Internet issues in Bosnia-Herzegovina

So, I have been in Bosnia for the past few weeks. Sorry I have not updated much, but I was having internet issues in Bosnia. But now we are back in Zagreb for a week, and I will hopefully have time to write about how amazing Bosnia is.

However, I will write about our experience yesterday, because it was amazing. We left early from Mostar to go to Dubrovnik, a city on the southern coast of Croatia.We got there around noon, after a few hour drive. The drive itself was so gorgeous. We went through mountains, by an amazing blue-green river and saw some of the coast. It was sunny and pretty warm so it was a perfect day to go.

When we arrived, I think we were all in awe to see the Adriatic. It is such an amazing color blue, it looks fake. The first thing we saw was... a ton of tourists, mostly old people speaking English. It was weird! We do not normally see many tourists. We took a quick tour around before we went for lunch. The city is surrounded by a big fortress-type wall which looks out over the sea. We walked around inside of it, where there are many gift shops and restaurants and coffee shops. We also saw a war memorial (we do not really go anywhere on this program without seeing one). Although there have been many wars in Croatia, Dubrovnik has historically been left alone, due to its beauty and history. However, in the most recent war, it was attacked. It was horrible to see the pictures of the town on fire and bridges being bombed. Really, most of the towns we have been in went through the same thing, but for Serbia to attack Dubrovnik was really sort of a slap in the face.

We went for lunch at a small cafe with amazing seafood (of course). Apparently, it is a good month for oysters, so we ordered some. I do not know if I have ever had oysters before, but I am sure that they were not as good as these. They were really delicious. We also ordered a huge plate of mussels, and mussels risotto and calamari risotto (it was black). And of course, white wine. There were a ton of cats all around the restaurant, begging for food like dogs! One of them even jumped up on my lap and took a nap! It was adorable. We ate A TON of food, and then went to finish sightseeing.

It is possible to take a walking tour around the top of the fortress wall, so we did that. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing it is. As soon as I post pictures, you can see for yourself, but even those do not really do it justice. Needless to say, it is a view I will never forget.

Of course, since most of us in the program are usually landlocked, we NEEDED to swim in the water. A few of the girls got a little more adventurous and went to find a rock to go climb and jump off of, but the rest of us just trespassed onto a local beach. I was content to stand with my jeans rolled up and let the waves wash over my feet, but two other girls stripped down and jumped in! It looked really fun and I wish we all would have been able to go swimming, but we were only on a day trip with nothing to change into for our hours of travelling back to Zagreb.

We finished the day watching the sunset at a cafe jutting out from one of the fortress walls and listening to the waves crash on the rocks below us.  We took a short flight back to Zagreb, and returned home (I think we all feel like our first host families are like "home" to us now).

We have the next week to work on our ISP proposal before returning to Belgrade (or whereever we choose to go), so hopefully I will find some time to update about my trip to Bosnia.

Nearing the end of our first week in Belgrade

This is about the end of our first week in Belgrade. We are actually traveling to an area of southern Serbia called Sandžak on Friday afternoon, and will be there for two days. This week has been really interesting so far, as we are trying to get used to being in a much bigger city. And it really is much bigger than Zagreb. In Zagreb, it is very easy to tell that everything important, everything interesting, everywhere you might want to go, is right in the center of the city and easy to get to. Here, there is a main center, but important things are everywhere, much more spread out. Honestly, it’s kind of scary for me. I am so not used to being in such a big city, and I am really struggling with that.

We are having our classes in a building of a school called FMK, which is Faculty for Media and Communications. We have language class every day, and lectures, but here we’ve been going to class later than in Zagreb, usually around noon or even later. The faculty is really nice and new, and there is a café in the lobby that we can go to between lectures. Another thing that is really cool is that every morning I go on a run through a park 2 minutes away from my house that is in what used to be the biggest fortress in Belgrade. Plus, people are always walking their awesome doggies in the morning. 

On Tuesday night, we met with a group of about 20 other college-aged students who were a part of a program that sent them to the United States to study for a year. The idea was to force us to make some friends our age who are familiar with Belgrade, who could take us out and show us around. We did a really awkward circle of forced talking (our academic director has experience doing peace discussing between people… I forget how it is called). Afterwards, we all went out for a drink at a really nice bar on this “touristy” street.

Today, (Wednesday) we had class again. We went through a frustrating (for me) lecture connecting philosophy and “the politics of difference/identity.” I don’t know very much about philosophy and so it was interesting, but I had trouble understanding the connection between the two.

