Bath

Well, I'm getting settled in here in Bath! I have limited internet access right now, but I will write more once I have my internet set up at home.

Budapest

Well, our trip is coming to an end! Just one full day left in Budapest. We've really enjoyed it, though. Our hostel is adorable, and we've been having a good time seeing all the sights. Yesterday, we went to the Synagogue, which is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world, after the one in New York. The woman, Aggie, who did our tour was amazing, and told us all about the history of the Jewish community in Budapest right up through the Holocaust and into the present. We were shocked to learn about how late the Hungarian Holocaust started, and how quickly it was achieved. We visited the Jewish Museum and the memorial garden, with a beautiful sculpture donated by Tony Curtis, of all people! Then, we went for lunch at a place nearby that was recommended by Olga, who runs our hostel, and walked by the Basilica and Opera House on the way to the Terror Museum, which chronicles the history of the secret police in Hungary. When we came out, it had begun to rain, but we still trekked up to Heroes' Square before dinner.

Today, we visited the National Museum, which has a temporary exhibition on the Mongolian invasion, and then ventured across the Danube to Buda. We wandered around a little bit, but were kind of tired of sightseeing, so we spent the afternoon at the thermal baths and got massages. It was amazing.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to take a day trip. Maybe go wine-tasting in Eger. Sorry this wasn't a very energetic post, but I am so relaxed right now after my massage. Mmmm.

Journey

Our last day in Sarajevo was amazing. I can't wait to write all about it, but I definitely can't do it justice right now. This morning, we were up at 5 to catch a 12 hour train to Budapest. The Lonely Planet guide alleges that there is an overnight train, but that is not the case, so we had to waste one day roasting in an old train to complete our journey. We went just a little bit stir crazy, but at least we had packed plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and were both reading good books. We arrived in Budapest a little sweaty and exhausted, but our hostel is adorable, and we went out to dinner with a fellow traveller, James from Bournemouth, and heard about his ordeal trying to get from Poland to Lviv, and then here, and realized that we had had it pretty easy (although his makes a really good story!). We are excited about spending the next few days here, there's a lot to see, but we are concerned that nothing will live up to the wonderful surprise that was Bosnia. I am going to bed now, but I will write more soon.

Sarajevo

We're in Sarajevo now. Yesterday we walked around the old town and the markets, saw some places of worship (there's a major mosque, synagogue, Orthodox cathedral, and Catholic church within a few blocks of each other), and saw the little museum on the corner where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. I will write more about it later. The whole crew from Mostar has headed this way, and we all met up again last night. We went out for čevapčiči and then to a bar called the City Pub, which was really happening, except that we noticed that we were about the only ones drinking alcohol. We don't know if the residents here usually abstain, or if they're just observing Ramadan, but it's interesting to be in a European Muslim country. I was awakened by a call to prayer at 5:30 this morning, fell back asleep, and was awakened again by church bells at 7:30. Now we're going to meet Nicolas to go to some of the war museums, then tomorrow we're off to Budapest.

Welcome to Sarajevo

We took the early train this morning from Mostar to Sarajevo with Nicolas, Chaw, and Ya'el, three new friends from our hostel in Mostar. We just checked into our hostel here, and are going to meet Nicolas at a cafe in about an hour. Our excursion yesterday was incredible. It was led by Bata, the brother of Majda, the proprietress of our hostel. We were joined by Nicolas, who is from Argentina; Chaw, who is originally from Hong Kong but lives in Manchester; Ya'el, who is Israeli; Zmago, from Slovenia; Logan, from Portland; and Stephan, from Munich. The last three guys were travelling together in a car, so they followed along and James, Nicolas, and I rode with Bata. First, we went to Počitelj, a medieval Muslim city on a hill outside of town, and Bata gave us a tour and told us the history of the place. He also gave a running commentary while he drove, and was very frank about both ancient and recent history. After that, we headed up to Kraviče, a lake surrounded by waterfalls, and went swimming in the very very cold water. We even climbed inside one of the waterfalls, through some caves, and sat underneath and looked out onto the lake. It was beautiful. Both James and I commented that we had no idea that Bosnia would be as beautiful as it is. After we had dried off, we drove through Međugorje, the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to some teenagers in the 1980's, and where James and I had originally planned to spend the day (so glad we didn't, it's really kitschy and kind of disturbing), and out on the other side of Mostar to a dervish house on the river. We had a big traditional dinner that couldn't be beat, sat around drinking wine, and then took a little boat into some caves at the end of the river. Apparently, the light reflects in really interesting ways inside, but we had waited too long and the sun was already going down. We still had a lot of fun, though. We got back around 8, totally exhausted and rahat (that means satisfied).

So, now we're in Sarajevo, about to go meet Nicolas and explore the town. That's all for now!

