Wait...There's No Mountain Too Great, Hear Their Words And Have Faith

Let’s talk Montenegro! So, after a brief “I am getting my life dream for one year and not wasting it” blog post, we resume! We left our heroine parting from some wonderful people she met in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take a bus to Montenegro.  Yet again alone, and yet again unafraid. Now let’s touch on what I mean by “unafraid.” I do not mean that I am cocky and feel like nothing can touch me, not at all. It’s the opposite rather as I have spent years studying what’s “out there” (ie serial killers, traffickers, rapists etc.)  I know what could get me, I know the fear that my body holds in it just thinking about it-and then I choose to live. I plan ahead, and read up on the area, I travel cautiously and avoid any secluded area, and I am always aware of my surroundings. I choose to not let that fear govern who I am and what I do.  Which means I hopped a bus to Podgorica Montenegro and didn’t look back. Literally, though I couldn’t look back those roads are windy ;)

One of my favorite Disney characters

I arrived pretty early in the day to Podgorica, and grabbed a taxi to my hotel. What it turned out to be was not my hotel but the place that rented the apartment I had unknowingly rented for less than the cost of a hotel room. It was fantastic because I was able to really be alone and process Bosnia. The apartment was amazing and comfy! I actually took an hour to just relax and watch the Disney channel which was my first TV in about a month really, and even at home I hadn’t had cable in 4 months so to just sit there and let my mind go for an hour helped me regroup my energy to plan my next adventure!

I reference Mary Poppins whenever possible, like right now

I had looked up the major things to see in Podgorica and after showering (because seriously my shower in Bosnia was horrible) I grabbed my camera and hit the road so to speak heading towards the city center. Slight problem with me dear readers, I am a really motivated person and that can be really great when it comes to heading a committee or writing a paper-it’s horrible when site seeing. I get everything I planned 3 days for, done in 1. So all those sites I planned on seeing were finished, chronicled by pictures, drawings and journal reflections and I had 1.5 days left in a city I’d already seen everything I wanted. This is when you’d think I’d get frustrated right? NOPE! The joy of traveling when you are young is that you are pretty open minded on the road and a lot of other travelers are your age, you easily interact and get advice on different places. For instance I put up a post in the ETA private fb group for Bulgaria that I was in Montenegro alone, was anyone there or have any advice on what to do? I got great advice from Erika to go to Kotor an climb the fort there!

Phenomenal, awesome powers, itty, bitty, living space ;)

So the next day after careful research of bus times and safety I got on a bus to Kotor which was really hard to navigate since the bus makes multiple stops and doesn’t actually stop near the center of Kotor so you have to ask around at each stop before exiting to make sure you’re actually there! But I made it and dear god it was beautiful. These is a site of ancient ruins right on the water with a beautiful view and the second you walk through those gates you hears dozens of languages in a tour group just trying to find their way around.

Kotor has palaces inside it that we would equate to being adorable Parisian apartments, each alley way leads to another mystery and there are times you think you are either in Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic or a labrynth. Each path is prettier than the one that proceeded it, and at one point I stumbled upon a couple re-enacting Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene. I was getting lost and with each turn I was becoming found. I didn’t want to leave and I was

Who could kill themselves living here?

on a mission to climb the fort.

Now when I saw fort you may think of the fort in New York that is not that big, and easy to climb right? That’s what I thought! Yeah, really, really wrong. I get to the top of the first part of the hike up and I think I’m done, and I find this Asian couple (I have no idea if they were Chinese, Korean, Japanese and so don’t want to generalize) and handing them my camera they take my picture standing proudly at the top. Except it wasn’t the top, no where close. So I keep going up and up and it starts to get hard because I didn’t know it would be so steep or so tall and I brought my backpack to tour around, I’m wearing old converse that I bring everywhere, and I forgot to eat breakfast. So I keep telling myself “one more level and I’ll turn back;” but I know I really won’t. Each level I say “My Nunny would want to hike this and she can’t because she’s in America, do it for Nunny.” So I do and I keep going. But right as my body gets really tired, almost as if an angel sent me a sign from above, I get assistance from two men I never planned on.

