Budapest Day 1!

On Thursday April 26, I hopped on a night train to Belgrade to go off to Budapest! This was to be my first trip out of the Balkans since September (as well as my first trip alone since then as well) and I was excited!!!

I had heard that the trains were bad and slow and I shouldn’t take them-from the locals, but from the internationals, I heard they were fine and I should take them. The options were either a 10 hour night train ride or a 6 hour night bus ride. I choose the train- more leg room, actual sleep, locking compartment door- all major pluses for me to choose the train over the bus. When I bought the ticket, the lady told me 8pm, but the schedule said 8:45; I decided to arrive 10-15 minutes before 8pm. Luckily I did because the train left at 8:10 on the dot (its scheduled time, by the way). I had to pay a little bit more to have a sleeping compartment, but it was worth it! The train was really clean, and the compartment steward was really nice.

The train goes north to Serbia, and it takes about an hour or so to reach the border. When we got there, something that I had secretly been hoping to happen did! I have been to Kosovo twice, and have three stamps from there. Now, as you may know, Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a country, but rather a wayward province that needs to give up on this silly independence idea and get with the program. The International Court of Justice has stated that when Kosovo declared Independence, it was legal, with Serbia responding that it will Never recognize Kosovo independence. According to Wikipedia, Kosovo had gained 92 diplomatic recognitions as an independent state (90 out of 193 UN members, 22 of 27 EU members, 24 of 28 NATO members). The US does recognize Kosovo as a state. Now, I had heard that Serbia would annul the Kosovo stamps. But this hadn’t happened yet. But this time, they came in and asked for my passport, glance at my name and went to stamp me in. Then he saw the Kosovo stamps, flipped back to the front, looked at my name and looked at me, then back at the Kosovo stamps. Then he said “Just a second, problem with stamps Kosovo.” I just said ok and waited for him to bring my passport back. They drew two lines over them and wrote “anule” (which by which I think he meant annul, but I digress). This ended up striking up a conversation with the guy a few cabins over, because he was all- “what was the problem with the Kosovo stamps? I have them?” Then we got to talk in Macedonian for a bit. When I actually have to use the language, I seem to remember more than I give myself credit for.  [There was also a customs guy carrying a battery operated drill-I’m not real sure why they needed that, as there was no where to open with a drill in the cabins. More on this later]

A little bit later, I promptly feel asleep. It wasn’t great sleep, but better than nothing or what I would have got on a bus! When I woke up in Belgrade, I went in to buy my next ticket. I thought I was going to have to wait about 2 hours, but low and behold, the online schedule was incorrect! There was a train at 6:50 to Budapest (well technically Prague, but it stopped in Budapest, so who cares!). Hopped on the train, grabbed my seat and promptly fell back asleep for a bit. I always have this internal debate- do I stay awake and force myself to see this new scenery or do I take a much needed nap? I usually choose the nap- because then I won’t be cranky later.

I did get to see about an hour or 2 of scenery in Serbia, it was flat. No joke, the flattest country I have been in since August! Lots of pretty fields and small houses. I got some reading done that I had been meaning to do since last May (sorry Dr. Ely! I promise the book is interesting and I’m enjoying it, just a bit hard to get into…). All in all a peaceful, easy journey to Budapest. At some point this little old lady got on and she just gave me the heeby jeebies. I swear she was trying to smuggle stuff into Hungry. She walked back to the bathroom with a bottle of alcohol and came back empty handed. The border crossing took about 2 hours though. SO long, and they turned off the A/C and didn’t open any windows. Very hot. And they came on with drills again. But this time I heard/saw them unscrewing the compartments in the bathroom areas. Then the customs guys walked through with about 6 bottles of hard liquor. So maybe she was smuggling something…They passed by me with no incident.

When I arrived in Budapest, I went to the Tourist Information Center to buy a Budapest Card. This came highly recommended to me, but I can’t do the same to you. Unless you are over 26, the card doesn’t save you any money. You can buy a travel pass that does the same thing, but lesson learned later. I also bought a ticket to a folk dance performance and dinner cruise. Then I adventured off to find the hostel. Let me tell you- Hungarian is a very difficult language. I couldn’t pick up a single word while I was there. It is basically its own language family. It is connected with Finnish and Estonian, but they are not mutually intelligible.  All I knew was that I had to look for “Sventi Ivanti” or something like that to get off this trolley bus.

