Yugo road trip

Just days before the climbing trip to the Greek island Kalymnos I looked forward to so much, I broke my elbow at training. And because Tinca also didn’t quite get over her injury to the finger, my long-lasting wish to make a road trip through the former countries of Yugoslavia finally came true, without even trying. I visited a lot of places, to the east and to the west, but I never went further than to Croatia and I certainly never went to any of the former Yugoslavian countries before. Even in the former JLA-army 1989 (I had some “contacts” in those days), I also served in Croatia. I just started to climb at that time and it went really well for me, I was even a categorized sports climber, but I had to go serve in the grey-green uniform for 1 year still the same as everybody else. Usually the Slovene boys served further down east, whereas the Serbians and Montenegrins served more to the west. The first 3 months I had a few Slovenes serving with me, the remaining 8 months I was more or less the only one from my parts and all around me were Bosnians, Serbians, Albanians and Macedonians. There were 40 of us serving in the weapons storage facilities we were placed, stationed in the forest of the mountain range Kotar. We were in the same situation together and some of them managed to make friends for life there, “to the grave”, as they said. And it was then when I promised myself, that I will go and visit where my friends, at the moment, actually came from. And what followed in the next years tore these same friendships in the cruelest way possible. At least the best of them, a Bosnian named Zdekno from Travnik, I tried to contact through the net a few times, but nothing ever came up. Guessing by his robust but vigorous character, I think I know, more or less, what had happened to him…


New age nomads
From then on, even when I was a student, we all liked to hear Yugoslavian music and I still like to listen to it. There was no student party without it, groups and singers like Bajaga, Balaševič, Bijelo dugme, Riblja čorba and so on. On every climb I went, I use to have my car loaded with numerous tapes of this sort of music. And throughout my journeys the Yugoslav road trip always stayed at the back of my mind, but I never truly got to plain it out to the end. The closest I was to fulfilling it, was when I was a biker. And we almost went, but I hit the pedals back then a bit too much and by back wasn’t really up to it after that. And then came my daughter Ula, the bike went away and the Yugo trip still waited for the right time. This time my injuries were some kicks in rear I needed to pack up my tings and off we went to an unforgettable journey.


Boldering above Prilep
I didn’t want to be isolated from all my acquaintances at the very beginning, so we first headed to Beograd, where I know a few of climbers. In bad weather we went to the center of the metropolis, in an aula of some sort, we sunbathed in Kalemegdan and begged to let us in in the Hišo cvetja, which they renovated just at that time, but we didn’t have luck. From a friend, a local called Nina, who knew every dancing scene around far and wide, we got good directions for our trip. So we drove to Niš, bathed in their spas and went to the canyon Jelšnica and further to the mountain Tren. We slept “in the middle of nowhere”, in a beautiful forest location, far above the valley. The next day we climbed into the canyon Jelašnica and drove in the afternoon to Macedonia. My friends from Ljubljana were in Prilep on their weekly time-off at that time, bouldering (climbing without ropes or harnesses on rocky cliffs) and so we spent the day in the presence of beautiful, big “rocks”. After 2 days, we said goodbye to them and drove further to Ohrid. We travelled with a small boat on the lake in all directions, really beautiful, but the walk in the crowded, shop-filled town center reminded us, why we stayed away from these sort of places. So we changed plans and didn’t sleep in Ohrid, but drove further ahead to Albania and Montenegro. That evening was really shocking, especially for our van. The roads were filled with deep and bumpy holes, which weren’t marked with any road sign at all. But the crown of all the sloppy made Albanian roads belongs to the end of the unfinished highway through Tirana. Without any warnings whatsoever we drove right into a wrecked construction site. 2 hours of driving blind through Tirana followed shortly after, till we finally found the road to Montenegro. As we drove through Montenegro, I felt like I returned back home. I know that when we will go back and cross Albania, it will be awful again. But their roads only served as a bridge to get from Macedonia to Montenegro.


The beautiful nature of Montenegro
And it was Montenegro that was the highlight of our road trip. I heard a lot about the beautiful screener that was supposed to be there, but I never imagined it to be like this. After the first day of climbing into the canyons of the river Morača, I couldn’t believe what a great place for climbing this really was, and what potential lays in these surprised me even more. I won’t say anything wrong, when I say that this place can be developed into one the best European climbing site there is, but only in the right hands.


