I know you all have been eagerly awaiting an update of my adventures, and I do not disappoint.
The week before Easter was vacation time here in Romania...my "vacation" started even earlier. Tuesday, April 11, I returned to Bucharest for the final touches on my root-canaled tooth. That procedure had taken place a few weeks earlier. Fun stuff (hence the quotations).
Wednesday, April 13 was off to a rough start. I left for the dentist office for procedure 4 of 4, with all of my luggage, when I realized that I had left my cell phone back at the Peace Corps office...a 30 minute trip away. So after I finished at the dentist, I went back to the office, got my cell, and headed back in the same direction to the train station where I would wait four hours for two other volunteers. At 7:45 we were on our train to Timisoara, in the west of Romania. It was a loooooong night.
Thursday morning we arrived in Recas, where we would stay with another volunteer before heading off on the real adventure. Basically we slept while Sara taught her last classes before vacation, bought our train tickets, and slept some more. Friday was more of the same.
Saturday morning is when the fun really started...kind of. The 4th volunteer's train was supposed to leave a bit after ours...I say supposed to because our train ended up being THREE hours late from Bucharest. Minor freak out ensued. The delay leaving Timisoara meant that we would miss our connecting train from Belgrade to a tiny place in Croatia, and from there to Sarajevo. Since Grandma taught me well, I said a few Hail Marys...to the approval of one travel buddy, and the dismay of another. We finally got on our train to Serbia, found a crappy compartment on a crappy car that was filled with two New Zealaders and a crazy Romanian marathoner who wanted us to give him oranges while he ran the Belgrade Marathon. Ummm thank goodness we were only passing through Belgrade. As soon as we arrived at the Belgrade train station, we hustled to the information desk to find out if there was another train to Sarajevo that day...the jerk told us no. When we asked about a bus, we got an even jerkier no, or really a "how should I know?" So we hustled again to the bus depot next door and HALLELUJAH there was a bus in an hour that would arrive at the same time as the train we should have been on. Looks like those prayers came in handy :) As Aron found himself a Serbian hamburger, Sara and I were hit on by creepy Serbian human traffickers. Or so my overactive imagination led me to believe (darn that CNN special on Romania's slave trade, and darn Laurel for introducing me to Taken). The conversation went like this...
Creepy human traffickers: Where are you from?
Sara and I: Canada
Creepy human traffickers: What city?
Sara and I: Montreal
Creepy human traffickers: Would you like to drink with us? As they hold up a suspicious bottle of alchol.
Sara and I: Oh there's our friend, we have to go now.
For all his faults, Aron sure did have some impeccable timing. Finally we boarded our bus for our 7 hour trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia. The drive through the Dinaric Alps was truly stunning. Everything was beautiful; natural or man-made. We immediately noticed a difference of pride and cleanliness between these two countries and their neighbor to the north. Finally, around 9 pm, we were at the train station in Sarajevo, waiting for our hostel director. Jasmina found us there and took us back to the hostel. After a low down of hostel services, we got ready for bed, anticipating the full day of city touring ahead of us.
The week before Easter was vacation time here in Romania...my "vacation" started even earlier. Tuesday, April 11, I returned to Bucharest for the final touches on my root-canaled tooth. That procedure had taken place a few weeks earlier. Fun stuff (hence the quotations).
Wednesday, April 13 was off to a rough start. I left for the dentist office for procedure 4 of 4, with all of my luggage, when I realized that I had left my cell phone back at the Peace Corps office...a 30 minute trip away. So after I finished at the dentist, I went back to the office, got my cell, and headed back in the same direction to the train station where I would wait four hours for two other volunteers. At 7:45 we were on our train to Timisoara, in the west of Romania. It was a loooooong night.
Thursday morning we arrived in Recas, where we would stay with another volunteer before heading off on the real adventure. Basically we slept while Sara taught her last classes before vacation, bought our train tickets, and slept some more. Friday was more of the same.
Saturday morning is when the fun really started...kind of. The 4th volunteer's train was supposed to leave a bit after ours...I say supposed to because our train ended up being THREE hours late from Bucharest. Minor freak out ensued. The delay leaving Timisoara meant that we would miss our connecting train from Belgrade to a tiny place in Croatia, and from there to Sarajevo. Since Grandma taught me well, I said a few Hail Marys...to the approval of one travel buddy, and the dismay of another. We finally got on our train to Serbia, found a crappy compartment on a crappy car that was filled with two New Zealaders and a crazy Romanian marathoner who wanted us to give him oranges while he ran the Belgrade Marathon. Ummm thank goodness we were only passing through Belgrade. As soon as we arrived at the Belgrade train station, we hustled to the information desk to find out if there was another train to Sarajevo that day...the jerk told us no. When we asked about a bus, we got an even jerkier no, or really a "how should I know?" So we hustled again to the bus depot next door and HALLELUJAH there was a bus in an hour that would arrive at the same time as the train we should have been on. Looks like those prayers came in handy :) As Aron found himself a Serbian hamburger, Sara and I were hit on by creepy Serbian human traffickers. Or so my overactive imagination led me to believe (darn that CNN special on Romania's slave trade, and darn Laurel for introducing me to Taken). The conversation went like this...