But there was construction and my directions from the tourist info center included “Go to the Burger King Street.” I wish I could make this up. I walked out of the train station (much less the train station itself), and wanted to just stop. Within eye sight there was a McDonalds, BK, Mexican restaurant, subway, trolley, tram, buses, people, big buildings and more. I felt overwhelmed and a bit like a country bumpkin. This city life was way faster than the Skopje life I had gotten used to over the past 8 months. But I followed the signs to the trolley bus and using a little guess work found the right one. I almost got on the wring one, but the guy said something in Hungarian and pointed at the one in front of me. So I picked that one. It is amazing to me how much you can understand about a language or communicate without understanding a word. Gestures and facial features and tone of voice are so much more important than the words sometimes. I figure this out when there is a bit of words and then a hand gesture and I think I know what they mean. Even in a language I have never studied before. I did make it to the hostel after getting to see a lot of Budapest on the way. The lady was super nice and told me where the National Dance theater was so I could go try to get a ticket to the ballet that night.

After unpacking a bit, I headed downtown to try to visit the National Ethnography Museum. The day was beautiful- warm and sunny (and it stayed that way the whole time!!!)  I got to the museum about an hour before closing time and asked if it was enough time- the lady said “no, but you can come back tomorrow.” So I decided to go in. The building itself was breathtaking.  I’m not sure what it used to be, but I’m sure it was a palace or mansion of some sort. I always get like a little girl at times like this and picture myself walking down the stairs in a big ball gown all dressed up for the ball. But the beauty aside, the museum houses nearly a quarter of a million artifacts, 2/3 of which belong to the Hungarian collection. “Its primary concern, however, remains to impart knowledge of traditional Hungarian culture: how the peasants and craftsmen who formed the bulk of Hungarian society lived under the circumstances typifying the period prior to the advent of the modern industrial age.” It also shows a bit of global culture as well- there was a Amazonian and Greenland exhibit. The lady was right- you needed about 30 more minutes of time to see it all. If I had possessed a map (which museums here don’t seem to believe in), I would have picked to see the rest of the Hungarian exhibit rather than the one about the Amazon and the melting ice caps. But all in all a great museum. And you could take pictures!

After this, I grabbed an ice cream cone and walked towards the bus stop to go up to the castle area where the Dance Theater was. We passed the most colorful church I have ever seen, more on this later though. As I got off of the bus at where the hostel lady had said was correct, I was lost. There were no signs to anything. And the national Dance theater was the least of their concerns. But I had about 45 minutes, so I wandered through this little handicraft market and fell in love with this way overpriced jacket that I didn’t end up getting. But I did figure out what I wanted to get from Hungry!

Then I kept walking in the general direction of the theater and actually found it. I was able to get a ticket to the performance of Romeo and Juliet for that night! There was a dance fest going on and the tickets were a bit cheaper than normal. But I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This age old story was totally rethought and very modern. I couldn’t tell who Romeo was until he killed himself at the end. (I don’t remember that Juliet actually went on and killed herself too, but apparently she does.) the way to tell these two sides apart included green kitchen sink gloves, and red arm bands. No joke. And this weird monk guy who went back and forth. The dancing was beautiful, although modern, and engaging. You were just watching the stage the whole time, and you couldn’t take your eyes off of them!

View from the Buda hill to more of the Buda side.

After this, I hopped on a bus. This nice guy tried to tell me that the bus wasn’t going where I wanted it to go, but I didn’t understand until it didn’t actually go where I wanted it to go. lol. But that was ok, I was able to hop on a metro (after finding it- they hide it with the littlest signs ever!). I tried to go eat at this one vegetarian place recommended by the  map, but it was  closed, so I headed to the next place only to find that it too was closed (this time due to the time of night and not the state of the restaurant. ) This is when I realized that it was 21:45 (or 9 pm) even though a Friday, most places were closing at 22 (10). I had walked past a few Chinese restaurants, including a take out one. Since it was so late, I decided to just grab some stuff to go and head home! I’m also very glad that other people learn English- because traveling would be so much more difficult if they didn’t.  Note: I don’t expect them to at all, it is just a nice surprise and relief when they do, especially in countries where the language is like Hungry!

