TRAVEL JOURNAL SARAJEVO - ZAGREB, JUNE 2001
Travel journal Sarajevo – Zagreb June 2001 Sarajevo Warm, overcast. Clouds scrape the tops of the southern hills. The city rapidly recedes, gradually wakes. Parallel to the Miljacka, flanked by a tram. Minarets Chimneys Pine Rolling green hills and cleavages Peppered with houses. Jagged edged skyline of concrete blocks saws the sky. Another fallen building, peeled wings. Mount Igman looms, its summit concealed. Road crosses the river of its country’s namesake. Scattered houses now Peopled by shrouded men of straw. Pill box stands sentinel Perched above a verdant swathe of pine And houses more recently blackened And those, more recent still, built to replace the fallen. Rusted cars richly patinated return to the soil, Driven into a ditch. TITO Road follows a winding cleft, A river valley carved by ancient currents. Gentle fields of cultivation, Those neglected bloodied with poppies. Figure scythes in a tiny clearing. Bridges Tunnels Viaducts Road traverses a wide, steely green lake Receiving and reflecting the great sweeping hills Overwhelming the fringe of small dwellings. Crossing the Neretva exposes the distant range of mountains Blue karst, brooding. Deep valley gorge inhabited by pylons and ghosts, And fish farms. River between two roads. All roads lead to Mostar. Black cypresses, white gravestones. Verticals in a flattened plain. Colourful billboard advertises soap powder. Even the mountain is pockmarked. The Old Bridge recreated, Painted on a wall. Front line, bell tower territory. On the radio ‘This is the road to Hell.’ Roadside littered with little monuments, And car parts. Scattered settlements suddenly grow Unfinished but ownership claimed by ethnic graffiti, Invisible borders known only by those who live here. Vegetation thinning. Flag anticipates the border, The UN’s looks pale and tired, nothing stirs. Fishing men, pleasure boats, Tethered cow lazily grazes. Pinewoods patch the hillside. Road rises and skirts a cultivated plain. Rocky outcrops shape the fields And water channels around them. Terraced olives. ‘Dubrovnik is your friend.’ Finger of a peninsular pokes the sea And points accusingly at a short stretch of overdeveloped coast. The sea breaks open, warm breeze, Breathing the heady scent of herbs mixed with evergreen I lie back and fill my eyes with sky. Ston Coursing the artery of this peninsular, little shade. Villages of stone grow organically from the hills Or dug from the earth. Small windows look out on a parched distance Until the land falls away. The razor-edged mainland Reveals itself in the shimmering haze. A road sign used for target practice. Prickly pear Cactus Vineyards Coca-Cola as ubiquitous as the crucifix. Crossing sides We plunge down into the town. Orebić clings to the shore In fear of the mountains nudging it into the sea, Resisting the advancing scrub. The boat pulls out Ultramarine Emerald Black The white surf parts. Korčula Axis of the old town points to the New World, Sheltered from the Bura Twenty-five minutes walks every street. Shimmering reds White walls crystallised at the sea’s edge. Bleached olive greens. The sea takes on a new intensity. The landscape unwinds Between two blue layers The horizon ahead is curved. White sails drifting in a blue calm, Clouds above unmoved. Zigzag road stitches the mountains together, Gradually tapering, increasingly sparse. Vapour trail is the sky’s shoreline. The light house a full stop. Starboard side leaves the shade And the mainland comes into focus. Split Trogir – Šibenik Lines of stone drawn down to the sea Anchor the mainland Its undulations, ribbed. ‘Fish Picnic.’ ‘Sretan put – Good luck.’ New marina agitates its surroundings. From Zlarin island The distant layered hills are terraced in rows, Fertile soil for growing settlements. On this car-less island A new road, empty, Abruptly halts. Continues, for now, as a small woodland path. Pinecones decorate bare trees, dense and deadly packed. Needles carpet the ground. Waves shape the shore. Young growth clings to ancient rocks. Mariner’s memorial speaks only to the sea. A clear glass bottle contains no message. Rain hangs the sunflower’s head And further on, Where the path becomes impassable, Gun emplacements still keep a wide-eyed vigil On a view long since obscured. Above the cove Labyrinthine walls thread through wild grasses, Where every bush and branch is barbed. Stone piles look down on a huddle of houses. Walls become streets and individual rooms. Gradually, the plan of an ancient settlement is imagined Until the summit gained And a surviving bunker Steps down into the earth. The concrete is inscribed with names Velimir Tomislav That the wind carries down The descending goat path. Vegetation follows the rock’s fracture Rising and dipping in waves. Solitary figure waves from an uninhabited island. Approaching the town. Houses barnacle-encrusted on the hull of the hill. Šibenik – Zadar Road travels through an empty wilderness. Little chapels Quarries Road signs Each town centre approached Through the industrial zone Disfiguring Desolate Sprawling. Bright green leaves Cast purple shadows on my sprawling tent. Zadar City walled and wide moated Punctured in places To allow the worn-smooth gleaming streets to breathe On which bell towers cast long shadows Stretching back to when the Romans Carved their fluted columns, Now segmented into sturdy foundations. PAX VAN TIBI GELI MAR STA CE E MEVS Radi kao da ne trebaš novac Ljubi kao da nikad nisi bila povrijeđena Plesi kao da te niti ne gleda A mid-summer wedding blares past boats Beached on stilts. The air becomes their sea, But sailing nowhere. Writers write their names In the names of the streets. Ivan Tanzlinger Mata Karamana Frane Alfirević Zadar – Ugljan Crossing a diamond studded sea ‘Look out for a small island, a church, a palm tree.’ Boatman pushes out from the quay. Monastery Island, Six minutes measures the circumference. Across the water lies the low-lying city, Its church towers and tower blocks clearly etched and illuminated. Zadar overshadowed by the Velebit, Whose limestone peaks Are barely distinguishable from clouds Now almost lost to view. Twilight. Necklace of lights decorates the distant city’s shoreline. A silken sea brooched by fishing boats, nets cast, Only the ferry, pink tinged, ripples the stillness. Monastery Island looks dark and foreboding, At night becomes the Isle of the Dead. The first row of stars appears. Zadar – Rijeka Rows of empty road-side stalls Fruits still languish in trees. Impact craters patched the only road, Hugging a convoluted coast And screened by the weight of the crumbling Velebit. While across the sea A long-stretched pink strip of land, Wind-blown stripped of soil and vegetation, Grows only stones In fields enclosed by stone. KM stone 354. Road signs caution rock fall and the prevailing wind. Inhospitable, unsustainable terrain. Viaducts Goat bridges Way side flowers of plastic. Crossing the 45th Parallel at Senj. The road straightens. The hills soften. The stones become concealed. KM stone 245. Eternal flame burns from the oil refinery As we circumvent the ship yard. Marco Polo Liburnija Jazina And descend into Rijeka. Rijeka – Zagreb Forging through clefts of rock A rhythmic ascent skirts the valley And leaves behind the sea and islands. Rounding rounded hills pinpricked by occasional outcrops. A shepherd watches sheep with binoculars. Lines and cables criss-cross the hillside. The forest changes texture. Forests densely foliated. Oak Beech Silver Birch Rocks yield to bracken and soft grasses. Fields become pollen-covered meadows. Muravice Stations are wood-stacked, hedge-trimmed. Tapped wheels chime. Where villages appear meadows become fields, Cultivated and scare-crowed. Sap green Golden green Viridian green Rivers only seen when crossed. Klek, from a distance, firmiliar from all sides. Ogulin Unrepentant motorway, unfinished, ploughs the forest against the grain. The landscape flattens and views open up, Punctuated by pillboxes, following a river’s flow. Fields scythed and burnt in patches, increasingly tamed. The ember’s glow is the land’s setting sun. Houses randomly placed and spaced. Karlovac The sky enlarges. In the distance The blue hills of Japetić approach. Then Sljeme silhouettes itself against a falling sky. All the greens darken. Crossing the Sava The city is entered Zagreb |