Albania

Albania is bizarre. There is no other way to describe it. As soon as you cross into this country, you are in a different world. Sure the buildings and the people look the same, but it has a different feeling. It seems like Mexico, at least the movie version of Mexico, in the way people aren't really doing anything. There are people everywhere, not doing anything, and they are all driving Mercedes. All the men are wearing dress pants with their sport coats that don't fit at all. But they all seemed dress for the occassion. There are no major roads, but on the raods that everyone takes there are constant horse drawn carriages or person drawn carriages. Generally the roads are the asphalt between the pot holes. It was just unlike any of the other countries we went to. Even as bombed out as Belgrade was, it was so much more modern than Albania. Well on to the story of our time there.

We made it through Montenegrin customs and then through Albania's as well. Albania charges a 10 euro fee to get in. As soon as we showed up with our big packs, all the cabbies eyes flashed with dollar signs. One particularly ambitious cabbie skadaddled his tubby stomach down the hill customs and had the border guard deliver us a message that he was willing to drive us to the closest big town. Now we weren't to be pursuaded and brushed by him looking for the so-called minibuses that were supposed to be at the border. Basically all these minibuses are entail men driving their big vans around the country to agreed to destinations. We found the perfect man and all of us piled into his van to drive down to Skodor (spelling changes of towns are common).

I should also mention that Albanians have odd body motions. They shake their heads up and down for no and back and forth for yes. You have no idea how important this idiosyncracy is. Even when there is a complete language barrier, in most countries you can use your head to communicate. Well in Albania this only gets you in trouble. Also the word for yes is po and the word for no is jo. I know confusing right. Well after a hard encounter with that first driver, we tried as hard as we could not to shake our heads in transactions. Also most prices were demonstrated by use of hands or showing bills of what they wanted.

This man in his nice big red van was our introduction to Albania. As I described earlier, the countryside is surreal. We made it to Skodor, paid the man in Euro and then looked for the bus to Tirana. Albania is a bit crazy in that it has no organized transportation. Buses operate by showing up at a certain place everyday with a driver and they depart when the bus is full. The bus is full when the aisle is full of people sitting on plastic seats. What a great country. Through all of this we still made it through fine without difficulty, so the system works I guess.

It was about a two hour drive from Skodor to Tirana. Andrew looked up the State Department's warning for Albania later that night and found out that US diplomats are not allowed to travel in Skodor without an armed escort. Good thing we're not diplomats. Along the way, we saw lots of these concrete bunkers unique to Albania. Albania had a crazy dictator in charge for years that claimed he was communist but alienated himself from all the other communist affiliated countries in the world over time. Afriad of invasion, he had these bunkers built all over the countryside. Designed for each Albanian to defend himself, there were 700,000 in the country. The dictator had the engineer build one and stand underneath it while they blasted it with a tank. The designer lived. Now they are an eyesore all over the country because they are very hard to dismantle. Our Lonely Planet Guidebook said that now they serve as the number one place for Albanians to lose their virginity.

We got into Tirana safely at the so-called "bus station." Again it was just a random street side where most of the buses to Tirana stopped. We asked our bus driver to show us where we were on the map, but he was useless. Instead we started walking in what we thought was the right direction. A group of junior high aged kids stopped us and pointed us in the right direction which was the way we happened to be heading. We journeyed through the city, which you can see in the pictures, until we arrived at one of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. These two younger guys run it and one happened to acquire a puppy in the last week. That did Meredith in. When you arrive at the place, there is a sign that says pull on the string. That's right, the door bell is a string that runs into this big house and rings a bell inside. Thinking the gate was locked, we waited, but we would find out later that they don't really lock their doors in Albania. We were across the street from the US Embassy so we weren't really worried. This structure couldn't be missed because it was basically a modern day, impenetrable fortress.

After settling in, Andrew went to find an internet cafe to register for classes. His time for registerring just happened to coincide with arriving in Albania. (Little did I know, I would be registerring for classes from the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania).

Off to explore the city we tried to go into a mosque. We were informed that it was time for prayer and that later would be better. The guy that explained this then went on to lecture us about what a terrible rap Islam has and how we should convert. 33,000 people in the US converted to Islam after 9/11, I guess we should be some of them. Well anyway deterred by that we went and got some delicious pasta and pizza for barely anything. The city is insanely cheap. Then me and two other guys on the program walked to some of the worst parts of town and found a nice local bar. The nicest guy was running the place and apologized for not talking to us because he was making a new railing for the front steps (in front of us). We about made him cry when we gave him a $1 tip for 3 $1 beers. Then we were walking back to the hostel when we spotted the sky tower which is a bar 13 stories above Tirana with a rotating sitting area. This we didn't know until our packages were sitting on the balcony and rotating away from us. I had apple pie that cost $2.50 on top of Albania. My friend Kenrich spotted a ferris wheel from the top of the tower that we really wanted to see. So after seeking it out, we arrived just in time for it to close down.

That was pretty much the end of the night. We headed back to the hostel, got some advice on how to get out of Albania and then hit the sack.

Of course I made everyone get up early, so the next day, Thursday we woke up around 6 am hoping to catch a minibus around 7. Out of the hostel by 6:45 we only had to walk two blocks to catch the minibus, aka hitchhiking, to the Macedonian border. We found a guy with just enough room for the six of us agreeing to take the bus to this town called Pogradec. The guy at our hostel said just walk from here to the border, so we’re like whatever.

The bus ride down was once again beautiful though the mountains of Albania aren’t quite as nice as the sea coast in Croatia or the mountains of Bosnia. Of course there were random stops at cafes, but we made it to Pogradec fine. Then the guy said he would drive us to the border for an additional dollar averting an hour walk. This turned out to be a good call b/c there was absolutely no transportation on the Macedonian side of the border.