See you around the globe!

The Week Between Travel Part 2

I’ve been titling these the posts “The week between” but really they are more like the two weeks and a weekend between travel.  The weeks are standard- work at an NGO, work on new TFA stuff, read, try to get too much done, etc.

On Saturday April 21, Florozon (the NGO I am working with one day a week) along with the US Embassy sponsored a “Keep Vodno Beautiful” preservation hike. Now I had never heard of a preservation hike, but I was all for picking up some trash. This country is literally littered with trash. Almost everywhere you turn there is something there. People just don’t seem to care that much about putting stuff in trash bins. Surprisingly enough Vodno was pretty clean on the path, so there wasn’t a lot to clean up. But if you went off the trail at all it was covered, but off the trail was steep drop offs and thorns and scary looking stuff. I went up with Cecelia (from IWA) to start off the day. There was a really great showing of people, both American and Macedonian.

 The Ambassador and 2^nd in command came out, as (I think) did the Mayor of Skopje. They handed out shirts, hats, gloves, water and apples to people. We, of course, started about 30 minutes later than stated. I got separated from the main group almost right away (I was still with people, just not the main group). When I realized there wasn’t a lot of trash, I just started putting it in other peoples bags so we didn’t make MORE trash for the environment. The Ambassador and a few people got really into it and were so running off into the side of the hills through the brambles and everything. (since I had not been feeling well, and didn’t wear pants that were capable of doing so, I just stayed on the path and tried to find trash to pick up. Then it started raining, I stuck it out for about 30 more minutes before the others who had turned around were coming back and caught up with us. They did collect a lot of trash though! Wow!

two of the three people that I work with at the NGO.

On Sunday, April 22 the American Corner was doing an Earth Day event at the zoo. Since I hadn’t ever been to the zoo here, I decided to go. (This was on my list for a while, so I was super excited to have an excuse to go!) Nevenka had also asked me to take a bunch of pictures for them, because their camera was going to die. (I took over 300 some odd photos, by the way!)

They had it set up so kids could go from continent to continent to learn about the different animal species that were endangered on those continents. Then there was a zoo tour. Then a prize drawing! I went around and looked at a lot of the tables, but since it was all in MK, also wandered around the area and looked at the nearby animals.

like a guina pig exhibit. like at a zoo?

Then they offered a tour of the zoo. I figured I would go on it even though it was in Macedonian because I might understand a bit and would get to see more things at the zoo!

they even had the press there!

 They have some cool animals there, and some famous one. The zoo didn’t used to be in good condition, but they have seriously shaped up over the past few years! But people still like to feed the animals things they shouldn’t- like chips and bad for you stuff. After part of the tour, well most of it, Gordona and I snuck back to meet Nevenka and grab a bite to eat. I din’t think I’ve ever drank a ½ liter of water that fast, I was so thirsty! It was super hot that day and I even got sunburned! When the kids got back, they had the prize drawing with a secret surprise at the end- the last three kids drawn got to go into the lemur cage and feed them!

(and I got to tag along so I could take pictures!) When we first got in there, they weren’t having any of that fruit stuff, so the keep went and got a package of raisons and they went crazy for the raisons. I think we were in there for about 15 minutes or so? Towards the end, as I was taking a picture, I felt this little scampering up my back and froze.

All of a sudden I had a lemur on my shoulder, just chillin’. After the event was over, we went a looked around the rest of the zoo before heading home to just relax. It was a long day!

the scraf was more "too little too late sun protection" than actual cold because it was still really hot!

On Tuesday, April 24, I was invited to go to a mime event by Marissa. Since I had never been to a mime performance, I decided to go. (I mean how many times do you ever get invited to a mime performance?) We met up for dinner at Kaj Marshalot, where I had been wanting to go. It was supposed to be decked out in old communist memorabilia and they were supposed to be dressed as pioneers. (they weren’t and it wasn’t) but the food was still yummy! We ended up having front row seats at the performance and little did I know, that didn’t bode well for me! (or it boded extremely well, it just depends on how you look at it…) Marissa knew the guy who was preforming, he comes from the same small island in Maine that she lived on before joining the State Dept. We saw Avner the Eccentric preform. And he was AMAZING! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun! If he is coming to a town near you, go see him.

