Finding your bed in Montenegro just got easier

Posted: Tuesday, 25 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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Beautiful Adriatic coastline, ancient monasteries, strong coffee and dramatic landscapes, within easy reach of Dubrovnik and Belgrade, Montenegro may be one of the smaller gems in the Balkans' diadem but it's starting to glitter more brightly than ever. One of the drawbacks was the the range of accommodation available to the budget traveller, small hotels and guest houses (or pensione), often lack a web presence and when they do you're often at the mercy of Google Translate, and awkward, often frustrating, pidgin emails bouncing back and forth as you try and plan your adventure in an online equivalent of Chinese Whispers.

Visit Montenegro are taking steps to counter that and their new website, which aims to provide a database and booking tool, a one-stop-shop (if you'll excuse the cliché), where you can filter by type of hotel, star rating and location. It's modest right now, but hopefully the range will boom as small businesses cotton on and make themselves more accessible to the international traveller who'd otherwise hide within the linguistic Green Zone of the Ibis/Holiday Inn website – even though they're paying more money for a mediocre experience, and cheating themselves of the authentic Montenegro and its sometimes overwhelming (well, if you're English at least!) hospitality.

If there's one criticism of this work in progress, it's the lack of actual meat – tell us more about a hotel than its address and rating. Give us a review, a bit of warmth and some local spiel, and that'll make the difference between looking and booking.

Another easy to prepare vegan dish from Serbia

Posted: Monday, 24 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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Rejoice, house-proud Slavophiles keen to host, another vegan-friendly Lenten dish, Djuvec is a Serbian casserole of seasonal vegetables, and while admittedly it has similar ingredients and preparation to last week's Posna Sarma, it's nonetheless absolutely ruddy delicious, especially when served with some rather un-Balkan Linda McCarty sausages and ketchup.

Watch out for it on menus though, as it can just as easily contain lamb as it can leek, and beef stock is the standard. As a main, the magic word is Posna, denoting its status as Lenten (and even then it could contain seafood!), but it's often served as a side dish to accompany the usual meataggedon and you're on much safer ground there.

Vague ingredients (to serve about four!)

Mahala Rai Banda's self-titled 2004 debut album
A good splash of olive oil
A vegetable stock cube
Two large onions
Salt, pepper, mixed herbs and paprika
Four carrots
Four small potatoes
Two courgettes
One green pepper
Three sticks of ribbed celery
A tin of chopped tomatoes
A cup of long-grain rice


Preparation

1. Stick Mahala Rai Banda on the CD player to give your cooking style a bit of vim, don't slice your finger off to the pounding Gypsy trumpets though.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Stick the oil in a big pan.
4. Slice onions finely and sauté them in the oil until they go translucent.
5. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes.
6. Chop courgettes, green pepper and celery.
7. Throw them in the pan and cooking for 15 minutes, throw a good dash of mixed herbs in.
8. Boil the kettle and make a mug of vegetable stock
9. Rinse and drain the rice a couple of times until the water runs clear
10. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock, rice, salt, pepper and paprika, and stir. The liquid should be about level with the vegetables, it isn't feel free to add another dash of water.
11. Pour your brilliant-smelling mess into a casserole dish, and stick in the oven for 45 minutes.
12. Eat well!

Bosnia needs to end its run of boring and banal monuments

Posted: Friday, 21 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels:
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Bosnia and Herzegovinia has enough problems on its plate getting its government to function properly, eliminating factitious, ethnically divided politics and clawing up the countryside's estimated 220,000 landmines, but for a country of such stunning Ottoman relics and powerful Tito-era monuments, its contemporary ones leave a lot to be desired.

Like its meaningless flag-by-committee which replaced the (arguably Islamocentric fleur-de-lis) BiH has a number of statues which range from the bafflingly banal, such as a gold Bruce Lee in the beautiful Herzegovinian city of Mostar, while the war is commemorated by a rock with some paint on it, to the more sober, like Tuzla's bust of civil rights martyr Martin Luther King, donated by the US embassy. While both apparently underline the fight for peace (with nunchucks, in Bruce Lee's particularly unconvincing case), the most striking common factor is how little they have to do with this beautiful, ancient land and its people.

