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(S): Slovenia, (C): Croatia,
(M): Montenegro, (B): Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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4-1. Kotor, Montenegro
October 7 |
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We drove across the country border from Dubrovnik in the afternoon, and
visited the old city Kotor, Montenegro.
This town has the origin in the ancient Greek era, but the present appearance
is in the days when it developed into a military city under the control
of Venezia since 15th century.
The old town area is surrounded by the castle walls and are a number of
Cathedrals inside. We entered St. Tryphon Cathedral. The path leading us
there was very narrow.
We strolled around the old town for a while. It is one of the spots where
we have walked everyday during this trip, which lessens the value..., what
a waste!
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| Kotor belongs to the Republic of Montenegro. Like the following picture,
it is located at the deeply indented bay. This explains that Kotor was
once prosperous as a port city of firm fortress. |
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It is on the border between the cultural regions of Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox. Therefore the two different churches coexist here.
This city of a World Heritage site was severely damaged by the earthquake in 1979. But the recovery operation got along well in cooperation with UNESCO, and so it regained its former appearance. |
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| The drive on the sheer cliff road along the Adriatic Sea from Kotor was a superb view with white limestone mountains on the other side. |
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| During the way back, I remembered the movie "The Lady Vanishes",
the Hitchcock's early work, getting influenced by Balkan Peninsula. The
title in Japanese was "Balkan Super Express". - - - Something
bad happened somewhere in Balkan Peninsula. The super express was the stage
of an international spy conspiracy. |
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Cypress trees are lined along the road to the mountains all through even
after passing the country border from Montenegro to Croatia. Crying "How
beautuful!", I had a strange feeling that nature is the same everywhere".
Cypress still lined after passing through a tunnel. |
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4-2. Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
October 8 |
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Early in the next morning of the second night at Hotel Petka in Dubrovnik,
I got up in the complete darkness. Switched on TV and began to watch CNN.
It is reporting that earthquakes occurred three times on end in Southern
Pacific Ocean area.
The big earthquake of magnitude 7.6 at Sumatra Island, Indonesia, had been
a couple of days before the start of this travel. It is still new in my
memory that the horrors in Batang City near the seismic center were reported
vividly. Several thousand victims were said to be expected.
Then another big earthquake and tsunami off the Philippines.
And also the one of magnitude 8.3 in the coastal waters of Samoa Islands
yesterday. The victims are said to be about 200 including the victims by
tsunami.
Even hoping it ends in groundless fear, I have some horrible feeling with
a panic of no refuge anywhere.
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| We did not visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was a
pity to me because someone had told me that this city is the hometown of
Mr Ivica Osim, a former director of Japan Soccer Team, and he asked some
memorial souvenir.
 I met a person unexpectedly in this town Mostar, an owner of the restaurant
of our lunch. He used to be a member of the local football team "FK
VELEZ" with Mr Osim. I will refer to this matter in the last chapter.
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Mostar is located south of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a part of former Yugoslavia,
and its population is about 110 thousand, the second largest in the country.
We left the hotel in Dubrovnik in the morning, and drove 140 km for three
hours. Got off the bus at the parking lot a little away from downtown and
walked for a while to the restaurant.
Mostar, leaving the influence of Ottoman period, has a peculiar atmosphere
somewhat different from the other cities until now. The West and the East
live together.
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After lunch, we walked on a busy street and around the key points. Then
our couple decided to make use of the free time.
The area around the well-known stone bridge or Stari Most over Neretva
River running down the valley was so crowded by tourists. The both sides
of a narrow path were lined by a variety of souvenir shops. Every shop
looked doing a brisk business. Even so, each clerk's attitude was not aggressive
like in some country and also not in a high manner. I felt warm-hearted
atmosphere from them.
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| There were minarets here and there, which made me remember the traveling
days in Turkey, though differently there were also Catholic churches here.
Most of the house walls lined on the street had the trace of bullet marks.
After the country declared independence in 1992, this town was attacked
by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. And as if to add an insult to injury,
the so-called Bosnian War between the Bosnians and Croatians who had struggled
jointly. The bullet traces are both of their vivid scars.
The stone bridge was destroyed in 1993, and restored in 2004.
Through this travel most of the towns retained the trace of battles, and
Mostar was especially the most terrible.
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In spite of staying only a few hours, it was an impressive town to me.
The reason is not only because of the hospitality of the good-natured restaurant
owner, the great turnout of people at paths and the stone-bridge area,
but also the remaining calmness even after tradition messed up by war.
The appearance of the town gave me such mysterious feeling.
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After sightseeing around this town until 2:00 p.m., our bus headed north
300 km for Plitvice, Croatia.
While the bus was running on the expressway, the sun set at 6:26 p.m. by
my watch. The view was sucked into the dark, and appeared the full moon
in the sky. |
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| Part 4 Reading: 10' 35" |
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(S): Slovenia, (C): Croatia,
(M): Montenegro, (B): Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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| Close |
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