So- a mime performance, what exactly is that? Well, I’m sure youtube can help, but, basically they preform wordless comedy. They do tricks, they make a fool of themselves, and they let you relax.  He kept making faces to me, because I happened to be sitting on the aisle and was a girl I think. But it was fun! I even got pulled up on stage once! And there is video to prove it. No pictures though.

After the performance, we hung out at the reception before heading to our respective homes.

On Wednesday, April 25, two fun things happened. I got to give a presentation of my research findings and go drink Macedonian wine! I had been approached by the Center for Research and Policy Making in Skopje to give a talk about my research. It was great! I had a wonderful presentation (click here to see a picture and a short article about it) and great conversation with the participants there. I got to talk about the ways I think the government should be more involved in non-governmental organizations in Macedonia.  I mentioned how more money should be spent, but if they can’t spend more money, they should be more active. The actual politicians should set an example and be more active in organizations that they care about. They will be able to lead by doing, which is so important in a culture that doesn’t seem to really volunteer.

Then it was off to the International women’s Association annual Wine and Cheese tasting event. For 500 MKD (about $10) you could drink all the wine and eat all the cheese from around Macedonia that you wanted! So worth it! Lizzie, Justin, Erin, Aryn and I went over there. We ended up meeting up with Angjie who was working the event and got to enjoy a lot of yummy (and a few not so great) wines. We had a blast and ended up staying until it was over. When we got back to the center, they wanted to grab a bite to eat, so we tried to go find an open place. But those places that say they stay open until one am? Well they close their kitchen at 11pm, go figure jerks. So no food. But sleep!

See you around the globe!

Road Trip Day 4: The Long Drive Home!

The final day of our road trip got off to a really slow start. Justin didn’t want to leave until 11am for our 13 hour journey home. But hey, he was the driver. Sadly this was just early enough to not get to go see another museum :( But it started off again with burek! And French fries. Don’t ask, but they were yummy! We drove north towards Croatia, hoping to avoid the bad roads that we encountered on our way here, and shorten the time (only worked by 2 hours, but we saw something different).  On our way out of the city, we pasted the site of the 1984 winter Olympics!
It was cool to drive by.

On the way out of the country we also saw something not cool- signs warning us to stay out of the mountains because of mines. We even saw a team de-mining an area. Just another reminder of the war. But beautiful countryside none the less. We were able to stop for lunch before we left Bosnia, but this was an adventure in itself. We tried about 4-5 different places advertising food before we actually found food. Yummy food, but just the same thing we’d been eating all four days- salad and fried stuff nothing too fancy.

warning us to stay out of the woods

 

Then we were in Croatia, to jump on the interstate (I use this instead of highway because it was a legit interstate! or in this case intercountry?). Then we were in Serbia. No it was really that quick. Serbia looked a lot different than what we had been seeing when we drove the rest of the time- it was pretty flat! We drove through Belgrade and Nis on our way to Skopje, but didn’t really stop anywhere. We did buy gas, and I found a CD of a singer I had been looking for that is Croatian! There were no real funny stories to make this part of the trip more interesting, sorry guys. Just a normal day on the road! We got back to Skopje at about 12 am  and Jen, Justin and Lizzie decided to keep driving to Tetovo and spend the night there. I tried to find food, but failing, just went home and ate some cereal.

See you around the globe!

Road Trip Day 3: Sarajevo

Guess how our day started? With burek and yogurt for breakfast of course! This burek was so delicious, it was made with zucchini! This will be a type that I will make when I am back home. Then we set off to explore. We wandered down around the river (just to look at it) There were a lot of police out today and we were a little nervous until we realized that there was a marathon going on that day! Whew! We found an awesome bridge to walk over  and basically take pictures of the river. Jen and I had set out for a museum day, and we succeeded!

