Hotel Inturista Brest, Belarus 11:09 PM

You know its been a long day if I’m thinking of sleep anytime before 1 am. Today was just that. We successfully rented a car and drove across the country of Belarus – All in a day’s work.

Wake up was supposed to be at 6 but 3 hrs was not enough sleep so instead we got up around 7. Breakfast was an all you can eat buffet on the 22nd floor of our hotel. The hotel was the main Minsk hotel so basically anyone staying in town is there, and even yes the four typical American tourists showed up at breakfast – but what a great view. We had a big breakfast thinking we’d use it for lunch too. Great apple juice and tea, eggs, hashbrown type things and even some cereal and of course delicious pastries.

Ready to go by 9, we headed to the car rental agency in the hotel to see what we could muster. We thought we might need an international driver’s license but these countries usually make flexible laws when it means money coming their way. The woman (aka 22 yr old girl who explained to us she had way too much to drink the night before) happily rented us the car – and Virginia doesn’t have her license with her – so this means I’m driving a stick in Belarus until Monday!

After precisely 15 seconds, driving in the car felt just like driving anything back in the states. I thought after a 9 month deficit I might be a little rusty but it came back like clockwork.

Ok so let me just get you in the right frame or mind. Belarus is the last remaining dictatorship in Europe. And yes I mean dictatorship. Two Americans accidentally flew into Byelorussian airspace during a Hot Air Balloon race around the world and the president commended the Byelorussian air force for shooting down the balloon and killing the pilots. He also has required that 75% of the music on the radio be Byelorussian, and welded shut the gate to the US Ambassador’s Residence sparking an intense diplomatic battle. So yea that’s the setting for driving a car 350 kilometers to the city of Brest. Needless to say the last thing we want to do is get pulled over. The whole trip I’d say we’ve been a bit on edge just wondering what we’re not supposed to do.

After an hour of paper work we finally got into the car and we were set. I’m pretty sure I opened the door and looked at Virginia and said, “Virginia, what the hell are we doing.” After just a little while, though, it felt just like all the road trips we’d done before. At times with the rolling hills of trees, huge fields of yellow flowers, we thought we were in Illinois on our way home from Middlebury.

Anyway we made it out of Minsk fine, just a little bit of being lost and made it to the interstate to Brest. Luckily we had no problems along the way though we saw lots of cops pulling people over. Also the speed limits aren’t very well posted so we were mostly just hoping we were going the right speed – tough to do when there aren’t any other cars on the road.

Ok so I should mention that the purpose of this trip is for Virginia to do genealogical research on her great grandparents that left Belarus ahead of World War I. It’s actually a really cool story of how the great grandma and three kids journeyed from Belarus all the way across Russia via the Trans-Siberian railroad, sailed to Seattle, and made it to her waiting husband in Pennsylvania. Yea ok romantic I know. Anyway the relatives departed from a little village outside of Brest and we were hoping to do research in the archives in Brest and then find the actual village.
Our map of Brest was actually pretty good and we made it to the archives. The lady there was really helpful, though she wouldn’t let us do any research because they didn’t have any records before WWI. She wouldn’t tell us how to get to the village either so we were on our own.

We checked into our hotel – not as nice as last night but a great view of a beautiful Orthodox Church. The room shines in 70’s bright orange. We went over to an internet café to try and find out how to get to the village. Virginia had looked it up before but didn’t have a print out. Using google earth we just happened upon the village – it wasn’t labeled but VA recognized the streets. Using a satellite image we traced the roads back to the city of Brest, tried to memorize some landmarks and just got in the car and hoped for the best. We only made one bad turn and after about 30 minutes we found ourselves in a village of about 100 people with only two streets at running perpendicularly to each other. We had found the countryside. I don’t know how we would have done it without a car.

As in Romania and Transylvania, people often just sit for long hours on the benches in front of their houses. After taking a turn down through the village we stopped at one such bench and Virginia plowed into finding info about her relatives.