The border crossing was once again epic, most notable because of a sign with the happiest family pretending to shoot each other and demonstrating that guns are not to be brought into Macedonia – good idea. This was only made better by Kenric actually taking out his camera and filming the signs. This border crossing was also next to a lake, and this one Macedonia had successfully used for tourism. Also on the Albanian side there were a few taxis and guys just generally hanging out but absolutely no one was crossing the border. We were kind of wondering what we had got ourselves into. Well this ends the Albanian part of the tour just Macedonia and Serbia to finish it off.

Montenegro

This country was easily my favorite of the trip. The people weren't quite as friendly as the Bosnians, but the location was amazing. Again the bus ride down was awesome with a view of the coast. We got to the town of Herceg Novi and had about a

45 minute layover. Maia and I hunted around the town for an ATM. This town was beautiful in its own right with a cool old town and so we headed back to the bus to tell everyone we should wait, but they had already loaded our stuff on the bus, so off to Kotor it was. This bus left the coast for a jaunt around the largest fjord in Europe. This is one of Mary's pictures from the bus. The fjord was so big that it takes like 2 hrs to drive around it. We knew we were staying in a town on this fjord, but we had to pass like 5 small towns to get to it. The wait was well worth it as we enjoyed the view of this fjord forever. It was startling that the sites on this trip just got better and better.

A bit about accomodation. The three I mentioned earlier had arrived in town about noon and arranged accomodation for all nine of us. We had cell phones but everyone's phone except for Laura's stopped working in Montenegro. Earlier in the day we had received a text from her that they had found us a place on the water for 15 euro per night. So we got into Kotor and had no idea where to go. So we just picked a direction of the coast and started walking. After about 10 minutes we met up with a police officer who spoke a bit of English. We got through what the problem was and he let us call Laura's phone with his phone but it didn't work. We thanked him and then split up into two groups to try to find the pioneering three. As luck would have it, the other threesome just happened to be walking through the city's main gate when the pioneers were showing up. Laura then texted us so we could finally meet up. Imagine how else we would have found where we were staying. Still nobody got worried at all and everything worked out. We went into the old town which again is like Dubrovnik with its old fortress walls and small narrow pedestrain only streets. The city and location were incredibly beautiful and this was the most beautiful place I had ever been. These snow capped mountains surrounded this huge fjord and there were these walls that marched half way up the mountain. I tried to capture it with the camera, but in no way did it justice. In this picture you can kind of see the walls snaking up the mountain. The next one is an aerial view of the old town.

We sat down for pizza and just about everyone was exhausted. The food was incredibly cheap and here we sat underneath the mountains of Montenegro. Who knew such a gem existed in such a random part of the world. After dinner we all bought 2 liters of beer thinking we'd have a good old time back at the accomodation, but of course we were all too exhausted for that and ended up leaving our beer behind. I was of course all too excited to be by the coast so I had to go swimming on our first night in town. At about 11 pm I decided the time was ripe and just about froze to death, but it was worth it.

The next day, Kenric and I played party to Andrew's quest to find a fishing rod. After visiting the local shop and thinking rods far too expensive, we instead found a bamboo stick and turned that into a rod. With a little line and a couple of hooks from the shop, some shrimp from the grocery store we had ourselves a rig. We threw it in the water just outside our place, but unfortunately nothing big was around. The only hooks we bought were too big for the little fish that were interested. Still it was a mighty attempt. We went swimming all day, played frisbee golf (through a construction site), and generally lounged. A great way to spend the day after all the rushing about. I also forgot to mention how at 5:30 AM we had decided it would be a good idea to hike 1500 steps up the mountain to where the fortres was and see sunrise. It was an awesome pay off but an exhausting one. We didn't even see sunrise because the mountains are so high it doesn't rise until like 10. Also during this day, Kenric and I scouted out buses for the next morning. They of course were listed in Cyrillic so after getting some help from the local workers I was able to transliterate the letters enough to figure out where we needed to go. The next day would be the journey to Albania - what a story.

We finished out the day at a seafood place, seeing as we were on the water, where I had some fish soup and enjoyed Bob Dylan songs all night. Again I think we all had the idea of having some fun that night, but the 6:30 am bus the next morning necessitated an early bedtime.

This gets us up to Wednesday which was kind of the landmark day of the trip. We would end up going via four modes of transportation from northern Montenegro to Tirana, Albania. The 6:30 bus was destined for Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro which is basically shite. It's full of communist buildings rebuilt after an earthquake. I should also mention that at this point we were down to six people as Maia decided to head home from Montenegro and Mary and Martha wanted to see Croatia on their way home. Six turned out to be the perfect number for all the minibuses and cabs we took.

We got into Podgorica after having talking to this Irish kid on the bus on the way there. He had just come form Albania and explained that basically the only way to cross its border is with cabs and minibuses. The information guy in Podgorica confirmed this so I went outside to make friends with a cabbie. I found one that I liked, spoke English, and seemed legit b/c of his nametag. He said I could ask information if I wanted his credentials. Anyhow, he agree to take us to the border which was like a half hour drive. Three of us were in his cab while he got a friend to drive the other three. This was probably the only part of the trip where I was a bit nervous. These two cabbies took us on all these one way roads in the back hills of Montenegro with no sign of civilization. My driver didn't speak any English and our cell phones didn't work. Still everything turned out fine. We made it to the border, my new friend was really helpful and we journeyed onward. At the border there was a group of about 20 guys just standing on the Montenegrin side staring at us. Later we noticed that they were all Albanians waiting to get papers for entry - needless to say we didnt' document for fear our cameras would get stolen. It was odd though because the border was next to this beautiful lake that was ripe for toursim excpet that it was in Albania.

The Montenegrin border guards let us out of their country fine, and we had to cross a good 200 meters of no man's land before we met up with the Albanian guards. I don't know if I'll get to Albania tonight, but quite a story it is. Still Kotor was my favorite as maybe the pictures can demonstrate.