Our first stop of the day was the National Museum. We thought it would be cooler than it was, but not so much. There was 2 rooms full of old Roman ruins. There was a little book in a special locked room that we couldn’t figure out what it was because there was no signs. Turns out that it is Sarajevo Haggadah (a Jewish book of rites) It was made around 1314 in Spain. We then wandered around in the botanical garden, which would have made a beautiful wedding backdrop, by the way. We wandered into the Natural History Museum (which is part of the complex and covered by the same museum ticket). I really don’t like these places, but when they are included in other tickets, I look at them because randomly there are non creepy ones. Maybe it is the ethical person in me, but all the dead carcasses around a room in glass cases just staring at you with dead eyes. *shiver* This one was only slightly less than normal creepy. But they had a bunch of random crabs and things in there rather than your typical dead mammals (which they had as well). There was also the ethnographical museum, which had really cool wooden architecture! It was set up like an old Ottoman house, complete with models in clothing, in a really informative way!

Our next stop was right next door, the History Museum. No joke, that is its name. This one was really interesting (although frigid!). It had a bit of history from olden times to Yugoslavia, but its main focus was on the siege. Throughout the day, you can’t escape the knowledge that the siege took place. There are bullet holes and destroyed buildings everywhere. One thing I kept thinking about was “why? Why would they do it? How can you justify cutting off a city for four years? How can you justify bombing schools instead of military targets? What justification can you even use? What was the point?” The siege is the longest siege of a capita city in the history of modern warfare. The Serb forces surrounded the city from 5 April 1992 to Feb 1996. The casualties are totaled at 11,154 people. (They just had a memorial for them recently.) It just took your breath away. The utter senselessness of it. There was the main museum floor and a temporary photo exhibition of photos taken during the war. Heart wrenching. I think more than anything it was the knowledge that this took place while I was alive. That the atrocities were happening when I was blissfully unaware playing as a small child in Southern California. Had I been born there instead of in the US, I might not have been alive today.

After that, Jen and I decided to venture out to the Tunnel Museum. We weren’t 100% sure we were heading in the right direction, but the map provided free of charge to the tourist told us to hop on a tram, then a bus, so that is what we did. I proceeded to leave my umbrella on the tram, but luckily it didn’t rain the rest of the time we were there! Once we were on the bus, we realized we didn’t know what to do once we got off the bus or exactly what stop to get off on. Out came the Lonely Planet pdf guide on my Evo (thanks Mama!). IT told us to ride to the end of the bus line (that should be obvious right?) cross the bridge, turn left and walk 600 meters. Which we did, even though we weren’t really sure what 600 meters was. They should say to the last house on the right! But not to difficult to find. This house was so full of bullet holes I am surprised it was still standing. When we got there, the guy who answered the door spoke a little English, and I told him I didn’t speak Bosnian, but a little Macedonian. He ushered us into the movie viewing room, underground. We sat on ammunition boxes and watched a chilling 20 minute video (at least that is how long they say it is, it went by much faster). It was news reels and home video of the siege. I tried finding something online for you to watch, but could not. After the video, the guy told us to walk through the little bit of tunnel that is still open and then go into the museum. (the tunnel was filled in to support the heavier airport traffic as planes increased.) We did. I couldn’t stand up straight unless I was in between the tracks and not where the beams of support were. And apparently it often had water in it.

The tunnel was built to supply the city with food and supplies. It was their only lifeline to the outside world. They had pipes going through of diesel, gas, electricity, and TV cables. When we went through the museum, the guy who had been showing us around, kept pointing things out. Then he said, “That helmet there was mine.” Not only does he help run this museum, but he worked in the tunnel. And made it. Every day he drove a truck from the tunnel, up into the mountains on curvy roads with no headlights to supply people up there. Every day. He pointed out the truck to us. We asked if we could take our picture with him and the truck and he was more than happy to do so. He then offered to take us back down into the city because he had to go where we were going. Of course we said yes! He pointed out various buildings and said what had happened to them during the war. It turns out he has a daughter who was 11 during the war. His family all made it through.

After he dropped us off, we went to get lunch! Jen had a kebab and I had, wait for it…burek! (By this point I was done with burek, like isn’t there anything else vegetarian in the world? Really?!!) Then we wandered around old town taking pictures and buying souvenirs.  We found some of the best souvenirs of all time here- basically just hand made personalized things rather than mass produced in China things. (I wish Skopje would do more of this, I would seriously spend more money in Skopje then!) As in we bought so much that I had to go to the ATM 3 times that day! (given I wasn’t pulling out much at a time, but still it became a bit of a joke…)

Catholic Church

Orthodox Cathedral



the eternal flame  for WW2 victims. Yes he is lighting a cigarette on it.