I should also mention how there is no way I would survive here if she didn’t speak Russian. In all the other countries I’ve been to, you say you don’t’ speak the language and they’re like oh stupid tourists. Here they’re like how the hell did you get here. Most places at least have Latin letters and you can figure out the basics like internet, toilet, etc. Not here. Not to mention that Virginia is fluent and can have full conversations about relatives, wars, etc. The few minutes when I have to go park the car or while she checks out a restaurant I’m scared someone might actually talk to me.

So she launches into her story and the village people (pun intended?) turn out to be very helpful. This one guy leads us into like 5 different houses and talks to people all over the town. They were really helpful and explained that the town basically got burned down during the war and people only came back after a few years and most were new residents. We did happen upon one lady that Virginia thinks she is related to. Her uncle had the same last name as that of Virginia’s relatives. I think she might call her tomorrow and find out some more info about the family.

I can’t explain just how bizarre this whole time in the village was. Virginia is walking up and down this one road talking to all the residents in Russian and I’m standing there useless. I figure I’ll just be the cameraman/driver and try to take as many rustic photographs as possible. I have a few favorites. I also played this game with myself where I tried to take pictures of all the people without letting them know it. Crossing my arms and sneaking a photo, turning the other way.

Also a highlight was when I tried to walk back into someone’s backyard and take a picture of a goose. I heard yelling and VA tried to translate as quickly as possible that I would be eaten by a big scary dog if I went any farther – I stopped. Virginia found out a bunch of useful info about the relatives. Funny how all these people in this old abandoned village were encouraging her to use the internet to contact the Byelorussian archives. Small world.

I can’t explain how nice it is to drive. Even though I’m in a town in Belarus, it still seems like I’m just at a stop light in Iowa. I’m always impressed when Western culture permeates these countries. Hear Eagle Eye Cherrie’s Save Tonight while waiting for a stoplight. Hear some rap music while parking the car. Got back to the hotel and turned on the TV with choices of Tin Cup or Jackie Chan for entertainment. You can’t escape it.

After our tour in the village we headed back to Brest to get dinner at this restaurant in the “Park of Culture and Leisure.” Awesome food and cool view over this artificial lake. There was a huge concert going on and the whole park was like a mini carnival. Apparently it was the place to be on Saturday night. Its tough to get an act to fill such a crowd because all the bands protest the government so only state-approved acts are allowed to perform.

After dinner we used the car to check out one of the nicest train station’s I’ve ever seen. A beautiful, clean interior with neo-classical motifs that look like they belong in the US Capitol. Also saw a nice big statue of Lenin and some colorful Orthodox Churches. We also got a head start on the Brest Fortress which we’ll be seeing tomorrow.

I know I’m getting wordy here but there’s so much to say. Byelorussians are obsessed with World War II, or as they call it “The Great Patriotic War.” Russians and Byelorussians are taught in school that THEY won the war and no one else. Ok so the point of all this is that you see tributes to WWII everywhere much disproportionally than anything else. Brest was awarded one of eleven “hero cities” under the USSR and apparently still supports this identity. Even in the village there was a monument to honor those that died in that war and no other monuments.

We’re back in our orange room and sleep is setting in. Tomorrow we’re getting breakfast and then back to the village for a bit more sight seeing then back to Minsk. It seems like I just got here and I have to fly out on Monday already. Its been a productive trip so far.

Long Day

Hotel Belarus Saturday 2:15 am

I’m exhausted. That pretty well describes my day. My two plane rides were pretty uneventful. Seeing Hungary’s biggest Basilica from the air was quite nice as we followed the Danube over to Vienna.

I stepped onto the bus to take me to the aircraft bound for Minsk and thought I had entered a different world. I didn’t think anyone spoke English until I saw the four most typical American tourists. Lost, ignorant, English-demanding tourists. I was horrified. Got on the plane and sat next to this British guy that I’ve decided is a drug runner. Before I had even said a word to him, he took one look at me and said, “Boy, you’re a long way from home.”