Croatia

As I was talking about in the Bosnia post, the bus ride to Dubrovnik was amazing. The highway runs along the Adriatic for the length of the coast. There is a small area of Bosnian coastal area so we actually went to Croatia, back to Bosnia, then to Croatia again to get to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is this really famous city that Europeans have travelled to for centuries. George Bernard Shaw loved the place. The city center is kind of like Venice with a fortified old town that is pedestrian only with tiny little streets and buildings. It sits right on the water and you can take a tour of the walls all the way around the city.

Mary, Martha, Kenric, and I got into town about 10 am. We were going to catch the 3:30 bus to Montenegro where we were staying that night. We were set to meet up with Meredith and Maia in Dubrovnik who had stayed the night. Laura, Andrew, and Sarah were nice enough to head on to Kotor early and arrange accomodations so the rest of us wouldn't have to when we arrived. We had to walk about 45 minutes from the bus station to find the old town, but as you can see form the picture above, the view was worth it. The first thing we did was take a tour of the walls and enjoyed the view of the Sea. Then we sat down and had a picnic at this little place with no one around. Then Mary and I decided we had to go swimming in the Adriatic no matter how cold it was. We found some rocks with a ladder attached, and jumped right in. I had been planning on this since I woke up in Mostar, so I had shorts underneath. The water felt so good and was strikingly clear. It was like 75 degrees outside so it was perfect for swimming even if the water was frigid. Kenric the life guard refused to get in citing the cold water.

After our little swim we toured a bit more of Dubrovnik and then headed back to the bus station which took about 10 minutes by pulic bus. Dubrovnik is an amazing town and so many study abraod students visit it, but I'm so happy we spent just a few hours there. It was incredibly touristy and lacked the feel of an old town. During the separation of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav army shelled the city even though it had no military value. This meant that the city had lots of rebuilt buildings - though rebuilt in the old style. We got to the station a little early so we played a little frisbee in the parking lot as we waited for the bus. To get to our destination: Kotor, Montenegro, we had to get a bus to the Montenegrin town of Herceg Novi, and then get another bus from there. The view again was amazing on the way down, though the road was completely gravel at points and this was the major route up and down the Adriatic Coast. We made the 3:30 bus succesffully which was probably the nicest bus of the trip. I had a blanket and a pillow and lots of leg room. Now off to Montenegro to describe the best part of the trip.

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Our itinerary for Bosnia was to spend two nights in Sarajevo and one night in Mostar before heading on to Montenegro. I was worried about loading a bunch of time on at the beginning of the trip, and in retrospect I think it worked out very well. As I was saying in Serbia, the views along the way were stunning. You could see for miles and imagined that you were actually on the set of Behind Enemy Lines. Ok enough about the bus ride. We arrived in Sarajevo in the late afternoon, and we were in the boondocks. Bosnia is divided into Croat and Serb areas and this split goes right through the middle of the capital, Sarajevo. Since the bus was coming from Serbia, it stopped at the Serbian bus staion in the middle of nowhere. After being approached by several sketchy cabbies, we decided public transportation was the best option. This is a view of downtown Sarajevo.

So all nine of us hopped on the trolleybus. This was after a half hour search for a) the station, and b) an ATM to pay for the bus. Me, Andrew, and Kenric bought tickets outside while the six girls bought their tickets on the bus. The bus driver validated the girls' tickets, but kenric and Andrew didn't put theirs into the machines for validation. This is the same procedure as Budapest, except that we all have month long passes here. It would have been fine except that these two controllers got on the bus and asked for all our tickets. Instead of acknowledging that we were obviously tourists carrying huge packs and just into town not knowing how the system works, the guys called the cops and threatened to arrest us if we didn't cooperate. Well after lots of yelling and hand motioning, they communicated they wanted 14 euro for each Andrew and Kenric. We were like fine, whatever and moved on. Eventually we made it to our hostel which was amazing. We stayed right behind this Cafe Elvis up that little alley way.

It was literally in the middle of downtown and across the street from the main bazaar and central fountain. It was 10 euro per night and all nine of us had a huge room to ourselves with a full kitchen and bathroom - though the shower sucked. The introduction was funny becaue we walked in the door and the guy was like oh - the nine Americans right - without us even saying anything. We paid for our housing in Euros every night during the whole trip, even though only Montenegro officially takes Euro. Watch out American dollar, the Euro is taking over.

Friday night we had a delicious meal of varous sausages, veal, and chicken. As you can see by this picture, we were pretty whiped out. We made it an early bedtime.

Saturday was the perfect day for a lots of sight seeing. We walked into the hostel lobby area to use the internet and low and behold they had free breakfast. Our luck would continue throughout the whole trip. After breakfast we saw a few sights and then joined the city tour offered by the hostel. I'm so glad we did this, there's no way we would have seen as much on our own.

The first stop of the tour was the Tunnel musuem. During the War for Independence from Serbia, Sarajevo was under seige by Serbian troops for three years. The only link to the outside world was through the airport. The UN negotiated with Serbia to allow the airport to open and this cut off Sarajevo's last link to the West because the UN occupied the area neutrally according to Serbia's wishes. The Croats living in Sarajevo then designed a very long tunnel underneath the airport that connected the city with the rest of Croat controlled territory to the West. The tunnel started under a random house. Most of it has collapsed, but a small stretch remains for viewing.

The siege of the city is a big deal and is visible everywhere. Bosnia is a huge mix of ethnicities with Mulims (Bosniaks) Croats, and Serbs all living within close proximity to each other. This all ended during the war when for the most part the Serbs sided with Serbia while the Croats and Muslims either fought against Serbia or against each other.

Ok that said, the next stop on the tour was a view from afar where Serbian snipers picked off people in the city. In the picture you can see the yellow Holiday Inn where all the foreign journalists stayed during the war. An avenue that runs from there to the left out to the airport was nicknamed "sniper's alley" because of the spot where we were standing. There was one more stop on the tour for a good view of the city, and then we were on our own.

