devyn

I'll have to admit that I knew embarrassingly little about Sarajevo before I came -- all I knew about it was that it's the capital of one of the longest country names I had the misfortune to memorize in geography class, and that its claim to fame (in my mind, mind you :P) was being the city that was bombed to smithereens in the recent Bosnian conflict. The moment I arrived at the bus station, I instantly learned a couple of important things: 1) The Lukavica bus station is a decrepit, sorry-for-an-excuse bus depot/hovel which serves as the secondary international bus station in the city where all the reject routes end up in Sarajevo (AKA the buses coming in from Serbia and Montenegro :P), located in the middle of nowhere 2) And because I was currently ... read more

A full day of playing tour guide to my mother was a bit more challenging than I expected. In truth, it was something I should have seen coming, judging from the way she gave a decidedly unladylike snort when I told her that Belgrade has been called "The New York City of the Balkans." I think she's been spoiled by Athens, so nothing can compare now, naturally :P. We looped around the Kalemegdan and strolled down the Knez Milhailkova, where we had lunch at a little tavern tucked away underground. Food was great! Yum, my stomach remembers that lunch fondly, lol.Cevapi (ground beef and pork, served in balls), Pljeskavica (spiced hamburger meat), paprika salad...what more could you ask for? And then night came... Somehow I don't quite believe that my mom and I learned our lesson ... read more

We kicked off the month of April beginning our stay on the Island of Santorini, about an 8-hour ferry ride from Athens. There has been healthy amounts of speculation that the volcano eruption from Santorini from way back when might have had a hand in the sinking of the mythical civilization of Atlantis. Holy crap, are you serious? A volcano on this tiny little speck of something-something that would take maybe a couple hours to drive across? Of course, according to our local guide, this eruption was something pretty fierce: apparently people could hear the eruption 3 separate times (i.e. the sound of the eruption traveled the globe thrice). Gee, and all I've ever heard about Santorini was how pretty it was...:P My mom and I had a half-day sailing tour booked that morning, which took ... read more

I didn't know exactly what today would bring -- the only thing I did know was that I was going to exploit the hell outta my 3-euro 24-hr subway pass. Athens reminded me exactly why I love the subway system. After spending over 6 weeks in the Balkans, coexisting primarily with people who've never been able to leave the country (let alone the Balkan region), I've forgotten what it's like to blend in in a foreign setting. Even though Asians are unusual to come by in Greece, at least there are always those ubiquitous Japanese tourists to help the Greeks acclimate to the Asian presence, haha! Today was Greek Independence Day, and I just happened to be in the capital of Greece, of all places! And I happened to wander into Syntagma Square (where the National ... read more

While the bus ride to Skopje was pretty uneventful, my quest to find my hostel once I got there was anything but. Gah. One thing I seemed to have forgotten (damn short-term memory, haha) is that taking the bus typically results being dropped off in the middle of nowhere (AKA not exactly in the bus station ^^;;;) at your final destination. I had to take a stab at which stop I was supposed to get off, and once I did, I could only pray that I was in the right city. Haha, such a loser I am! But all is well and good -- I took a risky gamble (it was snowing quite a flurry at the bus stop!), and thankfully it turned out to be somewhere in Skopje. Visibility was rather terrible, so I folded ... read more