Then we headed back to the hostel to write our postcards and relax a bit before dinner. We all went out for dinner but couldn’t decide on a place. We wandered for about 30 minutes before going back to the place right next to the place Aryn, Justin and I ate at on Friday. So delicious! Lentil soup, fried dough, shopska salad and house wine of course! It was nice to sit and chat with everyone and see how their days had gone differently.  After a relaxing paced dinner, we went back and went to sleep!

Road Trip Day 2: Mostar and Wine!

The next day we woke up before our alarms went off, well Jen and I did. And off we went to get breakfast. Turned out to be delicious potato burek with yogurt. I had some of this in Strumitca and wanted it again, well I got my wish and fill in Bosnia. Apparently, they do it often there. Then we bought some stamps for our postcards and some books for Jen. Then we hopped in the car with everyone else and were on our way to Mostar.

Mostar is located on a river in the mountains and thus developed as a city. It’s basically famous for its bridge that was built in 1565, then it was destroyed and rebuilt a few times. So of course we headed straight to the bridge when we got there.

After lunch and souvenir purchasing, we left for a winery or two. We didn’t really know where they were located, but figured we would see signs and that we did. We also went up a seriously scary mountain side.I refuse to call this anything other than a mountain, although, it did look like it might be more of a plateau while where we were was gouged out of the regular landscape and made lower. Oh well. We found one winery, but it wasn’t open so we kept looking for a new one. We found another winery, this one was called Andrija. And normally they don’t do tasting on Saturday, but they opened up a two bottles for us and poured us a glass. They gave us one red and one white. And cheese. This cheese was so good. I wanted to buy the cheese not the wine. The white wine was really good, but I didn’t like the red. However, the rest of the party thought the opposite. Then the guy gave us a tour of the winery.

And off we went to find the next winery. This road was vicious and I almost got sick twice on the way to these wineries. I eventually had to just close my eyes and hope for the best. The wine made it so much worse! The next one we found was Brkic. The guy was super nice. He told us all about his wines and how he makes them. Then invited us to join this tour that they had arranged for some local embassy workers (American, Polish, and Norwegian to be exact). We ate some more delicious cheese and olive oil. I mean this was the best olive oil I had ever had- it actually tasted like olives! Then we got to taste 3 whites and 3 reds. One of the whites was called “Moon Walker.” They allow the grapes to get some yeast on them before putting the whole grape into the barrel. Then when the moon is young, they churn the wine. When the moon is full, they let the moon church the wine (with gravity). It was interesting. The last red we had tasted the best, but it wasn’t for sale sadly.

Then we headed back to Sarajevo. We had to go down the creepy side of the mountain again. It was a lot less scary going down. People suggested that it was less scary because I was in front, but I claim that it was just less fast.

We stopped for dinner in a little restaurant on the side of the road. It was kind of creepy because I knew out the back of the restaurant was basically a giant river, but because it was so pitch black dark, we couldn’t see it! They literally had no veggie food. The guy just shrugged when we asked for some. Eventually we convinced him that shopska and cabbage would be an acceptable version. Then he seriously over charged us, but apparently the hunk of lamb was yummy. We made it back to Sarajevo in time to go to sleep to be functional tomorrow while exploring!

Road Trip Day One!

We all got up bright and early on Friday the 13^th for our long road trip through 5 countries. I have to admit. I was SUPER SUPER nervous for this trip. Jen and I had it planned for about a month, and invited Lizzie/Justin/Aryn and others who couldn’t make it along with us. And then they changed the plans. I get car sick ever since I was 15 if I don’t start out driving. So we were going to rent an automatic, but a few people refused to do so and said if I wanted an automatic and the ability to drive I needed to pay the difference by myself. All 130 euros of difference. Needless to say I was not happy to be starting this trip. I felt like people were telling me that my health/comfort didn’t matter and they didn’t care if I was sick for two of the 5 days of our trip. And there were other things involved, but to keep things nameless, I will leave those concerns out.  I almost backed out a few different times. Every time I thought about it, I got nervous and a little sick to my stomach. However, with medication and Justin’s driving skills I only got nauseous 3 times.