I had some errands left to take care of before we could relax for the day. The next day we were headed to Mostar to stay with a sweet old lady named Aisa Dervouscivic. This lady is the grandma of a friend of mine at Middlebury. Being the responsible organizer I was, I had lost her address and phone number during our travels. So through some negotation at our hostel front desk (the one guy who spoke English had left) I got through to Dado's aunt in the New York who gave me the info. More on that surreal experience later.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Sarajevo, which the pictures pretty well capture. There are mosques everywhere and hearing the Muslims being called to prayer was quite unreal. After Laura and I dined on peanut butter and local fruit, we went out for a drink at this Pub called Guinness. Thinking this would be a good spot for the old Irish beer, we went in. This is the conversation that ensued:

Kenric: Do you have Guiness?

Waiter: No (completely straight faced)

Kenric: That's kind of ironic (smiling)

Watier: No response

Kenric: Ahhh....I guess I'll just get whatever you have

Waiter: OK

That was pretty bizarre. This was after dinner where Meredith bought a Persian rug from a guy in the courtyard of a building. The place was really interesting. The guy had all these huge rugs that sold for like $1000s. Meredith got a much smaller rug at a reasnable price. Also, Meredith acquired a mascot for our trip named Chuckles. Chuckles is/was a horse balloon that made several appearances throughout the trip. The next morning Meredith and Maia were headed to Dubrovnik in Croatia while the rest of us were headed to Mostar for a night. Chuckles was to spend the night with them.

Easter Sunday, Kenric and I got up at 7 am to see the city before we departed for Mostar. This was a theme of the trip, we got up early everyday, 7 am might have been my latest sleep time. Kenric and I saw the Holiday Inn up close and also the US Embassy where we just about got shot for trying to take a picture. Then we found this graveyard, and the picture illustrates the divide between Muslims and Croats (Muslim graves on the right, Croat graves on the left). Easter Sunday was a bit odd because Sunday is not important for Jews or Muslims who make up a large part of Sarajevo. So most shops were open and people were walking around on Easter Sunday - much different than in Hungary.

We doubled back to our hostel, picked up our stuff and headed for the bus station. Two things I forgot to mention are the reenactment of Franz Ferdinan's death that caused WWI, and coffee at a coffee shop along Sarajevo's main river.

Just as we got to the bus staion, it started pouring outside, but luckily we were under a quasi weather proof area. The bus ride to Mostar from Sarajevo was again breathtaking. This would be the only 2 hrs of the whole trip when the weather wasn't beautiful. Hills with lakes, valleys, small villages, farms, goats, and sheep pretty well sums it up. We arrived in Mostar which also was incredibly divided by the war. The town is famous becuase of a bridge the Turks built over 500 years ago and everyone knew about it and the old town. The bridge survived for centuries until Croat troops blew it up in 1994 during the war in Bosnia. It has since been rebuilt using the exact same procedures as were originally followed.

We got into town and had to find the hostel for the three girls and then the apartment for the rest of us (4). We found the hostel ok which wasn't so much a hostel as it was a someone's home with an extra bedroom. We dropped off the girls and then headed to our place. It was hard to find, and we ended up asking this drug addict for directions. If he hadn't been so high, he might have been helpful, but he was incredibly gone off.

Our host was absolutly amazing. We arrived and she had fried chicken, pasta, salad, and fries waiting for us. Then Dado's cousin, Selma, showed us around the town. She also took us out to coffee and paid for our drinks. She was quite the character. She loved to bet on soccer and we watched a match while at the coffee house and she explained exactly what was going on. She also was dating one of the famous divers from the bridge and his name was "Rambo." Selma told us she had a date, so we met up with the other three girls and had a nice dinner and a few drinks. Made it back to our place safely and then woke up before dawn to the sound of the Imam calling the faithful to prayer.

We said good bye to our hosts, not before calling Dado in Tokyo and thanking him for letting us stay with his grandma. We caught the 7 am bus to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Again amazing views, though this time while in Croatia, the bus travelled along the Adriatic Coast so that view was far better than the rest. Very tall mountains descended suddenly into the blinking blue sea with the red roofs of centuries old settlements dotting the landscape. Truly a sight to behold.

I do have to say that Bosnians were probalby my favorite group of people during the trip. Maybe its just because we met some on familiar terms, but we were treated well by everyone. Even the people at our hostel in Sarajevo were great, and everyone we met along the way was incredibly helpful. The country has recovered quite well form its war only 12 years ago.

Serbia

The first stop on our epic trip was to be Belgrade. The train was due to leave Budapest at 11:30 PM on Thursday night. I went to the train station to buy my ticket for the train, and I bumped into this guy. He was really skinny, about 6'2" and spoke English with a funny accent. Well Eastern European train stations are a bit of a hassle and its usually nice to have someone to wait with so I struck up a conversation. Turns out this guy was born in Montenegro (part of Serbia until 2006) and was born in the resort town we were headed. He was to be on the same train to Belgrade that night. Well being the nice guy I am, I invited him over to our flat for some water and a chat. I gave him a few places to see in Budapest and then agreed to meet him on the train. Didn't think too much of it after that.

We left Keleti a little bit late, but had plenty of room on the train. Me, Meredith, and Laura had a cabin to ourselves, though we couldn't turn off the heat and we slept in a sauna. About 3 am that guy I met made his way through the trian and found me. I was half asleep so I just mouthed some words and pretended to go back to sleep. That was the last I saw of him, but pretty interesting guy.

We made it to Belgrade on time, and bought our bus tickets to Sarajevo. Then we were on a quest to find the city's Citadel and Parliament building (at my request). The Citadel was huge and covered this big outcropping where these two rivers met - the Sawa and the Danube. This actually used to be a town controlled by Hungary and was called Nanderfehervar. There also used to be Roman settlement in the flood plane bleow the Citadel. As always there are many more pictures on my shutterfly account.

Strolling through the Citadel, we ran into a man who asked us where we were from. As you may have guessed, Americans are not very popular in Serbia after NATO bombed the shit out the country in 1999 for the genocide in Kosovo. Needless to say, this man went on a rant about Americans (not the last of the trip). The guy was drunk at 8 am, so we didn't pay much attention. Next we found the only remaining Mosque in Belgrade and we just about walked in when a security guard appeared out of nowhere and suggested that might not be the best idea.