It may well be better for reconciliation to avoid anything particularly loaded, like, for instance, the gold KLA statues with Albanian flags that undermine Kosovo's claims of multi-ethnic rainbow nation harmony, but from a travellers point of view, it's more than a little boring. In looking for symbols whose meanings can't be viewed through a sectarian lens, they're stumbling closer and closer to having symbols with no meaning at all, a trend already popular north of the border where Serbs have clutched Bob Marley and Rocky Balboa close to their deeply confused chests.

Serbia to bridge the Danube with smoke and mirrors

Posted: Thursday, 20 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , ,
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The Balkans' place at the centre of European history goes back a lot further than the shooting of Franz Ferdinand and the relentless onward march of the Ottoman frontier. The Roman Empire was split into two by a man who retired to grow cabbages in the sunkissed tranquillity of the Dalmatian coast, Emperor Diocletian being the first of many unable to resist the lure of Split and the laid back, Mediterranean way of life.

Now Serbia is shining the spotlight on its considerable Roman heritage with a proposed tourist route called the Itinerarium Romanum Serbia, that'll drag history lovers from the cruise-choked tourist bottleneck of Diocletian's regal respite to the Empire's wild, warring frontier along the Danube. Kicking things off in suitably spectacular fashion, a projection of Trajan's Bridge, built 103-105 AD, will bring the structure looming from the fog of antiquity like a ghost ship.

“The hologram will show a replica of the original bridge for a length of 150 to 200 metres,” Project Director Miomir Korac told the AFP news agency. “We will install pumps that will spray a fine mist of water droplets which will allow the laser to project the image of the bridge.”

Trajan's Bridge was built by the Greek architect Apollodorus of Damascus to span the Danube from modern Serbia to modern Romania at the command of Emperor Trajan, in order to supply his embattled legionnaires in Dacia. Although it was demolished 150 years later by the retreating Emperor Aurelian, who'd had just about enough of pacifying the Dacians, Trajan's Bridge was the longest ever built for just over a thousand years and the remaining entrance pillars of the bridge are still visible on the banks, and twelve remain under water.

“The idea is to spruce up all these sites so that they can receive tourists by late 2012 and highlight that eighteen Roman emperors were born in this territory, including Constantine the Great,” explained Korac.

Discover the reel Montenegro with director Nikola Vukčević

Posted: Wednesday, 19 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels:
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Although rising star in his motherland and a recognised talent at Europe's film festivals, film director Nikola Vukčević might not be the most obvious ambassador for Montenegro's fledgeling tourist industry, generally campaigns favour the fixed grins and empty heads of people better known for their vacuous careers the other side of the camera.

Starting off in the Bay of Kotor and swinging by the historical heartland of Cetinje, and his own hometown, the current capital, Podgorica, this short film produced by Visit Montenegro is a splendid introduction to one of Europe's oldest new tourist destinations.

Pristina's new jazz bar sets Kosovo swinging

Posted: Monday, 17 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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Smoke filled drinking dens, foreign soldiers and swarthy freedom fighters, and a red flag with black decals whose appearance makes everyone feel awkward, Kosovo's capital of Pristina was doing a pretty good impression of 'Casablanca' all by itself, and that was before a jazz bar opened.

Hamam is the city's first jazz bar. With the swell of brass every night, it might be a bit much for most of Kosovo's drinkers – offering a stylish concrete and mud-slab interior, expensive drinks and equally expensive appetizers, including caviar, it wouldn't look out of place in Paris or London (where, funnily enough, those stylish fittings were designed by a Kosovan expat).

Promising local as well as international artists, Hamam might be a shock to the system after the years of bleakness, but it's a welcome addition to a city in dire need of some glamour and is set to be become a favourite with the international community and the city's music lovers. And doubtlessly weary budget travellers looking to spend a week's worth of funds on an evening's respite from kebabs and burek.

