A Retrospective

After many many years, too many of them really, I'm leaving the job that introduced me to the Balkans and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. I'm not sorry to be leaving the job but I am sorry to lose the trips to see my friends in Serbia and Kosovo. I have been incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to come to know these countries and people (and the food!). They're what kept me at my job for so long and I will miss them.

 Belgrade Parliament

 Jewish Cemetary, Belgrade

 Kalamegdan, Belgrade

 Radnom side street, Belgrade

  

 St. Mark's Belgrade

I can't believe I've never been inside

 Busy cafes, Novi Sad

 Novi Sad

 Mocaccino from my favorite coffe house, Belgrade

 Dinner at Iguana with friends, Belgrade

 Skadarljia, Belgrade

 Mother Teresa museum, Skopje

 Old city in Skopje

 Yummy yummy meat, Pristina

 Prizren, Kosovo

 Prizren

 Prizren

 Sarajevo

 Bas Carsa, Sarajevo

 Sarajevo, BiH

 Sarajevo, BiH

 Old city in Dubrovnik, Croatia

 Old city in Dubrovnik, Croatia

 Kotor, Montenegro

 Cetinje, Montenegro

 Cetinje, Montenegro

However all is not lost. My new job comes with vacation, which I'm hoping I'll get to use more than every other year, and I will return! Even Bill wishes me well and hopes I'll return soon :)

  

 Pristina

Have You Ever Wondered What Being a T-Rex is Like?

My most recent trip to Serbia began very inauspiciously. I walked into the airport with my suitcase, duffel bag, camera case, the large shoulder bag that holds my monster laptop, and my regular shoulder bag that holds everything else. Three, maybe four steps into the airport I promptly fell flat on my face.

Well mostly it was my shins that took the brunt of the fall which was good because I was wearing glasses but still. And of course all my bags fell on top of me. Have you ever fallen like that? Me (and I do that often), I usually just want to remain sprawled on the ground for a couple minutes to gather my thoughts, assess the damage, and put off facing everyone who just saw me fall. That is usually not really an option though, especially if you happen to do this in the street. Which I have done. A quadron of very nice men rushed over to pull my luggage off me and and check to make sure I was ok. I am not really ok but what can you do?

I got to my feet and dragged my bags over to the United check in counter. Sigh. My flight wasn't until 5:30 but I'd planned to get to the airport at 2 because on my last trip it took over 90 minutes just to get up to the counter there were so many people. This time I was there super early...and walked straight up to one of the blasted check in counters. So with over three hours to spare I headed to security which was equally empty. Except that I was in line behind a woman with two small children and a zillion carry ons who had obviously never been near an airplane before. ever. No ma'am, you cannot bring large tubes of toothpaste, lotion, yogurt, and SCISSORS on the airplane. I was ready to stab her with the bloody scissors. Her and the security guard who was possibly the slowest moving person I have ever encountered in my life.

I finally got through (no problems with my bags thank you) and headed for the nifty new trains at Dulles that give the illusion it's a real airport. Then I got on the escalator, or at least tried to. My nemeses, gravity and stairs, struck again. The foot to first hit the escalator and flew. I grabbed the rail with my right hand but the blinding premonition of tumbling head over tail down the escalator prompted my to sacrifice the bag in my left hand in favor of holding the rail with both hands and hold on tight. Unfortunately (and yes it can get more unfortunate) I hadn't actually closed the bag I'd let go of so as it tumbled down the stairs everything flew out: pens, my passport, tickets, granola bars, and yes, my laptop. Awesome.

A very nice gentleman helped me grab everything from the bottom of the escalator and I limped on my way. So to inventory, I'd banged up my shins and knees pretty well, wrenched my back, and a possibly no longer working laptop, my writs were sore, and I was getting a headache. Oh, and then there was the mild humiliation. If there's a collection of funny security video clips I made top 10.

And that wasn't the end. My flight was delayed for two hours. Luckily I had a five hour layover in Munich so I wasn't going to miss my connection but frankly I'd rather spend the time in the Munich airport than in Dulles. We finally got on the plane and I was happy to discover that, while I had a middle seat, at least it was in the first row of econ plus so I had all that leg room. We were finally served typically bad United food but I was so tired and hungry at that point I was happy for almost anything. Unfortunately that's when the bad thing about being in the middle kicks in. With people (in this case large men) on either side of me with jutting elbows I had little choice but to keep mine tucked close to my body and use only my hands and lower arms. At that moment I felt a lot of sympathy for T-Rex's. Although now that I think on it, I can empathize a lot more with them than with other dinosaurs. I'd have gone for the meat option as well.

