Day 21 - Mostar!

Today, we drove around Sarajevo a bit before we left. We saw the Olympic stadium, and a massive graveyard. About the size of the national cemetery in DC, but it was only created after 1992. Pretty intense.

After, we left Sarajevo. I kind of dozed off. When I woke up, it was a winter wonderland. It was about 3 degrees C in Sarajevo, and it was -3 degrees C. It had snowed the night before in Sarajevo, so it was slippery, but it didn't really stick. But here, it was white! Everywhere! Lovely! We passed a bombed out and abandoned village, covered in snow. It was a little surreal. Then we had to go down the winding icy mountain road on a coach bus. Luckily, Boris has earned the nickname Ms. Frizzle, so the magic school bus did it somehow.

Then we went through a tunnel, and whoa! No snow! There was a lovely green river flowing alongside the bus, the weather warmed up to 5 degrees C, and we had a lovely balmy drive through the mountains. I have some great pictures.

The valley we were driving through was a strategic valley as it opens to the sea and is very difficult to occupy without help from the locals. We stopped at a museum along the road that was opened by Tito to commemorate a dramatic WWII battle against the Germans. The Yugoslav Partisans were suffering, so they withdrew to this stronghold, and 80,000 Yugoslav citizens came with the military, bearing the wounded Yugoslav soldiers with them. The bridges were all destroyed, so the army built a tiny wooden bridge in 19 hours across the river and up a cliff alongside the old, destroyed train bridge, and had a good battle and whatnot. Our translator, Duska, is an art historian, so I am not exactly clear on what happened. Military translations are not her strong suit.

Anyway, we arrived in a very windy Mostar. Very windy. We actually postponed our city tour til tomorrow morning because the wind is so strong. We instead went to a lecture from the Nansen Dialogue Center. After, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant as a group. LaVana, Meichen and I sat with Darco (whose Christian name is Gabriel), a handsome, charming Croat (who has been dating a girl for 6 years. Damn!). He is a 3rd year Political Science student who is in charge of his faculty's student newspaper. Remember, the years are different. In the US, we have a 4-1-4 system for bachelors, master and doctorates, whereas in most of Europe have a 3-2-3 system. He watches MTV, and asked us if the shows he sees there are real to most American's lives. Answer: hell no! We are a diverse group (Meichen is Chinese, LaVana is Bahamian), so we compared politics and culture a lot.

It was a fun dinner. However, this is the second time I have ordered chicken with curry for dinner, and the second time it has been bland. I haven't had anything spicy since I've been here, and that's not by choice. I don't like spicy food, but everything here is mild. Ah well!

Anyway, we go to Split, Croatia in the afternoon. I hope to be able to buy some souvenirs here in Mostar tomorrow morning, and some from Croatia in the afternoon. Should be exciting! Back in the almost-EU!

Day 20 - Goodnight Sarajevo!

Tonight is our last night in Sarajevo. I had a lot of fun here, but I wish we had had more free time during the day. This morning, we went to a tunnel museum, which is in a house which turned into a tunnel in 1993 and then into a museum in the lat 90s. The tunnel goes under the Sarajevo airport, which was under UN control, but with Serbian forces on either side. It was the only way out of the city, but the UN had no authority and could not show favoritism, so any Bosniak going across the runway was shot. Ergo, a tunnel. It is 800 meters long, 1 meter wide, and 1.6 meters tall. It was used to bring food, water, electricity, and fuel into the city while it was under siege. Also, materials for producing cigarettes were brought in, turned into cigarettes in Sarajevo, then exported. They produced 100 million tons of cigarettes during the almost 4 year siege. Crazy, eh? But life goes on, even if you have to run zigzag down a street to get to school under sniper fire.

We then ate a quick lunch and went to the courts, where soldiers are tried for war crimes by the ICTY (international criminal tribunal of former Yugoslavia), which is the first war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials after WWII. It will take about another 15 years to complete the trials. So far, about 800 people have been charged with this court. We were hosted by an American judge, Patricia Wehlan, who has been working in Bosnia with the UN.

After, free time! We ate in a fancy place, but a place where you must go down some obscure stairs and ring the buzzer to be let in. I was apprehensive at first, but it was delicious and relatively cheap! I had vegetable potage, or algae soup, chicken somethingorother which was like a chicken, rice and tomato casserole. Amazing! For dessert, I ordered the special pancake, which was a crepe with chocolate, walnuts and ice cream wrapped in the middle, and covered with some walnutty sauce and chocolate sauce. Amazing!