Wisdom from Feeny

There’s an Australian man in front of me who turns around and says “why are you so tired

Age is the least important part of a journey

you’re a third of my age!? Which is when he sees I have my backpack and says “oh, you weren’t prepared either? Well we keep going.” And it turns out he is 79, or just about 80 as he says. He only found out while climbing that he isn’t as young as he used to be, and when I tell him I forgot the whole eating breakfast thing he says “well you’re young, at least your are determined enough to push on.” And we did, we kept cheering each other on and taking breaks together and saying how beautiful it was. Then about 1/3^rd up (We were always 1/3^rd the way up until we were at the very top, whenever you asked someone where you were they said 1/3^rd done) we stopped at the chapel in the fort and paid our homage while admiring the beauty of the old chapel, then we picked up the second man that completed my journey-the Spaniard.

Words are words, just try to understand

A Spaniard who was about 60 was climbing behind us and didn’t speak any English. So while he needed support as well we decided to do away with the formality of understanding language and progress to understanding volume. We cheered each other on in Australian phrases, English, Czech, and Spanish (what I could remember from high school) it didn’t matter that we could understand him and he thought we were crazy, but we did it. Finally we made it to the top and in broken Spanish I offered to take the Spaniard photo and in perfect Spanish he offered to take mine. It was a beautiful moment where you are at literally the top of an ancient fort, and you got their using your own legs with no help besides words of encouragement, and you just own the world. You are Kate and Leo at the helm of the Titanic without a care in the world, you are every explorer who finally proved to themselves they could do it and you did it breaking the boundaries of language.

1/3rd of the way!

Then comes the issue of heading back down, which is scary as the boogeyman from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” These are tiny stairs that are crumbling apart that are so steep and near the edge that you are given a map that states climbing up could cause death. So it’s pretty terrifying to climb up but even scarier for someone who has a fear of barrier heights to come back down.  But I made it and the world looked a little brighter after I descended, and I felt a little bigger when I descended, and I knew that each person I passed I could tell them “you’re 1/3^rd of the way, keep going ;)”

Just don't look down

I think I found Humpty-Dumpty's burial site

So I came down, ate a small pizza which was still the best meal I could have imagined after that trek, and walked around in the sunlight enjoying my success. Leaving I made it back for an earlier bus than I even planned and was able to head back and relax while still hitting the town at night to see the millennial bridge in the moonlight. I finished up my stay in Montenegro content that I had seen a beautiful place, found some time to relax, and conquered a climb I never even imagined starting! With two men that I will never see again but that added greatly to my life in those brief moments.

I hit the grocery store to get ready for what I knew would be an annoying set of bus transfers to get to the capital of Albania, went back and watched some Disney while I packed. I went to bed dreaming of proceeding to country #4 of my backpacking trek and as I fell asleep I reflected on the rain hitting my window, I realized it was the first rain that I had fallen asleep to in a month and it reminded me of home, the nice way the rain helps me drift to sleep and I knew then, tomorrow would be a good day to start another adventure.

I always have a start, the rest I can make up!

Tonight’s song is: “He Lives In You” from the Lion King 2, its very reflective of all the people you carry with you who support and motivate you as my Nunny motivated me!

 Anna

Raise Your Hopeful Voice, You Have A Choice, You've Made It Now

Taking a break from chronicling my crazy adventure through the Balkans to tell you about my first day of teaching high school!

Presentation of the flag

Introducing faculty

In Bulgaria on the first day of classes there is this great ceremony, where students present and raise the countries flag with music and marching and speeches. Some students sing in English which I find very interesting, and others present the faculty. All the students bring their teachers flowers, which was very exciting for me to feel welcomed and included. And when I was walking home at the end of the day parents smiled at me because I was holding a flower, so they knew I was a teacher.

