Format update

Apologies for the stripped-down look; recently "updated" the template and lost the original one with links and side content. Will recreate soon with my backup file. Blog content remains the same, though!

Almost done!

More and more and more photos! Each link will take you to the matching photoset on my flickr site. There are so many photos up now that it's probably easier to access them by set now anyway. (The ones below are only a sample from the set.) I haven't gotten around to putting up proper captions yet, but at least you can get a visual of where I've been. Enjoy!

Split, Croatia. (1 day)




The ferry from Split to Vis. (To the island!)




Komiža, Croatia. (7 days)






The ferry from Vis to Split. (Back to the coast.)




Zadar, Croatia. (Heading NW on the Croatian coast. 1 day.)

Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Mostar and Blagaj, Hercegovina. May 2006.

Sarajevo, Bosnia. May 2006.

I only spent a day in Mostar, so there are fewer photos. The biggest explanation is needed for Sarajevo, though. I spent nearly a week there and took more photos on the four-hour train ride leaving Sarajevo than I did the entire time I was there. And most of it was food.

My excuse is that I spent the first two days with a companion, with whom I thought it was rude to take photos. And after the first two days the desire sort of wore off, and I had become preoccupied with acquiring language lessons.

Probably going to be one of my biggest or only regrets of this trip. Even so I found myself feeling quite heavy with emotion as I prepared captions for the few photos I did take in Sarajevo. So perhaps it was for the best.

The view, finally.

I've now got photos up from the first two weeks of my adventure across the pond:

London, UK. April and May 2006.

Manchester, UK. May 2006.

Ambleside, the Lake District. UK, May 2006.

Dubrovnik, Croatia. May 2006.

You can see them all in sets as I have linked above, or you can just visit my flickr site, where I'll be uploading my photos over the next week. I took 2375 photos (and 50 some-odd videos) so it's going to take me a bit to get through them all. I hope to be done by next week, though.

Where I've been.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Home.

And then there was London, and then Dot was home.

More soon. Pictures soon. A dear friend was kind enough to buy me a pro account at flickr, so that I might upload to my heart's content. More soon.

Plane, train, taxi and tube

...all within about 12 hours.

11:45PM: Belgrade, Serbia. My train was a whopping two and a half hours late into Zagreb, Croatia, so I had to take a taxi so I wouldn't miss my flight into London-Heathrow. After which I hopped on the tube and now here I am, at the same old YHA St. Paul's from a month ago.

People talk to me here! And they don't look at me like I have bolts coming out of my neck! Cool. I know my way around okay, but if I got lost I was thinking I'd have to ask, "Excuse me, do you speak Eng..." and then I remembered, I'm in ENGLAND. Brilliant!

Countdown.

There's less than a week to go. In less than one week I will be sitting at home in Boise.

Wow.

There are so many unfinished posts, with enticing titles such as, "Things that are hard to talk about," and "I LOVE YOU JAPAN." I have so many stories left to tell! And just a few left to be had!

There was a list I had at the beginning of my trip, not the one I blogged, but one in my journal. Without looking, I'm pretty sure I got them all done. Among other things, here's what I wanted to do, that I did:

1. Had an Italian cappuccino. (European / Mediterranean is good enough for me.)

2. Had a picnic, with wine, cheese and cookies.

3. Got a tan on the beach. Well, I went to the beach, and I also got a tan, but not at the same time. The tan came from Mt. Hum. At least it was on a remote island in the Adriatic. That sounds pretty exotic, actually.

4. Had a meaningful conversation with a new person at least once a week. Met a whole lot more people than I expected to, which was lovely.

5. Got to watch local TV in Croatia, Hercegovina, and Serbia.

6. Got to experience the cafe culture in all three, and people-watch to my heart's content.

7. Rode in public transportation: buses, trams, trains, taxis, you name it. I also got to ride in someone's car more than once, which is a real treat if you haven't for a while.

8. Swam in the sea.

Such was my modest list, and I hit it out of the ballpark, if one can mash such metaphors. Making lists seems so crude, but it really puts into perspective how much has happened in such a short time. Let's have at another one, while I reminisce.

- I can say that I've been hit on by a Croat, a Bosnian and a Serb at different times, although to varying degrees of creepiness. Which is to say: a bit, a lot, and not at all.

- I now own a nearly excessive (excessive? never!) amount of good Cro and Serb music. I am impressed by what I've found. And CDs here in Serbia (at least locally produced ones) are only about $6US a pop. A good feeling knowing that that will barely buy me a sandwich in London.

