Accidental Pilgrims in the Balkans

Jingjing and I at the Chapel of the Mother Teresa House in Skopje, Macedonia

Sometimes we visit a place because we long to see it. Sometimes we go because of a whim. I went to the Balkans for practical reasons. Jingjing, the PR strategist who helped launch my book in the Philippines, was waiting to take me up on my promise of a break.  And this cheapskate found a promo that offered a week at the Balkan Jewel Resort for unbelievably few timeshare points.

There were pros and cons. October (2015) would be cold for women from the tropics. My husband could not go. And, Balkan countries are among the least visited in Europe. Still, Jingjing wanted to go; it'll add to her goal of 65 countries by the time she’s 65 in 2018. At 67, I needed catching up with just 45. And, it would be off the beaten path, curiosity at a low price.

the views from our windows

Jingjing arrived in Sofia from Manila an hour earlier and found the hotel driver who had a sign bearing my name. Her trademark smile warmly greeted my arrival from Phoenix. Midway on the two-hour drive to Razlog, we asked for a food stop. Our driver fidgeted, “No English.” Luckily, out of nowhere, the McDonalds’ arches appeared like a double rainbow with a pot of burgers more precious than gold.

We were pleasantly surprised that our studio was more like a suite. But it was in the morning when views from our windows completely blew us away. They were of the postcard-pretty Pirin Mountains bathed in the splendor of fall. The bountiful brunch buffet led us to where jovial locals boisterously babbled all morning. Then we splashed at the indoor pool and tried the exotic ceramic spa lounge chairs.

sheep on the road to Bansko

Razlog is a ski resort area and Bansko, only seven minutes away, is a cultural city. The duo is Bulgarians’ winter destination of choice. When a shuttle brought us to downtown Bansko, the only traffic we encountered was a large herd of cute sheep with round butts. With just animated gestures and without words, Driver#2 led us to the town’s pride, the Holy Trinity Church.

Holy Trinity Church in Bansko, Bulgaria

The Eastern Orthodox Church looked small from the outside. They built it sunken below the ground to deflect Turkish imperialist ambition. Inside, the smell of centuries-old white fir was distinctive. The wooden-framed church was a masterpiece, richly colored and decorated like no church I have ever seen before. It looked more like a festive Eastern Opera House just before its grand opening. There were brilliant frescoes, twelve radiant pillars (for the Apostles) and an altar-piece of glittering icons.

I didn’t expect Jingjing’s reaction, “I wonder where we can find a Catholic church.” In a week of rest, she yearned for a familiar place of worship. Alas, it would
not be in nearby Sofia or Plovdiv. We searched the Web that night and found that Mother Teresa, who would soon brightly a saint (11 months later), was an Albanian. She was born in Skopje (when it was still part of Yugoslavia) 3 ½ hours away! Always up for an adventure, Jingjing cried, “Taralets,” Tagalog colloquialism for “Let’s go!”

the countryside on the road to Macedonia

The Resort arranged an inexpensive taxi ride for us. Alas, Driver #3 also spoke no English, so we were left with admiring Bulgarian hillsides that turned into huge canvasses of fall’s palette. As we approached Macedonia, it became greener even if those black poplars, standing tall and elegant in rows, had shed their leaves.  Our driver breezed through the border. Balkan languages seem to have a lot in common.

When we checked in at Ibis Skopje, everyone spoke English! “Are you interested in a small church another 1 ½ hours away in Letnica, Kosovo?” the receptionist asked. Also part of Yugoslavia at the time, it was where Mother Teresa’s mother brought her when she was just 17. There she heard her calling to serve the poorest of the poor. Jingjing was like a kid just told she was going to Disney. Of course, there were another excited "Taralets!" Good thing the taxi ride was also inexpensive.

new identical homes and vestiges of war in Kosovo

We had an hour to spare and hurried to the Mother Teresa Memorial House some blocks away. They built it on the grounds of the church of her baptism, the day she recognizes as her birthday, a day after she was born. At the Chapel, her photo was at the center of floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall glass windows laced with intricate ironworks. Natural light streamed through, enveloping us in delicate shadows. We were in awe, and silent prayer became our only conversation. At the House, we posed by her childhood bed and imagined her veined wrinkled hand writing those loving letters from Calcutta. What an enormous contribution the Balkans gave to the world!