You can eat vegan in Serbia, and eat vegan in Serbia at home.

Posted: by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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Not eat a vegan, they don't do that anymore, that died with Milosevic. In a land where oil, fat and meat are king, it's hard enough trying to get by as a vegetarian, but explaining veganism to Serb friends, provided you get the central points across without you all dying of old age, results in either disbelief or pity. Lonely Planet's Guide to Eastern Europe recommends a couple of vegan-friendly salads, strengthening the conceit that you're up meat creek without a tofu paddle.


That's totally not true. As is usually the case with these things, people don't often draw the lines between what you're trying to do and what people are already doing. During Serbian Orthodox advent, both meat and dairy are strictly prohibited (well, 'strictly'), and as you'd expect from a people who love to eat, they don't exactly go to the sleep for this period – they carry on eating. One such dish is Posna Sarma, stuffed cabbages, which if you have a knack for rolling fajitas, will be right up your street.

Vague ingredients (I'm not a chef)


A couple of fingers of vegetable oil
Two finely chopped onions
Two finely chopped sweet peppers
Three finely chopped cloves of garlic
One big ass jar of Sauerkraut
One finely chopped stick of celery
Two small carrots, peeled and finely chopped
Two cups of long grain rice
Two tins of chopped tomatoes
A finger of paprika, salt and black pepper
A big cabbage, as big as you can manage
Three cold bottles of Jelen Pivo, or other suitable thirst quenching beer

Preparation

1. Splash the vegetable oil into a big pan. Don't be alarmed if it looks like too much.
2. Add the onions, and sauté until they go translucent.
3. Add the carrots, celery and peppers, and cook for five minutes.
4. Crack open the first beer and wipe your brow.
5. Turn on the oven to 350/215 degrees and forget about it. Obviously don't forget about it, but leave it for a minute.
6. Add the rice, tinned tomatoes (save about half a tin), salt, pepper and paprika, and simmer for five minutes.
7. Set aside to cool and mix in the garlic.
8. Gently pull apart the leaves (setting aside the tough ones, if you have them) of the cabbage until you get a little brain-sized ball that's too tightly packed to unpick.
9. Steam the cabbage until its floppy and pliable, brain first so you can pull away those little guys too.
10. Remove the tough stem from the steamed cabbage leaves and chop up any cabbage remnants.
11. Drain the jar of Sauerkraut, do it a few times if your stomach isn't hardened to it.
12. Spread the chopped cabbage and the Sauerkraut onto a large baking dish.
13. Line up the cabbage leaves and spoon two scoops of your filling into them, roll them up into little mini-fajitas, using the smaller leaves to patch up breakages.
14. Pack them nice and tightly on the bed of Sauerkraut.
16. Drench the neatly packed row of cabbage rolls in the remaining tin of tomatoes, add a bit of cold water/passata until the liquid is level with the rolls.
17. Lay the tough outer leaves (doesn't matter if you don't have them, it's just good not the waste the flavour) and some tinfoil, over your rolls.
18. Stick them in the oven for an hour. Wash out your beer bottle, stick it in the recycling and crack open another.
19. Settle down in front of a badly subtitled version of darkly comedic war epic St. George Shoots the Dragon – keep an eye on the clock.
20. An hour has passed and you've just about worked out what's happening, not helped by the slightly out of synch subtitles. Pause the film and get the cabbage rolls out.
21. Crack open another beer, and eat in front of the TV, feel free to stick anything you don't eat in the fridge.

Pristina's Turkish baths take a hammering

Posted: Friday, 14 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: ,
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From the ruins of fabled Illyrian cities and Byzantine fortresses, to the monasteries and churches of the Medieval Kingdom of Serbia, through to the splendour of Ottoman expansion – Kosovo, for all its woes, is rich in historical sites. And in despite the boots of of Communist mismanagement, inter-ethnic violence and bombing raids, there's still a fair bit of magic to be found in the rugged hills for any traveller with a spirit of adventure and some thick soles.