Sadly cosmopolitan peninsula Sv. Štefan
From there, we continued our way to the sea. Out first stop was the place where James Bond gambled, Sv. Štefan. We were surprised when we found out, that you couldn’t even go to the cape directly, if you weren’t a visitor of the local hotel. The whole peninsula is, of course, a hotel complex, bought by the Singaporean company Aman. The prices in this hotel range from 950 to 3500 € for 1 night. Hello? Our whole 2-week long trip costs less than one night in the cheapest room the got there? Heavy luxury, the Montenegrins must be suited very well, when I discover that the cape first went from the inhabitants in to the hands of Tito, later to the country and then to the Singaporean company. But the doorman there quickly explains to me the true situation. He lives 3 hours away by car and has to drive to a 12-hours work schedule. And his salary is 250 €.


Above the Boka Kotorska Bay
We continued in Kotor. And there is also a lot of luxury to be found. Each day, there sail in many big cruise ships and liners, which let out hundreds of tourists, which again spend all their money in countless boutiques of the old harbor city. And in the evening they return back on deck to the next stop, all while leisurely eating their dinner.


An evening drive to the top of Lovčen
One of our goals was also to visit the mountains Lovćen, where the mausoleum of Njegoš stands (for the younger readers: Njegoš was the Montenegrin leader and poet of the 19. century). We could have gone by foot, but the top is far away, much too far for a small family walk, so we rather drove by car. Long, winding roads, but a pleasant view, lead to the very top, where the mausoleum stands. We came there quite late, so the scenery was lit up in the warm lights of the sunset. The view was magnificent, almost overlooking whole Montenegro, one may seem. We slept at the sea and the next day we went to Durmitor. We stopped in Žabljak, their biggest skiing and mountain center. Well, it is a rather small place, which has colorful roofs on every house, so it reminded me of Patagonia. We also managed to run to the lake Jablan, which is a good viewpoint for the whole Durmitor, and after that, we drove to Bosnia. Beautiful, lonely roads wind themselves around the mountains along the way. Montenegro is really unbelievably beautiful and the pleasant autumn weather made it seem even more magical. I will return there, definitely!


Different worlds



Quality time
As in the entire former Yugoslavian republic, Bosnia also had a division between tourism and climbing. In the tourist parts was the evening Mostar, the visit of Jajca, in between was Bitka na Sutjeska, Neretvi and till Sarajevo with Tunel and Baščaršija, and Želje, which has the best “čevapi ever”. A day after the climb, we gathered new strengths and went to Pecka. A place, which is really suited for family-style climbing. Through Banja Luka we went back to Croatia and after 2 weeks of clear weather, we returned back home in light rain.


Mostar in the evening
We had a magnificent journey, which only had 1 mistake – it was too short! I would have to have at least another 2 weeks of time to explore every place we went to thoroughly and which would make the trip even better. Throughout the trip we met only friendly people, not once were we greeted by somebody who was grumpy or not nice. If we happened to loose ourselves a bit in the traffic, nobody honked at us for even a second (do you even know the feeling?), but the people themselves stepped to us and offered to help and gave us directions to go to. And of course, first was the Slovene reflex we have: “What the hell do you want?!”, but a kind word always finds a place and goes a long way. Now I know that the story I read, which was called “Nekaj kar na Zahodu ne poznate” (Something you don’t know there in the west”) is really true. A man comes to a shoemaker in Baščaršija and would like to get his shoes made. And the shoemaker replies friendly: “Look, next to me is also a shoemaker, who has a wife and 2 kids like me, which he has to feed. I already sold a pair of shoes today, so I would like to ask you, go to him. He is also very skilled in this art.” And how is the Slovene-translated parody of this story? A Slovene writes a letter to Santa: “Dear Santa, this Christmas I wish only, that my neighbors cow dies …”. And don’t you think that my Ula doesn’t get any of these jokes at her age. It’s true, she is too small to understand Yugoslavia, but as we told her about the beautiful view from the mountain Lovćen, she screamed as she saw primroses and told they would be superb ingredients for our dinner salad. We all got out fair share of beauty on this trip; just the horizons we face are different for each of us.