- I climbed two relatively big hill-mountains.

- I've eaten a plethora of good foods. And ice cream. Although I haven't had ice cream since I've been in Serbia; I should remedy that right away. I did however, only hours ago, drink the best cup of hot chocolate that has ever existed in the knowledge of man. Or Dot. W O W.

- I've gotten lost more times than I can count, and discovered lots of the randomest pockets of the world.

- As one of my travelmates pointed out, I now have a number of familiar homebases from which to travel if I'm ever traveling somewhere new or need to get to somewhere home-ish. I know a number of cities now. That's pretty cool. That list is on the left side of this page.

- I have four new stamps in my passport! That makes five total! I am a relatively well-traveled American. I've got Ghana, the UK, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Not bad.

Originally this was supposed to be a sad post about how I'm almost done with my trip and I'll miss this place and that, but honestly this all feels just about right. I'll be ready to go home, but not any sooner than this. My trip wandered a bit here and there, but I don't regret anything. I've seen so much!

I'm not sad to be going home, either. I miss my peeps. I miss my apartment. And I'm getting ready to move on with the next step of my life: finishing my degree and then floating out in that big sea called post-graduation. I got bills to pay and a summer job to find.

So I'm good. Hang in there with me for another week as I bounce west to London and then skip home. And thanks for sticking with me for the ride. Even though this trip is solo, I'm happy to have you all along for the ride, even if vicariously.

Until next time.

Belgrade, Day III: The Search for Dot.

Okay, so yesterday I got totally and completely lost.

This is how it happened. Usually if I have a few days in a city, I'll pick one direction and keep going in that general direction, and then turn back. I have in mind the kinds of places I can visit if I happen upon them, but I don't stress if I don't find them (or if they don't find me). It usually works. I usually find my way back. This time, though, I got distracted, and from there I just kept milling around until I really had no idea which way was up.

I started out walking south behind the hotel. The guidebook didn't seem to say anything about attractions on this side of town, so I was surprised to run into a series of really huge, official-looking buildings which I assume were embassies. Ignorant me doesn't know her flags of Eastern Europe well enough, but these were definitely government buildings, very stately, very imposing. In the middle of a few of them was an open courtyard with a statue in the middle of Knez Milos (forgive me for omitting the markings, but I don't have access to language settings on this computer), who was apparently very important. Yes, I know that seems really irreverent, but I promise to look everything up when I get home and ooh and ahh at that point.

I was admiring this statue, walking around it, taking pictures when I looked past it and saw a huge building on the other side of this park. A building with a huge gaping hole. No, not a hole. The middle third of the building was just gone. On the other side of the hole were bullet holes all up the side. A ten story building. Like, something as substantial as my apartment building.

I kind of turned around at that point, and gasped again. Across the park on the other side, and across the street were a pair of buildings also with huge gaping holes. Each of these places had orange construction fences around them and warning signs, but they didn't seem to be under repair.

Forgive the language, but this was a complete mindfuck. Here I am, the end of my trip. I had absorbed a lot of pain from Sarajevo, let it wash over me, and eventually let it go with a week vacation in Komiza. After Split and Zadar I was on top of the world again, focused on the travel thing. By the time I got to Belgrade I was rolling again, and I had nearly forgotten the war in any context other than an historical one. I didn't expect to turn around and have it hit me in the face full force.

It's not just the fact that these buildings were bombed, nor that people are walking up and down the street where it happened. It's that these buildings were targeted and missiles or rockets or whatever tore through them like they were cheese. They are clean hits, in the middle of the buildings. It's the precision that gets to me. We did this to people. We have this kind of power.

I have no idea what the buildings are, nor why they haven't been touched since the war. I assume that buildings don't just randomly fall apart or explode or get bulletholes like that. These have to be left from the war. One suggestion was that one of the buildings was the Chinese Embassy, but I don't have any confirmation on that.

I couldn't help but stare for a while. I wanted to cry. I was stunned.

Yeah, I know. I'd make a shitty war president. But it's not as if I'm applying for the job.

So needless to say I was lost for a while, consumed in thoughts and emotions while blundering along in the next direction, any direction. It was a while before I really snapped back to reality, and by then I was nowhere recognizable.

A fellow I talked to later in the evening was commenting that that's part of the fun of travel -- getting lost -- but it wasn't as if I was delightfully lost but knew how to get back on track. I had no idea which way was uptown, where the rivers were, nothing. I really had no idea where I was, nor how to get where I wanted to be. I'm not really sure I even knew where I wanted to be, so I didn't ask for help.