After the mosque, we hit up the Parliament. Unlike most of the other former Yugoslav republics, Serbia has quite the building because Tito fueled lots of money here. At this point, we had to get ready to leave for Sarajevo. We were only spending a few hours in Belgrade before our two night stop in the capital of Bosnia. As with all countries over here, the best bathrooms and most reliable food in the morning is inevitably McDonalds. So we camped out and paraded to the bathroom while we chomped on fries and waited for the bus to leave. Mind you each of us is carrying a huge pack weighing upwards of 50 pounds depending on how you packed.

We made it back to the bus station fine, and got seats for the ride to Bosnia. We packed into the back of the bus, which we would find out later was a very bad idea. These bus rides through the Balkans are quite an adventure. Most of the rail network was destroyed during the wars of independence for the former Yugoslav Republics, so buses are the only option. The bus was, in a word, unforgettable.

I was stuffed in the very back seat and the five us were spread over the back bench with the rest of the group spread throughout. Hard to sleep but other than that, not too bad. One friend, Kenric had a seat that they forgot to put supports underneath. Basically he was on a big spring travelling across the hills of the Balkans. Also, the bus didn't have air conditioning, it was about 1000 degrees for the entire 8 hrs. As bad as all this sounds, it was one of the best rides of the trip. The views of the mountains with lakes and valleys constantly running up against more snow capped mountains is indescribable. This characterization of the view generally describes the Bosnia side of the drive. Serbia is mostly flat and poor.

There was one point along the ride when I woke up after sleeping for a bit. I figured I had slept for about 2 or 3 hrs, I look over and Laura says, we've only been travelling for an hr. I just about punched her.

Another great thing about the bus ride, was the stops along the way. Of course the bus didn't have a bathroom, and Serbians love to smoke, so that meant many stops. The bus drivers would pull over at the most random hill-top restaurants and have a full blown meal. At one such stop, Andrew and I used our little knowledge of the slavic language and ordered two pivos (beer). They were insanely cheap, but the lady working the counter stood by us the entire time so as to make sure we didn't take the bottles on the bus with us. That redemption fee was a big deal. We had two such stops along the way before we made it to Sarajevo.

I'll finish up with the bus ride in the Bosnia post.

The Balkans Greatest Hits

For the longest time now, I've been promising to give a full account of my incredible Spring Break. This is just the intro, and then I'll go into more detail about each country. Surprisingly the trip followed our planned itinerary almost perfectly. It took around 1300 miles, 11 buses, 4 trains to make it to six Balkan countries, all in the span of 10 days. Needless to say, when we got back to Budapest, we were wrecked. There were 11 of us in all travelling in the area, though people took different routes so at most we had nine people together. Like you, I knew almost nothing about the area until I was actually travelling through, so don't think I'm an expert at all.

That picture above is the map of our journey, and this one below is all my packing materials. Thanks to Eric for lending me the bag - I was lucky enough to carry all my clothes plus all of Laura's - I think it helped get me into shape. The trip was a blast, though it was exciting to get back to Budapest and have a day to rest.

Right now I'm sitting at an internet cafe in Tirana, Albania. I know right, I didn't think I would be here either, but that's just how things happen. This morning I woke up Kotor, Montenegro which is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Lonely Planet says it has the biggest fjord in Europe and it lived up to every expectation. I can't upload any pictures until I get back, so I've stolen some links from online. Check out for yourself what its like.

The day started at 5 am, as we packed and had a nice 45 minute walk from our hotel/hostel to the bus station in Kotor. We got a bus from there to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. In Podgorica we were informed that to get into Albania, we had to get a taxi to the border, walk ourselves across the Albanian, Montenegrin border and then get a minibus on the other side. From there we got a minibus from the border to Skodor (US travel advisory for this city). From here we got a regular bus (which only departs once its completely full - they have plastic chairs for people sitting in the aisle) and got to Tirana about 2 pm. We wandered around and found our hostel with some very helpful Albanians.

Off to explore the city we tried to go into a mosque. We were informed that it was time for prayer and that later would be better. The guy that explained this then went on to lecture us about what a terrible rap Islam has and how we should convert. 33,000 people in the US converted to Islam after 9/11, I guess we should be some of them.

Well anyway deterred by that we went and got some delicious pasta and pizza for barely anything. The city is insanely cheap. Then me and two other guys on the program (a group of nine started out but now we're down to six) walked to some of the worst parts of town and found a nice local bar. The nicest guy was running the place and apologized for not talking to us because he was making a new railing for the front steps (in front of us). We about made him cry when we gave him a $1 tip for 3 $1 beers.

Then we were walking back to the hostel when we spotted the sky tower which is a bar 13 stories above Tirana with a rotating sitting area. This we didn't know until our packages were sitting on the balcony and rotating away from us. I had apple pie that cost $2.50 on top of Albania.

My friend Kenrich spotted a ferris wheel from the top of the tower that we really wanted to see. So after seeking it out, we arrived just in time for it to close down.

I should add a bit about the craziness of our journey. So many methods of transportation. Crossing the border from Montenegro into Albania is bizarre. You have to travel on all these one way mountain roads with no sign of civilization. Makes you think about all those creepy movies after a little while. Then when you get to the border a ton of people are crowding around. As soon as we were on the albanian side this crazy taxi driver sprints down to try and give us a ride, but we found the minibus instead.

Well that just sums up today. Tomorrow we're doing the border procedure again as we head to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia.

Yesterday was a day of swimming and fishing in Montenegro. I'll have more later. The day before that I woke up in Mostar, Bosnia Hergovina, spent 3 hours touring around Dubrovnik, Croatia and then landed in Kotor Montenegro. I had never heard of any of these places until mere months ago. I'm extremely lucky to be able to do this and I can't believe this has to end on Sunday. Still have Macedonia and Belgrade to make it through until I get back. Probably once I get back I'll give the full updates on Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik and Kotor which were all amazing places. New nickname of trip: The Balkan's Greatest Hits.