He said he was headed to Belarus for business. Said he was in agriculture but he failed to go into the specifics. For some reason though, he had a multiple entry visa into Russia in addition to Belarus and was traveling to Belarus for the second time in two weeks. Also he had a huge suitcase and was only staying here for the same 4 days I am. I guess I’ll see what he’s drummed up on the plane out of here on Monday.

We waded through security together. Ahh my last American dollars spent. I’ve had two dollars in my wallet since I got over here in August and I’ve been dreaming up things to spend them on once I get back in the states. Just when I’m counting my chickens, Belarus goes and requires you to have medical insurance which costs $.50 per day. So the two dollars covered my medical insurance, but now I don’t know what to do. I’ll look in the seats to find some change.

The Minsk Airport seems like it should be something out of 28 Days that zombie movie set in London where no one is doing anything. It had the structure and size of any US airport. The Drug lord said it was built for Soviet troops but I didn’t believe him. Only something like 5 flights fly into the airport everyday. There is no one inside the airport except for a few workers. Just huge open corridors with no one to walk in them. Security is kind of a joke. Also the bathroom I ventured into didn’t have a proper toilet and looked like the inside of the local bar at about 3 am on Saturday night. Welcome to Eastern Europe.

Me and the drug lord got outside and I waited for the public bus to come for me and a friend for him (aka the grower). A really disappointed taxi driver wouldn’t leave me alone thinking I was ripe for money. The bus was surprisingly really comfortable. Ok so mind you no one speaks any English in this country so communication is a bit sketchy. Lonely Planet said the bus took me straight to the train station where I was to meet Virginia. Slowly everyone (as in three other people) got off the bus and suddenly I was alone. So I used my little guide book to tell the driver I wanted off at the train station and he figured it out, though he kept yelling at me and I have no idea what he was saying. I should also mention that the roads were huge, open, and bare. All this infrastructure for no one to use.

Minsk is beautiful. I can’t deny it. All the guide books warn of how socialist it is, and yes it has some of those buildings. But it has a number of older neo-classical and baroque buildings that are amazing. Plus not only is it very clean but all the parks are very modern, lots of fountains, well cut crass, beautiful sidewalks, etc. I know, I know, this comes at a price with no political freedom, many people living in poverty, and many other social problems but in a way the city is incredibly modern.

Virginia and I had set up a meeting place on the 4th floor of the train station at an internet café. I tried to meet her on the tracks and missed her so I walked up to the 4th floor and it worked like clockwork. These meet ups usually never happen this well. I tried to meet up with several friends in Paris and always failed.

VA got in at about 8 pm so we got the metro ($.25 per ride) to our hotel. The Hotel Belarus is beautiful on the outside but a bit “rustic” on the inside. I can’t complain because its been awhile since I’ve slept in a hotel, but its nice. Boy is the bathroom blue and the TV has MTV and Cnn. We got settled in and VA gave me a nesting doll of the Minnesota Twins. See picture.

It’s a little odd how the hotel works. A lady sleeps on a couch on each floor behind a desk. To get to your room you have to get the key from her every time you come back. For some reason time just seemed to escape us today. We ran around the hotel looking for car rental agencies for our trip to Brest tomorrow. Sometime during my journey earlier I had this terrible craving for a huge Italian pizza. I know this is probably a bad country to have such a craving but nonetheless I was thinking of one thing only. Well after the hotel drop-off we’re looking for some food and sure enough we happen upon a “hoppin’” pizza restaurant with club inside. I got myself a mighty fine pizza in the wonderful Belarus.

After dinner we went for a stroll and sought out the 24 hour internet café. What a city. Like I said, very tall, modern, beautiful buildings. We passed a number of parks and streets that could have been in any city in Europe. It was simply astounding.