But I've arrived now and am happy to be back in Belgrade. Hopefully the entire airport experience will be limited to that and not a portent of my entire trip.

Inauspicious beginnings

DC has gotten a pretty ridiculous amount of snow since December. Apparently, Dulles International Airport recorded 72 inches of snow this year. While I usually declare DC to be full of wusses unable to handle a little snow...the city-wide shut down made perfect sense last week. I think that would even have stalled Michigan a little. My biggest concern was that I was supposed to fly out of DC on Friday for my beloved city of Belgrade. What if I couldn't get out? What if I were stuck in DC trying to deal with changing my ticket and losing days I was supposed to be in Belgrade?! Joy of joys though, that did not happen. After the massive snow storms last week, Dulles was fully functioning by Friday. Little did I suspect however, that getting out of DC would not be my biggest problem.

My flight got into Munich slightly later than scheduled but as I was facing a four hour layover I was not terribly heartbroken to arrive late. The heartbreak came later when my 11:00 flight was cancelled. Lufthansa rescheduled everyone for the 3:00 flight...which was cancelled. It seems that Belgrade was in the midst of its own Snowmageddon. I was rescheduled for Sunday's 3:00 flight (seats for the 11:00 were completely booked) and Lufthansa put us all up in a hotel for the night. But did the problems stop there? Oh no.

I asked that my suitcase be offloaded so I could have it for the night. What I really wanted was my laptop cord which I had not thought to bring with me because why would I need it (lesson learned). I waited for two hours for my suitcase while the baggage handlers told me to be patient as it usually took a little while. Finally I went to the counter to ask where in blazes my case was. You know where it was? Lost, that's where. Because so many European countries have been hit with bad weather over the last week, Munich has experienced a lot of delays and cancellations so the luggage storage room was a bit of a mess. How very unGerman of them. With a promise that the bag would probably be located within the hour and that they would deliver it to my hotel I finally left the airprot for my first glimpse of Munich in nearly 11 years. I saw snow. Sadly it was too late and I was too tired to even think about trekking into the city. Needless to say my suitcase was not delivered that night nor even the next morning.

When I checked in again at the airport I asked after my suitcase only to be told that it was still lost. Panic was beginning to set in. I could use one of the computers in my Belgrade office so that wasn't so bad. Lufthansa would reimburse 100% of toiletries and 50% of clothes which is great since I only ever seem to find designer lables here...but hair product! I have yet to find a salon in Belgrade that carries Tigi's Curls Rock (if anyone knows where to get it here let me know!). The horror of having to go without my hair product was almost too much. I checked at the Lufthansa service center shortly before my flight and found out two things: 1. my 3:00 was delayed due to weather in Nice, and 2. my suitcase was discovered! Hurrah! I ate a Rittersport for joy.

I really love Lufthansa. I hate that I have to fly American airlines where available. I have a feeling that United would have been much less helpful than the lovely people at Lufthansa. I hope that this will be the only snag during this trip. I have almost two full weeks in Serbia before I head to Kosovo for a week and from there Macedonia for a few days. Fingers crossed.

And I'm in Serbia-How Surprised Are We?

Let me start off this particular post at the end...I want to die.

So I'm in Belgrade again and I know you're all really shocked about it. I've had an excessively quick trip this time around-two weeks exactly. No extensions, no changing my ticket half a dozen times, no evacuations...just two weeks. I haven't blogged before now because I think honestly unless I manage to take some vacation days and do something or there are more super fun riots there's not much else for me to write. How many times can I go on about how pretty Kalemegdan is or how much I *heart* Coffee Dream? I do however feel that a quick overview is needed, if for no other reason than Lauren and I have been lazy posters recently.

There are demonstrations everyday protesting the extradition of Radovan Karadzic (whose name I can now finally pronounce) in Republic Square. It's generally only between 20-50 "hooligans" but they manage to shut down one of the major streets everyday around 5-6 pm as they march down said street blaring a song that, as my friends told me, is an anti-American semi pop number, blowing whistles, and generally just being a nuisance.