Right now Im sitting at our hostel in Sarajevo. For the next few days, Im gonig to post whenever i get a chance so I dont forget anything about our trip, and my parents dont worry too much. Sorry there wont be any pictures, but just google bosnia if you are interested.

We left Budapest Thursdaz night at 1130. I was at the train station buying my ticket at 5 pm when I started talking to this Canadian guy. Turns out after half our he was born in Montenegro and was going to Belgrade that night. Well I invited him over for a drink and then we just hung out on our balcony for a few hours. We were supposed to meet up in Belgrade, but he ditched me. In addition to the nine of us that are going to be travelling in the Balkans for 10 days (itinerary: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Albania or Kosovo, Macedonia and home). we met an English girl and kid from New Zealand as well as a couple of Californians.

Belgrade was cool, we walked around the citadel for a few hours and then got a bus to Sarajevo. The bus ride was absolutly amaying. Beyond imaginable. Just like that movie Behind Enemy Lines for 8 hrs. Yes it was 8 hrs of hills, so it was a little sickening, but ok in the end.

The bus comes into the Serbian side of Sarajevo because its probably full of Serbs from Belgrade, so we had to ride public transportation for the 20 km into town. Two guys Andrew and Kenrich didnt know how the sytem worked and didnt validate their tickets. Normally not a problem but two controllers got on the tram. Well after lots of shouting (us in Englihs, them inCroatian) we finally give in to paying a fine. These guys were real assholes adn just looking to make a buck. The other people on the bus advised us not to pay, but they called the police so we gave in. Ill elaborate on thsi story more.

Our hostel is amaying, right downtown Sarajevo. The city has a feel unlike any other. Its small, and has mosques and churches everywhere. Its short too so its like a ski resort town feel almost. Wećre only just here, and Im really excited to get out and explore. Ill keep you updated.

March 15th

March 15th, 2007 turned out to be anything but expected - at least what our crazy conservative security teacher thought it would be. There were basically two predictions going into the big holiday - that all mayhem would break loose, cops would lay down their weapons, masses of people would swarm in and start a revolution - or most people wouldn't use this event for political gain and not much would happen. The second would eventually turn out - but let's start with just a little history.

So the history of Hungary after 1500 is basically about trying to throw off a greater power - either the Turks or the Habsburgs. In 1848 the Hungarians rose up against their Habsburg oppresors and initiated a full-scale War of Independence for about 9 months. The Habsburgs had many other problems besides the Hungarians so they turned to the Russians to help in shutting down the rebellion. This would not be the last time Russians would occupy Hungary and enforce a harsh law on the public. The Hungarians were mad, but got a large measure of autonomy in 1867 and then full independence in 1918. Ok so now to the juicy current events.

So last fall on October 23, the protestors used the ceremonies commemorating an anti-communist uprising in 1956 to voice their displeasure with the current government. Most people supported these efforts because many link the current government to the former communists.

After the violence was quelled last fall, many thought it would spring up again on March 15th. This didn't happen for several reasons. One of the most important is that the same ideological link wasn't there. This holiday was commemorating rebellions against the Habsburgs, not the communists. Another major reason was that there were international advisors in town and the police were much more accountable and prepared. All these measures allowed most of the festivities to go on without too much trouble.

At night though, there was some fighting. The police had arrested the main leader of the riots of October 23rd, and put him in a cell on the Champs Elysees or New York 5th Avenue of Budapest. Protestors tried to break him out and had several clashes with police, though there were only a few hundred participating. We of course followed the action but we were behind by about 1 hr. My friend Eric kept calling and updating us on what was going on as he was taking it in live, but we were still finishing our dinner. We saw all the remnants of torn down telephone booths and charred benches, but none of it firsthand. From all accounts, it was nothing like what happened on October 23rd. Since I didn't have any good pictures from March 15th, the one is from Alex last semester on October 23rd. You can see me standing next to Szabi in my sweatshirt in the lower left.

It really is too bad that such riots are hurting this country. It has many underlying problems and its economy is struggling. At the turn of transition it was supposed to be the first country to fully transition to a market economy - now it is in last place. And just think if this country after 20 years of peace lots of foreign investment, and many well educated, well meaning indviduals can't get this country working fully - how long will it take for Iraq or Afghanistan to get off the ground?

St Paddy's Day

I have to say that this year was probably my favorite St. Patrick’s Day yet. As you may know, I’ve unfortunately had to spend a lot of time with my new Irish “friends” here in Budapest after all my trusty American lads departed for the states. So of course we ended up spending the country’s unofficial national holiday at an Irish bar. First though the day had a very Hungarian beginning.

On March 15th, (which I still have yet to talk about), we met up with Liz’s Hungarian teacher from last semester who invited us with the rest of her class to an afternoon meal of gulyas, sweets, palinka, wine, and soccer. So for the big day we had a giant, delicious, Hungarian lunch at her house. It was a very interesting day because it shed a lot of light on how Hungarians live. The teacher, Maria, is a college professor who teaches English at one of Hungary’s most renowned universities as well as teaching us Americans some Magyarul. I don’t think she would mind saying just to illustrate that her salary is around $500 a month! – For a college professor. The lady is truly amazing but it shows how hard academics must work to make ends meet. This is true of all of our professors.

Maria and her husband Ferenc live in a flat that was built under the communist regime. They were able to buy the flat after the transition, but the buildings aren’t meant to last. They were in built in the fifties and designed to last for fifty years – but there isn’t enough money or houses for the people to move out so they have to make do and try to repair the old buildings. I make all this sound terrible but Maria is actually a great person and loves teaching English and Hungarian.