We passed by some wonderful pieces of Soviet art as well as some newly rebuilt churches and the President’s house. This will have to be my parliament picture from this country because the President, Lukashenko,is basically the king of the country.

We got to the internet where I scored both summer job opportunities I wanted in DC so now I have to divide my time between the two. Hopefully it leaves lots of time for playing softball.

After the internet we made it back here to the hotel and we are exhausted. I also just drank the tap water which is a no-no and I hope I don’t get sick. Wake up is in a little over 4 hrs so I had better get some sleep.

Gyorsan (Faster)

Budapest Ferihegy 2 Airport, Friday 12:12 PM

Michigan Oliver oddly enough was the last person I talked to before leaving Budapest. I guess I don’t know for sure seeing as I have a half hour yet to board, but I assume it’s a safe bet.

Szabi and I call him Michigan Oliver because I never saw him without his Michigan hat. Yea I thought he was from Michigan too, but then I found out he was from Hamburg and got really confused. He’s getting his masters over here in Budapest. We’ve had a few classes together and generally have complained a lot over pogacsa. Oliver works for Lufthansa in addition to studying. I just learned that he worked for a period in Russia and studied for a year in Idaho of all places. Also has a mean hook shot knows more about college basketball than I do. The world gets stranger everyday.

Right now I’m stuck at one of those dead ends of an airport where they send everyone that’s traveling on a really small plane. Since my flight to Vienna is only an hour long, this is what I have to endure. It’s been a hectic process to get here.

This morning I woke up at 8 am to Eric talking in my ear (via my cell phone). I had promised him a cycle this morning but we were out too late last night for that. He of course had to call me and remind of this fact as well. We each had to buy train tickets where I had some great news – my ticket from Zurich to Budapest only cost about $45 instead of the $100 I was thinking it was going to cost. What a great way to start the day. Got some Burger King to celebrate this with Eric and then gathered my things and left to go to the airport.

My flight was set to leave at 12:50 (so I thought) so I of course was pushing it a little close and got on the bus about 2 hrs before departure. About an hour and ten minutes to get there and a little for check in. On the bus with Eric I glanced at my itinerary to see what terminal I left from and noticed that the flight actually left Budapest at 11:55 and gets into Vienna at 12:50. Shit! So Eric and I ran off the bus, Eric gave me 5000 forint and we found a cab and off to the airport I went.

The cab driver and I actually had a great chat in Hungarian for the 20 minutes. I think through this whole process Eric was a bit more worried than I so perhaps hes to thank for me getting here. I think on the bus I was like, oh my plane leaves in an hour, I guess I had better get a cab.

My driver told me about how he had broken up with his girlfriend two weeks ago and they had a 9-yr old child. We joked about the weather, Belarus, and driving a stick. I also assuredly told him not to visit Los Angeles but stick with other more exciting places. Jozsef was a really nice guy and gave me his number for when I get back into the city. I also told him that I needed to get to the airport quickly but avoid being dangerous if possible. He succeeded.

I got through check in and security fine though the guy seemed to take offence that I would bother him by checking in. I got down to my gate and was texting Eric and Mary that I made it when Oliver shows up and takes a seat. Imagine that he’s flying to Hamburg out of this same dead end. He does work for Lufthansa and gets discounted flights so going home for the weekend in is no problem.

Well the trip hasn’t even begun yet and I’ve already got a page typed. I’m taking my computer with me so I’ll be able to keep a more detailed account of the trip – I hope. Perhaps when we’re driving through the Byelorussian countryside I’ll have some time to type a few words. I think my bus is here to take me to the plane – lets see what more drama I can stir up.