My job here was possibly going to be ending at the end of September, however, in the face of all adversity and doubt from everyone that we could do, we won the new program! Which means a couple things: 1) This blog will never stop getting Greetings from Serbia posts, 2) My absinthe supply is endless, and 3) the farewell party we planned turned into one of celebration. We rented out a great restaurant in Zemun and hired a completely fabulous band. It was a work party so almost everyone who had ever been somehow involved with my program here was invited. There was a fair amount of mingling although I'll openly admit that I used the restaurant's cat and the fact that it was sleeping contentedly on my lap as an excuse to not have to actually mingle. Bad Andrea. However as the evening wore on and people got a few drinks into them we used the dance floor space to its fullest extent. I ended up dancing with the absolute spriest of old men ever. He asked me to dance during a slow number which I did and we shouted business talk at each other during our rotation around the floor. After the slow song the band broke into a fast piece and the little old guy actually EXPLODED! into dance. I cannot really do it justice...suffice it to say that there were moments when he would simply gallop across the floor. Gallop. In addition to the music and enthusiastic dancing there was also food and enthusiastic drinking, mostly by moi, which brings us to the beginning of the post-I want to die. Being no stranger to showing up to work either hung over or (twice) still drunk; I made it into the office this morning. But I would kill one of the Karadzic hooligans for an Egg McMuffin.

Where's Noah When You Need Him?

Or Sean Connery or James Mason for that matter? Long-eared animals anyone?

Coming out of a meeting yesterday I was happy to note that what had sounded from inside like a torrential downpour had passed. It was wet and puddly...but no longer actively raining. I grabbed a mochaccino from my favorite Coffee dram and happily walked back to the office. At about 6:30 I was having Internet problems so I decided to pack it in and use the Internet in my apartment. As I left the office I saw that it had started to drizzle and was again glad that I had packed an umbrella. By the time I went down the one flight to the lobby, the drizzle had morphed into a Biblical flood the likes of which I hadn't seen, well, since about two weeks ago in DC actually...

I decided to risk the walk because my only other choice was to go back to the office and stare at the walls. Within a block, my white pants were soaked from hem to upper thigh and were plastered coldly to my legs. Small favor, I suppose, that I'm so pale so not much flesh tone showed through! The streets I crossed were completely flooded with several inches of racing, dirty water and not even my long legs could span the distance. So into the new rivers splashed my cute gold ballet slippers. I got so wet that I actually had to stop three times to take off my shoes and tip out the water!

I couldn't really do anything but laugh at the situation and so giggled hoarsely all the way, stopping now and then to give a hacking cough as my stubborn bronchitis alerted me that it doesn't like for me to laugh.

I got to my apartment and squished across the floor to the bathroom where I stripped and dropped everything into the shower. Then I put on some nice, dry clothes and fired up my computer only to find...no Internet. Sigh. I do hope my shoes recover.

Grocery Shopping in Belgrade

I'm back in my favorite Serbia. Yay. For part of this trip I'm staying in an apartment rather than a hotel so I've been doing some grocery shopping. It's actually been really nice not having to go out for dinner every single night.

I had today, what was possibly the most interesting grocery cart. I bought:

10 really, really big brown eggs
1 loaf of still warm, crunchy and soft bread
5 packets of Jacob's 3 in 1 instant coffee
6 Sweet candy bars
2 boxes of marzipan
1 box of honey flavored Turkish Delight
1 small bag of paprika flavored crackers
1 tub of Nirvana pranlines and creme ice cream

Doesn't matter that the eggs and bread were dinner, the ice cream dessert (and probably also breakfast) and everything else was for gifts...it was one heck of an odd shopping cart.

Oh, and on the walk "home" I saw the biggest freaking snail I've ever seen. It was easily 3 inches long and the shell was the size of a 50 cent piece.

Greetings From Serbia - Ciao for Now

It is my last night in Belgrade. I've been back since Tuesday but have been so crazy busy that I haven't been able to blog. Actually I may write a back blog or two when I get home. Especially since I discovered snacks and junk food on this trip and they deserve a blog.