Anyway, then we did some shopping. LaVana bought a coat, shoes and a couple scarves. Meichen bought some scarves, and I bought a chessboard. I am such a nerd. Lol. It's a really nice, portable chessboard though. It is only 35 KM (Bosnian Marks) which is 17 Euros, so $25 or so. Marks to Euros is easy because its 2 to 1, but the US is .75 to 1 Mark, so it's a little hard to calculate in my head. We are only in Bosnia for another night, so I should spend my Marks before we get back to Croatia, where I should spend my Kuna before we get back to Slovenia, where I should spend my Euro before we get back to the US, where I should spend nothing! : )

Day 19 - The Day I Got Lost!

Today, we went to listen to a couple lectures. We went to listen to the folk at the Nansen Dialogue Center at another hotel across town. After, we went to the shopping center for lunch in the food court. They have a lunch line type thing, rather than various restaurants like they do in US malls. It was very good though. I had cooked peas, rice and a turkey patty. Sounds bland, but it was delicious.

After lunch, we walked to the Political Science Faculty of the University of Sarajevo. The university system is different here. Rather than 1 organized university with departments, the university has faculties, which cover one general area, with departments within that. Sort of like different colleges within the university, but each faculty offers all three levels of degrees. The Political Science faculty covers Political Science, Sociology, Social Work, and Journalism, plus all the subfields such as International Relations, Business Journalisms, Peace Studies, etc.

Then we were supposed to walk back to the hotel. Easier said than done. I knew how to get to the river, but that's about it. We followed Paddy for a while, but then we misheard him and thought he told us to go up the hill. But he said go down the main road to the square and then go up the hill. Ergo, we walked up and down that fricken hill for what felt like a very long time. It was only like 45 minutes, and the route Paddy told us was 35 minutes, but still! It was fun though. I don't know if it was a bad neighborhood or anything. My usual indicators of poverty don't really apply to Sarajevo. Everything has graffiti, and there is structural damage in downtown as well, so I have no idea whether or not I was more at risk. There were some kids begging by the University, but they seemed well-fed and had decent clothing, so I don't think they needed money desperately.

Anyway, we went to the brewery for dinner as a group. The brewery, during the war, was the only source of fresh water for the whole city. It's a big city, and the whole population had one source of drinkable water. They have a restaurant that is very nice there. I had chicken curry (which was NOT spicy whatsoever, but still good) with tomato soup as a starter. It certainly made me appreciate the no-smoking laws in MN, though. I still reek of smoke!

Anyway, tomorrow Duska and Boris are taking us on a tour of the city, and then we're going to a court session which is presided over by an American judge, Patty Wehlan. The whole Bosnian government is overseen by the international community, so the judges are all foreign. Weird, eh?

Day 18 - Welcome to Sarajevo!

Last night I slept in a fantastic bed, which was lovely and soft and perfect for a side sleeper like me! The downside was I was sharing it with LaVana who talks and moves a lot in her sleep. A few hours after I went to bed, she suddenly sat up (taking the comforter with her) and started talking gibberish. A couple hours after that, she smacked me on the head, saying "they're all over you! they're all over you!" Luckily, she only smacked me once, but it was pretty startling.

We started off the morning by going to Vukovar, a city on the border of Croatia and Serbia which was under siege by the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) (aka Serbia) for 3 months. At the end, 97% of the buildings in Vukovar were damaged, with around 40% severely damaged. Now, there are still a few buildings in ruins, and many with shrapnel damage. The population has decreased a lot because of the national war, so now it's really a ghost town. A lot of the Croats have returned, though. All non-Serbs were forced to leave in 1992, but since the city was returned to Croatia in 1996, the population is now over 45% Croatian, and 37% Serbian, and the rest other minorities (Bosniak, German, Jew, etc).

A very sad looking town though. We met with the mayor who was a Croat militiaman during the battle in Vukovar and who became a prisoner in a Serbian concentration camp but who doesn't generalize his experience to all Serbs. He wants a future of peace and unification of the ethnic groups, which is probably why he was elected mayor.

We also had another companion: a stray black scruffy dog, who followed us around while we toured Vukovar. We wanted to bring it with, but it disappeared while we were eating lunch. Paddy vetoed the idea, but Boris was okay with bringing a dog on the bus. : )

We then drove to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. My first impressions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is that it is polluted and poor. That hasn't changed much, as sunset was just a few minutes after we crossed the border. Bosnia and Herzegovina is split into 2 main regions and a city, which are all governed by different governments. We entered in the Republika Serpska, or the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian side, which is poorer than the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or the Bosniak/Croat side. Sarajevo is on the Bosniak side, but on the border. The Republika Serpska would like to be an independent country, or be annexed into Serbia, but as it is ruled by the international community, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

As an example of how polluted this place is, we passed a river, where all the plants growing on the banks had toilet paper hanging from them, and there were cars and trucks mostly submerged in the mud along the banks. I could only see the top half of the cabs. There is just trash everywhere. The air in the areas we stopped smelled pretty bad. Sarajevo doesn't seem so bad, though.