Serbia (Again)

Ok I promise this is the last bit about spring break, and you really don't have to read it all if you don't feel up to it. Jeff and I decided to stick it out for a day in Belgrade and get the night train while eveyrone else was getting the day train straight back to Budapest. So we all went to, yes I have to admit it, McDonalds for breakfast and a nice bathroom. The Balkans doesn't really do breakfast so my Big Mac at 7 am was a bit weird, but I dealt with it. Then we said good bye to the other 5 and headed for the Chinese Embassy. This is one site that is not in Lonely Planet. During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, they "accidentally" knocked bombed the Chinese Embassy which was located next to a radio tower. The Embassy just happened to have some radioactive material in the basement and is dangerous till this day. We found it, snapped a couple of pictures and then headed for Tito's grave.

This man was the dictator of Yugoslavia for 40 years and yet the people still revere him. It's a bit odd. The grave is also really odd because its in this park kind of and there is a really silent hall for him and then a musuem for all the gifts he received from foreign countries. The whole experience is quite surreal and it was nice to have Jeff there who had been through it before.

After Tito's tomb, we went to what I really wanted to see - the Nicola Tesla Musuem. Perhaps you heard of him in the Prestige played by David Bowie. In real life he was a graet scientist but a terrible businessman. He was a rival of Thomas Edison and worked for him for a time. His many achievements include inventing the radio, making mechanical engines work, and basically designing the Niagra Falls power station.

The musuem was free and we were almost the only ones there along with John who works for the WHO and has been to 130 countries and a very nationalistic Serbian that had emigrated to Canada. Quite a crowd. The young tour guide put on a demonstrationg that was really cool and made mechanical engines click in my head - at least for awhile.

After leaving the musuem, Jeff and I decided to leap frog our way back to Budapest. We were going to stop in two smaller towns along the way, both of which used to be Hungarian towns. We said good bye to Serbia and headed for Novi Sad.

We think this town had a soccer match going on because they cleared out an entire car of the train just for the hooligans destined for the town. We kind of had cramped quarters but not too bad. Once we arrived there were about 100 policemen in riot geer to escort the hooligans to the stadium. The one really cool thing about Novi Sad was the old fortress on the hill above the river. It was huge and every August hosts a huge musical festival with bands like the Killers and The Shins headlining. This clock tower was part of the fortress and designed with a bigger hour hand so everyone could see it. In fact everyone that could see it was charged a clock tax.

The town also had a beautiful baroque downtown and was quite lively, but we didn't discover this until we had to leave.

From here we caught another 2 hour train up to the town of Subotica which had a huge Hungarian influence. This dowtown was also beautiful though in a very different Art Noveau way. Seeing as we had been away from Hungary for almost 10 days, I was desperate for Hungarin food. Well the book recommended one such restaurant where we walked in the door and they greeted us in Hungarian. This dining experience was chaotic.

We walked in and there were two musicians playing. We ordered gulyas which came in a huge pot that could have served 5 people. This was the best gulyas I've had yet. Ok so then all the drunk Hungarian youth in this town paraded through the restaurant. They danced on tables, line danced, sang all the folk songs, and just generally had a party. We had our giant packs with us in the restaurant so we kind of stood out but nobody cared. I couldnt' take the noise for too long so we went to the town square and chilled for a bit. We basically were falling asleep sitting there so we journeyed over to the train station and watched an episode of West Wing on Jeff's laptop before the train came.

Wow were we tired. We fell asleep as soon as we were on the train, woke up for the border guards and then didn't even budge until the cleaning crew at Keleti swept through the train. Back in Budapest we both went home and slept, and then I had to prepare for guests from Paris.

What a way to end spring break. It was a hell of a trip and I don't regret any of it. I never thought we would make it thorugh with that many people but we had pretty good company throughout. Freshman year: New Orleans, Sophomore year: Western Virginia, Junior year: The Balkans, who knows what senior year will bring. Until then...stay classy San Diego.

