Whirlwind Holiday

Its been a whirlwind week and half, with no less than 4 countries and 5 cities in two continents so far....
Posts will come, as will photos, but adventure has the priority right now...
Highlights so far:
*The weather - its been perfect, sunny, not too hot, gorgeous
*Almost free city bikes in Vienna
*The hole in the wall wine and snack bar in Florence
*The cava bar in Barcelona
*The insane night market in Marrakech

Getting to Meteora Greece

So the plan for the Easter weekend was to get to Meteora, Greece. A place with amazing rock formations and even more amazing monasteries perched atop them.

First we were distracted by Thessaloniki, the second city of Greece, and its wonderful calamari.

Then we got stuck at a random railway station in the middle of nowhere (Paleofarsalos) and waited hours for a train connection that was meant to be minutes... at least there was spring sunshine to enjoy.

We eventually arrived in Kalabaka, at the foothills of the Meteora mountains, hiked up a steep, tall mountain for an hour or so, then found ourselves running from busfuls of Japanese tourists.


But it was all worth the effort as this was indeed a spectacular place.

(I'm squinting, not winking)

Greek Orthodox Easter

Its the biggest event on the Greek Orthodox calendar so we arranged to attend a midnight service to witness the candle lighting ceremony. The hotel provided us with candles and red-dyed eggs, so we couldn't not go really.

The church was an old, quite small church that was rather spectacular inside, but the majority of people were outside for the service.
I wish I had a photo of the outside and the amazing effect the candle lighting part of the ceremony had. Suffice to say it was something to experience the spread of light from the centre all around the grounds from person to person. Combined with the traditional singing of the priests, the group of armed soldiers and the military band (that seemed to be there to play only when the General was walking past), it was quite an event.

Heritage gets crowded

Last weekend I went to Thessaloniki in Greece. Quite a cool city, though it was pretty dead due to the Easter weekend....
Anyway, there is lots to see even if nothing is going on, and just hanging by the water in the sunshine was a great feeling after winter in land locked Kosovo.

All over town there are relics of former empires and traditions, it was fascinating to see so much heritage on almost every street... however I got the feeling that with so much of it, it was in danger of losing its appeal, especially to locals.

This was evidenced by the general feeling of crowding around many of these objects, development encroaching on churches and ruins all over town.





At what point do you simply have to stop providing appropriate space around historical buildings and allow a modern city to develop and flourish?

Eurovision as good as independence?

The Status of Kosovo is still somewhat up in the air, but I came across this article that shows what is REALLY important here. Its getting into Eurovision of course....
"Next year, predicts Selimi, Kosovo would see 'mass hysteria' if Flakareshat got to go to Eurovision. 'Even if we don't get a flag in front of the United Nations,' as a result of the current talks, he says, 'as long as we get that song in the Eurovision Song Contest, I think we will be pretty happy with it.'" kosovareport.blogspot.com

Public Transport system incites violence

There have been a few months of protests over the new public transport system in Santiago, Chile and yesterday an annual 'Day of the Young Combatant' demonstration turned violent.

"The Transantiago plan, designed to improve the city's chaotic system of buses and reduce pollution from the transit vehicles' exhaust, has instead stranded passengers, generated marathon waits and overtaxed the city subway." latimes.com

While the violence is a terrible shame, what fascinates me is that people are so passionate and interested in the quality of their public transport system. Granted there is little choice for the hundreds of thousands of poor in Santiago, so their interest in effective public transport is not surprising. But that they believe that the system can work, that it can be better, and are demanding it and want to use it, is a very positive thing in this world of ever increasing freeways.

It is great that the Chilean government has made such a bold move to completely overhaul and improve the system and reduce polluting emissions, however it seems the implementation of this new system has been poorly managed. Fingers crossed they can get the bus companies to provide the necessary buses and routes that were envisaged in the plan as soon as possible.

To maintain or increase the percentage of the city's journeys made by public transport (a whopping 59% in 2001) will take a very effective and responsive system and to build it effectively from scratch is a mighty ambitious move. Particularly in a place where more informal transport has developed organically over time to provide the necessary services...

"The overwhelmingly comprehensive transportation reform is trying to replace the chaotic private system characterized by its unruly drivers, poorly maintained and visually unappealing yellow buses and high speeds. It was also known for being fun, especially near Barrio Suecia
at closing time around 4 am, slightly dangerous, relatively effective and an incredible study in anthropology." nowpublic.com

This film sounds like an excellent portrayal of the chaos of the former system...

Brezovica

Brezovica is said to have the potential to be one of the best ski resorts in southeastern europe, right here in Kosovo!
The spooky fog might be a problem however.... it was like ascending into the clouds, quite surreal.

Reburials

Last week I read of the movement of killed Kosovar Albanians to be reburied in mass unmarked graves in Serbia. I felt deeply saddened for the victims, sickened to know there are such people that decide to do this and arrange it and physically ill that I am in such a place that this could happen.
"When NATO launched air strikes to stop the carnage, hundreds of bodies of Kosovars were dug up and transported over 320 kilometer (200 miles) to three locations in central Serbia and reburied in mass graves to cover up the killings from the invading alliance troops."

Now there are more exhumations in Kosovo, but this time it is families moving their loved ones remains to new homes in Serbia for fear of the graves being desecrated should independance be granted.
"Dozens of Serb families are exhuming their dead, reflecting the deep mistrust and unhealed scars of war that bedevil Western efforts to forge a multiethnic society in Kosovo."

"Most of Kosovo's Serbs fled after NATO bombing stopped Slobodan Milosevic's brutal 1998-99 crackdown on separatists. An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed, more than 1 million lost their homes, and 2,000 are still missing.

When the war ended, some Albanians sought to avenge their dead by targeting Serbs. About 200,000 Serbs and other minorities fled, and only about 100,000 remain, most in small, isolated enclaves." iht.com

There are days when you read so much sad and depressing news about a place you are working in, and come up against such difficult political situations that set back your program over and over again, that its hard to find a reason to continue, hard to continue thinking that things can get better, and if so whether you can actually be a part of that improvement. But we have to think it or why else are we here? Right?