Fabian's Blog

Today I restarted with a classical book about Yugoslavia. The title is: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, “A Journey through Yugoslavia” and it is written by Rebecca West. This book has 1150 pages, so I will read this book for a while…..

The author describe her travels through Yugoslavia  just on the eve of the Second World War II. The firt page start with: “To my friends in Yugoslavia, who are now all dead or enslaved”. “Grant to them of their desire, and make them again citizens of Paradis”.

If you are, just like me, loving the Balkans and Yugoslavia  then this is a book compulsary on your list…I am at page 197 now and still like it:-) I will come back on this book when I have finished it. Have a  nice sunday afternoon / evening!

Voz 451 (=train 451) was introduced between Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. Nothing special you would think, but for 18 years there was no direct train from Belgrado to Sarajevo.

Voz 451 leaves Belgrado 08:15 and arrives in Sarajevo at 17:35, following the timetable information from the Železnice Srbije (Serbian Railways).

The interesting article from Marloes de Koning can be found here: De Standaard – ‘Dit is zoals vroeger, lang geleden’, for those who can’t read Dutch, click here. It is from the Belgian newspaper www.standaard.be.

The article describes the nostalgia of the older generation who lived in Yugoslavia, and the lack of that for those (the younger generation) who did not. The train is back, but it goes slow: 9 hours and 20 minutes for about +/- 400 km….At each border the locomotive is changed: a Serbian one, a Croation one, a Bosnian-Serb one and for th last part a locomotive from the Bosnian federation. And of course there are also the inevitable border controls. I know by experience that you need patience if you are travelling through the Balkans, but it is nice with always unexpected aspects….