Serbia plus others....

My apologies. Apparently someone is actually reading this and I've been chided for not updating, rightfully so. I've been rather pathetic about updating this trip, and have no real excuse except that Belgrade nightlife can keep you busy. So I'll update what I'm actually doing now, instead of detailing Belgrade since I'm not actually there. School ended and I took off that same evening to begin a short jaunt around the southern Balkans. Beginning in Montenegro, winding through Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria before finally making my way back to Serbia. I'll only be traveling through these countries for about 2 weeks, not a long time.

I began in coastal Montenegro, where I traveled with a friend to her grandmothers home in Sutomore, a seaside town full of Serbian vacationers. I spent most of the 3 days fending off her aunt who spent the time trying to convince me to marry her son. We took a day trip to Kotor, a walled city north of Sutomore which reminds me of a mini Dubrovnik and spent the rest of the time lounging on the beach enjoying the sun.

From there, I caught the train to Bar, where my friend Brendan met me, and off we went to Albania. Well, getting into Albania was a little bit of a story. We arrived at Bar and had to find a bus to Ulcinj, and from there a bus to Tirana. Well the bus to Tirana was a daily 6am bus (this was about noon) and we were going to have to wait. Instead of waiting however, we caught a taxi to the border, where we were handed off to an Albanian taxi driver just before the border, (insert images of missing American students lost in the backwoods between Montenegro and Albania news stories here) and got a ride to the northern Albanian city of Shkoder. Caught a 12 seater mini bus called furgons to Tirana, and made it there exhausted and sweaty after a marathon of taxis, buses and furgons in 38 degree heat. We wandered around the capital in the evening, which is a brightly painted maze of commie condos and grandiose buildings, and crashed early to catch a morning ride to Berat.

Berat is a 500 year old Ottoman city preserve by the communist regime as a museum city set in the hills above a river in a spectaular setting. It was settled by the Romans and a fortress looms above the city. Its quite spectaular, but with no major museums or anything. Its white washed building and windowns look out over the valley and we wandered in and out of the mosques and streets over the afternoon. We watched the grapes grow and enjoyed the views from higher up. We intended to get a bus to Kosovo from Tirana that evening but missed the last bus by an hour and spent an extra night in Tirana where we went out to dinner with a friend of a friend. At an italian place, we were finishing up our dinner when a fight breaks out in the alley next to us (which is seperated only by an iron fence) with 2 groups of early 20 something kids. They are throwing punches as everyone in the restaurant terrance looks on, and suddenly someone shots a gun in the alley (apparently trying to break up the fight???) and sends them running. I hear that and head straight inside (and the only one who did which I find disturbing) and later find out that it was actually a cop who shot the gun. Thank god no one else decided that shooting was a good way to break up a fight. That could've sucked.

The next day we get up bright and early to catch a furgon to Northern Albania via a ferry ride that will take us to Kosovo. We find the furgon at 5am, climb abroad and hope for the best. Instead of taking the ferry route though, apparently the driver had an argument with the ferry driver and so now we are going overland. Then we get a flat tire. Then it gets fixed. Then the road has construction requires us to pull over and wait. Then we are told that our best chances for finding a ride to Kosovo is to get off in a diffrent town and ask around. Its all good. Eventually we make our way to this little town and get a cab with a guy who is also headed in the same direction. But the cab is down. Broken apparently, so we wait some more. Finally someone who is willing to give all of us a ride picks us up and hauls us to the Kosovo border, where for the first time that I can remember, was explicilty welcomed because I am an American.

To be continued....(out of internet time)

Belgrade

After nearly three weeks of travelling, I finally have regular access to the internet. I think that’s probably the longest its ever taken me. I’ll try and be quick about everything I’ve done so far and everything I am doing.

Officially I’m in Belgrade to study Serbian for six weeks, complete the second year intensive language course so that I torture myself with third year next year. Why Serbian (officially its Bosnia/Croatian/Serbian)? Well that’s a complicated question I’ll answer later. For now my short answer is that I have to. And I want to.

I got here on the 16th, although my luggage didn’t, and went directly to Vis once my luggage finally arrived. The family of a friend lives on the Croatian island of Vis and I enjoyed 4 days of sun filled swimming, eating and reading. It was a nice recovery to what has been a very packed year. It’s pretty idyllic: wake up, eat, walk to the sea, swim in sea, lie in the sun by the sea, lunch, nap, swim in the sea, lie by the sea, eat dinner, swim in the sea, sleep. I could get used to that. Since I came out about 10 days before my program started I had some time to kill and after 4 days I took off for the Bosnian city of Mostar, where previously I had only spent an afternoon wandering in between waiting for buses from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo. I stayed 4 days, had my ritual infestation of bedbugs which added to the collection of scars on my right arm, and spent a very pleasant time with a very interesting German who grew up in East Germany (and thus had very good stories). I’ll write more about Mostar later, as I want to get this somewhat caught up to what I’m doing now.

My class started on July 28th and I’ve spent the last week trying to figure out where to live in Belgrade. I arrived on the 27th, and stayed at a hostel for a week while I tried to follow every lead I had for housing. This ranged from a friend who is interning in Belgrade for the summer, to an rental agency, to a friend of a friend of a friend of two people who work at the hostel I stayed at. Believe or not, the one to actually come through (both of them) were actually the friend of a friend of a friend. So now I am moved into the swanky area of Vracar, renting a room in the home of a very sweet Serbian woman, along with a Ducthman from Rotterdam. It’s about a 10min bus ride to the center, or a 25 min walk. I have class in the morning until 1pm and then am completely free, which actually makes it a little dull in the afternoons. If it weren’t so hot, I would be happy to spend my afternoons wandering but with the heat, I’ll turn into a puddle. So I think I may begin volunteering with the American Corner, where people can go to practice their English and have a conversation partner. I’ll head over tomorrow to take a look. Hopefully it will cool down soon and I can spend more time outside. Last night it was so warm I couldn’t even sleep it was so warm and humid.

I’ve rented the room for two months, though I’m leaving Sept 5ish to travel in the area and will fly to Paris on the 24th. That way I can leave some things here. Hopefully a friend will be joining me, he was with me here in 2005. I plan to head back to Bulgaria, and then on to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. On the weekends I’ll be going to Budapest, Vienna and Ljubljana. Maybe I’ll go to Greece, who knows. My passport is full and I have to go to the embassy to get new pages as I still have 4 years left on it.

Now that I have internet access (I’m borrowing Peter’s computer, he’s the Dutchman) I’ll be able to update more regularly. I’ll update again soon.