Autumn in Central Europe

There is something about the crunch of leaves beneath my feet and the distant smell of chimney smoke at dusk that capture my heart every autumn.  The past couple of weeks the leaves have begun to change colors and the sun is slowly making itself scarce earlier and earlier.  Autumn is one of those seasons you can easily miss if you don't look up and notice what is around you.  Sure you will feel the weather getting cooler, and you can notice the days getting shorter, but it is the radiant colors of fall that can come and go so quickly. We didn't want fall to pass us by without really embracing it, so this past weekend we spent a day at the imperial gardens in Vienna: Schonbrunn and Belvedere, and then an afternoon exploring the many colors of Gellert Hill in Budapest.

Schonbrunn Palace Gardens

Catching leaves at Schonbrunn

Prancing in the leaves

Stadt Park with Strauss in the background

Belvedere Palace

Gellert Hill

Gellert Hill

Sarajevo

We took a nine hour bus ride from Belgrade to Sarajevo. I was planning on sleeping for a lot of the ride, but the scenery along the way was absolutely stunning that I just couldn't shut my eyes.  We were weaving between jagged cliffs and driving along water nearly the color of emeralds.  We spent four days in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, but I felt like I could have stayed forever.

View of Sarajevo

Sarajevo might be one of my favorite cities in the entire world.  It has a depth of beauty that is greater than most cities.  On the surface you see a city sprawling within a basin of beautiful green hills, cobbled streets with old ottoman architecture, minarets in every direction, and an overall calm and stillness when you take it all in from a higher vantage point.  As you scan more closely and deeply you notice countless cemeteries, streets that wear scars in the form of bullet holes and mortar impressions, and a city full of people who saw more death and destruction than anyone should have to see.  Sarajevo was under siege for nearly four years during the 1990's, making it the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. Despite all of the scars the city might wear, the people have such a beautiful attitude and outlook on life.  They look forward, to what is good and in front of them, when it would be so easy to just look back and stay consumed in the pain and fear they had to endure. There was a true sense of positive energy in Sarajevo, unlike any other place I have ever been.  It might seem strange to describe a place that visibly emanates pain and destruction to have positive energy, but it was there, and it was radiating from the people.  There was this strange mix between positive energy from the people and feelings of heavy emotions that were impossible to shake when seeing  and hearing about what the people of this city had to go through. I really cannot fully describe it; it was just something that could so clearly be felt.

Men watching a chess game in a park

Bascarsija Square

Islamic Cemetery

Sarajevo Rose (mortar explosion)

Food Glorious Food

The Balkans is one of THE BEST places to eat.  And that is coming from someone who normally doesn't really like meat, but let me tell you, the meat here is different, and it is amazing.  Normally when Bill and I go on a trip we search high and low down big streets and alleys to find local places to eat.  I wouldn't exactly call them restaurants, because many times it is just a stand on the street, or if the 'food establishment' is within four walls, not a whole lot resembles a restaurant except the fact that there are chairs and tables (which don't usually match), and a kitchen (that is usually completely visible).  Finding these places in the Balkans was a cinch.  There were no long marathon-like quests in attempt to satiate our hunger on this trip; our problem was trying to not eat so much that we get sick.  The food was all so fresh, delicious, and insanely cheap!

Bosnian Sausage (I forgot the proper name) - Mostar, Bosnia

Bosnian Burek (filled with meat) - Sarajevo, Bosnia

Bosnian Coffee - essentially Turkish coffee, but your drinking it in Bosnia) - Sarajevo, Bosnia

River Fish with spinach and potatoes - Mostar, Bosnia

Squid Tint Risotto - Dubrovnik, Croatia

Breakfast of sardines, dough fritters, jam, cheese and homemade mountain tea - Scepan Polje, Montenegro
Made fresh by our wonderful 'house mom'

Bill enjoying Pljeskvica - Kotor, Montenegro

Homemade Goat Cheese - Kotor, Montenegro
The best thing about this cheese was how we found it. We were hiking the old city walls of Kotor and saw a deviation in the path that took us behind the trail. After walking about 150m we saw a sign that read "goat cheese 50m" so naturally we continued walking and came across a house perched on the hill, with goats surrounding it. We were invited in by the most lovely family, and there were no complaints about the view or cheese.

Qofte - Pristina, Kosovo

Sarma (grape leaves stuffed with rice and minced meat) - Sarajevo, Bosnia

Mish (thinly grilled beef) - Prizren, Kosovo

Cevapi - Pristina, Kosovo

Macchiato, the life blood of Kosovars - Pristina, Kosovo

Goat Cheese Market - Peja, Kosovo

Beef Kebab - Pristina, Kosovo

Mish Pule - Pristina, Kosovo

Dorado - Durres, Albania

Rotisserie Chicken - Tirana, Albania

Fish that Bill caught in Lake Ohrid - Ohrid, Macedonia

Drob Sarma (rice w/ liver), Chushki Burek (cheese stuffed peppers) Kavarma (pork ,egg and veg) - Sofia, Bulgaria

Souvlakis (grilled pork) and Kebab (grilled minced lamb) - Thessaloniki, Greece

Octopus - Pella, Greece

The Beginning of the Balkans: Serbia

After an eight hour train ride from Budapest to Belgrade on July 2, we began what was an incredible five week trip through the Balkans.  We had traveled to Serbia earlier in the year for four days, so this was a quick stop before moving on to other countries we had yet to visit.  It was fun being back in Serbia where we had such a wonderful first impression of the people and the food.