We started almost exactly at our target time of 6AM in our tiny Kia Rio towards our first border crossing of the day. We pull up at the Macedonian side and the guy waves us through. We slow down and look at the next group of guys and they don’t move or even look at us. We basically stopped and they did nothing, so we start going forward and Then They Care. So Justin backs us up and we pass through customs on the MK border. Then we drive through no man’s land to the Kosovo border. Where he accidently misses one window (because there were two) and has to back up again! They let us through after laughing a bit and asking us what we were doing in Kosovo.

The mountains were beautiful. Breathtaking. Even though it was cloudy.

We stopped once for a bathroom break and then got lost in Prizern. Apparently signs aren’t as necessary in Kosovo as they are in the US. And a straight arrow actually means turn left. So after about 30 minutes of driving, I check on our GPS (aka my US HTC Evo that allows GPS to still work w/o a data connection), and see that we seriously missed the highway.

bridge we wouldn't have gotten to see if we didn't get lost!

I was worried about that, but we trusted the sign (not the last time of this problem on this trip, spoilers!) and got a bit lost. Eventually we found the correct way and made it to the border. The Kosovo border police literally just waved us through. I have no idea if Kosovo computers still show me in Kosovo or not. But we actually stopped at this crossing and they (from inside the office) waved us through, and there was only one office so we didn’t miss it. The Albanian side actually had a bit of a bottle neck- many cars waiting to get through. So about 20 minutes later we make it through and our on our way!

Shkoder Lake

We get to pass through a 5.3 KM tunnel, and as we are coming out, we get flagged by the police. In this part of the world, the police stand on the side of the road and flag people over rather than follow them with lights and sirens on. So we pull over. (I’m going to tell you as it happens rather than how I found out, which was after we left the cop.) He walks over to us and tries talking to us in Albanian but only Aryn speaks it and she is in the back seat behind the passenger side. So she starts speaking to him in Albanian (he speaks a slightly different dialect and the car is beeping so she can’t hear him all that well). But he tells us that it is illegal to pass a truck coming out of a tunnel (which we were inadvertently doing) and asks for Justin’s passport (I had to look through about 5 of them to find his! All of ours were just in the glove box for easy border crossings.). Then he looks in the car and through the passport a bit and asks Aryn what Justin’s name. And she blanks and has to ask Jen what it is! Then she calls him over to her side of the car so she can hear better. The conversation goes something like:

Cop: Are you the only one that speaks AL in the car?

Aryn: Yes

Cop: Can anyone else understand?

Aryn: No

Cop: Are you being trafficked?

Aryn: What? No!!!

Cop: So you are really American? All of you?

Aryn: yes

Cop: Then what are you doing on this road? American’s don’t take this road!

We were all glad that he was concerned, but it was HIRLARIOUS in hindsight! He let us go, and we then had a good laugh when Aryn said “He thought we were being trafficked!” We continued on the road until we got to Shkoder we ate lunch. We ordered salad, and the waiter had to go get the veggies from the market! I had pilaf with yogurt and salad. After walking a bit, we got back in the car and were off. This is where the day got interesting. Up until this point the word “highway” meant the same thing in every language. Not so from this point on. Highway in Albanian can apparently mean ½ finished highway with gravel connecting the parts that aren’t finished. And to stop you from going over the bridges that aren’t finished there is rocks placed across them. It made for some interesting roads and stories! Like this video! (The video is not as scary as it was!)

We then made it through both the Albanian and Montenegro borders with no incident. (or any funny stories.) But the “highway” in Montenegro was a one car lane road up a steep hill. We stopped because Justin’s nerves were on edge by some goats, and this car come careening around the corner at breakneck speed!

it was raining and I didn't have my umbrealla out, but I had just straightened my hair and didn't want it to get ruined by the rain!