After the ceremony we had a staff meeting, which I understood a lot of but not all, since I am still really a beginner in this language. But the faculty were amazing in reaching out to me. I was the new kid that everyone wanted to sit next to at the traditional after ceremony luncheon. They wanted to discuss politics, and language, and geography. They treat me like some dignitary instead of a 23 year old, visiting, MA student who is here to teach and do research. But they asked me why I wanted to come and teach when my research is in Violent Crime Sociology. I always brush it off saying statistics show that completing high school decreases violent crime so I want to contribute to that decline. But in reality I am getting my life’s dream in so many ways over here.

I understand that there should not be
random dancing in class ;)

This plays into the hardest part for me. When I entered the school with those kids it made me wonder what it would be like to go to a normal high school every day, and participate, and just be so involved as these students are.  I don’t know what that is like. I grew up in a hospital, I don’t hide that fact, but it means that I don’t understand what it is to be a normal student or a normal teenager for that matter. These kids will have normal problems, that only after extensive study in psychology can I even really understand. My life has always been drastically different from there’s and not just because I grew up in America. For me in high school there was the usual desire to fit in, but also the resignation that I wouldn’t. Not when I had to leave all the time to go to acupuncture, or see dozens of doctors and meet with research teams. I didn’t get a normal experience and now I am back in a high school, in a country I’ve never visited, in a language I barely understand and I am here to help guide, inspire, and educate these kids. I’m really hoping that all of my studying and humanity will pay off because I want to be there for them and help them in coping with life.

The HS kids I grew up watching!

Which brings me to part 2: My life long dream.

Feeny!

I always wanted to be a 1^st grade teacher, since I was IN the first grade. So why didn’t I become one you ask? Why when I completed 3 majors, and 4 minors, did I not get a degree in education, which at this point is unnecessary over here? Because I am sick. I have an incurable disease that means I wake up every day in a tremendous amount of pain and vomit a lot, which is my body’s way of relieving the pain. I have migraines that last for days, the types of food I can eat are very limited, I could plan for weeks to do something and then the day of the event my body decides I won’t be moving at all so give up. I was born this way, grew up this way, and battled my body to earn my degree, while being labeled as “disabled.” Being a vegetarian helps, since it turns out my body can’t digest meat, but that can only aid me so much before my body decides it’s going to attack some other part of me. The early morning is when my disease is at it’s worst which of course is when the school day begins. See over here, I go 2 or 3 days a week from either 7:15-1:15 or 1:15-7:15. So the constant change tricks my body into allowing me to, even if just briefly, fulfill my dream of being a teacher. It may be the wrong grades but I still get to teach and impact these students’ lives.

My mom and I were talking about this last night, as I don’t usually bring it up. I made peace with the fact that my body and I are “locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound” as Barbossa would say in Pirate of the Caribbean. Some days it wins, and others I win and one day I am aware that it will win the final round, but that day is very far off and I intend to be as much of a jerk as possible until then and win tons of rounds! (you see now why I live and breathe existentialism.) But I don’t usually bring up that I can’t be what I wanted to be, I feel guilty saying it because in the end I can be many things, and do things that I know others can’t with ease. So I know I should just be grateful for that, and I mean I am over here living the dream in Bulgaria on a Fulbright, which is basically a 1 in 20 chance! So not a bad life, but still my mom and I were talking about how she didn’t realize I still wanted that life.  She brought up a good point that others have lectured me on before but still it’s worth contemplating: While teaching is a noble profession and one most of my family has sought out (my inspiration) it is still a set life. You teach the same things with little variation year after year with the same schedule and nothing changes. I am someone that can research a massive 100 page paper and write it in a week, get a perfect grade and present it at a conference then be done, just walk away. My doctors once told me my mind worked very fast, and with mostly educating myself growing up and not learning in the same way as the other kids, that I will get bored very easy and need to try multiple topics to stay satisfied. I think that’s one of the things that both annoys my mother about me as well as pleases her. She rarely understands what I am researching, but she enjoys that I always keep is fresh and never stop working. I think she’d just rather I didn’t bring home Encyclopedias about serial killers, or chemistry sets ;)

Never stop growing

When I told her that I am still sad sometimes that I can’t be a first grade teacher she said something that reminded me of Ben Affleck in “Good Will Hunting:” (This is a direct quotation so if you are offended by the language I apologize.)