Mostar

James and I took the first bus from Dubrovnik to Mostar yesterday morning. We both had our books out, but didn't read a word, because the scenery was so beautiful. Our route hugged the coast for most of the way, and we could see out to the islands offshore. Then, we turned inland toward Bosnia, and travelled through farmland and abandoned villages for about the last hour. Coming into Mostar was quite a shock; the first few buildings we saw were covered in bullet holes, and a lot of them had broken glass or blown out windows. Some of the buildings are in such ruins that trees are growing inside, and the branches are poking out of the roof, and between the building stones and where the windows used to be. It is obviously a lot poorer here than in Croatia, too: I don't think we saw one person begging in Zagreb or Dubrovnik, but we have seen a fair number here (although not as many as one might expect). We took off to find our hostel, and immediately got spectacularly lost. In Croatia, it seemed like all we had to do was look confused, and someone would come up to us and ask if they could help. This is obviously a lot to ask; as we have since found, Bosnians are just as nice, but perhaps ever so slightly less aggressive.

We decided to take a break and stop for lunch at a little fast food stand, where James sampled the cevapi, a traditional Bosnian meat sausage wrapped in pita bread. Reinvigorated by nourishment, we tried again, this time stopping in a little shop to ask the woman there if she recognized the address of our hostel. She didn't know, and she didn't speak English, so she walked us over to the cafe next door, opened the door, and hollered into the room. The men sitting around one of the tables laughed, but said they didn't know. A young woman stopped to look at the name I had written down, but she didn't recognize it either. I showed her the alternate name of the street that had been provided in the directions, and she recognized that, so she gestured for us to follow her. Only then did we learn that she spoke good English. She asked us what we were doing in Mostar, and we told her we were on holiday, and she said, "Why?" and laughed. We muttered a few things about wanting to see the bridge, and how Bosnia was a beautiful country, and how friendly people were, and we soon settled into a conversation. It took us about 5 minutes to find the street, and she wished us luck and went on her way.

We checked into our hostel, got our things together, and then set out in search of the old city. It was incredible, but really sad. It's hard to explain; it will be better when we can post pictures. We saw some cemetaries filled with the graves of Muslims, all of different ages, but all with dates of death in 1993. We went into a mosque, and climbed the minaret, which gave spectacular views of the bridge and river, but which made me dizzy. We saw a Turkish house, with exhibits of how people lived there hundreds of years ago. And then we crossed the amazing old bridge that was destroyed in the war and has recently been rebuilt. The river is beautiful; we agreed that we have never seen water so green. We browsed the souvenir shops, some of which had for sale old weaponry and military medals. We were pretty disturbed, but really taken with the beauty of the old city. We stopped at a cafe, and this time Elizabeth had the cevapi and James had some brains (for it wouldn't be one of our trips unless we ate some crazy shit) which I also tried, and which I have to say were delicious, and we both sampled the Hercegovinian wine, which is delicious. It was the first day of Ramadan, and we heard calls to prayer, and as it got dark, we saw some men with beards and women with headscarves enter a restaurant across the street that must have been for Muslims, because we had checked the menu there earlier and ruled it out because it didn't serve alcohol. We came back late to the hostel, and now we're sitting in the living room getting ready to go on a tour led by the proprietess' brother to some of the smaller villages. So, we'll write all about that later! We are having a great time and loving every minute.

Dubrovnik

Well, Dubrovnik is paradise. I promise to write all about it later. Yesterday we explored the Stari Grad, or old town, and today we sat on the beach (don't worry, Mom, I wore plenty of sunscreen). Tomorrow we're off to Bosnia early early in the morning. I'll write more soon!

Zagreb

We were in Zagreb for less than twenty-four hours, but it was more than enough time to appreciate the city's charm and see just about all the available sights (Zagreb is a city of museums, which are apparently all closed on Mondays. Oh, well). For all that the names of the countries we are visiting bring to mind images of war and instability (even in the prologue to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, her epic book on Yugoslavia, which I am now reading, Rebecca West writes, "Violence was, indeed, all I knew of the Balkans: all I knew of the South Slavs" - that was written in 1941, which gives you an idea of the history of this region), I can't imagine a much more peaceful place than the city of Zagreb. It is quiet and busy but unhurried.

Waiting in the airport last night, I wrote a long description of our day in Zagreb, but we are anxious to explore Dubrovnik, so I will have to type it up later! Dubrovnik is gorgeous, the guesthouse we're staying in is so charming, and we are having a great time.

Journey

Well, we are in beautiful Zagreb and having a wonderful time! James and I met at the airport in Budapest and he was much perkier than I had expected after almost 24 hours of travel. We hopped on a bus and then took two different metros to the train station, and we didn't have any trouble despite our complete inability even to sound out the Hungarian words in my phrase book. We couldn't have done it without the kindness of English-speaking strangers who noticed our bewildered state and stepped in to translate for us, but we were still pretty proud of ourselves.

