Georgia to Greece

This is going to be a really long blog entry, so make sure you get a drink and popcorn before you start reading this...


The last time I wrote was right before our Mid-Service conference. My host cousin had come back from the Army and was staying with us. The day that I was leaving for Mid-Service, Roman (my host cousin) was supposed to return back to Belarus. However, on Friday he came down with a really bad earache. Really bad. The didn’t sleep at all Friday night and finally he couldn’t bear it anymore and went to the hospital in Martuni and stayed there Saturday night. I was at the house by myself which was pretty cool. I went to bed early, woke up, took the bus to Martuni and visited Grandma and Roman because I wouldn’t ever see Roman again and I wouldn’t see Grandma for three weeks. She was so happy that I came by.

Um, the hospital was barely just that. No A/C, nothing except beds in the rooms. The beds didn’t have sheets on them and you had to bring your own. The massive hospital was another example of prospering Soviet times as only a third of the hospital was being used. You could see how it used to be pretty nice, but that was no longer the case. I’m pretty sure that if I was sick, I would rather endure the pain and get to Yerevan.

I wished Roman and I could have left on better terms than him in lots of pain laying on the bed, totally loopy.

I got on the bus to Yerevan and met up with Mike and some other people. We had to be back at the office by 5 to get the bus to where the conference was. Mike and I tried to have a sing along on the bus. We only knew one line of every song so it didn’t go very well. Regardless still fun.

We got to the conference in a sporting facility. First time Peace Corps has had a conference there. It was really nice. I mean really nice. Nice by American standards. The food, not so much, but the rooms were really nice. No A/C though. Still... The conference went pretty well. Kind of a reality check type thing. The first time since February the group has been together. I’m starting to be glad that we only meet two times a year.

I left early because the following day, Wednesday, I would be leaving for Tbilisi, Georgia. So, I got a ride with Nick, our PTO, back to Yerevan. We had a really nice talk about different things. I got back to Yerevan, faxed my credit card stuff to VISA’s fraud department to get that off my chest and then met up with Terri. This would be the last time I would be seeing Terri since she is finished with her service. I met her at one of her friend’s house in Yerevan. There were a lot of couch-surfers there. A couple from Poland, a couple from Serbia, and a guy from somewhere. Don’t know. The serbian couple cooked us dinner. It was really good. After that, Terri and I went out and met up with Brian and Mari since they were leaving too. Brian is awesome... to bad he has to go. So, Terri and I walked around, went to some clubs. Our goal was to try and stay out really late so that I could just pass out on the bus going up to Tbilisi. So, we were out until 4am. Let’s just say that the night ended in not so good of a way.

I went to bed at 5am and woke up at 7am to get some food at the 24 hour SAS supermarket and then head over to the bus stop to get on a minibus to Tbilisi. I sat in the very back corner of the bus. Next to me sat a father and his two small kids. The Dad decided to sit next to me and completely and utterly invade my personal space. The interesting thing about the drive was that I would nod off just to wake up in 30 minutes at a new bread stand. It seemed like honestly, every thirty minutes we would stop somewhere. We finally got to the border.

Georgia:
At the border, we got off the bus and then walked about 400m in the sun, across a bridge to the Georgian side where again they x-rayed out bags and stamped our passports. We waited another hour or so on the other side for the bus. It finally came. We got on, minus two. Two girls apparently got a ride. Well, the kids that were sitting next to the father, who was sitting next to me decided they wanted to sit in other seats. In the back row of 4, the man decided that he still wanted to sit next to me. Not only that, but he decided that it was hot and he was going to hold onto the overhead luggage railing. Basically, his armpit was right in my face. Remember its hot and people in this area don’t really wear deodorant. So while I was sitting there thinking about why a man who has two free open seats next to him would sit next to me, he was enjoying wafting his smells my way. About twenty minutes in when I was about to lose it, he finally realized that there were, in fact, two seats next to him. Good for him... I fell asleep again and got to Tbilisi.

At first Tbilisi was not all that pretty. I got to the bus station. It was weird being in a place where I didn’t know the language, and where I was by myself and where my phone didn’t work. I couldn’t call Lauren. Lauren is a PC volunteer in Georgia who I met in Ukraine for the Training of Teachers for FLEX. We have kept in touch. Anyway, I waited just 15 minutes and we ran into each other. That was good.
We got on a marshutni and went to the center of town. Tbilisi has a McDonalds. It was hot and I was still looking for some A/C. Lauren assured me that McDonalds would have A/C... it always has A/C... except for that day. We ate our BigMacs in the heat. Awesome. So, then we went to a cafe and hung out there with some other Georgian PCVs. That was fun.

Lauren then took me to her village about an hour or so outside of Tbilisi. If you blindfolded me and just dropped me off in a Georgian village, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference until I talked to someone. The Georgian language and Armenian are not similar at all even though they were written by the same man.

I got my stuff unpacked and washed off a bit and not more than 20 minutes, it was time to eat. So, Lauren and I sat with her host Dad. Really quiet but awesome guy. Well, like many of you may know, in Armenia they drink Vodka. Whether home made or store bought, usually always vodka. In Georgia they drink wine and its not in a wine glass... its in a cup. Like one of those plastic cups made for toddlers. About that size. You don’t sip it either, you drink the whole thing, like a shot times three. There was one bottle on the table. About a liter. The Host Dad filled up the cups. Lauren leaned over and said “drink half of the cup”. I said “ok”. After the first toast, I drank the whole thing. The wine was good, made in their backyard. Grapevines everywhere. Really pretty. Well, as the wine-downing continued I got a strong buzz going. We were eating while we were drinking. The bottle emptied and I was telling Lauren that I was glad that we had finished the bottle. Not a moment later, the Dad takes the empty bottle and replaces it with a 1.5 liter bottle. Who does that? Who starts drinking from the smaller bottle and then replaces it with the bigger one? Really? I just stared at the bottle while Lauren said “once he opens it, we have to finish it.” I tried to get the Dad to stop, but as there was lag time with the translation, he had already opened the bottle. Got to be culturally sensitive. So, while we were starting the second bottle, the whole time thinking “oh crap” I was eating as much bread as I could. So now I looked like a woman who finished her second trimester and I was drunk. Wine drunk...