My friends took me to a lovely restaurant in the Center tonight. Little Bay has this location in Belgrade and five in London. Check out the gallery page on the London site. The menu was lovely, the food excellent, the prices really (really really) low, and the venue was brilliant. I think this is my new favorite restaurant of all restaurants.

Not that you could tell from the name of the place, but Little Bay is an opera-themed restaurant. It has two levels, the bottom levels regualr tables, but teh top level, which actually only rims the restaurant, is all opera-style boxes! Frescoes, gilding, red velvet curtains, it's an absolute scream. They play a very pleasing variety of classical music and opera arias, and have live musicians and roving opera singers. Seriously, check out the gallery on the London site. If you like opera, fancy theatres, good food, and ever happen to be in either Belgrade or London, this restaurant is totally worth the trip.

So thank you to my friends, new and old, for making this yet another wonderful experience. I know I'll get to come back to Belgrade at least once, if not twice this year and I'm already looking forward to it.

Greetings From Vienna?

On Thursday night I called my boss to tell him that the American Embassy was being burned down. Several hours later, after midnight for me, he called to tell me that they felt it would be better were I elsewhere for the weekend and to please check my email in the morning to find out where I was going. I am now a refugee in Vienna. As refugeeing goes I could be in a worse place.


(Goethe)

I’ve been to Vienna, once, seven years ago, but at least I have a better chance of communicating here once I dust off my rusty German. Provided that is, I can get around the funky Austrian accent. I got here Friday evening and actually think I saw more on the taxi ride from the airport than I did the few days I was here in 2000. I arrived on a one-way ticket with all of my luggage (for which there was a €70 overage fee) and no idea when or even if I would be returning to Belgrade. I was left with only enough time on Friday to eat, be shocked at the outrageous €3,80 I was being charged for a small bottle of San Pellegrino, notice that my hotel was around the corner from Saint Stephan’s, and go to bed.

It is now 11:00 AM (or at least it was when I wrote this long hand) and I am standing in front of the Rathaus drinking a Glühwein (hot spiced wine). I got an early start today and have been wandering around the city with my Stadtplan taking pictures of everything. I must say that I’m not really paying attention to what I’m doing with my camera…I’m pretty much relying on point and click today. I’m also not turning everything black and white. I have the tendency to black and white the bejeesus out of my photographs but, personally I think that a great deal of the charm of some cities, Vienna included, is the array of color in the buildings and roofs and ornamentations. Anyway I’m off topic; I was talking about how it’s 11 AM and I’m already drinking…but I actually have to rewind a bit first.

I started my wanderings at the opera house. I would love to see an opera here but I’m sure the tickets are even more outrageously priced than they are in DC. Until I manage to marry that really wealthy man I’m looking for or I get a raise (both of which are equally unlikely) I’m out of luck and will simply admire its façade.





I them moved onto the Hofburg Palace which I am sure is lovely in the spring when the park is in bloom. I seem to not have had the patience to get any really good shots today.



Part of the Hofburg Palace is the famous Spanish Riding School where the Lipizzaner horses are trained. I have seen this place on television many times and when I was a horse-mad 13 year old (because aren’t all girls horse-mad at that age?) my mom took me to a show. I think when I saw that was when I truly started to enjoy myself. I realized that despite being February the weather was sunny and in the 50s and I was back in western Europe. Hurrah.





A lot more walking finally got me to the Rathaus where I discovered the Wiener Eistraum. I have no idea if this is an annual event or if the city was just disgusted by the unseasonably warm weather but they constructed a myriad of skating rinks in front of the Rathaus!





Included in all this were a variety of refreshment stands which I noticed all sold Glühwein. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have Glühwein in a Germanic country, plus I knew Lauren would be disappointed if I didn’t so, despite the early hour, I had myself a nice mug of the warm spicy wine. It was then that I noticed the stands also sold Absinthepunsch. Warm punch made out of absinthe and God knows what else. I was tempted, but the combination of the wine on a stomach that had seen breakfast over three hours earlier and my arch nemesis cobblestone streets made me decide to save that treat for tomorrow.





I actually did a heck of a lot more than this, but I've only just now finished typing this and it's already almost midnight my time and I'm tired. More tomorrow!