Will: What do I wanna way outta here for? I'm gonna live here the rest of my fuckin' life. We'll be neighbors, have little kids, take 'em to Little League up at Foley Field.

Chuckie: Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way but, in 20 years if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house, watchin' the Patriots games, workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill ya. That's not a threat, that's a fact, I'll fuckin' kill ya.

Will: What the fuck you talkin' about?

Chuckie: You got somethin' none of us have...

Will: Oh, come on! What? Why is it always this? I mean, I fuckin' owe it to myself to do this or that. What if I don't want to?

Chuckie: No. No, no no no. Fuck you, you don't owe it to yourself man, you owe it to me. Cuz tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 50, and I'll still be doin' this shit. And that's all right. That's fine. I mean, you're sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket. And you're too much of a pussy to cash it in, and that's bullshit. 'Cause I'd do fuckin' anything to have what you got. So would any of these fuckin' guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in 20 years. Hangin' around here is a fuckin' waste of your time.

Find beauty in every bridge you must cross

My mom told me that while teaching is a great career, she would consider it settling for me. I want to see the world, I want to be able to take off any day that I get the call that I can finally do relief work in Rwanda, I want to pay homage to the Holocaust and the remarkable people of Denmark in Copenhagen, while researching humanity. I want to do great, and big things that my health used to prohibit me from doing and that I’ve recently begun to achieve. But maybe I wanted to be a teacher for so long because my health held me back from doing these things.  My mom pointed out that I can do so many things that other people can’t, that others would die to do. It’s like Chuckie, I don’t owe it to me, I owe it to anyone who has a dream they can’t fulfill, to use my talents, and my abilities to change the world. Yes, that means giving up my dream of being a teacher full time, but with that I know someone else will take those classes that future me would have taught, so those kids will be fine. But who is going to take on the relief work I want to do? Who is going to set up the programs over here that I want to, to end gender discrimination? Who is going to be willing to die to end the horrible anti-victim rape laws in Pakistan? I don’t owe it to me, I owe it to all my friends, my family, and the people I have yet to meet.

Embracing being different brings peace instead of
resignation

900 years of time and space; I never met anyone
who wasn't important before

So for 10 months I get my dreams, and like Cinderella or Quasimodo, that has to be enough. I get these 10 months to affect change, teach, learn a new language, explore a different country, make new friends, and get what I always wanted. Then I go back to focusing solely on serving the world. 

This is what I told the students I TA'd: 

Walk as if you own the world. But never forget:
You are a child of the universe. You owe it your life, your
knowledge, and your passion.

Tonight's song is "Out There" from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in honor of getting your dreams if only briefly! 

Anna 

And You Ask Me Why I Love Her Through Wars, Death, and Despair

Bosnia and  Herzegovina

Annnnnnd installment two in “Anna decided to backpack through the Balkan’s alone!”

Try anything once...unless it's drugs ;)

Leaving Croatia I boarded a bus to Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and where the 1984 Olympics were held! When we reached the border we had to get off the bus to hand our passports over for inspection and I saw a blue passport in front of me and realized there were other American’s on the bus! Their names were Kolby and Alyssa. He just graduated university, she just finished a year of teaching English in Korea. It was a delight travelling with them, we were separated on the bus but at stop we talked and just thinking I could host them if they needed a place in Bulgaria I gave them my email. BEST DECISION EVER readers. Sometimes in your life you just have to take a leap of faith and trust your gut because my gut was telling me that these were like minded, really amazing and safe people I wanted to get to know and it worked out beautifully. The next night we ended up meeting for dinner, but more on that later.