This is where things got awesome. It was picture time. So I wanted a picture with her host Dad. So, the Dad kept saying that I was like their American son. I said they were my Georgian family and as customary in this area, he kissed me on the cheek. When I said it, I kissed him on the cheek. But you know, I still haven’t gotten good at the which side to kiss and there is an awkward pause on which side to kiss, well we almost locked lips before I pumped the brakes a little. Anyway, very memorable night. Needless to say, I slept well that night, in the non-A/C air. Those are the best cultural experiences. Poor Lauren had to translate everything, and I was trying to have an indepth conversation with her Dad. It was really cool.

The next morning, we woke up and went to her school which was about to start their final exams, at the end of July. She works as an English teacher at a vocational school. It was a really nice school. Before we went to school, we ate lunch. When we got to the school, the Director made us eat again. Again, trying to be culturally sensitive, I forced food down my throat even though it looked like a man who ate a small child.

We left to go back to Tbilisi around 4pm. We got there and had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant. I will never eat Chinese again if it is outside of the US or China. It wasn’t good at all. We then went to meet some of Lauren’s friends and my friend Avto, who was the Georgian TA for the FLEX program. Really good guy so it was nice to see him and meet his girlfriend. Great time. Then, we went to the hostel where there was A/C and I took a really long shower. It was great. I slept for three hours before heading to the airport. I flew from Tbilisi to Riga, Latvia. I had some time, so I went outside. It was hot and humid so I came back inside the airport and rechecked in. The best part was, the airport didn’t have A/C or it wasn’t working so it was miserably hot. I went into the bathroom and changed all my clothes. I got on the flight from Riga to Venice, Italy. At 2:00pm I arrived there. There was no customs checkpoint and I didn’t need to get my bags so I just walked out of the airport 15 minutes after I got off the plane.


Italy:

I got out from behind the doors of the arrivals hall and there was Marco, my Italian friend that I roomed with in Sweden when I was up there three years ago. He had changed very little. It was really nice to see him. He said he had just been waiting maybe 15 minutes.

We went to his car, which did have A/C and we drove to Padova, where he went to University and where he is currently working to get his Ph.D. I guess I have really integrated into Armenian culture because I started asking him really dumb questions like, is there a supermarket here when I can find a harddrive? And, are all the roads here as nice as this highway? And, Wow, you guys have a Shell station? Each time he looked at me like I was from another country. I finally realized the questions that I was asking and put a stop to it. The look on his face though was priceless.

I couldn’t have timed things better. Marco’s friend Lorena was graduating from Medical School. In Italy, Medical School starts right after high school for 7 years. The way that Marco made it sound was that we were going to the graduation party. So I just wore shorts and a collared shirt... untucked. It was, in fact, her actual graduation, and in the classic Italian sense, everyone was dressed in awesome clothing. Some other people wore shorts so I didn’t feel too bad, but it was very obvious that I wasn’t Italian. Anyway, Lorena came over and introduced herself which was nice. Its amazing how no one knows English in Italy, except for Marco apparently. Again I was in a place where I had to depend on someone else to translate for me. So, we went into the room where it was probably 100 degrees and humid. Lorena was defending some of her research. So there were seven Italian professors dressed in the old timey costume which looked incredible hot. We were in there for 30 minutes before they said that she passed her defense.

Now for a bit of Italian culture which I think is great... After graduation in Italy there is a tradition that they do. Lorena’s friends made a huge poster with a caricature of her in lingerie and wrote all the embarrassing things she has done in her life. They put this up in the middle of the street. Then she had to put on an ape suit. There was also 5 liters of “spritz” which is an Italian drink of the north which consists of white wine, some other alcoholic beverage, and something else. She had to read this poster word for word in this ape suit and if she messed up she had to drink some of this “Spritz”. The reading took about an hour. I mean there was a lot of stuff on that poster. The poster was probably 3 feet by 2 feet with size 12 font writing all over it. So Marco and I left for a little bit and when we came back, she had facial hair drawn on her with marker, a beret, and she was wearing some questionable clothing. She also had nutella (chocolate sauce) and whipped cream all over her. Remember this is in the middle of the street. Everyone else was taking a picture so I took one, and she called me out telling me not to put anything on youtube or somewhere else. So in respects to her, I will not be putting up any pictures of her. So, this is a tradition. She was not the only one on the street doing it and Marco said he had this done to him as well. The purpose behind this is to humanize people. To make sure the student understands that they are still people and they aren’t any better than anyone else. I think its a great idea and if one of my friends is reading this, I hope when I graduate from Medical school, you guys do the same thing to me.

After this, we went to a restaurant as an after party type thing. That was awkward. Lorena wasn’t there because she was in the bathroom giving back the alcohol.

Around 9 o’clock, Marco, his girlfriend Stella, and I drove to Asiago where Marco is from. Also the place where Asiago cheese comes from. The drive was really pretty. Asiago is also where Italians go to vacation. Marco’s grandmother rents out rooms but already rented out a room so I stayed at Stella’s house. Her parents own a hotel/ restaurant, and they let me stay there. It was a really nice place. I told her parents that I would go back there for my honeymoon (if that ever happens). We drove to Asiago and hung out with Marco’s friends for a while and then he drove us back to Stella’s place.

The next morning, Marco came and picked me up. Stella’s mother gave us breakfast from the restaurant which consisted of a cream filled croissant and a cappuccino. Marco said there is an Italian saying “eat breakfast like a child, eat lunch like a king, and eat dinner like a poor person.” Works for me. We then went to fort near Asiago, Monte Congeo, where the Italian troops kept the Austrians out. They built this maze of tunnels in this mountain. Also there is a cliff, Salto dae Granateare, where soldiers jumped off a cliff at the top of the mountain because they didn’t want to be captured by the Austrians. The view from up there was amazing.

After this, we went to Marco’s house where I met his parents. Very nice, but didn’t know a lick of English. Ha. They were really nice though. Marco’s mom made some kind of Italian pasta thing and it was amazingly good. Its one of those things that looks really easy to make, but if you tried it, you would somehow mess it up and be really angry because it didn’t turn out like it was supposed it. After that, we walked around Asiago. We went to another memorial, Ossario, where there were the names of all the Soldiers.