Greetings From Serbia - Kosovo Declares

At about 3:00 this afternoon Kosovo declared its independence and sovereignty. The United States and the EU are expected to recognize their move on Monday.





Not surprisingly, shortly after Kosovo’s declaration, Serbian prime minister Kostunica broke into most TV stations declaring Kosovo’s declaration null and void.

"Kosovo's unilateral declaration of a false state is the final act of a policy that started with the NATO aggression against Serbia in 1999," the prime minister said.

"Never has the truth about why Serbia was savagely destroyed by NATO bombs been more clear," he continued, and added that "NATO's military interests lie behind the proclamation of this false state."

"The United States have also humiliated the European Union, and forced it to trample on the principles it is built upon," Koštunica added, and warned that Europe, "which has lowered its head", will be responsible "for all the serious consequences that Kosovo's independence carries with it." (from B92)

This evening on my way to dinner I came across a large group of men with Serbian flags, marching en masse towards what I presume to be the Slovenian embassy where yesterday’s protest was held. I do not think I have ever eaten dinner so quickly as the constant wail of police sirens and a text message warning me to stay off the streets made me nervous enough to not enjoy my tagliatelle al quattro fromaggio.

On my way back I pass by one of the main squares which was fringed with police to hold back the protesters. Elsewhere in the city were protests in front of the American embassy during which two policemen and several protesters were injured and McDonalds and several cafes got a bit banged up.


(courtesy B92)


(courtesy B92)


(courtesy B92)

The story right now in Kosovo is much different.


(courtesy The Washington Post)


(courtesy The Washington Post)


(courtesy The Washington Post)

Tomorrow I am confining myself to my hotel. Maybe it’s not entirely necessary but better safe than sorry.

Greetings From Serbia - Portents

It’s cold here, like really freaking cold. The temperature the last few days has been between -5 and -7 Celsius (19 to 23 Farenheit) with a wind chill that drops the temp a really whole lot lower. So when it’s miserably cold and windy and the country is on the brink of civil war what is the best thing to do? Go out walking of course. As per usual I chose to walk around the Kalemegdan fortress. The cold, grey sky, and thick snow flurries flying everywhere begged to have the fortress photographed in black and white. I wish I had not changed my mind about bringing my film camera and brought only my digital, sigh, next time I suppose. In the mean time I had to figure out how to balance my camera while wearing gloves since the one time I tried to take them off my fingers froze up and refused to work in about two minutes and since I rather need my fingers I decided to keep on my gloves.





The fortress, which has been controlled at one point by Celts, Romans, Huns, Turks, and Slavs (specifically the Hungarians) is one of the oldest areas of Belgrade. The government is currently repairing many areas where the walls are crumbling and many of the old towers and gates remain intact. Now mostly used as a park and a military museum, the enclosure teems with people in the summer and the main walkway is lined with vendors selling handicrafts, Soviet memorabilia, sweets, and many other things. In the winter though, it’s fairly empty and desolate. Today the crows outnumbered the people and they circled and plunged around trees and towers screaming against the wind. It was rather eerie really and felt very Poe-esque. Given the crow’s association with death and bad omens their presence and activities gave the park a very portenty feeling on the eve of Kosovar independence and Serb protests.





While still beautiful the park was too full of wild energy today and I left without gaining the peace I usually find within the walls. Not even in the church yards did I find calm as the crows disturbed even those holy places.



In the evening I went to my favorite pub for dinner as I’m getting a bit sick of pasta and pizza and remember seeing fish on their menu. Even though the English menu lists several fish it seems the waiter understood only that I wanted ‘fish’ and I ended up with some sort of smoked something or another. My intense and unwavering dislike of anything and every smoked warred with my inability to argue that I did not want smoked anything so instead of sending it back I ate it. While the requisite lemon that came with it helped somewhat to improve the flavour the saving grace really was the garlic infused slaver of oil that also accompanied the dish. That was brilliant and after drizzling that over the fish I tasted only garlic.

The snow and cold of earlier in the day made the sidewalks and streets sparkle in the lamplight like a diamond strewn deathtrap for people such as me who lack any competency in walking. My propensity for falling down seemingly without cause make me fear stairs and be wary of frost and ice covered surfaces so I picked my way carefully back to my hotel to thaw out and hide from the wind.