So anyway after they got us good and liquored up and incredibly full of food, we met up with Eric and another kid Ian, who is also Irish and studying to be a vet here in Budapest, at this Irish Bar called Beckett’s. Oddly the entire bar was filled with people watching a rugby match between France and Scotland (I think). Anyway France had to win by less than 23 points for Ireland to win the Six Nations Rugby trophy – something that they haven’t done since Ian has been alive. Well France had to go and screw things up and score a try (touchdown) in the very last minute and the TV judge awarded it after the field judge said it wasn’t good. Anyway it just means lots of controversy and France winning the trophy instead of Ireland. The pub was a bit disappointed at this. Still the day was a good one. I had my first Irish car-bomb “baileys and Guinness” thanks to my friend Pat, but the Irish are quick to point out that the Guinness just isn’t as good as it is in Ireland.

We watched a bit more rugby, went home for dinner then returned to the bar for the rest of the night. We danced to this live band with a guy from Ireland as the lead singer. I thought it was especially fitting that they finished off the night with a song about an event in Iowa: American Pie.

I must add that it is St. Paddy's Day and not St. Patty's Day as we say in the US. The Irish thought it unbelievable that we would nickname a holdiay after Patricia (nickname Patty) and not after Patrick (nickname Paddy). Just to clear up the confusion...

My Favorite City

For the past 7 months or so, I have been obsessed with the city Szekesfehervar for no particular reason, but there are many superficial ones. First of all, we pass it every time we head anywhere southwest of Budapest because it is a major rail junction. Secondly, I love the way it sounds (say-kesh-fay-hair-var). Last of all it means Seat of the White Castle and was the home of Hungary’s first kings and of course the link to the famous White Castle sliders. For all these reasons I had to see it, even if everyone was telling me that it wasn’t worth it.

I jumped on a train about noon after a very awkward transaction to buy the ticket. I had forgotten that Eric made me spend all my money the night before on a Chinese dinner. So I had about 200 forint in change in my wallet and the ticket cost 260. I happened to have about $3 wroth of Slovak money because I was supposed to go to Bratislava but overslept. Anyway through the help of a translator the lady said she would take my Slovak money because her son collects foreign currency.

So I sprinted off to get my train and saw it was still on the platform so I slowed to a walk. That’s right when it decided to depart. So running up to the train, I dashed in front of this guy hobbling with a cane and jumped on – then my conscience kicked in and I helped the injured guy get on.

The outskirts of Szekesfehervar looked a lot like Salgotarjan, but the downtown was pretty neat. It consisted of about four intersecting streets of cobblestones. Still I had to make the most of this city if it was going to be my favorite (I guess it made it in name only). You walk off the train and the train station is incredibly Socialist. It’s very square, plain, and the two story entrance had these two very simple murals dedicated to workers. The town was full of these murals dedicated to surveyors or factory workers – you can see some of them in the pictures.

For lunch, I decided had to compare the hamburgers in this white castle to the ones of the white castle in America. The hamburger was pretty good, but it just didn’t measure up to the quality of a slider. I walked around a bit more, got some chocolate and a much needed finger nail clippers and then headed for the train. At the train station I had to sit in this waiting room for about forty five minutes with these two sleeping, homeless guys. Then I went to buy a fanta where the guy in front of me was drinking a bottle of beer as fast as he could before his train departed. Ah Hungary. Made it back to Budapest safe and sound, and must say I’m a bit disappointed with Szekesfehervar, but I still have a special place in my heart for the city.

I forgot to mention that the first thing you walk by in this town is a graveyard which I think was dedicate to Russian soldiers liberating the city from the Germans after WWII. The last major German offensive was launched from just near the city. The graveyard had lots of Russian writing, Soviet star shaped flower beds, and a giant monument with a Red star on top. I thought for a second my train had travelled back in time.

Hungarian Stalker

Ok so this story should really alarm you about the level of stalking on the web. So I logged into my email last Sunday after a few days of being a tourist. There was this email in my inbox from a random Hungarian person. (It’s ok if you are reading this – I didn’t mind but it’s a funny story for the folks back home). This girl (I think) asked me what I thought of Salgotarjan and why I visited and what I was doing in Hungary. So this took me completely off guard and I wondered how this person got my blog address – I’m pretty sure my grandma and eric are the only ones that ever read it. And I know Eric wouldn’t spread rumors like that.

So I emailed the girl back and then did some intense detective work. After a google search I found a Hungarian blog about that town and they had somehow got word of my blog. I had Eric ask his Hungarian girlfriend to translate some of it (thanks Anna), and she told us what it said. Turns out this blog is dedicated to this town in northern Hungary. The town is pretty big so that makes sense, and the people on the blog were just kind of interested what a tourist had to say about their town. I don’t think many people visit it, because as you’ll see in my earlier post – it doesn’t have a lot of classical Hungarian traditions to offer. Still it was a good base for us to see the surrounding castles and Eric got to experience his first McDonalds breakfast there. I should probably stop rambling but I just would like to brag that there are now Hungarians reading my blog.

I’ll probably try to keep in touch with this person and see what they think of my continued posts about Hungary, but it makes you think about what kind of stuff you put on the web and how personal some people’s blogs are (ahem…Eric). Here are some pictures of the stalker's town.

Talk about awkward

Sorry its been so long since I updated the blog. Liz has been visiting from the states, and I’ve had midterms for all my tests this week. Still there is much to report. Probably what you most want to read about is the crazy March 15th celebrations, but you’ll just have to wait a few days for an explanation (it was pretty lame anyway).

I actually wanted to write about this really awkward encounter at the Natural History Museum in Budapest. I blame this encounter completely on Eric and Laura who went with me to the museum.