Again, let me emphasize how awesome my timing was. That weekend, Marco was going camping with his friends and he asked me to come. So we drove down the mountain, met his friends and then drove back up the mountain. It was Celcius, Barbara, Valentina, and Katerina, well and Marco and myself. We drove to this place called Alpe Madre. A nice little chateau thing out in the mountains. We had a nice Italian dinner and got to hang out with his friends who were super cool. We took some night pictures and looked at the stars.

The next morning we got ready to do some hiking. The funny part was, was that everyone had their camping gear and this and that. I had my tennis shoes, camera, shorts, shirt and sunglasses. We walked for about 3 hours to a place called “open window.” This name gives the impression of an amazing view. Well we got there and it was an abandoned hotel in a place with no view at all. I mean for me it was great because there were great views along the way but I think some of the people were a little disappointed. So we ate lunch somewhere on the trail, I took a short nap. Katerine let me know that I was snoring... doesn’t surprise me. We walked back to the chateau and had a short snack and an espresso before I said my goodbyes to everyone and Marco and I drove back to Padova. There we ate pizza which is so different from American pizza. The crust is so thin. Like paper thin. It was good. Marco then took me to the train station. It started to rain so Marco and I said our goodbyes. So, Marco if you are reading my blog, a million thank yous for a wonderful and fun two days. I hope I can show you just a good of a time when you come to the States.

Trentitalia is the name of the train company in Italy. It is very nice. I got on the train at 9:00pm and at 9:15 I was in Venice. The train was so nice. SO nice, but it spoiled it for the rest of the trip because I judged all trains to this one 15-minute ride. I got to Venice to switch trains. While there, I had to use the bathroom. I got in there and it was a Turkish style bathroom. Hole in the ground. At that point I was thanking Armenia for teaching me how to use one of these. I didn’t have to figure it out under pressure. I already knew... I took the night train but I wasn’t in a sleeper car. I was in a seat. This seat did not provide that much leg room. The best part about this was there was a family sitting around me. A mom, grandma, and son. The grandma was sitting caddy-corner from me. She decided to take off her shoes and put them on my seat next to my leg. I was reading at this point. I just laughed awkwardly. She didn’t care. Neither did her family. It didn’t really bother me. Well yeah it did. So, at 10pm we started. We went through Slovenia and stopped at the border at 3am and carried on to Zagreb, Croatia. I got to Zagreb at 5:30am, very tired...

Croatia:
I got off the train and since the train office wasn’t open, I walked around Zagreb. There was light and a lot of people so I felt safe. I saw a sign for McDonalds so I knew that there was one somewhere so I walked up and down the streets to no avail. I decided it was time to go back to the train station. So I walked back and as I walked back, I saw that the McDonalds was right next to the train station. Well done. So I went in, used the bathroom, and then got breakfast there, which I think was a BigMac. I then went to the train station and bought my ticket. I got on the three car train, which was air-conditioned. I sat down next to a girl who later turned out to be Canadian. The conversation was a bit awkward because she said “yeah, Im from Canada” and I said “oh, you’re Canadian?” but I said it in a way that made it sound like it was a bad thing. I didn’t mean to do that, so I had to change the subject really quickly. Anyway, we did quite a bit of talking before we both passed out. The train left at 6:50am and got down to Split, Croatia at 2:30ish pm. She had some time to kill and so did I, so I asked her to lunch. We stayed by the train station and passed an hour. We exchanged contact information and went our separate ways.

Split is beautiful. The harbor is really nice. This was also the city where I was supposed to meet Kay (Katherine) who is a volunteer in Maldova who I also met in Ukraine for FLEX. She booked all the hostels. Her instructions said “walk 500 meters till you get to the bus station and take bus 17 to the hostel”. In Armenia, I read these directions and thought, wow this is very thorough, it has the meters and it also has the bus number. Great. Yeah, well I started reading the directions and realized there were many bus stops in the area and I didn’t know if I needed to go to the left or the right. So I walked to get some postcards and asked the lady how to find the number 17 bus. She told me, so I walked to that bus station. I got on the bus, not knowing how to pay for the bus. The bus driver got fed up and just told me to sit down. At this point, I was glad I got on the bus, then realized I didn’t know when to get off. So I just rode around on the bus for about half an hour before I saw a sign for the hostel so I finally ended up getting off. It was around 5pm. I was exhausted from not having a goodnight sleep since I left Armenia. I passed out for 3 hours. Kay’s plane was delayed 5 hours. I was awoken by her knocking on the door.

So, we got back on the bus and went back into town. We went to the Harbor and walked around. There was a band playing outside. It was funny because we were in Croatia and they were playing country music. Oh geez. We bought a bottle of wine and had it by the harbor by the water by the light of the moon. Really romantic, but wrong girl. We went back to the hostel and I passed out again.

The next morning we woke up and got our ferry tickets to go to Hvar Island. We did some market shopping. Bought some fruit at the fruit stands, got some orange juice and had a little breakfast by the harbor. It was pretty cool. We then got on the ferry and went out to the Island. The ride was pretty. We got out there around 5pm and took the bus to the city. The island was just beautiful. Kay and I wondered if people would treat us differently if we said we were married. So we acted like we were married. The guy at the hostel, which was a pretty nice hostel must have thought we were married because he gave us this awesome room with a king sized bed and an awesome view of the harbor. It was totally awesome. We went to the store and bought food to make spaghetti with. we made dinner in the kitchen. There were some other travelers there. Two girls and a boy who were 19 who obviously didn’t know how to cook so we ended up cooking for them. Kay and I went and ate on our balcony with the really nice view. Again really romantic but with the wrong girl. We went to bed and woke up the next morning, and walked around the island.