SERIOUSLY! Peter Jackson why did you
script my trip???

When we got to Sarajevo we were dropped at this creepy bus station with no map and no clue where to go, we stuck together and got on a tram where the tram driver told me which tram to change to and what direction to head in. When I finally made it to the outskirts of Sarajevo where my hotel was I was very lost. The address I had for my hotel said I was close but I couldn’t find it anywhere and no one around me spoke English. I finally found a taxi and was willing to be ripped off just to get there but NO. No readers I found the one honest taxi driver in all of Sarajevo who refused to drive me because he would have to charge me a huge premium for a ride that I could walk in 2 minutes. I tried to explain I was exhausted, and lost, it was dark and I just wanted to get there. Nope, didn’t make a difference. Finally I found a waitress who knew where I needed to go and gave me directions.  

"I miss the mountains"

Things that my booking.com profile didn’t tell me about my hotel is that it was over a restaurant, incredibly loud, played club music till very late and was in the area that was pro the war. Sufficed to say I got out very early in the morning after trying to sleep on my nightmare of a mattress and figured out how to get to the old town. I found the tram and knew I had to get off at the last stop to be in the Old Town. What the tram drivers didn’t tell me was that this tram didn’t actually have a “last stop” it had a loop. So I ended up missing my stop and arriving back where I started. But, ever the optimist instead of being frustrated by the “waste of time” I instead decided to view it as a blessing since I had used the ride to take pictures of all the scenery and building so it was like a cheap tour in my mind. I re-boarded and got off at the right stop this time. Map in hand I found the tourist center and got directions to where I could get a tour in Sarajevo. I signed up for the Tunnel Tour at the local station for 2 p.m. which gave me a lot of time to go through the market in the Old Town and really get a feel for the spirit and history of Sarajevo. I found this adorable pink traditional outfit for a little girl to bring home for the “KFC.” Something I do in every country I visit is get a gift for a child ages 0-14ish. My sister and her fiancé have said they want children and so when they do have a kid that child will have gifts from every country I visited so they know they were wanted by everyone. This was the gift from Sarajevo!

It's the same sky wherever
I go. A lesson in tolerance.

Bosnians are strong

An interesting fact about Sarajevo: they have tons of Justin Beiber face pillows, but even more Batman merchandise. They don’t care which actor plays Batman whether its Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, or a puppet! They just want to believe that something could come to save them. Something, someone, anything.

Back to the bazaar: It was a good time just wandering around the market, overhearing dozens of languages and staring through the gates at the mosque, listening to the prayers and watching the Muslims joining their community. Since I am not Muslim I am not allowed in the gates, but standing outside still gave me a good view! I felt like Maria in the Sound of Music, climbing up the mountain to peer down on the nuns.

Gazing into someone else's world

I went back to wait for my tour and was not disappointed. There was a group of Australians waiting as well and they talked to me about working in London for the past two years and what the contrast is. When they asked why I was there I told them I was backpacking on a holiday before starting work in Bulgaria, they were of course curious “why Bulgaria?” When I explained I was this Fulbright grant recipient so that’s how it works I never expected them to know what Fulbright was. I did however enjoy the looks they gave me. Almost every person on my trip would do the same thing when they found out I was a Fulbrighter. They would look me up and down in shock and say “Fulbright?” I guess the stereotype is a man in a suit, pipe in his mouth, debating Shakespeare or something…I am a small female who wears: jeans, an olive green jacket, worn converse, and a Luna Lovegood t-shirt. Not the Fulbrighter they imagined ;) But after the first dozen times of getting that response I learned to embrace how different I am and how that it was made me perfect to be a Fulbrighter. I am me, and I won’t be changing anytime soon to fit a stereotype!

