Bayram Vacation

This is a long'un. I also am so tired I have no sense of grammar or any other writing skills at the moment, so be prepared ;)

Today we just got back from an amazing week-long trip across the Balkans. We didn't have classes in honor of the Bayram holiday. I went with Jonathan Kaeppler, Jonathan Madison, Ivy, Caitlin, and later Tim and his friend Katy to Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. It was a lot of traveling for one week, but I feel like we actually spent a good amount of time in each place. Of course, I'm sure we could have spent a lot more time in each but it didn't feel rushed which was wonderful. As I seem to usually say, probably the best part of the trip was hanging out with everybody. I really love everyone in the group and we had really great dynamics overall. The social atmosphere was laid-back, funny, sassy, affectionate, interested, and generally positive. The whole trip was peppered with really intense discussions covering all kinds of topics including abortion, death penalty, gun control, nature vs. nurture, and women's rights. The discussions themselves were fantastic. Everybody had really intelligent and thoughtful arguments while being really open-minded and flexible. Plus, since we are all different majors (for the most part) and from really different backgrounds there was a lot of diversity in our perspectives. I learned so much from that alone. I also learned a whole lot about the people I was with. I feel so much closer to them now. My perceptions of each of them have changed dramatically over the week.

Here's the break-down:

Sarajevo, Bosnia

I had to leave a day later than the rest of the group due to a midterm, and I definitely had doubts about getting to the hostel from the Sarajevo airport. There weren't any problems, though. That morning, before I got there, the group went on a war tour that sounds like it was fascinating. They saw a lot of important places in the war, including the tunnel used to get food and supplies into the city. Many if not most of the buildings throughout the entire city are still punctured and dented and otherwise damaged from bullets and shrapnel. The city is nestled in a valley and apparently Serbian snipers covered the surrounding hills to attack. So many people died. I really didn't know anything about the Serbian-Bosnian conflict until now. It's so shocking how recent it was, too. Apparently the tour guide was showing the group places where he had been fighting beginning at the age of 16. The owner of our hostel also talked to us about it. He showed us a hole in the dining room table from when some kind of missile had busted through the wall and told us that one day he came home and a car was blown up at his door. People couldn't bury the dead because they would be shot down, even when they tried burying people at night. The hostel owner said, in an interesting change of tone, that things were much simpler during those four years: they only had two things to worry about, finding food and not getting shot. One side of the city had access to water and the other side had access to the tunnel that was the only way to get food and supplies so it was really difficult for everyone to get everything they needed. Also, Jon K mentioned that this was one of the few times that Catholics and Muslims (all Bosnians) united and cooperated in such a way.

Despite the grave suffering that even we couldn't escape 15 years later, the city was really surprisingly pleasant. The surroundings were beautiful as was much of the architecture. We took a hike to see the view and walked over the bridge where Franz Ferdinand was shot to spark WWI. At night we met a group of American students who were studying abroad in Hungary and in Bosnia for the weekend. As we went to several bars, hookah bars, and clubs for the rest of the night they joined us in gradually fewer numbers. They were apparently very religious (attending the same religious college in the States) and I think had qualms about some of our bar-hopping plans.

Mostar, Bosnia and Dubrovnik, Croatia

The next day we woke up late, took the hike, and fell asleep all snuggling together. On Sunday, we rented a car and drove to Mostar. This is a small town close to the Croatian border. It's famous for a bridge that was destroyed during the war and whose renovation was a symbol of recovery. It was a really lovely town with lots of crafts. We had lunch with a great view (and a passionate discussion of abortion). The drive there was incredibly beautiful, through dramatic mountains and beautiful weather:

Here's Mostar and the famous bridge (the town's name refers to the word for bridge in Bosnian [Most]):

At this point we looked at a map and realized we were awfully close to Croatia. So we decided to go, just for dinner. A couple hours and several passport stamps later we found ourselves in Dubrovnik. Since this trip was unplanned, none of us knew what to expect and we were all very surprised. Dubrovnik is centered around a massive citadel that I believe is Ancient Roman. Whether carefully restored or lovingly maintained, it looked incredibly "new", clean, and undamaged. We also only saw the town at night which has given us an interesting perspective on it. There was a gorgeous moonlit view of a couple islands near the castle. Jon M and I also briefly went galavanting through a dense residential area which was beautiful in the way it maintained the architectural theme of white stone and narrow curving alleys:

We got home quite late and knocked out immediately. Here's a shot of our room and our student-standard neatness:

Belgrade, Serbia

The next day was about entirely spent traveling from Sarajevo to Belgrade. In other words, an 8-hour train ride. It was comfortable and we had some more really good (and emotional) discussions (this time mostly about women's rights), but I was pretty antsy and we were all hungry by the end. Clockwise starting at the top left are Jon M, Caitlin, Jon K, and Ivy:

We settled in to our hostel, which was really nice, and walked around the city for a bit. It was already night by this time. Serbian money is quite "small" and we all enjoyed/were really uncomfortable with withdrawing 10,000 (by this point we were referring to all units of currency as "things") things from the ATM. Only equivalent to about $100. That night we met up with Tim and his friend Katy and made plans.