We went and bought our return tickets back to Split and then just hung out. Hvar was really cool. We left at 1pm and got back around 2:30pm. At split we bought bus tickets down to Dubrovnik. We got on the bus at 5pm. There were some other Americans on the bus. This one girl had never left the States before. Now, I am an American, I have no problems with America and I am really fortunate to be a US passport holder, however, Americans can be the most obnoxious people on the planet. Seriously. So, when you are in another country, please don’t get loud and yell at the person who is two feet next to you so that everyone on the bus knows you’re American. That is why the rest of the world doesn’t like us. That and other reasons. The small majority who is really loud really ruins things for everyone else... So, keep that in mind. Anyway, one of the guys traveling was really cool. Kay and I felt bad for him since he had to take this trip with them.

We got down to Hvar around 11 and we walked through the city to our homestay. It was a nice enough place, but again with no A/C. Crap. The next day we went to the old town of Dubrovnik. Then we took a ferry out to Locrum Island which is about ten minutes off of the mainland. There we went swimming in the Adriatic. The funny part was this place had a nude beach. We were walking on the path to get to the other side and there were just naked people everywhere. That was awkward, so I turned around and went back the other way. We found a place where people were clothed. Sort off. Ladies were taking off their tops. Boobs everywhere. See, as a heterosexual male in his twenties you would think this would be awesome. Not the case. In fact, really awkward. Especially when husbands and boyfriends are close by but it seemed like everywhere you looked there was boobs, so I had to keep looking at my feet the whole time or keep my chin way up high. We were out there for about 4 hours and then started walking back when we saw a sign that said there was a classical guitar player who played everyday from 3-6. So we went to the little cafe, got a drink and watched this guy play. He was just super cool. If I remember I will try and attach a picture. He just looked like he was supposed to be there. The guy smoked a lot though.

We got on the boat and headed back. We were really hungry at this point and Kay had a craving for a hamburger which sounded really good. So we went to the supermarket again and bought some meat, cheese, onions, tomatoes, etc. We went back to the homestay place. We didn’t know if the kitchen was free to use, so we used it anyway. We asked someone who we assumed lived there if they knew where we could find a frying pan and they seemed to know and they didn’t seem to care so we make burgers. They were really good. Brandon would have been proud. I don’t think we did anything else that night. The burgers took forever to cook in the frying pan. We wrote postcards and then went to sleep. I didn’t really like Dubrovnik. Some like it some don’t

We woke up the next morning and walked to the bus station and took the three hour bus to Mostar. Croatia was really nice and I would like to go back there. Especially Split and the area up there. The people are really nice. Food, eh.

Bosnia:
We passed into Bosnia and just had to show our passports, nothing too difficult. We got to Mostar around 11:00 and there was a person from the hostel there to pick us up. That was really nice. We initially stopped in Mostar just because of the hostel. Kay had a friend that went through the area about three months prior who said that we had to stay at this hostel called Madje. Crap, I don’t know if that is the name but its pretty close and if you are ever in the area, make every effort to go there. We got there and it was just a really cool place. Very colorful and very easy to meet people. Kay and I just put down our things and went out for a walk. The day was hot but we found a place to eat. On the way, there were markets everywhere and everything was a whole lot cheaper than Croatia or Italy. The market was filled with really cool things. I saw a rug and it was only 30 euro for a really big one that they said was silk. I was going to buy it, but then my common sense came in and I realized that there was no way that a rug of this size could be made from silk and be only 30 euro. So I left it alone. I got some other things though. We went across the famous Mostar bridge. I had a headache and didn’t have any money on me so we walked back to the hostel.

There I rested for a little bit and got my money and we went back out. We walked to a bank that had been blown out from the Bosnia-Serbia conflict back in 1992. The bank was totally destroyed and snipers used to stay up there and shoot people walking in the street. We went up to the top floor noticing the bullet holes and shell scars on the walls. It was a very humbling walk up the stairs. The view up there was really nice. After that, we went to the bus station and bought bus tickets to Sarajevo. We walked by some other parts where there were a lot of war scars. Really interesting city. We went back to the hostel and hung out there for a little bit. We met a lot of people. I was checking something on the internet and the owner came up and said “May I tell you something? You look like an actor and if you don’t mind I would like to tell you,” I said sure... She said “You look very similar to Tom Hanks.” I mean what a great compliment. She asked if other people have told me that, and others have, but I still don’t really see it. People say maybe personality wise but looks? Don’t know. Either way, I totally took the compliment because Tom Hanks is one of my favorite, if not my favorite actor. Made my day.

So we hung out there and started talking with some people. I wanted a picture of my new friends and the owner so I got everyone together. The owner wanted everyone in the hostel to be in it, so now there is a picture that I took (and that Im not in) in the hostel. Eh. So, after that, we went out with some of our new friends: Duncan from England, Melody from New York, and Adam from Sweden. We went to a restaurant because Kay said we were doing well by not eating out and cooking our own meals. So we went out with everyone and my meal was about 5 dollars. Good deal. We then went to “The Cave” a night club in a cave. Kay and I were there for about 15 minutes before we decided to leave. It was 1am by that point and dinner was fun enough.

The next morning, I got a ride to the bus station and waited there. While I was waiting I read and wrote in my travel journal a bit. Kay decided that she wanted to stay in Mostar an extra day so she did just that. I had to go because I was meeting Michael between 1 and 3 in Sarajevo.

I got on the bus and took the 3 hour bus ride to Sarajevo. I sat next to a girl who was from the states who studied in Denver and was getting her masters in post-disaster psychology. She was really interesting to talk to for the three hours. We went our separate ways. So now I was in Sarajevo. An Olympic town. It was a really cool city and it exceeded my initial first impressions. I realized that I had run into the same problem as I had in Split... I didn’t know where I was going. Michael had just given me a picture of the structure we were to meet at and said it was in the center of town. There was another girl on the bus who taught English in Sarajevo and she saw that I looked lost. I told her the structure that I had to go to and she told me to get on a tram and told me when to get off. She told me the wrong number tram. Fortunately, I asked the tram driver if I would be going to this certain place, and he said no, and told me to take the 1. All this is pantomimed by the way.

I get on the number 1 tram and follow the girls directions of when to get off, and sure enough there was the structure. At 2:59 I met Michael. He had to wait about an hour and 59 minutes, but I got there and we met up. He wasn’t just sitting there the whole time. He had come the previous day to Athens and then flew up to Belgrade and then took a bus down to Sarajevo. He had already stayed a night in Sarajevo.