After that frustrating lecture and discussion, my friends and I went to get a quick beer before heading home to eat dinner with our host families. We went in the opposite direction of where I live, which I thought would be okay, since I live so close to the main square. Of course, because I thought that, it clearly meant that I had to get lost on my walk home. When I am heading home, I go into the main square and take one of the pedestrian streets towards Kalemegdan (the huge fortress), and then turn right and go straight to my house. However, tonight, in the dark, I took the wrong pedestrian street. All of the streets have cafes with patios full of tables and umbrellas bleeding into each other. The street I took looked like it had more tables than usual, but I just attributed it to the fact that it was nighttime so more people are out having drinks. As I walked further down the street, it looked more and more unfamiliar. It was a sea of tables, and looked like and endless forest of umbrellas arching over shadowy figures. The street was loud and jam-packed. I stumbled through the pulsating crowd of people, small and alone with my huge, heavy backpack awkwardly swinging behind me, out of my control. I kept walking, hoping to reach the end, hoping for something to look familiar, hoping for the obscuring umbrellas to part, and Kalemegdan to appear. Instead, the patios just got denser with tables, the clubs I walked by more intimidating. Colored lights were flashing, and not a single word I could hear out of all the chatter around me was a familiar one. It was like a hellish nightmare. I just wanted to know where I was, to be headed in the right direction. I was tired, it was late and I was extremely irritated. All I wanted was to be at home, real home, and not be lost and confused and uncomfortable anymore.

Of course, I eventually got home. It really didn’t take that long because I don’t live that far away from anything, but I think that experience was the first time I really felt like I would give anything to be at home and to get out of this country. Most of the time, I’m happy with being here. Every once in awhile, I feel extremely happy to be here. This morning, I went on a run through the fortress. It was beautiful and empty, except for people walking their dogs, and I just felt so happy and lucky. I didn’t have class until noon, didn’t have any homework or papers to worry about yet, and was simply enjoying the scenery and the doggies. Other times, I just feel a twinge of missing home. Maybe I’m just sitting at a café with all of my friends, but I suddenly wish I could just be at home, in my room or on my couch, not having to worry about being uncomfortable or unhappy or confused any more. And tonight, I really felt for the first time that I would have given anything to be home immediately, and wanted to cry at the fact that I still have to be here for 10 more weeks. 

But anyway. Other than that, everything is going well, and I'm looking forward to our trip this weekend!

To see photos...

Okay, I was told that people would like to see more photos, so I've created a Shutterfly account so everyone can see them. I would post more on here, but it takes a really long time to upload photos onto Blogger, and I don't want the page to take forever to load.

So please check out: lostinthebalkans.shutterfly.com

Feeling like a tourist

So, as I wrote last night, today we had a guided tour scheduled to see parts of downtown Zagreb as a group, like true Americans. The tour was great, and I took a lot of interesting pictures, but it was definitely embarrassing to be in a big group of people, all with their cameras out, wandering around and staring. We got to see the main cathedral, that can be seen from all over the downtown. We also saw the square where all the hip people go hang out on Saturday mornings to "see and be seen." I'm working really hard to try and get a feel for where things are in the town, so that I can know where I'm going and get around more easily if I want to go somewhere, so the tour definitely helped.

For lunch, three of us went to a restaurant called Boban, which serves Croatian food. It is a nicer, sit-down type restaurant, really the first we've gone to since we've been here. We all got different types of pasta. I got a four cheese penne, and it was amazing. The dynamic of restaurants seems different here than in the U.S. Waiters don't work for tips, so they seem to be less attentive. Or perhaps that's just for three American college students, it's kind of hard to tell.

After lunch, we walked down the "shopping street," Ilica. The group of us has slowly been working on getting phones, so the three of us went into T-Mobile to find something for our needs. Luckily, it is pretty cheap to buy a phone and a sim card, and put a certain amount of kuna on the card to use, and then reload. This is a pretty perfect situation for us since we won't be here too long. My phone was 150 kuna ($30) and has (I think) 20 kuna loaded on the card. So now it will be much easier to communicate with all the other girls, who live in various places around the city.

Afterwards, of course, espresso at a cafe called Maraschino. The next task was getting home. Yesterday, I was driven by car into the main square, and this morning, my "host dad" showed me how to use the train and tram to get into town. The tram is easy, but I was confused about the train. Luckily, there is an alternate route that is just a longer tram ride and more walking, so I just did that for now. But I really want to man up and figure out how to use the train, because the commute is much shorter.

The group of us have been discussing whether or not we want to attempt to go to one of the bars or clubs we were told about the other night. We're all interested but I think a little intimidated, so we'll see what happens.

(Picture above taken in the pedestrian area, Tkalčićeva ulica, where many cafes and bars are. The statue in the picture is Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873-1957), who was Croatia's first female journalist. She was given a job on a local Zagreb paper, where she started on the editorial board and introduced the first Croatian publication exclusively for women. She also wrote a few popular novels that are still well-read today. Click to make bigger!)