I eventually got the idea to ask which direction the town center was, and it turns out I was 20 minutes away. A nice couple pointed me in the right direction (completely the opposite of what I figured) and off I went. The plan was to just get back to the hotel with my now soggy pljeskavica, but after a while I sat down with a pigeon and ate it, still kind of out of it.

I made my way back to familiar territory with good time, and ended up befriending a woman who runs a knick-knack kiosk in Skadarska, the former Bohemian quarter of Belgrade. We had a long, empassioned talk over coffee and juice about war and politics in the Balkans, and she shared her personal story with me. After being alone with the ruins, it was really good to connect with her and share the emotions this war brings up in me.

Afterward we sat wordless and meditative with our coffee, laughing intermittently at passers-by and enjoying the live gypsy music in the cafe behind us.

My new friend told me about the museum night and soon sent me on my way, with very specific directions on where to go and how to get there, and what to do when I did.

I left touched by her hospitality, smiling broadly from ear to ear, clearly not lost anymore.

Rainy day in Belgrade.

I am so glad I came to Belgrade. It was in my original plan, to visit main hubs in each of Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro (now Serbia. and Montenegro. since Montenegro's official secession yesterday).

Taking the bus into Belgrade's city center was amazing. It was a mess of streets, and I wasn't sure where I was, even after I spotted a few major landmarks. I got off the bus to the usual taxi offer, which I actually accepted (after a bit of establishing I wasn't about to pay 10 euro for less than a kilometer's ride), simply because I didn't think I could find my way around by myself and it was late. The taxi driver pointed me to a few ATMs and after I found one that would take my card (some of these things are finicky), I ran into the gentleman sitting behind me on the bus, who kindly offered me a ride to my hotel. Bye bye taxi!

I decided for the last leg of my trip here in the former Yugoslavia that I'd treat myself to a hotel, and since Serbia is probably the cheapest of my destinations (off the coast, and not your usual tourist destination), I decided to treat myself to the very best: the Hotel Moscow (Moskva). It's about 80 euro a night, but completely worth it. I have my own clean shower, fresh towels, TV, bed, window, closet, hangers, telephone, desk, toilet, you name it. The antique furniture makes the place feel very atmospheric. And I love the lift -- the rug inside is changed every day and has the name on it to prove it, in both English and Serbian. And breakfast is included, a real breakfast with choice of real food, none of this two pieces of bread and jam business.

I got in late at night, so it wasn't until the next morning I went exploring. The city buildings are huge, and traffic is big city-like. The streets are mired; it feels a bit like New York but with less organization and the street signs are in Cyrillic. The travel guides say this city is ugly, but I rather like it. It feels like a real modern city to me, I guess. Maybe all this castle and fort stuff has become old hat to me.

Belgrade does have a fortress though; it overlooks the crossing of the Danube and Sava rivers, a bit offset from the town, whereas the other cities I've been in are often set within the old city walls. Kalemegdan Fortress, by contrast, has become a park with a few museums in little pockets here and there, and a dance club or two underneath in the catacombs.

Part of my activities the first day I found myself in the Vojne Muzej, the military museum. Its contents span the entire military history of Yugoslavia, with flags, uniforms, maps used throughout the years, representing the many, many, many wars that have taken place in this pocket of the world. I think I would have been more engrossed in the displays, had I been able to read them. Outside the museum is a line of stand-alone guns (yeah, my military weaponry vocabulary is very, VERY limited), as well as jeeps and tanks and old mortar shells from more recent wars.

Yesterday I happened upon the Noc Muzeja (Museum Night); you can buy one ticket and visit any of a number of museums in Belgrade from 6pm to 2am. I actually only made it to two: the National Museum, and the Ethnographic Museum.

The National Museum's showings were quite limited; they had blocked off the upper floors (I'm not sure if they are still under renovation?), so the bottom floor showed mainly early early column architecture, as well as an amber exhibit which ranged from the usual amber bits (think Jurassic Park) to more sophisticated carvings and jewelry. I apologize for my apparent awkwardness with this part; my vocabulary isn't so strong in the area of arts and archaeology either.

Upstairs at first seemed underwhelming with only two paintings, but each in itself was worth spending some time with. The first was the coronation of Emperor Dusan, and the second was of St. Sava blessing the Serbs.

Unfortunately I have run out of time and I want to do some more things today, but I'll publish all the same. More soon.