Back at the hotel, a muscular middle-aged man was waiting for us. We were dumbfounded when he asked, “My name is Draghi. May I ask why are you going to Letnica?” Driver #4 spoke incredibly good English! He deftly handled the strict scrutiny at the border checkpoint. Kosovo remains a disputed territory even after her declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 upon the dissolution of Yugoslavia. A sad Draghi told us the horrific story as we made our way through war-torn villages: “Look at what the war did. There’s another skeleton of a house. See those writings on the walls.” The Kosovo War left over ten thousand dead and over a million displaced.

Then he slowed down to show us a large embankment perpendicular to the road, painted with a map. “Kosovo is Little Albania; ninety percent Albanian,” he said. “But they are Kosovar Albanians who wanted to be a separate country.” With a Muslim majority, there were many mosques. But it was the identical houses, in pairs, trios, even fives, that caught our interest. “It is a tradition of regular familial reunions. Brothers live side by side, in exact looking homes," he explained.

Jingjing and I ar the Church of the Black Madonna in Letnica, Kosovo

Millenium Cross at night in Skopje, Macedonia

In no time, we reached Letnica, a semi-deserted hamlet of a handful of households. Every August, it comes alive as thousands of people, including Croats returning to homes they had abandoned, come to celebrate the Feast of the Black Madonna. Inside the simple white church sitting atop a hill, Mother Teresa’s unadorned photo hangs near the uncomplicated altar. Then we thought we saw her ghost and got goose bumps as an old woman, wrinkled and bent like her, hobbled her way into the church. Draghi patiently took all our photos.

By nightfall, as we were we were approaching Skopje, a cross shining brightly high up in the evening sky caused Jingjing and me to look at each other, transfixed and entranced. Draghi noticed this and excitedly drove us to a place from where we can take better pictures. My Nikon just couldn’t capture the magic. “It’s the 217-foot tall Millenium Cross,” he was proud to say, “built on top of Vodno Mountain to celebrate 2,000 years of Christianity. It is the sign that unites all our faiths.”  He was right. Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, Christianity is one and the same.

Over an authentic Macedonian dinner, a fusion of Turkish and Greek tastes, Draghi suggested we continue to Nis, Serbia. "It would probably add just five hours to your trip back to Razlog, but that’s where Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, was born!” he said. We followed his suggestion, but borders between Kosovo and Serbia remain closed, so we had to go around east and north of Skopje. With Driver #3, the three-hour trip was quiet. We sorely missed Draghi's stories.

Jingjing at the Church of Constantine and Helena in Nis, Serbia

We learned that Constantine’s father was a Roman Emperor who had to marry another woman to legitimize his rule. Helena, his mother, was a consort sent away to Nis. But by the time his father died, Constantine had become a legendary warrior and was acclaimed Emperor. He converted to Christianity; History credits Helena with the guidance that led to Constantine’s great reign. For this and her acts of piety and kindness, all of Christendom later also revered her as a saint. It was good for Jingjing to know. Her real name is Elena, a single parent who raised not one son but three plus a daughter. At the newly built Church of Constantine and Helena in Nis, she found comfort.

All the way back to Razlog, we saw more glistening crosses atop hills. By week’s end, we realized we had experienced more than we had ever planned. Jingjing added four new countries to her list. I loved Balkan affordability. And Draghi is a name we will never forget.  But our final takeaway was more precious than all these. The Balkans gave new meaning to the cliche “It’s not about the destination; it’s the journey.” Our trip turned into a search for something sacred and deeply personal. We became more than tourists in the Balkans. We were accidental pilgrims. 