Sadly, it looks like one of Kosovo's most important architectural relics, the 15th Century Turkish baths in the capital of Pristina – once the largest in the Balkans, have had many features destroyed in a botched restoration attempt which began in 2007.

Sali Shoshi, director of Cultural Heritage Without Borders, told Balkan Insight damningly, “Cultural Heritage without Borders has not been a partner in this project since July 2009 because of the incompetence of local partners.”

“It is true that it has not been of good quality and much harm has been done to the building, which is not repairable,” added architectural engineer Gjejlane Hoxha in the same interview. “Original elements have been demolished.”

According to a report condemning the project from Istanbul University, the original 15th-century 'dog-tooth' cornices, discovered during the cleaning process, were destroyed by contractors and modern bricks were used instead of the original mortar recipe devised by the university.

The baths are predicted to be opened and in use by 2012, but at what cost? Its nightlife may be vibrant and its spirit forever optimistic, but until Pristina's historical sites are treated with respect, the city will forever be Prizren and Peć's ugly older sister and tourists will continue to flock to those beautifully preserved Ottoman quarters.

Serbia turns open door to EU citizens into a slightly more open door

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In a step to bring Europe's once petulant black sheep/misunderstood romantic antihero back into the family and boost tourism, Serbia has made passport-free travel a reality for all citizens of the European Union, which is perfectly lovely and sweet of them but odds are you won't notice.

Originally considered when Icelandic ash clouds replaced Mladic on the most wanted list and sent panicked holidaymakers scurrying across country by coach, train and dogsled in order to make it back to work on Monday morning, in June 2010 they announced plans to make it a permanent fixture.

Instead of a passport, you'll now be required to present a valid identity card, such as a driver's license or, er, a passport. And if you fly you'll be required to show your passport anyway, probably every five minutes if you're departing from London.

Apparently the real benefit will be felt if you're driving to Greece or Turkey from Western Europe when you probably won't have to stop and can just power on straight through the country which is a major overland transport hub. This should shave, oh, nearly fifteen minutes off your 34 hour journey that you'll be able to invest in three shots of espresso at whichever deserted service station you find yourself in at 3am.

Easyjet rules out flights to, well, most of the former Yugoslavia

Posted: Thursday, 13 January 2011 by Jimmy Christ in Labels: , , , , , ,
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Britain's biggest low cost air carrier Easyjet has completely ruled out the possibility of flights to Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite earlier breathlessly reported claims to the contrary according to the Macedonian International News Agency. The airline currently flies to Slovenia, Croatia and, bizarrely, given their reluctance to fly to what might be lazily considered the 'shadier' Balkan counties, Pristina in Kosovo.

Dubrovnik tops Visit Croatia poll, but does it really deserve it?

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The beautiful coastal city of Dubrovnik, oozing as it does renaissance romance from its shiny tiles and rust red slates, has been a major tourist destination for at least three decades. Italian cruise ships can bump against each other like ducks to fight for entrance to the new harbour and you can barely move for Germans in sandals, it's undeniably beautiful and unsurprisingly it topped Visit Croatia's poll as the favourite destination in the country - a judgement backed up by the figures, boasting an increase of visitors of 13% in 2010, and the single largest group being Brits. Probably your parents.

But does it deserve this? Yes, and no, on the one hand this status as an Adriatic pearl is testament to its long history of tourism and long history full-stop, its enchanting narrow streets and gorgeous churches. Comparisons to its old overlords Venice are natural and in its criticisms the comparisons continue. As magical as Dubrovnik is, you can't help but feel the 'real' Croatia, with its easygoing charm and faint air of chaos, is somewhere else entirely. The lack of (genuinely!) low cost flights to Dubrovnik, whose airport has little chance of expansion (the flipside of such a stunning location, ironically) meaning high overheads for budget airlines which opt to fly only in the tightly packed tourist season, is evidence of just how much disposable income is being flashed around by your average visitor. Probably your parents.