Starting the tour our guide called us all by our country to make it easier. We went by bus to the tunnel and got the entire history of it’s origin. The struggle of the Bosnians during the attack that occurred o the anniversary of the founding of Sarajevo, how difficult is was to even get water and walk down “Snipers alley.”

Filled in graves in the front, an empty row in the back. Waiting. 

She was my sisters age and yet she grew up barely having food to eat, having a teacher come to the basement of her building and knowing her parents had to risk being shot just to get food. The tunnel was 800 km under the airport to aid the Bosnians into getting to the neutral zone and able to bring food back no thanks to the UN. Now that the airport is open again the tunnel is not allowed to be open for security reasons but 25 km remain free to travel and I walked them with the tour!

I figured my Uncle Greg would be proud.
This is something he would do!

Before the tour we watched a film showing the clips of the war and what buildings looked like before and after all of the bombings. Then my guide showed us pictures of graves, people hiding, the true food packages that were publicly displayed as helping the Bosnians when really they had long rotten food inside that was inedible. My guide asked for a volunteer and while I was at the back and figured everyone would clamber to assist no one moved. I was with a group of 15 other adults and they were all too worried to volunteer, probably thinking they’d be shot. So channeling my Zach Efron from High School Musical, I emerged with my arm in the air. The response? “Yay States! Bery Bosnian, the smallest female is the bravest.” I was then told I had to lift this backpack that was in a holder on the floor but not to do it too quickly. I figured this was a demonstrations so I proceeded carefully, but while I could lift it without problem (thanks to my constant gym workouts I guess) my guide said not to life it too high. It turned out to hold 100 lbs which was the average weight that a female would bring back through the tunnel to support her family. A man would have double and yet ironically no man came forwards to try until after they had seen the “small female” do it!

100 lb backpack

Starting the tunnel

We then walked through the museum seeing the ammunition, signing the book of visitors, and seeing the pictures from the Sarajevo film festival of movie stars who back the Bosnian rebuilding. Then it was time to go down the tunnel. The woman in front of me stepped on the already exploded bomb that was stuck in the concrete and panicked. To say I felt like I wasn’t in Kansas anymore is an understatement.

Going through the tunnel you felt like you were walking into a different time, suddenly flashbacks of watching “The Great Escape” with my mother one summer made me truly appreciate where I was and what I was able to do. I, a tiny American, who just months ago was living in Danvers, MA. I was trudging through the tunnel of hope in Sarajevo!

You had to shrink down

During the tour we were informed that the night I arrived a war criminal who had plotted over a 1000 deaths had been released from prison 20 years later. He was given a party by one group in Bosnia while another group (the Bosniacs) grieved this release. The guide told me that you could end up working with the person who killed your family these days but you never want to know. When asked why she said “what good would it do to know? You’d be in agony every day with no way to quell it.”

We learned a lot about the presidencies, the governments, and the crazy structure of Bosnia these days. We asked her what the government was like and she said, “That is a normal question for a normal country and so- I have no answer. “I left Sarajevo early after an incident I had on that tour, but before I did I met with my new friends from Louisiana for dinner!

I got to the meeting place early because the trams were so unpredictable and walked around taking pictures. But the dinner was delightful, I had almost forgotten what it was like to speak only in English and discuss home instead of moving to Bulgaria or what I would need to do in Eastern Europe all year. We discussed politics, and college, majors and dreams. Those two are just wonderful people who are full of questions about the world, a vivacious spirit for travel, and two great heads on their shoulders. If I am grateful I met anyone on my journey, I am grateful I met them and hope I will be able to see them again someday. I know they will both succeed in whatever they do, as well as travel the world with passion and open mindedness. We found the Bosnian ‘Cheers’ which was built in a double decker bus, got gelato, and all too soon it was time for bed as I was leaving in the morning.

This bridge lit up and changed colors!

