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 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!

Secuirty Briefing

On Tuesday Jen came in from Tetovo to spend the night so we could all go to the Security Briefing together the next day. And it was rainy and cold for the first time.

It rained all day.

On Wednesday we woke up and went to the Embassy. Our program started at 10:30 officially, but we were told to be there at least 15 minutes early so that we can get through security. We had to give up our passports to the nice Marines/local security forces at the door. Then walk through security, and like the US Consulate in St. Petersburg we had to turn off and give up our cell phones. (I had learned from there not to even attempt to bring in my chapstick! Or bottle of water.)

Then Gazmend, the “Educational Affairs Assistant”/main point of contact at the Embassy, came and got us to show us where to go/we weren’t allowed to be on our own. At one point he said “Welcome Home!” And in a way, it was true. All US Embassies are US soil, so we were kinda home.

Once all 5 of us arrived, we began with a security briefing by the “Regional Security Officer” (because her real term of “agent” has negative connotations in some countries). The good thing is that nothing really bad happens to Americans. The last “attack” was non-sexual in nature against a women who was jogging alone with ear plugs in in a remote place of the city in 2006.

We will however possibly have demonstrations about anything or everything. And like any big gathering, they have the possibility of turning violent.

Also, since traffic laws are different and accidents are common, always be careful. I mean you have to dodge mopeds, scooters, bikes, cars, trucks, semis, and donkey drawn carriages.

You may face pick-pockets (but never in a family or women with children). And if you are silly enough to leave stuff out in the open in your car, then it might get broken into and stolen. (like some KFOR guy’s camera last month)

Also, there are no Good Samaritan laws, so we are advised to turn and go the other way. Which, for me goes against all of my CPR/First-aid/CERT training. (Don’t know what CERT is? Check it out here and then get involved!)

We also got to talk to /”meet” the Ambassador for about 10-15 minutes. He seemed nice and genuinely interested in our projects- however, this is his second week in Macedonia as an Ambassador. (I arrived in country before him by a week. Lol). He said he wants to follow our projects or whatever gets published from them.

And I observed something weird- everyone stands when he (or any Ambassador would be my guess) or high level embassy employee comes or goes. Like they walk in the door/leave/get-up and everyone stands. Like we are back in the 1500s with Kings or Queens or in the Military. It seems a little antiquated to me. “Well it is a sign of respect,” you say. Then why MAKE people do it? Is it still respectful if you are required to do it?  But, hey this is just my personal opinion. (And I will totally be the ones mandated to stand in a few years [hopefully] and will do it, but…still kinda weird to me).

We then got to talk to Carolyn, the Consular Section Chief, who told us about services for American Citizens and she mentioned the safety issues we might encounter.  We can mail our ballots from there (but not taxes, as those are considered private compared to public voting?) and have things notarized. But we can’t get fingerprinted (a worry for me as I will need it done for Teach For America next spring).

Then, Agron a Program Assistant who oversees the Small Grants given to local non-profits, told us about the grants and encouraged us to help some local NGOS write grants for projects to get funded. He was really nice too.

Then closing thoughts, and lunch in the café they have. I had „помфритс“ and „шопска салад“ or French fries and shopska salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, and cerene (which they translate as feta, but it is not feat as we know it in the states).

After we left (and got our passports back) Daniel, Jen, Lizzie and I caught a taxi back downtown. We met Angie, Daniel’s wife, at Ramstore with the kids and had a yummy desert. I got this cake with vanilla cream, whipped cream thing covered in chocolate with chocolate sprinkles!  For only 80 denar or abour $2. And it was soooo yummy. And filling.

 The Embassy had also given us a welcome packet with some helpful words in Macedonian, taxi numbers, hotel numbers, things about tipping or pharmacies or other living information for those living in Skopje. However, the packet is technically for US Embassy staff and families as it had some info that didn’t pertain to us Fulbrighters, but was still good information.

See you around the globe!

*There are no pictures to accompany this post, as it is forwned upon to take pictues in, around or of government buildings in Macedonia*

"Personal Safety and Security Abroad"

Note to Mama- this is a "we would rather you have this information and not need it than a this could seriously happen to you" information.

We recieved a "Personal Safety and Security Overseas" paper/sheets of paper. It had tons of info (read 8 pages) so I will include the main titles only. Well, expand on a few pieces that are intersing to me. Also, it has tons of really good info, and if you are interested me comment, or email and I will send a copy to you. So some of this is info I think others should know.

Pre-Depature
Air Travel
Ground Travel
At the hotel
Awareness
Residential

If you become a Victim.

• remain calm and alert
• if the assailant demand property, give it upAgainst overwhelming odds (weapons, multiple assailants) try reasoning, cajoiling, begging, any psychologial ploy
• If you feel your life in endangered and you decide to physically resist, commit to the decision with every fiber of your being. Turn fear into fury.

Hijacking/Kidnapping

Yes you read that right. We have a section on personal safety overseas on kidnappping. Here it is in its entirity:

As an American/Westerner you may be targeted for kidnapping. Those who  perpetrate these crimes are either promoting a political agenda and//or seeking to gain financial ir political dividend. Travelers are highly advised to be aware whether there is a history or rik (known threats, tareting) of kidnapping in places they attend to travel and take necessary precaitions {note to mama- there isn't}. Because histage situations vary greatly, the following considerations should be applied based on one's best judgement at the time:

-The US government policy not to pay ransom to kidnappers is firm.

-The gratest risk of physical harm exists at the point of capture and during a resue attempt or upon release.

-Remain cal and alert, exert control on emotions and behaviors.

-Be passively cooperative, but maintain your dignity.

-Assume an inconspicious posture, avoid direct eye contact with captors.

-Avoide resistance, belligerence or threatening movements.

Make reasonable, low-key requests for personal compforts (bathroom breaks, a blanket, exercise, books to read, etc.)

- If questoned keep your answers short. Volunteer nothing.

-As a captive situation draws out, try to establish some rapport with your captors.
-Avoid discussing contentious issues (politics, religion, ethnicity, etc)
-Establish a daily regiment to maintain yourself physically and mentally.
-Eat what your captors provide. Consume little food and drink. Avoid alcohol.
-Keep a positive, hopeful attitude.
-Attempt to escape only after weighing the risks and when you are certain to succeed.

 

So here you go- how to avoid a getting kidnapped, but if you do, here you go, directions on what to do.

 

See you around the globe!