We hugged and went to the hostel. The hostel was really cool. We went back out for two hours or so and walked to where Franz Ferdinand was shot and killed. Where the actions of WWI started. Interesting place. We went back to the hostel and relaxed a little but before the man working at the counter said “the owner of the hostel is going to provide free drinks and food because he just got married, at 8 o’clock”. This was awesome. So everyone came into the main room and just drank and socialized. There was no food though. But it was great socializing. And let me tell you, talking about working for Peace Corps is a great way to make new friends. It was so easy to talk to everyone because as soon as they asked what we did, and we told them we were volunteers, everyone treated us like we were their best friends. People from all over the world knew about Peace Corps. That was really cool. I didn’t think anyone did.

We met some really cool people. Doug, who is a 35-37 year old man, was laid off from being a financial consultant last year but got 10 months pay and a severance package. He decided he wanted to travel. He has been on the road for 11 months and doesn’t know quite yet when he is going to go home. He was really cool to hang out with. Also, Rose who is a journalist from London was there in Sarajevo to cover the film festival. Morgan Freeman was there. Not at the hostel but in Sarajevo. There was Albin from Sweden. I told him that I lived in Abisko for a month and he just couldn’t believe that I would live there for a month. Really cool guy. Met a girl from Ireland who was from Sligo, and told her that I had been to her hometown and she couldn’t believe that either. I apparently go to really weird places. Armenia... ha. Anyway, it seemed like everyone in the room was from a different country. There was Judith from Holland. Just really interesting to talk to everyone.

As an aside- the Peace Corps thing. Funny story. There was a man I met in the hostel in Georgia. He was from Yemen but lived in Spain. He is a retired man and just travels to remote places. He asked me what I did and I told him I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. He thought for a while and smiled. He told me of several times where he was in a remote country somewhere where people don’t really go. His specific example was when he was in Africa. He was in a village and he was lost and he saw a white person and went up to them and started talking. The white person was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa. He was laughing because he said “you guys are everywhere, but everywhere in the most remote, weird places”. I just responded with “yeah...”

That night around 1am we were hungry so we went and found a restaurant that was open and I had spaghetti. It was really good. Or, I was really hungry. We came back and went to bed.

The next morning, Mike and I got up and saw Doug. He was going to the Sarajevo tunnel. During the conflict, the Serbs had completely surrounded Sarajevo. The airport was negotiated to be a part of the UN. There was a small strip north of the airport that was still free Bosnian land, so there was an 800 meter tunnel dug in 4 months and 4 days from the free side of Bosnia to Sarajevo. It served as a means to transport materials. They give credit to the tunnel for saving Sarajevo after 3 months of being surrounded. So we decided that we would go with Doug and Rose out to this tunnel.

On the way out there, there was the Sarajevo museum displaying things from the war. It was fascinating to see how people survived living in their basements for 3 years. There were pictures of bombs exploding near makeshift schools with blood stains on the walls, students and teachers killed. That museum was the first time I really contemplated war and what it meant and how meaningless they can be, how lack of understanding can lead to so many thousands of lives being lost. It is hard to understand such things when we as Americans have not been through such an experience. Experience of living in fear in basements hoping, but not knowing when you will be able to walk the streets in your city freely. Another reason I as well as you reading this, are very fortunate for being a US passport holder.

It took us forever to get to the tunnel because we had to take a tram and then transfer to a bus that seemed like it would never come. Well, it did finally come and we rode to the tunnel. We walked out there and it was right next to the modern airport. We went inside and watched a 20 minute video about the war. Then we prepared ourselves for the 800 meter walk in the tunnel. So we went underground and 25 meters later were back above ground. Apparently after the war, the tunnel was covered up since it went under the runway of the airport... Lame.

We again waited for the bus to come. We got it and then transferred to the tram and made it back to the hostel. We did our own thing for a little bit and decided that we would meet back up around 7. Mike and I met up with Kay and Doug, Mike, Kay and I went to the Brewery. We hung out there for a while and after 30 minutes it seemed like everyone from the hostel showed up. That was a lot of fun. We just hung out. Judith, from Holland, sat next to me and we talked about random things. Mike fell in love with her. We tried to persuade her to come to Armenia which she was interested in seeing that she had some contacts there now and she didn’t know when she would ever go there again. Yesterday I found out that instead of going to Istanbul and heading east, she was going to Greece and heading north back to Holland. I mean, that’s cool too... So we hung out there for a while and then went to find Kay, because she went to another bar with someone that she made friends with earlier in the day. Mike and I didn’t want to go to sleep quite yet because we had a 12 hour bus ride the next day. We hung out with everyone until 2 or 3am, said our goodbyes to everyone and then went back to the hostel. We sat up talking until about 4:30am before going to bed.

We slept for 2 hours and then woke up and got ready to go to Serbia. We left at 7am and got to the bus station and bought our tickets to Nis, Serbia. We still had about 15 euros worth of the local currency so we walked to the grocery store and bought lots of snacks. Bread, cheese, meat, chips, drinks, Mike bought 4 bars of Toblerone chocolates... We got on the bus and off we went for the 12 hour bus ride. It was a bad idea to not sleep because the seats were small and I had no place to put my head. Disaster. We got to the border, they checked our passports and we continued on to Nis.

Serbia:
Serbia was interesting. We were only there for one night. We arrived in Nis and walked around until we found the hostel. The hostel was pretty nice and the guy, Vladamir, was really cool and helpful. I asked him about the train to Skopje and where to get some food and what to do in the area. So after all this talking about where to eat, we got ready and walked to the fortress. That was pretty cool, but the inside was like an amusement park. From the outside it looked like it was a historical building, which it was, but right inside the walls were restaurants, clubs, and amusement-park-type things. A little weird. We were trying to get on top of the wall and walk around and we asked this lady three times before she finally came out and told us how to get there. She was really nice and Mike liked her too but she was about two feet taller than him. So, after all that anticipation and time/effort trying to find out how to get to the top of the wall we got there. The view, not that impressive. The only real view we had were couples making out in the dark corners of the wall.