We had thought that this was a one way street and were a bit freaked out. So he drove extra careful until we got to a real road. (which was a bit far away, by the way…we had a fun time following the “highway signs”) We drove through a few towns and some mountains with no eventful happenings. Then we stopped for coffee. (That sounded more eventful than it was. We just stopped for coffee at a lake. Had coffee. Got some pictures of the lake. Left.) Then we drove through some breathtaking scenery. Like wow. Gorges and lakes and rivers. That you can apparently raft. There were a lot of guard rails, and some of them (like literally every single one) had been hit in some way. We figured that most of them were from snow plows since they were the first part of the rail.

these were taken byholding the camera out of the car window and snapping as fast as it would let me!

When we made it to the itty bitty border crossing in Montenegro and handed over our passports. Then the guy proceeded to talk on his phone, talk to whomever stopped by, joke with the other workers, and generally just try to show off his border crossing power. About 20 minutes later (we were the only car on this side, so no blaming it like the Albanians with actual people there) we cross through no man’s land over a rickety one car bridge and in Bosnia (and the Repulika Srpbska)!

said bridge and view. Juston drove slow so I could quickly snap this picture before we got to the other side

It was odd that the EU was supporting a border creation/joint post. But the Montenegrins were in a fancy building, and the Bosnians were in a shack. But off we went on our last border crossing. If you are counting that was 8 (if you count them as leaving MK (1) entering Kosovo (2) etc…)! This road was a bit scary. We knew what the mountains looked like off the side, but this time there were no guardrails and it got dark, and there were no lights, and there was mist. But we didn’t really see any cars, so we were lucky.

Then there were signs. Gloriously big signs with big arrows! And we were on our way to the capital! When we got within the city limits, suddenly the radio started working. Literally, we crossed the sign and suddenly there was radio. And we got pulled over by the cops again. This time one he realized we didn’t really speak a lot of Bosnian, and we had US passports he waved us on. We also told him we were tourists. It was a tad difficult to find the hostel. We drove around in a circle and then parked while I went to find the hostel. I guessed a few streets based on how we had drove around and where we thought the hostel was. And you know what? I literally came out at exactly the right place, like next to the hostel! No joke! Ran inside and checked us in, then the guy was showing me where the parking was, and I asked him how to get back here and he said he would show us. So I walked him back to the car and dropped him off with the crew then walked back to hostel. It was nice to be out of the car and walking around.

Aryn, Justin and I were actually hungry (did you notice the complete lack of food throughout the day?) so we went to find dinner. Note that it was 12 AM at the time. There was a place open and we got pizza! We ordered a veggie pizza and it came with tomato, corn and peas. And wine. Then back to the hostel to discover that there was no hot water. Well not for me and not any day was there hot water, ever. Not even lukewarm water. But other than that it was ok. But I do not recommend this hostel. It's called Hostel Tito by the way.

Saying of the day that will only be funny if you were there: “It’s not about you Cassidy, it’s about David.” These will get no explanations. None at all!

See you around the globe!

The Week Between Travel Part one

The week between Greece and our Road Trip was a bit relaxed. I just rested up, tried to get some stuff finished and worked. Including getting a TB test here!

For Teach For America, you have to have a TB test to work in Chicago Public Schools, where I will be student teaching over the summer. Now, in the US, you can basically walk into any doctors office and get one done. Not the case in MK. You can literally only go to the State Clinic at the Institute for Lung Diseases and TB. I had to wander around the massive state hospital grounds to find the right building. And ask three different people for directions. Luckily, I spoke enough MK and the nurse enough English that she understood I needed a TB test for school. She was able to do it for me. It only cost 600 MKD (13 USD). Then I had to go back on Thursday to have it read. (Which upped the price because it involved two cab rides from work, but I digress.) Then later that day I had to go over to Daniel & Anjies house to scan this paperwork to get it into TFA before June 1. Technically it was supposed to be by April 17, but I basically told them (when they never answered an email [our only means of communication)] that the deadline was impossible. Just plain impossible. They then said I could scan them and email them to them, which I did and crisis adverted!

Justin, Lizzie, and Jen came into town on Thursday afternoon so we could leave bright and early the next day for our road trip. We had dinner with Aryn at our favorite Macedonian restaurant in Skopje- Kaj Cedarot! Yummy food, AMAZING prices and a wonderful friendly owner. It was nice to hang out with them.