I think a lot of people in the west have a really negative view of Serbia because of their involvement and aggression in the Balkan War of the 1990's. Somehow in many people's mind this translates to the country being unsafe and the people being evil.  I actually found the people to be extremely nice and so welcoming to foreigners; almost as a way to show others that they don't want to forever be seen as the bullies and aggressors, and want to make a new impression worldwide. Well they made a great impression on me. One quick note though related to the war that I found to be extremely interesting, but not entirely surprising. In Belgrade we went to the military museum and were expecting some revisionist history, but it was more severe than we expected.  There was an exhibit called "UN and Western Aggression Towards the Republic of Yugoslavia,"  and the whole exhibit showed war trophies won by Serbs against UN troops and war crimes committed by UN fighters in Serbia, yet there was no mention of what brought on the UN intervention.  Essentially they mentioned the abandonment of Communism in 1989 and a run-in with the UN in 1999, but nothing happening in between. All that could come to mind when seeing this was a line that a good German friend of ours always says (and I believe was a line from Family Guy) "Nothing happened. Everyone was on vacation."  This absence of information became even more interesting as we traveled through the Balkans and visited various museums in different countries, trying to piece together all the different perspectives and interpretations of the war.
*Note: The pictures below are from our first trip to Serbia because our camera broke when we were in Serbia the second time.

Belgrade Fortress

The tiger habitat at the zoo in Belgrade was actually within the original fortress walls

Davolja Varos - Rock formation in Southern Serbia (also known as petrified wedding guests)

Bubanj Memorial Park in Nis. Commemorates the execution of over 10,000 Serbians during WWII

Burek is a popular food throughout the Balkans, but I can say that Serbia has THE BEST burek.

What a Whirlwind

Kotor Bay, Montenegro

I have so much to write about from this summer that I don't even know where to start.  I guess I can start by saying that traveling for six weeks straight has its ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs. Sure, there was a broken down bus, a trip to the hospital, and being stranded at a border around 1am; but this list is so small compared to all the beautiful wonders, delicious food, unplanned experiences and incredibly kind and welcoming people we met.

We left Hungary on July 2 to begin our trip through the Balkans with a rough idea of where we wanted to go, but essentially had nothing booked except a one-way ticket from Thessaloniki, Greece to Budapest on August 5.   It was both exhilarating and daunting not having plans set; on one hand we had to constantly try to figure out bus timetables, accessibility to sites we wanted to see, and finding affordable hotels at the last minute, but it also afforded us to take an extra day somewhere we loved, go further off the beaten path with recommendations from locals, and take the time to pause and soak it all in.  Our itinerary ended up looking like this: Serbia - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Croatia - Montenegro - Kosovo - Albania - Macedonia - Bulgaria - Greece - Turkey.

I still cannot believe how much we ended up seeing, and am truly humbled by and grateful for the openness and kindness that was shown to us by complete strangers. Traveling has a way of strengthening my faith in people to a level greater than I ever imagined possible .  My greatest joy in life is being surprised by the good that I know exists in us all; and this trip reminded me that this doesn't have to be a rare occasion. 

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina 

Rila Mountains, Bulgaria

 

Nemrut Dagi, Turkey

 

Another Year in Budapest

I can excitedly say that Bill and I are going to spend a second year in Budapest!  This past year has been absolutely amazing, and we have come to feel so comfortable and at home here.  Probably since October Bill and I tossed around the idea of staying another year, because right from the beginning we felt connected to Budapest.  When March rolled around we knew we would need to start moving forward with things if we wanted to stay or if we wanted to leave.  If we only listened to our gut, our decision would have been easy; Budapest.  I would get a sinking feeling in my stomach when we talked about leaving Budapest and sometimes my eyes would well up as I looked out at my favorite view of the city across the Danube and thought all of that could be gone next year.  We weren't ready for it to be gone; not yet.  But was it smart to take a leap of faith in a country where the political and economic climate seem to be worsening by the day, where jobs are scarce, and where salaries are extremely low? We had a lot to think about.

We made the decision to stay in Budapest before I had a job completely lined up.  Bill's school loved him and immediately offered him a job back.  It took me a little longer to get everything sorted out, but I am extremely happy with what I'll be doing next year.  I am renewing my Fulbright grant, but it will be more or less a new assignment.  I will still get to work at the Fulbright Educational Advising Center working with Hungarian students interested in studying in the U.S., but it will be just one day per week, rather than 2-3 days like this year.  The other four days I will be working with a study abroad program in Budapest called Aquincum Institute of Technology, which is specifically geared towards computer science undergraduates from elite universities in the U.S.  There I will get to do a lot of student-centered work (with current and prospective students), as well as working on developing policies, assessment, and new partnerships with U.S. universities to help grow and improve the program.  I started working with them this month and am really happy with how things are going.  Next year will be a good year.

Oh and one last thing.  Lucky for Bill and I, there was a small miscommunication with our landlord which has resulted in us needing to move out of our apartment for the month of July.  What was initially really frustrating has turned into a great excuse to go do some more traveling! We are packing up and leaving at the beginning of July to go traveling through the Balkans for a month!

Inching Its Way Up

Over the past couple of days there have been  massive amounts of flooding in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary.  Germany has gotten the worst of it, and had to evacuate thousands of people from their homes.  In Budapest, the Danube is at its highest point ever recorded, and water has spilled over onto the streets that border the lower banks.  Luckily there is a water retention wall that has kept the rest of Budapest dry, and the city has been vigilant about setting up sandbags in problematic areas.

On Saturday night Bill and I walked a couple miles along the Danube to check out the flooding, and chatted about how just the week before we were walking on the very path that was now under 15 feet of water.  What was even more surprising than the water levels were the amount of people lining the Danube.  I had never seen so many people along the Danube. Everyone was snapping photos and children were in wellies testing their courage by giving a quick stomp at the edge of the water and then running back to their mom and dad.  People are saying that the water levels should not continue to rise, so now we will wait and see just how long it takes for the water to get back to normal level.