So we left and went to McDonalds. Yeah I know, I have eaten there a million times but when its the closest thing to America, you take advantage of it and because McDonalds makes every fry, burger, etc exactly like it does in the States, its a good way to get a taste of it. I would be sick if I ate this much McDonalds at home but here, different story. We also discussed how in the States, McDonalds is a job that teenagers get while in high school, but outside of the States, its a legitimate job.

We ate there, walked down to the river and hung out there for a while. Nis is a really pretty city. Not really anything to do there but pretty nonetheless. The one night was enough to cover everything. The next morning we woke up and walked to the concentration camp there. It was a small place and out of the way. I don’t think the little amount of tourists that may go to Nis go to this camp. Anyway, another humbling place. Its a weird feeling always going to these places. I remember a place in Northern France we went to where there is a massive white marble monument for the Canadians who fought in WWII. The area was still covered in landmines and there were still trenches all over the place. Those kind of places where you know thousands got killed in probably pretty gruesome ways always makes you think. This place was no different. Even though it wasn’t very big, many lost their lives there.

We walked around for a little while and headed back to the hostel to get our things and then walked the 20 minutes to the train station. We got our tickets and were just waiting for the bus. Things in Serbia are pretty cheap and we still had some Serbian money that we needed to get rid of because no one else in the world uses that currency. So, we again went to a small store and bought drinks. Lots and lots of drinks. Cokes, Schwepps, beer, water, and one bag of chips. So we were loaded down with fluids. No chance of getting dehydrated.

The train came and we asked a man if the train was going to Skopje which he replied yes. We got on and found a compartment to ourselves. It was great. We took off our shoes and sat comfortably in the the seats and starting sipping cold beers in the non-AC train. The train started moving and we knew we could just relax for the next five hours. The ticketman came to stamp our tickets. He looked at the tickets and let out a gasp of frustration and with a sad look pantomimed that we were headed to Sofia, not Skopje. A girl came over who knew some English and she explained that at the station, the train cut in two and the train we were on was going the direction we didn’t want to go. I mean really, what kind of train does that with no signs or anything. This is was the first glitch we came across. So we screwed the tops on to our plastic bottle beers and got off at the next station. The man there told us we had to walk 500m to the bus and take it back into Nis. Yeah. So, here we are, the three of us, walking in the middle of the day, in the sun 500m with our backpacks on, carrying a ridiculous amount of fluids with us. We got to the city bus stop and again pantomimed where we wanted to go. After holding up the bus for five to ten minutes, we just got on and went. It actually took us right back to the train station. Everyone was really nice about everything and they understood that we were either a)retarded, or b)very much not knowing what we were doing. We were able to get a 90% refund on our train tickets. We walked 50m down from the train station and bought bus tickets.

We waited another hour for the bus to come and we got on. This was great. But, the bus was packed. It was a coach bus but there was a crapload of people. Even though the bus said Nis Express Bus, it stopped about every 30min. Mike and I ended up standing. We gave Kay the seat. Finally enough people got off the bus and we were able to sit down. I fell asleep. Woke up when the sun was going down as we entered Macedonia. That checkpoint was a bit more intense. We all had to get off the bus and open our bags. They actually checked our passports too.

Macedonia:
We arrived at the bus station around 9pm. Mike got out the directions to the Art Hostel. It said that we should just take a taxi for 2-3 euros which isn’t too bad. As we were walking, a man came up behind us and asked if we needed a taxi. I said yes. He took the directions from Mike’s hands and said “yes, this will be 2 euros”. I don’t know how much any of your have dealt with taxi drivers, but they are all the same and they will usually try and scam you. I say “usually” because some taxi drivers I have had have been awesome. Anyway, it was very peculiar that this man said 2 euros and not 15. So, I said, that sounds good. We walked over with him to his car. His car being a really nice, black Mercedes. Kay looked at me and said that she didn’t feel right about it. We ended up getting in the car anyway. As we drove the guy started talking to us in really well spoken English. He apparently used to be a driver for the US embassy and now works for another US organization. We didn’t ask him if picking up random tourists from the train station and giving them rides for a good price was a hobby of his... We got to the hostel, we paid him the 2 euro and that was that. Nothing else. It took me a good 4 hours to wrap my head around that. Art Hostel was not that cool. It wasn’t cool at all. It didn’t have A/C and the atmosphere was pretty bad.

We walked to the the city center. Kay wanted pasta, Mike wanted sea food, I didn’t care. So we walked around a found a place. Mike and I got the Seafood Risotto. It was five dollars. Skopje was really nice. It is a Peace Corps country and I hated the volunteers there because their capitol was super nice. It had EVERYTHING. The roads were really well constructed too. After we ate, I had a headache so I walked back to the hostel. I went to bed early that night. The next morning, Kay was leaving so I tried to give her my pictures. Yeah, the computer had viruses and my memory card messed up. I freaked out because those were all my pictures that could potentially be lost. When I put the card in my camera it wouldn’t work. After saying our goodbyes to Kay, Mike and I went to the train station and bought our train tickets and then went into the city center again and I got another memory card. We ate at a cafe and then went to the big wall in the old part of town. That was cool. Good views from up there. We ran into Kay again and we took a group picture and said our real goodbyes. I was in a pissed off mood because my pictures could be potentially lost, that morning so I apologized for that and we went our separate ways.

Mike and I then went to Mother Theresa’s museum because she is from Skopje, Macedonia. That was cool to walk around there and to see pictures of her. We talked to the museum curator about Mother Theresa’s canonization. She decided to instead tell us everything there was to know about Mother Theresa. Mike and I slowly started trying to turn away from her, but it just kept going and going.

We left there and ate lunch, went to the post office (which was air-conditioned), and walked back to the hostel. We hung out there for a while and then took a cab over to the train station. We got there an hour before the train was supposed to leave. While we were waiting for the train, an English guy came over and asked if the train was delayed which it was by 50 minutes. However, it finally came just twenty minutes late. We were now on our way to Thessaloniki. We got on the train, making sure to ask not less than five different people if the car we were on was going to Thessaloniki. The British guys, Simon from London, and Dod from Cambridge, asked us to sit with them in the compartment and that is what we did. We hung out and talked for pretty much the whole 6 hour journey.