Our Lifestyle Adventures: Out of Luck in Nis, Serbia

Mediana, closed for renovation in Nis, Serbia

From our little pilgrimage in Kosovo, we had to return to Skopje for the night because the next morning we would be entering Serbia from Macedonia, not Kosovo. Serbia is a country that was once a Kingdom, central to the Balkans, and to the Yugoslavia created to unite the region. After so many struggles, the Serbia of today is a landlocked country with many borders that include Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro. It also claims a border with Albania because Kosovo is still a disputed territory. It was only in 2008 when the parliament of Kosovo, Serbia's former southern province with an Albanian ethnic majority, declared independence. 

the scenery on the road from Skopje to Nis

We decided on visiting Nis, just a 2 ½ hour drive from Skopje because it is the birthplace of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor. But the drive back to our base in Bulgaria was a long 4 hours, so we had only about 5 hours in Nis. We went directly to the Tourism Office to plot the best use of our little time but, lo and behold, the Turistička Organizacija Niš was closed that day! It was a bad beginning.

Christogram Monument

MEDIANA

We quickly asked how to get to Mediana, a luxurious suburbia of old Nis, built during the rule of Constantine the Great (306-337), later declared a saint by the Orthodox Church.  He ruled both the west and the east so well that the city of Constantinople was named after him. He was also the one who called the First Council of Nicaea when the Nicene Creed began to be professed. After Constantine’s rule, the Mediana became the temporary residence of 6 Roman emperors on their journey towards the East until the 4^th century. Sadly, the Old City was closed for renovation! Another bad experience!

Monument to Liberators

CHRISTOGRAM MONUMENT

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity. The Christogram Monument celebrates this. In 312, the year of the battle of Milvian Bridge near Rome, Constantine had a vision of the Christogram sign with the note "In hoc signo vinces" or “In this sign, you will conquer.” We looked for the Monument all over the city and failed. When I got back to the US, I found out that it was just in front of the Nis Fortress, just behind the Monument of the Liberators, on the bank of the Nisava River. I had taken a picture of the entrance to the Fortress but failed to go close enough to see the Monument! Our third bad experience...and the worst!

MONUMENT TO THE LIBERATORS

It was good the King Milan Square whose central piece is the Monument to the Liberators is just across from the Tourism Office. The famous statue presents the periods of wars of liberation waged against the Turks, Bulgarians, and Germans. It contains inscriptions on the struggles for liberation from the Turks (1874-7) and the occupation and the liberation of the city in WWI (1915-8).

SKULL TOWER

some of the remaining skulls in the Skull Tower

the Chapel that houses the Skull Tower

Fortunately, we were able to locate the Skull Tower, a unique monument built after the Battle of Cegar between the Serbian revolutionaries and the Turks.  Even though they had won Cegar Hill, the Turk vizier of Nis found out that the leader of the Serbian troops deliberately created an explosion that killed everyone around, Serbs and Turks alike. He ordered the collection and skinning of the heads of the Serb victims and the building of a tower to house them. They even built the horrific monument along the road to Constantinople, as a warning to anyone rising against the Ottoman Empire. The 10-foot tall tower is rectangular with 56 rows of 952 skulls. Over time, most of them were stolen; today there are only 54.  

OLD AND NEW CHURCHES

Church of Constantine and Helena

The Church of St. Nicholas stands as a witness to the turbulent history of Nis. To the west of the current church are remnants of the previous church, demolished in 1737 as a consequence of the Turkish outburst of anger provoked by the disobedience of Serbian population. The present church was erected in 1863 as a Turkish mosque but it became an Orthodox church after liberation from the Turks.

At the end of our day in Nis, because we could not find the Christogram monument, we proceeded to the Church of St. Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena, located in a new part of the city, Bulevard Nemanjici, Park St Sava. It was built in 1999 in honor of the most revered son of Nis and his mother, Helena. It is a beautiful church with grounds perfect for strolling.

