Trip to the Apteka (Pharmacy)

We found out we were going hiking in the woods and would need tick spray only once we got here. And I conveniently forgot sunscreen and my knee brace.

All of this added up to a trip to the pharmacy/apteka/аптека. Pharmacies in Russia/Eastern Europe are different than in the US. In the US everything is out on a shelf for you to look at/maybe go ask the pharmacist about it if you don’t just look it up on your phone. In Russia, everything is behind the counter (and you don’t necessarily need a RX either). 

I asked my professor how to ask for a  knee brace and she wrote it down for me. Our local contact had told us the word for “ticks” and I had looked up “sunscreen” (and came really close with “the thing that prevents sunburns” that one I knew would be tricky!).

However, I wasn’t expecting what happened to happen. Everything is more difficult in Russia, in part simply because you don’t know the language, and there is a large communication gap. Another part is cultural. And the third part is that US bureaucracy has NOTHING on Russian bureaucracy. NOTHING. 

So I walk in and immediately see the sunscreen- SCORE. But the nice seller lady comes over to me and (presumably) asks if I need anything. I attempt to say “tick spray” from memory, but it’s not working. So I pull out my list of words and show it to her. She goes two steps over and pulls out OFF! brand spray and tells me it’s the only thing that works. It’s an itty-bitty can and costs like $10 (knew I should’ve of just brought some with me!). But hey, when you don’t really want to try out the Russian healthcare system, you buy $10 tick spray.

Then I point to the knee brace word. She walks me over to a wall of braces, and pulls like three for me to try on. None are the wrap around kind like I’ve been using post-surgery, but beggars can’t be choosers when they have an 18 km hike in a few days.  So I try one on, and it fits and it happened to be the cheapest (like only $25 instead of $30, I mean come on guys, seriously!). But the poor seller lady keeps trying to ask me questions and I just keep smiling and not understanding. But she is persistent and keeps trying. We’re both laughing at this point about our mutual inability to understand each other when she asks if I need anything else (this in words I knew!).

Since I knew where the sunscreen was, but just needed to look at it, I go back over and pick up the SPF  50+. In the US, I usually get SPF 50 or even 80 if I know I will be outside a lot. But this SPF 50 specifically said “for children” which in my head meant it probably was good for movement and sweating. Considering the next highest was an SPF 30, I was planning on getting that one. But the seller lady had other ideas.

She (I assume, didn’t quite know the words) asked me “But don’t you want a tan?” while gesticulating over her stomach and arms. I trid to tell her was was “very white” and get “very red” but she still looked concerned over me picking the “for kids SPF 50” so she dragged me over to another seller lady and that lady said (in English), “but that one is for children.” I said “I know” and got weird looks.

The first seller lady then took me over to a different location and showed me fancy French Woman sunscreen that was SPF 50, but it was like $60 so I said no and that I would take the SPF 30 (mostly to get out of the store and I figured I could just reapply more often.

Still not quite sure why I couldn’t just buy the one for children….

See you around the globe!

Budapest Day 3!

For this leg of the adventure check out Travel By Cassidy Facebook for the accompanying pictures!

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Last night, the purse I had bought to replace the other one that broke, broke last night. I knew I had seen some of those tourist purses the other day, so after a kind of lazy start (when stuff doesn’t open until 10 am, you can’t really do a whole lot about it) I rushed off to find this store and buy a purse. After basically running/walking/metro taking to the center, I made it into the shop grabbed a bag I wanted (I had seen one I wanted, but wasn’t going to drop that kind of money on it), paid and started walking back to take the walking tour. I loved the walking tour in Sofia and had high hopes for this one. They disappointed horribly. I realized afterwards that I had never not learned anything in that amount of time before. They did a lot of sitting and not walking. They did a wonderful overview of the history of the entire country- but almost nothing about the city. And to be honest, if I wanted to learn about the history I would go to a museum. And I was still juggling the revisionist history that I was hearing. I almost left, but thought that I might be more interesting as it progressed. I was pretty wrong. I do not recommend taking this tour unless you want to learn all the history of the country without any of the history of the city or any of the pointing out of cool buildings or city history. (it was Budapest Walking Tours by the way).

After this two hour tour where I learned a lot about the country and very little about the city I was living in, I grabbed a vegetarian sandwich and ate it as I walked to the museum I wanted to go to. It was funny as I ordered the sandwich, I asked for the cheese sandwich and the guy was like, “it is only cheese, no meat…” and I am like, “yes, no meat is good.” I made it to the Budapest history museum/national gallery at the Royal Palace. I had heard about Die Hard 5 filming in Budapest the day before, but I didn’t think it would impact my life. Well it did. They closed the history museum down so they could film in it. Why they couldn’t film it on a Monday when all of the museums are closed, I do not know. I was livid for the longest time before I realized I just had to let it go and just enjoy where I was. You often have to make a conscious decision to just let stuff that bothers you go, or it can ruin your day. This was going a while to running my day when I made the decision that it would be cool when I finally saw that movie in the US and I would be I WAS THERE! I decided to go ahead and go to the National Gallery, which hosts only Hungarian artists. There were some really cool exhibits- children art work, landscapes, portraits, and old maps. They had 4 special exhibits going on while I was there. “Heros, Kings, and Saints” which included information about the most famous Hungarian heroes throughout history. It also had this ginormous painting that was supposed to go in the Parliament but then the winds of politics changed and they never put it in there. (there were only 2 women in the whole painting!) They showcased the peasants uprisings, Turkish wars, and revolution of 1848-1489. They also had an exhibit of two of the famous Hungarian artist that I had never heard of before. But there were some breath taking paintings. (Which I will try to find the links for later, I don’t have my notes with me here and I wrote the names of the artists down.) I did get to peek into the filming area of Die Hard, which was kind of cool. (for all these pictures and more, go onto the Travel By Cassidy Facebook page!).

