Balkan Odyssey: Sarajevo

The second stop on our Balkan Odyssey was Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, notorious for two violent events: as the place where Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was murdered by a Bosnian Serb, setting off WW1, and as the target of a murderous 1992-95 siege by Serbia. Now recovered and a favorite tourist destination, it is a most attractive city.

The Miljacka River flows through Sarajevo. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot on the corner of the pink and gray building, now a museum, at the left side of the bridge in this photo.

Two Moslem women, with a sleeping child, inspect bullet holes from the bombardment of Sarajevo during the siege.

Balkan Odyssey: Belgrade

We are on an extended trip to Europe, beginning with a MIR tour entitled "Balkan Odyssey", on which we will visit seven Balkan countries.  I will try to post one or two photos each day, but will postpone a comprehensive look until later.

We began in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. This was the capital of the former Yugoslavia, united under Marshall Tito. We visited an extensive memorial and museum to Tito, which had some striking sculptures on the grounds. Here is one, presumably depicting the rescue of wounded partisans.

The streets of Belgrade are lively, leading to good street photography opportunities.  This photo was part planning, part luck - like most street photography.

Sunriver Woods

Sunriver is a residential and resort community about 25 miles south of Bend, Oregon. In the section where we were visiting friends, houses are widely spaced in pine woods, so one can walk through mature forests.

Deschutes River Trail

From Baker City we drove to Sunriver, south of Bend, where we took a hike with friends along the Deschutes River Trail. The river is quite turbulent as it squeezes through a narrow gorge, and there are some interesting views of the extensive lava fields across the water.

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

We drove east from Lake Wallowa through some of the Hells Canyon Wilderness area, and then west to Baker City, where we visited the impressive Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. We only had about an hour that afternoon, so we returned the next morning to see the rest of the panoramas and exhibits, and to attend an amusing and informative lecture by "Dr. Balthazar", a historian impersonating a 19th C patent medicine salesman.

Chief Joseph Trail

Our last hike before leaving the Lake Wallowa area was on the Chief Joseph Trail. The sign at the trail head says that it's not maintained, and indeed we weren't able to get past a largely-blocked bridge over the river; but there was plenty of good walking and the beginnings of fall color up to that point.

Lake Wallowa Tramway and Mount Howard

The Lake Wallowa Tramway rises 3700 feet from Lake Wallowa to the summit of Mount Howard. It's the steepest four-person gondola tram in North America. There are two miles of excellent hiking trails at the top, and we got to see paragliders sailing down over the farm fields to the lake.

Setting up for a wedding