While Bosnia was my shortest stop of my trip I think it impacted me the most of all and it is a trip I will hold in my heart forever. I have always been a Holocaust historian since I saw “Schindler’s List” at age 5, but Bosnia helped me to truly dig deeper into my personhood and how I deal with tragedy as well as study it with humanity.

How could I leave her? Where would I go?

 Tonights song is "Anthem" which discusses a man who is defecting from the USSR, but to him he isn't defecting he is having to leave his home, and home isn't the USSR. He makes the point that "Long before nations lines were drawn. When no flags flew, when no armies stood- my land was born." When you ask a Bosnian why they didn't all leave they would tell you it was there home, not just a name. That they didn't want to have to watch TV to see their family die, and they were true to their land. (Shout out to Blaine Carper who loves this song as much as I do, and recognized it's mention in my last blog post!)

Anna

Somewhere Beyond The Barricade Is There A World You Long To See?

I think that one of the things that I have found out about myself on this journey so far is that I am unstoppable. There were always jokes about me during my undergraduate career that I never seemed to stop, or that I didn’t seem to have an off button. But I never imagined myself capable of what I just did.

My lands only borders lie around my heart

Not all who wander are lost

I took off on my own and backpacked through the Balkans, I didn’t speak the language, I didn’t know anyone where I was going, I just packed my LL Bean backpack and hit the road. It was an eye opening adventure for me. This post will cover the first night as well as Croatia. I traveled to: The Istanbul airport, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Which would be a lot for my first post back. So for tonight you get the opening up to my bus to Bosnia! Enjoy!

To begin:

Well, that's one way to spend the
night with David Tennant lol

I took a bus from Burgas to Sofia after spending a few nights in my new flat getting ready. Then I took a plane from Sofia to Turkey. I stayed up for ten hours in the Istanbul airport, which was a blog post worthy event in itself! I watched Dr. Who on my iPod touch; David Tennant kept me awake and enticed. But 10 hours is still a long time when you just got over jet lag, and you’ve already been up for 24 hours now. It was a crazy night that reminded me of “the Terminal” as I was stuck in one part of the airport that I couldn’t eat in and there was a tour group of Asians that all kept jumping up and down to stay awake!  I walked everywhere trying to connect to wifi and let my mom know I was in Istanbul and all right. But all I managed to do was reenact “Love Actually” watching people board flights for destinations we only dream about in America, and see people reunite. But ladies and gentlemen I saw the sun rise in Istanbul in that airport. I stayed up all night by myself in that airport, watching episodes of Dr. Who that had inspired me to make the world a better place, and I got on a plane 10 hours later to go to Zagreb Croatia.

Sunrise in Istanbul

I decided to try 3 days!

Getting to Zagreb was interesting. By this point I was exhausted and just wanted food and sleep, but got neither. When I arrived at the airport I found the information center and got a bus map after taking some money out. I found a bus stop and got myself from bus to bus to tram to buy my ticket to Sarajevo that Friday and to find a tram that would take me to my rented apartment. My apartment was not even on the map and when I got off the tram I ended up meeting a legally blind man who offered me help. He tried to read the map, then tried to understand what I was reading to him and after a few moments glances up at me and says “You’ll get there, destiny” then pats my shoulder and walks on leaving me with the mail man. The mailman, then the construction crew, then the man who I call “internet guy” because he looked up where I needed to get to on the internet but I still don’t know what his office really did, and eventually my neighbor who tried to give me a chicken…all could not help me. But I finally found my way.

He really tried to give me a chicken

I surrender!

After settling in I was contacted by some Fulbrighters who were in Zagreb and we arranged to meet for dinner. I got changed, and still not having slept for well over 36 hours now, found a tram and hit the town! I found the city center, got a map and planned out my days there. Walked around the old town, found the cathedral, and amazing donuts! When I met my friends it was like we had been apart for months instead of days. We hugged and discussed our crazy adventure stories then walked around the cathedral, the old town, found a great place for dinner where we ordered in a mixture of languages. After we had asked the tourist information center about a good place to eat and we bonded with Caroline who gave us free “Zagreb” hearts. It was a great dinner where everyone shared what they ordered so we could try different dishes while we heard the story of Morgan’s braces, and everyone’s bus ride to Croatia. At one point I was laughing so hard I held up my white napkin to surrender!