There are other options, and why make things difficult for yourself? Wizz Air and Easyjet fly direct to Split, Croatia's second largest city, and Ryan Air flies to the stunning Zadar (which doubled up for Venice in a recent episode of 'Doctor Who'!), both further up along the Dalmatian coast. Both rich in history, architecture and pavement cafes, crooning the siren's song of a cold beer on a hot day.

Dubrovnik is on top for a reason, but with a bit of research, you can make a decision easier on the wallet and wealthier on experience. Let's give it a run for its money in the 2011 poll and wrestle a few points from Croatia's tourism Goliath.

Albania's National Museum lets its skeleton out of the closet

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When the wall fell, Albania was the skeleton of the missing wife bricked up on the other side. No nation has any (un)favoured status in any imagine hierarchy of oppression, but in the Balkans at least, Communist Albania was in a particularly sad way thanks to Stalinist nostalgia of dictator for life Enver Hoxha, a man determined to party like it was 1949.

At the centre of this bloc party was the National Historic Museum in the Albanian capital of Tirana, a gauche glorification of Hoxha and the Albanian Worker's Party, constructed 1981 in a style that can only be described as 'discount rack Soviet Realism', its contents were of even worse taste, so much so that in 1992 the country's first democratically elected government ordered it torn down.


Thankfully for travellers of a curious/ghoulish bent, it's been reconstructed in chunks. The pavilion dedicated to the nation's experiences in the Second World War under Italian occupation have been recently restored to join the less contentious displays of politically neutral pottery, but they're currently hard at work to resurrect Hoxha's glorified trophy room covering the partisan struggle against the axis powers and the 'achievements' of the Communist era through to 1991, albeit it with more balance than was previously the case.

“Twenty years have passed since the advent of democracy and the museum should objectively represent all the country’s achievements,” Luan Malltezi, the museum director, said to Balkan Insight, promising that it will be “an honest representation of the period.”

"Although the pavilion was a megalomaniacal affair and it politicized some of the items, they did help tell the story of the country’s reconstruction [after the war] and have historic value,” the writer and historian, Moikom Zeqo, said in the same article.

Currently the biggest museum in Albania, the National Historic Museum is one of the capital's main tourist attractions, boasting over 4,000 objects which recount the story of this particular chunk of the land from the Illyrian tribes of antiquity to the grandeur of Albania's 14th Century princes, and ignoring the half a century which shaped modern Albania so profoundly is an act of understandable denial for a people so heavily traumatised, but an act of crass ignorance for history.

Serbian flights about to get a whole lot cheaper?

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For the penniless flyer, the map of Europe might as well have a big swirling space void where Serbia is – direct flights from the UK are few, and most indirect flights involve either Alitalia or Lufthansa. Trains can be problematic thanks to inconvenient mountains and the wheezing spectre of yesterday's politics, but a modest wind of change is blowing, one that'll potentially invite the Serbian capital into the warm, lager-sozzled embrace of the budget airline community.

Hungarian-based regional powerhouse Wizz Air started flying between London Luton and Belgrade twice a week last summer, but as of 2011 there's a pretty good chance that not only will their fares go down, but more carriers will start making the run as Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport lowers its service charges by 7% and expands its capacity in keeping with its epic 15% boost in passenger numbers in 2010 – no doubt the most air traffic they've seen since 1999 filled the sky with shrapnel. Though fares ultimately rest in the cold, damp hands of the airlines themselves, one estimate is that it could reduce ticket prices by a saliva-worthy 100 euros, pretty exciting stuff when Wizz's cheapest existing flight from London Luton is a reasonable £156 (including blahdiblah).

Belgrade has long been making noises about wanting to echo the tourist boom of its Westerly neighbours, and in 2011 it just might – provided of course airlines are prepared to pass their substantial savings onto their customers.