Jimbojack - Caucasus & Central/Eastern Europe Trip Pictures

Here are some photos from the trip. So far I'm only posting 2 photos from each country, many more will be added soon.

Azerbaijan

"Dom Soviet", old parliament in Baku. Recently restored thanks to the billions of $ Heydar Aliyev got for contracts from western oil companies for exploration rights in Azerbaijan. The building is unique because it combines traditional Muslim architecture with the generous use of soviet concrete.

Mud Volcanoes, Qobustan. The mud coming out of the ground is cold.

Georgia

Samtavro Church in Mtskheta, built in the 1130's it was the former residence of the lords of Mtskheta, now it is used as a nunnery (one of the resident nuns is in the picture)

Tsminda Sameba Church, built in the 14th century and located at 2170 meters above sea level next to the town of Kazbegi. Hiking in these mountains, less then 10 kilometers from the Russian border, was one of the highlights of my trip. While not exactly in South Ossetia, many people living here (including the family with whom I stayed) have Russian citizenship and do not speak any Georgian.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/3797729.stm

Armenia

Woman picking flowers in front of an old church in a village near Alaverdi

The inside of a cave church in the Geghard Monastery in the Upper Azat Valley. The oldest of the cave churches date back to the 7th century (Geghard was founded in the 4th century according to legend). Everything you see in the picture (except for the candles and stand) was carved out of solid rock.

Turkey

The ceiling of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul

Tea sets for sale at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

Bulgaria

Wall painting showing devils and mortal temptations, Preobrajenski Monastery, outside of Veliko Tarnovo

Sveta Nedelya Cathedral, Sofia

Romania

Building in central Bucharest, much of the city was destroyed in the 1977 earthquake. Many buildings are still standing but cannot be occupied, the next earthquake will most likely cause them to collapse completely.

Old woman sitting at an entrance to a subway station

Macedonia

Liman Ismail, Imam of the Sultan Murat II Mosque in Skopje (built in 1451). He studied in Medina before coming back to Macedonia and taking over this mosque. It was damaged but not destroyed during the war.

Street in Ohrid

Kosovo

Memorial to those killed during the war

Bill Klinton (yes, it's spelled with a K here) Boulevard, one of the main streets in Prishtina. Above his picture it says "Welcome to Bill Klinton Boulevard"

Albania

Two bunkers in the countryside. From 1950 to 1985 the super paranoid Enver Hoxha had around 700,000 of the bunkers (one for every four Albanians at the time!) built throughout the country to repel imaginary invasions. Today they are pain for everyone, very expensive to remove and very hard to destroy, they sit in farms, backyards and on beaches.

Et'hem Bey Mosque, Tirana. Built in 1789-1823, it is one of the few buildings that escaped intact during the atheism campaign of the 1960's

Montenegro

A square in front of the St. Nicholas church, Kotor

View of the Kotor Fjord (largest fjord in southern Europe) from the trail leading up to the old fortifications above the city.

Croatia

Main street of the old city of Dubrovnik

One of the many waterfalls in Plitvice Lakes National Park

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Old bridge in Mostar. Originally built by the Turkish architect Hayrudin in 1557 at the request of a local businessman, it was destroyed on November 9th, 1993 by a unit of the Croatian Defense Council. The new bridge opened on the 23rd of July 2004. The bridge linked the two parts of the city, Muslim and Christian, thus it is an important symbol of Mostar.

New cemetery in Sarajevo, many of the people buried here were among the almost 11,000 victims of the Serbian siege of the city which took place from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996.

Serbia

Band rehearsing on a stage in the Kalemegdan Citadel, Belgrade

Flight suit and a part of an American F-117 stealth fighter shot down by Serb forces during the American bombing campaign. The Serbs used 1950's soviet radar technology to track the "invisible" billion $ planes (the B2 being the other one) and shot it down using anti-aircraft missiles. The remains are now on display at the military museum in Belgrade where I took this picture.

Slovenia

A very colorful building in Ljubljana

Statues at the dragon bridge in Ljubljana, the dragons are now the city's mascots.

Austria

Turkish football fan, this was the day Turkey won against Croatia in the Euro Cup

Inside of the Abbey Church outside of Vienna, built between 1114-1136.

Poland

The underground complex Riese near Walbrzych. Huge tunnels and halls were dug out of the Sudetes mountains by Nazis using workers from concentration camps. This was thought to be an underground military factory to be used for the creation of V2 rockets. The works were never completed due to the advance of the Soviet Red Army.