We got in for free and had a good time looking around and everything – its actually a pretty nice museum. But the really fun part was that they were having some type of reception. This involved all kinds of free wine and breaded meat which of course I was all over. Trouble was there was no one going for the reception area and this really burly looking guy was kind of standing in the way. So after reprimanding Eric and Laura several times, I finally convinced Laura to walk over with me. We snagged some food just as a huge crowd was descending so our entrance was safe. So we’re sitting around eating our food like mice on cheese when we spot this American looking guy. He’s wearing a Lake George, New York t-shirt and his wife and son both have old navy gear and jeans on. So Laura says, “Oh yeah, he’s totally American. You should go talk to him.” And Eric says, “Yeah, if I saw someone who I knew was from Ireland, I would definitely go talk to them.” So me never being one to turn down a challenge headed in like Little Red Riding Hood. Of course he wasn’t from the states, although he did speak English and was an artist funded by some Japanese couple’s art gallery in New York City – who knew? I had about a 30 second chat and tried to bring Laura in who introduced herself with a itty bitty whisper – Eric just avoided the conversation entirely. After a few minutes of awkwardness I made some half-assed excuse and bailed. It was really awkward – but the free wine and meat was great. Usually I’m the one that gets mistaken for being Hungarian, but I made a really big mistake this time. Oh well – shit happens.

The picture is just some random group of Indians that happen to show up around Budapest in bizarre places singing songs from Titanic and war chants.

Quality of Professors

After just about every class, I come away surprised at how cutting edge our professors are here in Hungary. I think it might have something to do with a) a small country and b) the quality of our university but it really is amazing. Just to give you a rough estimate we have had as lecturers: 1) former foreign minister of Hungary and ambassador to the US 2) former commissionar of the EU and ambassador to Denmark 3) man who is starting a new political party in Hungary 4) man who is president of the fan club of Hungary's biggest soccer team and 5) the foremost authority of Hungarian Art and Architecture.

The foreign minister and ambassador to the US was a beareded, humble old man that somehow in a class on European Integration got stuck on the relations between China and Russia. Still, the man had an amazing mind and went back to teaching history after he got kicked out of government. I wonder if a conservative government were in power right now, if all our professors would be in power and instead our professors would be liberal. Who knows.

The former ambassador was also a substitute but his English was better than mine. The man had amazing fluency and just rolled out stories about Copenhagen that we couldn't believe.

The man who is starting the new political party is the one pictured on a recent news magazine. Although he is quite arrogant, he was educated in the UK and knows his stuff about Hungary. He teaches at the NATO defense college in Germany and heads a think-tank here in Hungary.

The president of Hungary's biggest fan club is quite the instructor and hes only about 30 years old. Now some of my friends think he has a secret love interest, but I had better not put that here. Anyway he told us that when he gets called to speak on TV, about 4 out of 5 times its for politics but every once in awhile its to talk soccer.

Our art history professor is simply amazing and knows everyone in the field. He commands respect everywhere we go including the parliament and has so many ins in the city. Every museum we visited people were crawling on the floor to do favors for him.

Finally I can't forget to mention the two econ teachers I have. They have the most bizarre stories during communism. One worked in a gulag in the Soviet Union for a period of time. He tells us stories like one time he got off the train in Bucharest at 3 am and saw people lining up for bread because they had to get there that early if they wanted to get any of the rations. This is only one of many stories he has to offer. This might sound quite conceded and all that, but I think anyone studying in a small country like this would feel pretty amazed at what academics have to do to keep a small country afloat in the world. Or something like that.

Fun with the Night Bus

Contrary to what you might think based on Harry Potter, the night bus isn't always a pleasant experience. Seeing as I have no car in Budapest and most places are quite distant at 3 am, the night bus is an essential tool. Sadly it took two or three months to fully utilize the system, and as you will soon see, I haven't grapsed the concept fully. This post I want to dedicate to a) one specific long night of mistakes on the night bus b) the people you see on the night bus c) bad Hungarian conversations on the night bus, and d) early morning taveles via the night bus.

First of all, my bad experience with the night bus dates from about two weeks ago - and I was completely sober. I was just hanging out at a friends apartment until about 12:45, but this is late enough for the trams to cease running. Well i know an easy route home but it involves a little more walking or a shorter way home but with a bus that only comes once an hour. Well i got the once an hour bus, but failed to get off at my stop. I was daydreaming (night dreaming I guess) and figured the bus would drive past my apartment and then i would push the button. It didn't. So after three other failed transfer points, I finally arrived at the end of the line - in the middle of the Soviet/cornfield ghetto of Budapest. Normally I'd be at home in a cornfield, but not at 2 am and in 20 degree weather. So in broken Hungarian I ask the driver when the bus heads back. He said not for another twenty minutes. Well lucky for me I just happened to have the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy with me. I waited my twenty minutes, rode that bus for twenty minutes, got off waited for a half hour, rode another bus for 20 minutes and finally made it home. It took me almost 3 hours when it should have taken just over 30 minutes. Nothing really bad happened though so I can't complain too much - just got a lot of reading done.

The other thing about night buses is that the people on them are bizarre. If you make it on early, say between 12 and 2, you have the standard drunk college kids heading to or coming from a party. But usually you will also see about 10-15 guys per bus asleep. This is their sleeping quarters and it generally is every night. Besides these creepy guys you will randomly have about 5 poeple in really nice clothing that are coming from the office at 2 am? Awfully suspect. Also you will have standard drunkards/beggars that are either making fun of you or asking for money. While the bus can be quite comforting when you are really wanting to get home, it provides an adventure everytime.

The last good story about a night bus is when we were coming home from a club at about 3:30 am. A girl was visiting from Paris, so she didn't really speak Hungarian and wasn't really used to the medlam of the night bus. Just as we got on to the night bus, this crazy Hungarian really wanted to talk to us "Americans." So for about a half hour on the bus, this guy spoke to me in English and I answered him in Hungarian. The guy was quite thrilled to be practicing English and I'm pretty sure I was making up Hungarian words, but we had a nice conversation. He tried to trade me his Lonsdale hat for my Brewers hat, but I wouldn't acquiese.

Finally, the last oddity about the night buses is when we're headed on a day trip to some town in Hungary, but the train leaves so early that we have to catch the night bus to the station. Especially if its a Saturday morning, so here we are catching a 5 am train while there are people getting the night bus home after a night of partying. It makes you feel kind of odd, but also rewarding that you are seeing something a lot of the other stupid students are missing. Guess I'll use that as my reasoning.