Unfortunately, we saw only half of what we intended to see in Nis. Not walking on the Mediana and not seeing the Christogram Monument were the biggest disappointments.  It was too bad that I had not planned the visit well. But we were still blessed for getting a feel of both old and modern Serbia, especially of her struggles that have haunted her past and that continues today.

Our Lifestyle Adventures: Continuing Our Pilgrimage into Kosovo

Only one and a half hours away from Skopje is the tiny village of Letnica, Kosovo. Jingjing and I wanted to go there and continue our pilgrimage for Mother Teresa. In a little church there, she heard her calling to serve the “poorest of the poor.” Hotel Ibis in Skopje, Macedonia arranged for an English-speaking cab driver to take us to the Church of Black Madonna in the hamlet. They did not know how to do help us in Razlog, Bulgaria.

CHURCH OF BLACK MADONNA 

A Black Madonna is a statue (or painting) of dark-skinned Mary, especially those created in Europe in the medieval period or earlier.  There are about 450–500 Black Madonnas in the continent, at least 180 in France (5 are in the Philippines!). There are hundreds of non-medieval copies, and some are in museums, but most are in churches or shrines. A few are associated with miracles, attracting pilgrims.

One such statue carved more than 400 years ago is inside the handsome, whitewashed Catholic Church that dominates the semi-deserted Kosovo village of Letnica. Each August the tiny hamlet transforms for the Feast of the Black Madonna when thousands of pilgrims come. The picturesque village was once home to a substantial community of Croats, who abandoned this poor corner of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s wars. They return to their homes during the festival. Many others come, swelling the number to tens of thousands, setting up improvised shelters across the churchyard and the surrounding valleys.

Part of the town’s fame is due to Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known today as Mother Teresa. In 1928, she came to Letnica when she was 17, and, while on this pilgrimage with her parents, she decided to become a missionary and dedicate her life to charity. Also, many claim to have seen tears coming from the statue’s eyes during the festival while others have experienced miraculous cures. Some travel great distances barefoot while others carry stones in their hands or even mouths, as their predecessors have done for centuries.

THE REMNANTS OF WAR AND LITTLE ALBANIA

Kosovo borders Macedonia and Albania to the south, Montenegro to the west, and Serbia to the north and east. It was part of Serbia in the Middle Ages until the Ottoman Empire took control. With the defeat of the Ottomans late in the 19th century, parts of Kosovo were ceded to both Serbia and Montenegro. Then both countries became part of Unitarian Yugoslavia after WWI.

Long-term severe ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb populations left Kosovo divided with long-standing inter-ethnic violence. The Kosovo War of 1998–99 ended with a NATO military intervention and the country became a UN protectorate. On 17 February 2008 Kosovo's Parliament declared independence and has since gained recognition as a state by 108 UN member states, but not the other 85. Serbia is one of them but it has accepted that Kosovo institutions are exclusively operated by Kosovo's government. 23 of 28 members of the EU recognize Kosovo.

We saw remnants of ethnic violence during our trip to Letnica. It was heart-breaking to see many abandoned and war-ravaged homes that dotted the countryside. But there was also great scenery with the mountains and the rivers, especially with the sun going down on the trip back. But the most interesting part of the trip was Little Albania that lies between Skopje and Letnica. There was even a landmark, a map of Albania on a berm, built by the Albanians nearer the border. Mostly Muslims, the section was dominated by mosques. And our friendly cab driver pointed out how homes within a family are duplicates of each other. They are called brothers’ homes, two, three or more at a time!

We had very little time in Skopje but the five-hour pilgrimage we made to Letnica, Kosovo was a revelation. You do not need to stay in a country for a long time to feel its pulse. And a pilgrimage does not have to be to a faraway place to be meaningful. The little church in Letnica inspired the Catholic in us and Little Albania breathed life into our search for peace in the world.