Belgrade:

The next day started with a trip to a citadel and a military museum. This was also really depressing, although informative and interesting after having seen the Bosnian perspective. There were weapons ranging from medieval times to today, but it focused a lot on WWII, complete with descriptions and pictures of atrocities. Jon K made sure to leave a biting comment in the guest book about the museum's failure to even mention the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Here's the group posed on a torpedo, from left Katy, Jon M, Tim, Jon K, Ivy, and Caitlin.

After the museum we went to a traditional restaurant and wandered around the city some more. Having heard multiple times that Belgrade has a wild night life we were determined to go out. We got ready and went to a nice (and still dirt-cheap) restaurant. There, we invited a lone Belgium tourist from another table to join us and soon a Swiss tourist voluntarily also joined. They hung with us for the rest of the night. After eating we went to a club called the French Maid. We went because the Belgian was meeting someone there. So we had no idea what to expect. It was really hard to find. It turned out to be playing Dubstep, something I've never heard before. To me it's like some alternative something with a slow, heavy, sometimes syncopated hip-hop-like beat. It was really intense. Very danceable (I was just krumping the whole time lol), but between the loudness, the epileptic lights, and the fog of cigarette smoke I had major sensory overload. A few of us all had a shot of absinthe together. I hadn't drunk much of anything else, so I didn't even really notice the affect, but we can add it to our list of cultural experiences :)

Transylvania, Romania

The next day we took a shuttle to a Romanian town just past the border and then rented a van which we drove into the depths of Transylvania. The car had a cracked windshield, bald tires, and a cross hanging from the rear-view mirror. The man who gave it to us told us that we shouldn't worry about denting or scratching it, just as long as we don't break anything. That was a first. The journey took us through tiny, dusty towns, past horse-drawn buggies and more prostitutes than I've ever seen, and into a dense and endless tangle of scraggly, bare trees. By 1:30 am we were climbing a dirt road that might have been smoother were it paved with boulders. We weren't really sure where to go because the directions to the hostel weren't exactly clear and we ended up at the bottom of the wrong person's very steep driveway with the van's bald wheels spinning in dusty trenches. Jon and Jon did an admirable job of getting us out and we soon found the place. The hostel was really really nice, in the middle of the mountains and all these farms and rural homes. Here's the dining room:

Part of the advertisement for the hostel was that we got fresh milk every morning since the neighbors had cows. It was my first experience having milk this fresh and it was delicious. Here's the view from the hostel:

That morning we drove over to Bran Castle where The Count Dracula had spent a few nights apparently. I think it wasn't the original, though. It was still cool, a very different type of royal living space than I am used to. Also, with Transylvania's reputation of vampires I was projecting a sense of creepiness onto everything from the extensive woods to the castle. They had some information on vampires and where the myths might come from. Apparently, Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) was famous for literally impaling his enemies, but was actually really appreciated by much of the public because he was on the side of the poor. Here's Bran Castle:

Next we went to Brasov and walked around the square, ate ice cream, soaked in the atmosphere. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and had some wine and more intellectual debates, this time mostly about death penalty. The next day we went to another castle. Here was the view:

For lunch we drove to a restaurant at the top of a high hill with a great view and walked around afterwards. The evening was pretty similar to the previous, just walking around Brasov square and eating pastries and ice cream :D Back at the hostel we spent a couple hours dabbling on the guitar, telling jokes, and chatting with Josef, the owner. He had some really interesting stories about trying to immigrate to Canada 20 or so years ago. He tried to go from Guatemala through Mexico and the USA but despite many many attempts never made it past the middle of the US.

Bucharest, Romania

The next day we drove to the capital. I had no expectations, but was still surprised. This city is derelict. Architecture is dominated by the brownish-gray communist block style, plain, huge, and heavy. The only feature of these buildings to contest the uniformity is the uneven way in which they've become stained. Here and there are nougats of floral detail on artistic facades, but these are still so dirty that they blend into the square background. The streets are highly littered and half of the copious electrical wires hang at eye-level or below. Also, there were many "weed" shops, not at all limited to selling weed. One that we passed had posted prices on the window for "M. Kristal", "M. Powder", Special K, and various other nofunnybusiness drugs. Something was lost in the translation of "drug stores".

We were only in Bucharest for about half a day, and we were fine with that. Lonely Planet warned that the street dogs were the biggest danger of the city. Many of the people we passed on the street were extremely drunk and we even saw a dead body being carried out of a house in sheets. We have no idea what that was about. It was also really cold. Despite the unpleasantness, we walked out into the center for a good couple hours. There were a couple special squares where the revolution started and where many people were run over by tanks. Really depressing. Apparently, the Romanian communist regime had been been so strict and oppressive that the USSR didn't even try and incorporate it. Josef had explained that after the revolution the same personalities were in power, only changing their suits from communist to capitalist.

Home

Getting home was pretty easy and uneventful. It was only a bit bittersweet since it was the end to such an amazing week. I didn't use a computer, phone, ipod, or any other electronic device the entire time and I didn't miss any of it at all because it was so socially satisfying. At the same time, I'm now socially saturated and am definitely enjoying having a bit of time to myself. It seems like the trip lasted a month, we saw so many things and I learned so much. It's really weird to be back and hearing about everyone else's Bayram adventures, which all sound super exciting as well. And of course I didn't do a moment of homework the whole week so I have my work cut out for me :)

--Much love