Greece:

The borders took forever. We stopped once on the Macedonian side and waited there for about 45 minutes, then the train started and then stopped after 15 minutes on the Greece side and we waited there for another 45 minutes. The English guys had no problem because they were in the EU. The man took our passports. Always a risky move when your passport is your ticket out of a country. The guy came back with it. The guys were really cool. I loved their mannerisms. Such civilized people. Dod and Simon got in an argument about where they wanted to go. Dod said “Simon, Im so sorry that I am being quite a dick about this, but I would prefer not to go there”. As Americans it was awesome to hear this banter. If it were Mike and myself arguing it would have been more like “hey stupidhead, we are going here.”

We got to Thessaloniki. We got out of the train and met another girl who was from Tennessee who studied at UNCG. She was doing research to get her Ph.D. in archeology. She had been in Greece for a year or so, so she knew the area. Dod and Simon were trying to get down to Athens and they said their train would be at 6am. We told them they could stay in our room for 5 hours. Dod replied saying “Thanks Danny, that is really quite decent of you.” Its a lot better if you do it in a British accent though. It turned out there was a train down to Athens at 1:40am, so the five of us walked down the street to kill some time before they had to leave. On the way, we found our hotel which was air-conditioned in the lobby. We dropped off our bags and went just around the corner and got a gyro and a beer. We sat there and talked a bit and then around 1:10, we said our goodbyes again and Mike and I went back to the hotel. Hotel. Remember I said hotel, not hostel.

Mike and I got to our room/closet. We opened the door and in front of us was a queen sized bed up against the wall and a foot of walking space between the bed and the other wall. There was a sink, a fan, a chair, and french doors above the headboard of the bed which led to a small balcony. It was wicked hot in there. We were laughing because it would be have been awkward if in fact Dod and Simon needed a place to stay because there was no room to lay down on the floor and there is no way that 4 people could have fit on that bed. Anyway, we washed up and went to bed.

Mike, woke me up at 8am sharp right when I was in the middle of a deep sleep. He didn’t want to waste any time in Thessaloniki. So we got ready and walked to the city center. There we found a restaurant. Everywhere else was still closed at 10am. The waitress didn’t know English so we pantomimed again what we wanted. The menu was in Greek. Mike ended up getting a spinach thing, I decided to get a crepe. It said in the menu under “crepe” a list of things each being .90 euro. So I thought they would be small so I ordered two. I should have just gotten one especially when the waitress kept saying “you want two? You really want two?” Anyway, the crepes came and they were huge. They were really sweet too and not that good. We got the bill and it was 3.40 euro per crepe. I couldn’t eat much anyway so Mike ended up eating one. Eh.

We walked to the White Tower (that is really what its called) and bought a 3 euro ticket which was a bus pass good for 24 hours and took the tourbus to the top of the city. There was a really nice view of the city from up there. After that, we came back down and then went to Starbucks, because there was A/C and got a cold coffee. We sat there for a while and since Mike woke me up so early in the morning, I wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nap. We went back to the hotel around 4pm and took a nap in the heat until about 7pm. It was actually really good. The best part was we had seen all there was to really see in Thessaloniki, so we went back to Starbucks and hung out again before we walked down the harbor, with the sun setting. Really romantic, wrong person.

We actually went back to the hotel pretty early and talked with the hotel manager for about an hour before we went back up to the closet-room. I was still pretty tired so I went to sleep with ease. We woke up the next morning again around 8, and went to the same cafe we had gone before, but instead of getting crepes, I got the spinach thing that Mike got the day before. It was filling enough. The waitress smiled when she saw us. Today things were a lot easier. We walked around a bit more and then went back to the hotel to get our things and walked to the train station.

At the train station, we went to our platform. The train was already there, so we got on it and off we went. It was a much nicer train than what we had been riding on since the beginning of our trip. We sat next to each other with two seats facing ours. No one sat in theirs. Later on in the trip, a man tapped my leg and just sat down. His seats were about 5 behind ours but wanted to allow his two young girls to run up and down the aisle for about two hours. That was swell. There was some kind of fight too between two old ladies and another family behind us. We didn’t know what they were saying. That was cool. The train ride was gorgeous. It ran through some really pretty parts of Greece. I was really glad that the weather was so nice.

We got to Athens around 5pm. Mike forgot to print off the directions from the train station to the hotel so we were kind of walking around aimlessly. We frankly didn’t know what to do. As we were walking back into the train station, I heard a young lady speaking English. I kept this in mind as we unsuccessfully got any further in our quest to get to the hotel. So, we went outside and sure enough, the girl was by the map so we went over to her and I asked her if she spoke English and if she could help us out. She agreed. The events that I am about to type, I still can’t believe happened.

So Mike told Sofia (the girl that we just met) the hotel phone number. Sofia took the sheet and said that she would call the hotel and that we had nothing to worry about. She was going to make sure that we got to that hotel. So she called and figured things out. (As an aside - Mike told her a restaurant phone number with a similar name. Sofia called it and started talking about reservations before the man on the other line finally said “this is a restaurant”. We got a good laugh out of that... later). Anyway, Sofia calls the right hotel and gets the directions. She doesn’t stop there. She waits with us (with her Mom and a guest she picked up from the train station) and puts us in a taxi and makes sure that the price is fixed before we leave. The ride was 5 euros. Right before we got in the taxi, Mike asked her what there is to do in Athens. Sofia says in her sexy, greece accented voice, “I will pick you up at 10pm at your hotel if you want.” What else do you say except “yes please.”

MIke and I went to the hotel which was much nicer than the last hotel we stayed at. There was in fact A/C and a nice balcony. Little did we know the hotel was right in the middle of the Bohemian district. And that was obvious but very cool. It was a very lively area.