After the gallery, and required picture taking outside and of the city, I walked back along the road to try to find an ATM or a shop that took plastic for my souvenirs.  Luckily I found one. But man these things are expensive! Like really expensive! But they took plastic and had the same prices as the rest of the town, so I went ahead and bought them. The place I bought lunch at had these Hungarian specialties called Kurtoskalacs. They are bread that is rolled up around a little wooden things that are then placed in an open oven and baked. They are first dipped in the seasoning of your choice- cinnamon, coconut, sugar, chocolate, etc. I picked cinnamon. And boy was it delicious! So yummy! It was so hot at first that I couldn’t pick it up/eat it, but once it cooled down a bit, it was great!!!! So worth it, the waiting and walking etc.

I then got on the bus to head back to the hostel (via metro as well) to meet up with Claire, we were going to the baths! When I got back she wasn’t there, I waited about 15 extra minutes before deciding that I should just go anyway. So I packed up my bags and went. There was a bit of a line to get in, which they had warned us about. I recommend buying your ticket beforehand because it will just be easier. But not necessarily cheaper- that was at the door. I just waited in line all by myself and it felt really awkward. There were all these families and couples around me, everyone had come with someone. I had thought about getting a massage, but decided that I could always just do that later if I wanted to. I bought my entrance fee and got this little plastic watch thing that was to be my locker key and entrance key.

The funny thing is, I couldn’t find out how to use the locker. It turns out that it was just the locker that was broken that I first tried. But eventually I succeed! As did this other confused lady that went with me to try to figure out why we couldn’t access the locker…Then it was a quick change and out to the baths. Baths is more than likely a loosely translated term for gigantic mineral hot tub. But the water is natural and just comes up from the ground full of healthy minerals and hot. Deliciously hot after a long day of walking. Even if it was still blistering hot outside. I was mostly in the shade. I then just tried to relax. Do you know how hard this is? Especially when you are in a pool sized hot tub with no one you know and you don’t understand a word of what is going on around you? But I tried. I just stretched and sat and used the jets as massage. And let the water work its miracles. I stayed in the outdoor pools for about 30 minutes, before heading to the inside ones. There are supposedly 18 different pools- with different mineral composition and different temperatures. I think I tried about 6 of them. Plus two saunas. It was just totally relaxing. I spent about an hour here before deciding to pack up and head up. I grabbed my camera to go take some pictures around the spa before leaving though. And then I ran into Claire! I decided to stay and go through it all again with her! So all in all for $15 USD I spent about 3 hours in hot tubs. By the time I got out, everything was refreshed and relaxed.

After changing, we walked to the center because her travel pass had expired. And this was a very bad decision. 45 minutes later, we make it down town. I should have just paid for her to take the metro into town, so much better for me, especially when I ended up needing a cab back to the hostel. But she had never been to Hard Rock outside of the US, so we decided to go there. I was not very happy with this decision, because they didn’t have a veggie burger, they only had a veggie sandwich and I didn’t want to pay that much for a freaking sandwich. But I realized I would want someone to come with me to a restaurant that I had never been to even if they couldn’t find a lot to eat as well, so off we went. It was horrible food, but good wine. And conversation. Then we left to walk back home. And made it only a little bit before getting in a cab. I could have made it, but it would have been one of the most miserable walks home that I had taken in a long time. It was also the shortest most expensive cab ride I have taken- it was almost 10 Euro!! But worth it, to not be laying on the side of a road somewhere waiting for my legs to be able to walk again.  Then sleep, precious precious sleep.

See you around the globe!

Off to Venice (with Mama!)

On Sunday we were headed to VENICE! So excited to go see another country! We took it pretty slow this day, just trying to make sure everything was packed! We had to go de-register Mama with the police, then we went to get Hot Chocolate/palachinki.  Then it was to the airport (thanks Hyun!) and off to Venice via WizzAir.

For those of you who have never lived in Europe, they have these things called “budget airlines.” There is no real comparison budget ailine in the states. Some here are RyanAir and WizzAir, but there are others. They fly you from place to place packed in like Sardines for pretty cheap (30 Euro round trip to Venice or London from Skopje?). You do have to pay extra for ANY extra services (food, drink, checked luggage [sometimes this is more expensive than the ticket]). We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go to Italy when my mom came to visit!