We are staying at Hotel Hecco. It's really nice. We have a skylight in our room. I'll post pictures later, but it's a 3 star, so it's pretty nice. We went to a small cafe, where we ordered chicken coutlets and season salad. It was delicious, and just what we needed after a day on the bus eating junk food. Just some grilled chicken breast, coleslaw and tomatoes, and a large fluffy piece of pita bread. Delic! After, we grabbed some ice cream, which was also delic. It's a little weird to be eating ice cream when its 0 degrees C, but you know, whatever. Tastes good. And cheap. I spent 8 euros total on my dinner and dessert. They also take euros here, which is nice. We haven't received our per diem of marks yet, so we only have euro and some kuna.

Anyway, I should give Meichen her computer back. She's been kind enough to let me use it for the past few days. I can't wait to have my own computer back, though. Then I can upload pictures and show you evidence of what I'm talking about.

Day 17 - Zagreb ande Osijek, still in Croatia!

Last night, I enjoyed for the first time, a bath. Our four star hotel had a deep bathtub, where, also for the first time since I was 12, I was able to take a bath where more than my butt and feet were in the water. It was lovely. The water was a little cloudy, so I rinsed off after, but it was really nice while it lasted.

In the morning, we wandered around confused looking for the continental breakfast, which wasn't that hard to find, but was down the hallway from the lobby, not by the regular restaurant. Their scrambled eggs were good, but the rest was meh. Mostly just really confusing.

After we had a tour of Zagreb with a really funny older woman, who led us around, showing us the sights. It was pretty fun. At one point, we were up on one of the hills of Zagreb, and she says "Oh, I almost forgot. This tower has a cannon that goes off at noon. It's very loud."

I looked at my watch. 12:00:35. My watch must be ahead. I plugged my ears, and BAM! Everyone screamed, and laughed. I picked up a piece of the "cannon ball" which was made of paper. I dunno why. I suppose it'll be a cool souvenir to throw away. Lol.

Anyway, Meichen and I grabbed kebaps and some fruit from the market. The kebaps were better than the kebabs I had when I was in France, but still, I get creeped out by the giant haunches of meat they shave for the kebabs. In Croatian, its spelled kebaps. Not sure why.

I bought three bananas, but Meichen just wanted a few oranges, and ended up with about 20. I still had 5 from the day before, so we had a lot of oranges! The oranges she bought today weren't that great of quality, so some of them we have to throw away.

The bus trip to Osijek from Zagreb was a little longer than the trip from Piran to Zagreb. At our pit stop, we encountered a man who was standing outside the bathroom, asking 50 euro cents or 3 kuna to use it. Not so legit, but we were desperate. The bathrooms were nice enough, though. I bought some orange juice from the gas station, but the aftertaste was a little pukish, so I only drank half of it.

Our drive today was pretty cloudy. It was foggy when we left, sleety during the drive, and dark when we arrived in Osijek. Same as yesterday, so I haven't had to many good pictures of Croatian countryside yet. It's similar to the midwest, though. Flat and farmed. More populated than Iowa, but not suburban.

Anyway, we then arrived at our accommodations which is a guest house of the Nansen center. 10 of the group had to go to another hostel. It's above a nightclub and they can't lock their rooms. After the bar closes, the entrance to the hostel gets locked, but there are only a couple lockers to put small personal items in. Sketchy. I'm staying in a spacious room with LaVana and Meichen with our own bathroom, right outside of the kitchen. I am glad I am in the guest house.

Anyway, we went for a group dinner. They served us two kinds of soups, beef and fish, with egg noodles. And dessert. It wasn't so great. The fish soup was just chunks of fish. I found the head. Someone ate the tail. My little taste had a few bones. I mostly ate the beef soup. Although, I was one of the lucky people who didn't get a piece of spine or something. Then we got weird desserts which weren't bad but not fantastic.

Hopefully it's sunny tomorrow so I can see Osijek before we go to Vukovar for class. Tomorrow will be a hard day. We're starting to get into the area that was affected by the war. Our restaurant had holes in the wall from shrapnel from the 90s. And this is the town that wasn't very heavily attacked. Vukovar, on the other hand, was under siege for 3 months. And the day after tomorrow, we go to Sarajevo, which was under siege for 43 months. Crazy...!