Macedonia

Macedonia was beautiful, at least the parts of it that we saw. In this country we would see an awesome monastery, the surprise arrival of Jeff, Macedonians serenading on a bus, a lakeside town reminiscent of Okoboji, and another walled off old town and a castle. Ok so we spent all our time at the little village of Ohrid, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. We took a bus through the capital, Skopje, and everyone generally agreed there wasn’t much to see there. Here’s how we made it happen.

Like I was saying in the Albania post, the border crossing was a bit intense. It was like a deserted stretch of highway. Also the no man’s land between the two checkpoints is like half a mile long because these countries really hated each other at one point. We made it across and then we were looking for either a bus to Ohrid or for the monastery that we had been told about. We walked aimlessly down this two lane road until we happened upon a giant sign in 5 langauges that pointed to the monastery. Once we arrived there we found a bus to Ohrid, our destination, leaving in two hours. The monastery was like 500 years old and beautiful. Also there are peacocks guarding it – a bird I had never seen up close before. The monastery also stood overlooking beautiful lake Ohrid. We had lunch here at the monastery’s restaurant which of course was very cheap. We also drank beer with our lunch – is that appropriate?

The whole trip we had been planning to meet up with our friend Jeff along the way. He did Easter with his parents in England and flew down to Sarajevo. Anyway through text messages we kind of figured out where he was and how to meet up. So we’re sitting at this picnic area in southern Macedonia and low and behold Jeff comes pulling up in a taxi. It was quite the random encounter but it worked out. About 15 minutes later we all caught the bus to Ohrid, once again incredibly beautiful. This village stands on this hill between a castle on the hilltop and this lake that is surrounded by snow covered mountains. It stretches on forever though you can see across it at some points. Breath taking.

We arrived at the bus station which is in the boon docks so we had to get a cab ride into town which cost 2 euro per cab. The guy at the bus station told us about a travel agency, but upon arrival they wanted 15 euro per person. We didn’t like that so we just found the water front and sat down to rest. Thinking over what to do, I kid you not, a construction worker at a site across the road walks over and speaks about 5 words of English. That’s enough to communicate to us that he has an apartment available for us for 6 euro each. We thought this was too good to be true so we agreed to take a look. They came and picked us up and dropped us off at the most amazing accommodation. We had this huge apartment with a full kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the lake. All for 6 euro, we could barely contain ourselves. This was at about 4 pm so we unloaded our stuff and went for a swim.

By swim I mean jumped in, yelped a bit and got out quickly. This was when we met Christopher Columbus. We were swimming at the “beach” right next to where this guy was painting his boat. He was quite jovial and spoke a fair bit of English. He kind of told us about the lake, and how he took people out in tours and showed them the monastery and different mountains and what not. He was a fun guy to talk to and said we could go out in his boat if we helped him paint a bit. Some of the guys were really looking forward to kayaking a little bit, so we asked Chris about this. He looked into it but the way he made it sound was that Macedonians are more hung up on liability than the Americans. He said no one wanted to rent us boats because what if we drowned and blamed them. Basically they were scared of the repercussions of lending out one of their boats so we had to nix that idea. This is the lake before sunrise.

The first night in Ohrid was pretty fun. We found a nice enough restaurant with very entertaining waiters. I don’t remember what I had, but I think it was pretty good. After dinner we went for some gelato. Andrew drank a whole bottle of wine at dinner and got into an argument about the proper price of gelato. Thinking he had been overcharged by 100% he was demanding 10 scoops of ice cream. This was quite entertaining to the rest of us and to the girl working who didn’t really speak English. She held her ground and didn’t give into the crazy American. Holding no grudges, he went back there at least a couple of times.

Once again we called it an early night to enjoy the next day sightseeing. I woke up at about 6:30 after the schedule we had been keeping. I went out to the balcony to read and wait for Kenric and Jeff to get up at 7. I was extremely glad I did this because I got to see the sun come up over the mountains and across the lake while reading my Atlantic Monthly.