Upon arriving in Italy, we hopped the bus to go to the Piazzale Roma (AKA the bus station on the island). I sat next to this really nice Serbian lady pursuing her PhD in Climate Change in Venice. The hostel told us to call them when we got to the bus station and hopped on the public BOAT. Well, they didn’t pick up the phone the first 3 times we called. And then when we did, they were all “it’s going to take at least 30 minutes.”  Well, I was a bit aggravated. It was cold and we had all of our stuff. I mean, you could have told me to call earlier if it would take you that long! But a nice old man (read 70s or so) meet us at the boat stop about 30 minutes later and took us to the apartment. But this nice man couldn’t speak any English. But with my old dusty French skills and ways of thinking for the past 5 months in broken English we figured it out.

We went downstairs to the little restaurant that was like 10 feet from our entryway to eat. No need to explore when all we had to do was grab a quick bite to eat and crash! the food was pretty good, a bit on the expensive side, but still pretty good. We had....ITALIAN food, how’d you know? Pizza and one of those wrapped pasta things with stuff in it? (the word escapes me right now). Also a delicious chocolate desssert.

Then sleep. nice nice sleep in a nice dark room due to shutters!

see you around the globe!

 

P.S- there are no pictures on this post, since we only used my mom's camera and since she is in the US, can't get the pictures....

more Official notification

Today (well technically, I got it Monday, but My mom had to send it to me in Indiana) I got my official offer of my grant (with how much the grant is for), emergency contact form, travel/arrival information, host country contact & affiliation information, grant deposit information, and fly American regulations.

However, I have a deadline sooner than most, by a few weeks. because I want an eariler start date than is normal in Macedonia. Most have a start date on September 15, I want to start on about September 5ish, so I can get an appartment, set up a language training and get settled before classes start. Classes start on September 15 at the Euro Balkan Insitute.

The official total of the entire grant is $15, 270! Wow! that's a lot of money! Now for the breakdown:



Total: $ 15, 270

Prior to begining the grant: $7, 770

By the end of the third month: $3, 750

By the end of the 6th month: $2, 500

In the last month: $1, 250

Research allowance: $500 (included in the first check)

Base amount: $3, 530

Monthly: $1,250

In the information packet, we had a emergency contact form (do you really need this explained?).

- Travel/arrival information form-

An important part of completing a Fulbright, is the guidelines of Fly America.





Fly America requires that any US Government financed commercial foreign

 air travel shall be flown on a US flagship airline. I must follow a few "principles":

(1) US-flag air carrier service available at point of origin shall be used to destination or, in the absense of direct or through service, to the farthest interchange point on a usually traveled route.

 (2) When an origin or interchange point is not served by a US-flag air carrier, foreign-flag air carrier service shall be used only to the nearest interchange point on a usually traveled route to connect with US-flag air carrier service.

It is important to note that you can not fly on a non US flagship carrier only if it is

cheaper

more convient

You may fly on a foreign air carrier if:

travel on US air delays you by more than 24 hours

you would have a lay-over of more than 6 hours

I will have to change my flight plans because it is cheaper to buy a round trip ticket and pay a change fee than it is to buy two one-way tickets.

THIS is where I have to make a

DECISION.

No it is not as important as I make it sound. :)

I want to travek in Europe before offficially starting my Fulbright grant. But I have to decide where to fly into before I send this paperwork back in the the IIE (people running the Fulbright). Thus

DECISION time!

I have narrowed down my options to Sofia, Bulgaria or Sofia and Bucharest, Romainia. I don't have a burning desire to see either place like I do say, Antartica, but I do want to eventally see both places. Now, Sofia is WAY cheaper than Bucharest.

If I do both cities it will cost $1,774.30. (mostly airfare, which I guess isn't really fair to count, since I won't be paying for that. So about $214.30 for  hotels [4 nights Bucharest, 6 nights Sofia] + $87 for a train to Sofia + $23 bus to Skopje for a total of $327 Plus any extras like food or fun things.)

If I do only Sofia it will cost $1,711. (once again most of that is airfare. $170 for 10 mights hotel in Sofia [well technically hostel not hotel for both] + $23 bus to Skopje for a total of $183 once again plus any extras like food or fun things).

Now that isn't very much of a difference in the long run, but it is for a poor grad student with literally no income besides Fulbright. So, right now I am leaning towards spending 10 days in Sofia with lots of day trips to nearby areas. But I will have to make my decision by the end of this weekend (or at least that is my self imposed deadline).

More DECISION time.

I also have to find an appartment or do the research in Skopje while staying at an hotel/hostel. Currently I believe the best course of action is to just arrive in Skopje and find an apparment once I am there just so I know what I am getting into. However, I have some decent reccomendations about what part of the city to live in (from my Macedonian language teacher to a grad student currently over there). (This is another form that I have to fill out, where will I be staying when I get into Skopje.) So I will have to pay for a hotel room for a few days in Skopje.

So, what do you think?

See you around the globe!