Day 16 - Zagreb

We left at 10 am this morning. We had to pack everything up. We brought everything we wanted for the next 8 days with us, and the rest we had to pack up and put in one of three rooms that we've rented for the 8 days for storage. I managed to get everything in my backpack and a small string bag. I feel accomplished. Others are dragging along big suitcases and everything. And here I am with a backpack and small bag.

The bus ride was a little long, 4 hours. There was an accident along the way, completely blocking traffic. But everyone pulled over to the side to wait, leaving plenty of room for the tow trucks and ambulances. Very civilized.

We also had to go through the border crossing. First, we had to leave Slovenia, where Boris had to report some stuff to them, then we drove a hundred feet or so to the Croatian station, where a guard came through the bus to stamp visas. It was a different experience for most of us. For some people, this is their first trip out of the country, so they received their second stamp. For others, it was our first time crossing a border via road. I doubt many people have crossed into Mexico in a bus before.

Anyway, we arrived in Zagreb, where they spend Kuna instead of Euros. A kuna is a small weasel-like animal, which I assume derives from when furs were more important than paper. The exchange rate is about 4.5 kuna to a dollar. I was excited when they gave us 270 kuna last night, but its only around 35 dollars. So far, I've spent 90 of my kuna on dinner. We ate Chinese food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't so great, either. Tomorrow lunch is pizza, and we have a group dinner tomorrow night in Osijek.

Unfortunately, it's Sunday, which means everything is closed, even in the capital city. We stopped in a souvenir shop, but I didn't really see anything worthwhile. Maybe there'll be something in Osijek or Split that I can buy. Split will probably be a better bet, since we'll be there on a Saturday (market day) morning and it's a tourist seaside town.

Aside from the language differences, and our inability to use the tram system, Zagreb doesn't really seem foreign. Maybe I'm used to the older building style now, but it is not as close as Piran, Venice, Paris or London. There are wider sidewalks and breathing room. Also, the elevator fits 4 people and 2 suitcases at a time, which is crazy! They're just a little smaller than the US. Must be a younger city. Or maybe it's just been rebuilt more recently.

We visited a cathedral briefly, but as its Sunday, there were actually people praying there, and confessing, and to prevent disrespect and awkwardness, we left fairly quickly.

Day 15 - Ljubljana!

Last night, we decided to spend the night enjoying ourselves. We bought a couple bottles of wine, intending to spend the night in the hostel lobby, watching TV and movies and having a good time. We ended up at the sketchy (yet safe, no worries) bar called De Noi which has been frequented by less sleepy and more alcoholic members of our group over the course of this trip. I got fairly drunk. LaVana, Rob and I were the last ones there. Paddy is a little protective of LaVana because her dad is worried about her, so he came to get us at 11:30, which was a little weird. It was a fun time, but we had to leave at 9 in the morning for Ljubljana, which is about an hour and a half bus ride away. No hangover or anything, so it's all good.

So we went to Ljubljana, where after we got over the mountains, it was snowy! With a large pine forest! It was so beautiful! It's crazy how much the climate can change just through a tunnel. I took some great pictures of the snow covered forest through the bus window, and cute little Slovene towns that spot the hills.

Mostly, in Ljubljana I shopped. I bought two shot glasses from someone at the market and some clothes from H&M. I love H&M. It's fantastic. And cheap. I didn't buy too much, either. After we went to a place called Sokol for lunch, where they charge you for everything but it still tastes good. I drank 4 cups of tea, and I was charged a euro for them all, even though I would have been fine with more hot water. I ordered goulash and vegie soup.

Slovene goulash is not like most goulash I have had. I expected egg noodles with a tomato and meat sauce, but instead I got a beef stew with a large dumpling in the middle. Still tasted good. They had horse on the menu. It was a little weird. I didn't eat any, at least I don't think I did. I don't really know what meat was in the soup, but I think it was venison. Or at least the menu said ˝game.˝ Whatever that means...

Anyway, the bathroom at this place is also really cool. Well, at least the doors are. The rest of it isn't so great. The doors are wood with sliding wooden latches. Old school.

Anyway, I should go pack. We leave for Zagreb tomorrow morning, and won't be back to the hostel for 8 days. I think I will survive with just my backpack, but we shall see when I pack. If I can fit 8 shirts and still have room for undies, socks, and notebooks, then backpack it is! Otherwise I'll just leave a large bag of stuff here, since we're renting a room for just storage for the week.

Ciao. (I still haven't learned to say goodbye in Slovene. I usually just end with Hvala, thank you).