The three of us explored the city a bit, finding the castle, amphitheater, and old church. We headed to the city market and grocery store where we picked up the necessities for breakfast. Back at the apartment we made ourselves a delicious egg, cheese, bacon, onion, fruit and toast breakfast and enjoyed it on our balcony. Now that’s what I call breakfast done right.

The rest of the day we explored the rest of the city which had an old town enclosed by city walls and also had a beautiful pedestrian street that could have been anywhere in Western Europe.

I should also mention that on the day we got into town, our door got locked and no one could open it. It was at this point that we realized we had no way of contacting our landlord and no idea even who the people were. We were kind of wondering about our trust and what we could possibly do. So I walked around the neighborhood a bit and down to the backyard of the building next door. There was a young woman sitting on her balcony. I explained to her the problem and she called our landlord and asked him to come fix it for us. He came and got us squared away. Now we were smart lads and got his phone number in case of any future problems.

Ok so back to Friday, departure day, we swam again and walked around a bit and bought a few souvenirs. We collected ourselves about 4 pm and talked our landlord in to giving us a ride to the bus station. Oh little did we know how that bus ride would go. We were scheduled to get a bus from Ohrid all the way to Belgrade which is a 12 HOUR JOURNEY. This would go through the capital Skopje and then all the way through Serbia, oh what an adventure it would be.

The first bus was fine, albeit the temperature was about 1000 degrees, but we had lots of space so it was fine. Jeff and I emailed my friend Katie to find out where the Chinese Embassy was in Belgrade (I’ll have more later) and then we kind of sat back and relaxed. That quickly ended when we pulled into the Skopje bus/train station. Somebody had decided that a different bus would continue on to Belgrade and ours would be stopping. This same person decided to oversell that bus by about 15 people and make it leave 5 minutes after our bus arrived. Talk about chaos.

Two girls got off the bus to go to the bathroom in the middle of all this. So the other 5 of us scrambled to move all the bags to the other bus and all the purses and other accessories off the bus and onto the newest bus. I can’t forget about Chuckles. I brought him up in the Bosnia section, but hadn’t seen him after Meredith left us for Croatia. Well in her infinite wisdom, Meredith had decided to deflate Chcukles and put him in her bag. Not to let us drown in sorrow, Meredith had put the life back into Chuckles in Macedonia and this time he was to make it the whole way home. Indeed Chuckles did make the switch ok, though I think a little of his heart was left on the previous bus (in the form of glitter off of his neck).

So the 7 of us plus Chuckles made it on to this new bus ok, but it wouldn’t depart with all these people in the aisle. First the driver made this gypsy mom and daughter stand up simply because they were gypsies – Rosa Parks came to mind. We also realized what a chauvinistic country it was when the driver started making women stand up so that Andrew and I could sit down. Meanwhile Jeff and Kenric camped out on the stairs guarding over Chuckles. Finally Andrew and I sat down so that the bus would leave and then immediately gave our seats back to the women.

Destined to stand for awhile we kind of made conversation. Slowly along the way, people drifted off the bus but still not enough seats. Andrew and I split time between a stoop on the floor and the middle of the back bench. Eventually enough people got off the bus and all of us had seats but very uncomfortable ones.

I was sleeping so I only vaguely remember this but at one point like 10 people ran off the bus with all their stuff. Then we kind of shifted and 5 minutes later they all got back on and took their seats back. Then an argument broke out in the front of the bus with the driver yelling at someone else. We also took a nice long break at the border where we got out and just breathed. Eventually I passed out and didn’t wake up until we pulled into Belgrade, but everyone else slept off and on all night. Kenric had an interesting run in with the border guard. I guess he just didn’t feel right about a 21 year old carrying a horse balloon around the Balkans. Little did he know…

When we got off the bus in Belgrade, we were all incredibly relieved. Never had we been so exhausted or tired of being on a bus. What an experience though, no bus will ever seem daunting again. I’ll pick this up on the Serbia post.

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.