So we got ready and Sofia was serious about coming out to take us out because she kept calling and telling us she would be 30min late. She finally came around 11pm. We got in the car with her and a Turkish girl. We went to pick up one of her friends. The funny part was. Sofia and the Turkish girl met at the train station for the first time. Sofia went to Istanbul and stayed with a friend and the Turkish girl was a friend of the friend in Istanbul who wanted to come to Greece. I don’t know if that made sense at all. Also, the guy we met, Kaan was also met for the first time by everyone. The Turkish girl had a friend who said that Kaan would be in Athens, so they talked and decided to meet. So Sofia was driving around 4 perfect strangers, two from America and two from Turkey.

We went to a bar, had a drink and then walked back to the Acropolis and then to the car. Sofia said the Temple of Poseidon was only 20 minutes away and so we went out there. It turned out that it was an hour away. We got to see all the lights of Athens. It was really nice. I talked to Sofia about everything. She was studying and working near San Francisco for three years and just got back. She was so cool. So we got out to the Temple, lit up by lights. There were so many stars out too. It was really cool. Then Sofia drove us back and dropped us off right at our hotel at 5am. That is one of those memories I will never forget. It was just awesome.

The next day we woke up early again because we had an agenda. Sofia had shown us where the flea markets were and how to get to the Acropolis. So we began our walk and we walked around for a bit in the morning. Got breakfast somewhere and then walked around. We went to the flea markets. On the way there we stopped by Parliament where they keep their unmarked tomb or “unknown soldier.” There were two soldiers who patrol the area. It was interesting to see their “rotation” of sorts. Don’t really know how to describe it in words but it was interesting nonetheless. A bit flamboyant maybe. We got there just in time to see that, saw it, and then left.

We walked through the markets, didn’t really see much and then decided to go to the Acropolis Museum. You know, I do this everytime. I am not really that interested in Archeological things. I love going to art museums and those similar types of places, but places like “look what we found” museums are not really that interesting to me, so Im still trying to figure out why I paid the 5 euro to go inside. While inside there were pieces of sculptures, where 93% of the statue was plater and 7% was the original. At that point... really? I’m sure there are several people out there who would totally disagree with me, but when that much of the original is not there, it is a bit ridiculous to keep it around, or at least have it on display.

We did walk around and see what we could see and then went to the cafe which looks out onto the Acropolis from below. It was a really nice view so maybe it was worth the 5 euro? After the museum, we headed up there. We walked, got to the ticket booth, bought our tickets and headed up there. The view from up there was awesome. A 360 degree view of Athens. I can’t imagine what it would have looked like back when the Parthenon was the real deal. The Acropolis was pretty cool. The Parthenon had cranes and Archeological digs going on inside it so we weren’t able to go inside there, but we did manage to take some pretty good pictures around it. We then went down the hill to the Amphitheater and then made our way out of there. We probably spent a good two hours walking around. It was hot though that day.

I don’t remember what we did after that. I think we went to some more stores trying to find somethings. We were gross and covered in sweat and we walked back to the hotel. There we got showers and regrouped. We decided that we were going to stay in since the following day we were going to the islands. We had a hard time finding a place to eat but much like when I was in Zagreb, there was a restaurant right next to the hotel. Crap. It was a gyro shop and it was really good and only two euro. We got some cold drinks and gyros, and went back to the A/C of our rooms and ate. Afterwards, we went to a bar to just sit around and talk for about an hour. We went to bed.

The next morning we got our things packed and headed to the beach. We walked to the subway station, found out that the subway wasn’t going, so then took the bus out there. Then we took a subway to the piers. There were a number of huge ships hanging out. We didn’t know really which island to go to let alone the ship to take out there. So we asked around and found a ticket counter. We said “we would like to go to the islands.” The man just looked at us waiting for us to continue, but we stopped and then there was an awkward pause. Then he asked us which island, and just as if we were blindly ordering from a restaurant without consulting the menu, we asked “what islands are there to offer?” The man rolled his eyes and started listing off the islands. Then just like I would in a restaurant I asked the man what his recommendation was. He said the name of one and we recognized it and Mike and I said at the same time, “yeah, we’ll go there.” The man looked relieved.

So we bought our ferry tickets and waited for about an hour for the ferry to come. It came, we got on and we rode over to the island. I don’t know what its called. Maybe Aegros? Probably not. Anyway, we got off the ship and Mike wanted some kind of seafood, so we found a seafood place. We each got calamari. It was just a plate of calamari. Nothing else. It was good but not filling but that’s ok because we were going to go swimming. We ate and then saw a beach close by and walked to it. I mean there is really nothing to describe here other than the fact that it was really really shallow, but sandy in the water. The beach had a lot of stones all over it, some of them that hurt. I very awkwardly fell into the water by accident because a stone decided it wanted to jab me in the foot.

We left around 6 from the beach and walked around the island for a while before heading back to the boat. The boat left at 7:30 and got back to Athens around 9:00. Tired, Mike being burned, and both of us hungry, we went back to the gyro place and got our last Greek style gyro. It was good. We went back to the same bar to hang out and then we went to bed so that we could get up to go to the airport and meet our 12:00 flight back home.

The next morning, we woke up early, got ready, checked out, and went to find a post office. We found one easily enough and then went to McDonald’s because it was the only thing open and had breakfast. (I really ate a lot of that stuff on this trip). We got to the subway station, got on a subway and headed out to the airport. When we got out there, we were just surrounded by people. A lot of Americans. The most Americans I had seen since I left the states. We got in the Armavia (Armenian airline) line and right next to us was the US Airways line. Those people were going to the US. I still had another year. At first I wanted to take someone’s ticket but then I realized I still had a lot to do in Armenia, that I was in fact excited to go back. We got back with no problems.

It was nice to be back in Armenia where I knew where things were. I knew where to go to get food, see the sights, etc. Also I knew the language. I talked to the taxi driver the whole way back to the city. That was really nice.

Mike and I got to the hostel in Yerevan and just lounged around for the day. There were no other volunteers in Yerevan at the time so we just hung out some more. That night we went to bed at 12am and had to wake up at 3:30am to go back to the airport and get Ian, Mike’s friend from the States. We came back and I went straight to bed, to wake up at 9am to go and get my teeth cleaned by Peace Corps.

So that was my trip. I am very impressed if you read this much of my blog. It says this is page 19.

So, Until next time... (which will be pretty soon because have to write about Sean’s wedding).