We got to the train station a couple of hours early and bought our tickets to Zagreb. There isn't much around the train station, and certainly there wasn't much open on a Sunday afternoon, but we bought some slices at Pizza Hut and sat in the middle of the square outside the train station and soaked up some sun. We took a long walk to stretch our legs before settling into our 6 hour train journey to Zagreb. James slept most of the way, and I read and slept intermittently. We arrived in Zagreb at about 11:30 and walked straight to our hostel. We had no trouble finding it. I had booked our beds about a month in advance, and emailed twice to let them know we were arriving late. My most recent email was the day before, and I had received an email in reply saying that that was fine and they were expecting us. However, when we got there, the office was closed, and a young Croatian man answered our knock in his underwear, with a bewildered expression on his face. I explained to him that we had reservations, and he said he was not expecting us. We went over to the computer, which he had to repeatedly restart, to look up my reservation, but he told us they had no more beds. We were too tired even to be annoyed, we were just worried that we wouldn't have anywhere to sleep. He finally found our reservation, and he was really embarassed that they had overbooked. He called around to some other places, but nowhere seemed to have any beds, so he offered to let us sleep for free on the sofa in his room. We said that would be fine, and he offered us a shot of Croation liquor. We sat around talking for awhile, and then the guesthouse next door called to say that they had an empty room. So, in the end, we got a private twin ensuite room to ourselves, and slept very comfortably.

We woke up early and walked back into to town. Our hostel is right off the main square, Trg Jelačića, which is very convenient. The man at the hostel told us that flying to Dubrovnik isn't that much more expensive than taking the bus, and much more convenient, so we headed to the airline office and bought tickets for tonight. We sat in a cafe on Trg Jelačića, which was busy but quiet, and listened to a man playing an accordian while we drank our coffee. Now we're going to check out of our hostel and do some sightseeing before we hop on the plane tonight.

Off to Budapest

Well, I'm about to leave for the airport. John and Kyla are very good to get up at 5am to take me on a Sunday morning. I'm meeting James in Budapest and then we're taking a train down to Zagreb. Look out for updates!

Shopping, Royalty, and Celebrities

Well, Kyla and I have had another fun couple of days. Yesterday we went into London to do a little shopping and visit Buckingham Palace. The State Rooms are only open a few months of the year, and this year is the King and Queen's 60th wedding anniversary, so they had an exhibit of her gown and a lot of little accessories and things, so that was cool. We also made our yearly pilgrimage to Oxford Circus, although we are probably going to have to make another one, as we only had time to hit Topshop. Oh, and another exciting tidbit: we saw Keira Knightley when we were walking up Baker Street. We were very starstruck. I am always running into people I know in London, but I've never seen a celebrity before. So, that was cool.

Today we hung around Gerrard's Cross, visited the little shops and had lunch at this great tearoom downtown. We also found a dress for me to wear at Kyla's wedding, so we checked that off the list! I can't believe how fast the week is flying by!

Warwick Castle

Well, Kyla and I took a trip to Warwick today to see the castle. We had so much fun! We had lunch at a cute little pub and sat outside in the beer garden. The sun was shining, and we spent a lot of time walking around the castle grounds, admiring the peacocks in the gardens, and exploring the rooms. The people from Madame Tussaud's have done wax figures of the famous inhabitants and guests, and the exhibits are fantastic. We tried on pieces of armor and old hats, explored the dungeon, climbed the tower, and saw a demonstration of a medieval catapult, which was pretty awesome. I'll add some pictures later.

British Library

Well, I am all settled in at Chez Gulliver, and having such a nice visit. Today we went into London and visited the British Library, which currently has an exhibit of sacred Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts. The exhibition was wonderful and fascinating, and I would like to go into more detail about it when I get a chance. They had two of the three earliest New Testaments, along with texts as early as the 3rd and 4th and from places as diverse as Iran, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Spain, China, Portugal, Egypt, Iraq, Spain, and, of course, England. Among the highlights were a copy of the Torah from 7th century China (who knew there were Jews in China?); a copy of the Qu'ran from the year 650; a copy of Revelation written on the back of pages from the book of Exodus from Egypt in the 3rd century, presumably by an early convert writing on the back of his Hebrew Bible; an original 1611 King James Bible; and a polyglot New Testament in 7 or 8 different languages. We also took a look at the permanent exhibit, which included a manuscript of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun, an early printing of Leaves of Grass, The Emancipation Proclamation, and the last letter that Sir Thomas More wrote to Henry VIII before he was beheaded. I also ran into my good friend Steffi Dellner, who is working on her masters and just happened to come in the door to go up and study as we were buying our tickets. Steffi went to York with me, and I visited her family in Brussels over our Christmas break, and it was so good to see her and our encounter confirmed by theory that London is actually a small town.

So, that's all the news!

Good craic

Well, I can't write much at the moment because I'm sitting in Heathrow waiting for John and Kyla to pick me up (apparently they're stuck in terrible traffic!) but I just read that Kenneth Foster's sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment! So, I thought I should mention that after my earlier post on him.

On my last day in Dublin, I got to go to court! Much to the dismay of my inner tourist, there were no wigs and gowns worn (the courts are closed and it was an emergency session), but it was still really interesting. In the afternoon, Catherine, my boss from FLAC, dropped by NCLC to wish me luck, and it was nice to see her again.

It was a little bit sad to leave Dublin, especially parting with my roommates. We had a good night out last night, though - some "good craic" before I took off. I think Aoife might come visit in Bath for a weekend! I would love that. I'm excited to be here now, and I am really looking forward to my visit with Kyla and John.

More later!