Creepy human traffickers: Where are you from?
Sara and I: Canada
Creepy human traffickers: What city?
Sara and I: Montreal
Creepy human traffickers: Would you like to drink with us? As they hold up a suspicious bottle of alchol.
Sara and I: Oh there's our friend, we have to go now.
For all his faults, Aron sure did have some impeccable timing. Finally we boarded our bus for our 7 hour trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia. The drive through the Dinaric Alps was truly stunning. Everything was beautiful; natural or man-made. We immediately noticed a difference of pride and cleanliness between these two countries and their neighbor to the north. Finally, around 9 pm, we were at the train station in Sarajevo, waiting for our hostel director. Jasmina found us there and took us back to the hostel. After a low down of hostel services, we got ready for bed, anticipating the full day of city touring ahead of us.
Sunday we woke up and met Jasmina for our tour of the tunnel that connected the besieged Sarajevo to free Bosnia during the conflict with Serbia. It was amazing to experience. I had been saying all vacation that I had never been so close to war before. Not as in I’m dodging bullets and shrapnel from bombs or anything, but that I had never been somewhere that had so recently seen war. It was an intense, yet gratifying experience. For all of you American travelers out there, do not be afraid of Bosnia. We heard the reactions we got from family and friends when informed of our travel destination, but both cities were amazing, especially Sarajevo. Jasmina, was not only the person who ran the hostel we stayed at. She was a host leading us around the city, helping us get the Sarajevo experience. The most profound moment for me was when she said that Sarajevans love Americans. She told us thank you for the help and support our country gave hers. It is not every day you run across something like that. Let’s face it, typically we only encounter anger and hostility when it comes to US military intervention. This was one case where our efforts were appreciated and I am lucky to have experienced that moment.
Monday we went back through the city to the places we wanted to spend more time at (I'll put up pictures in another blog post)…mainly the bazaar in the Old Town. Did you expect any less of me? Before considerably lightening our wallets, we trudged up a hill on the outskirts of town to a look-out point. Sara and Aron trudged a little further, but I decided I had pushed my asthma enough for one day. So I sat at the look-out point and contemplated life…or something like that. After we had our fill of the hill, Sara and I left our mark on that bazaar…while Aron followed, he was a champ. Later that day, I headed back to the hostel for a quick rest while the other two wandered around the city more. At the hostel I met two other guests who were traveling alone and invited them out with Sara, Aron, and I. We ate some dinner and then headed to City Pub for a few beers. All in all, it was the perfect end to a perfect couple of days.
Tuesday we left for the train station in the morning and at 11:30 left to go back to Belgrade, Serbia. We arrived in the evening and taxied to our hostel. It was a gorgeous hostel; everything was clean and new, and the staff were really friendly. As soon as we put our stuff in our room, we headed out to find some dinner. It was a rather unexpected adventure…pictures will hopefully be up in the next blog post.
Wednesday we headed to the city center for a really nice breakfast and wandered around a bit before meeting up for a free walking tour. Our tour guide was really nice, informed, and showed us everything we needed to see in the city. The weather was beautiful…I even got a little tan :) At the end of the tour, Aron backtracked to the War Museum with two other tour participants while Sara and I went off for more…can you guess? Shopping. Good thing these two countries were really cheap. After fulfilling our souvenir/gift quota, we ate some cookie ice cream (delish) and waited for Aron before heading to a traditional Serbian restaurant for a traditional meal (also delish).
Thursday we headed to see the two NATO bombed buildings left as a sort of memorial before gathering all of our belongings and heading back to Romania. We arrived in Timisoara at night, I hopped right on a train to Bucharest, sat around for a few hours, and finally got on a train back to site!
That was the end of our vacation! It was amazing, I wouldn’t have traded it for any other destination in the world…even Madagascar…and that means a lot coming from me. Sarajevo is one of my favorite cities in Europe. It was just incredible. Not only was the city beautiful, but the people were as well. You could see their pride in the way they held themselves, and in all of the buildings and monuments that had to be rebuilt. It really was a home away from home.
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