal we then proceeded east and into the Danube river, heading west we came to the barrage and a lock.  The barrage and locks are amazing engineering structures.  Our boat was raised about 10 metres to the level of the river behind the barrage and when we entered the canal at the other end another lock lowered us about 10 metres to the level of the water in the canal.

The boat trip was fun, upon boarding the waiter came around taking orders for drinks etc, including beers, being only 10.30 in the morning I said 'a bit early for me old chap'.  The Germans & Austrians showed no such restraint and were into it, man and woman.  I thought, well, when in Rome or Vienna or whereever and ordered a frosty one.

Fun Fact:  Did you know that Kapitan Von Trapp of the Trapp family singers of Sound of Music fame was a U-Boat (submarine) captain in the Austrian navy in TGW.

Step Count: 8,270 (not bad seeing how I spent 3 hours sitting on a boat)

Observations: Lots of Chinese tourists.  Cigarettes E5.20 a packet from street vending machines, about $8 - $9 AUD.

Local cruise boats early morning Vienna

Lock gates closing prior to raising boat to higher water level.

Day 4 - 31 March 2019 Vienna

Daylight saving started last night so all watches etc put ahead one hour.  Even the Europeans are ahead of the Queenslanders.

Beautiful spring weather again today, the people in reception at the hotel were telling me that this time last year the temperature was around freezing through the day and in the minuses overnight.  

A little about the hotel.  I am staying at the Mercure Hotel Vienna First, which is part of the Accor Hotels chain.  It is a nice hotel with friendly staff and the location is excellent, very close to the middle of the old part of the city which is where most of the touristy attractions are located.  Also close to a decent selection of restaurants and bars, which is also attractive to the hungry, thirsty tourist.  The hotel also has a bar/restaurant but typical of hotel bars this lacks a little character but is fine in an emergency.  

Visited some of the major public buildings today.  These tend to be previous Habsburg palaces that are now used as public buildings, universities, museums and so on.  The Habsburgs ran this place from 1273 until 1918, so they had a bit of time to build some palaces.  One of the Habsburgs had the bright idea that they didn't need the city walls any more so he had them torn down and replaced with a ring road.  Most of the most impressive of the palaces and public buildings are on the ring road which makes them easy to find.  This should also make it easier not to get lost but this hasn't really been the case.  Another bright idea a Habsburg had was to initiate the round of events that led to the start of TGW, more on that to come, much more.  Oh good I hear you all say.

I should at this stage remind previous readers and warn new readers that there may be a little bit of history thrown into the blog, but only stuff that I think is really really interesting.

Being Sunday a lot of the cafes and restaurants were closed so choice was a bit limited for dinner.  But I persisted and found an Irish bar called Pickwicks that served a good burger and even better pints (1/2 litre) of Guinness.  A 1/2 litre of Guiness was E5.20.  I also found the grumpiest host that I have come across so far.

I have been researching a boat trip on the Danube for Monday.

A walk in the Vienna woods

I thought that I might take up dancing lessons with the good Herr Professor

Another Habsburg palace

Step Count Today: 11,279 

Observations: Shops and lots of other businesses closed on Sunday.