Just some Fulbrighters reuniting!

What was truly touching about that night was that I had just received great news from home that I would not be forced to return home to testify, and as I am crying with joy from news that’s when my friends stumbled upon me. Kaitlyn told me that that is one of the things they like most about me. I take a horrible situation and just find the good. To me bad things have happened but hiding them won’t make them go away, or get better. It’s facing them, and helping others to face their issues that make it better. I was honored to be told by my friends how much their respect me and appreciate my attitude, and it renewed my vigor for what I want to do in Bulgaria.

 

The story of Zagreb!

Too soon the night was over and though we had trekked through much of Zagreb I knew I needed to take it on with gusto in the morning! So we sadly parted and I finally made it to bed well over 2 days later since my last sleep.

Yeah...

Bunny breakup

The next day I went to the famous outdoor market in Zagreb, the “Museum of Broken Relationships” (seriously, best idea ever Kelly, Alex, etc) I saw all of upper and lower town and was able to make it to the hostel my other friends were staying in, Jake and Rebecca. We hit the town and found a nice place where they could get wine and I could get some soda and just relax after seeing all the museums, libraries, statues and sites of the day. They were taking off to go to Plivitce national park in the morning and invited me along. It was great because I had finished site seeing early in Zagreb so we arranged to meet at the bus station for the 8 am bus!

I swear Rebecca survived!

The next day we met up right on time, and went through the totally fake security gate in the bus station to get on the bus. Jake does this thing where he wakes you up by stroking your face and loudly shushing you…yeah I fell asleep on the bus and he gleefully woke me this way! We made it to the park and tried to get a taxi to their hotel but the info desk said they didn’t come out that way and proceeded to try and call the hotel they were staying in but that was an ordeal in itself because Alex booked it based on the ATV in the picture with little information. But a man showed up to pick us up and didn’t care that I was just along for the ride. It turns out he shared a birthday with Rebecca! He promptly poured everyone shots and Rebecca thankfully told him I am temperate and when he asked why I faked my answer saying it conflicted with medication. Dear readers, NEVER DO THAT. It’s a horrible idea in a country like Croatia where there are many towns that are so rural it turns out there’s no hospital for 50 km…the person offering you the drink will tell you that this is medication and what they use instead of going the 50 km. But he was a really nice man who then told them the electricity was out. So funny these places as to them it doesn’t matter if you have lights or not, it’s just life. I really love that mentality but feel it would get to me after a period!

When he drove us back to the park I only had 4 hours to be there before the only return bus to Zagreb. But it was amazing. When we walked in we decided we had found Neverland. The water was so beautiful you expected mermaids to emerge, and the mountains with caves and waterfalls made you want to call out for Gandalf.

Calling all Mermaids

If Frodo stopped to admire
the view he would've complained
less! 

(Seriously Peter Jackson basically directed my entire backpacking adventure.) We climbed everywhere together and I did it in my converse sneakers that I take to each destination I visit. We got lost without caring, and jokingly stuck our thumbs out when we reached a road in the park. We found paths that were not well worn and took the road less traveled and when we finally made it to the ferry we ran into all the wonderful people that I had spent my first night in Zagreb with. And when we reunited it was like Christmas. They were just getting off the ferry; Morgan, Kaitlyn, Kelly, Alex, and Scott and we were about to get on. I got this kid to take our picture reuniting it went like this:

Me: “Do you speak English?”

Kid: “No”

Me: “Well you understood that much so here take our picture” :)  And thankfully he did! 

Fulbright family!

We boarded the ferry and tried to find our way out of the park, Scott joined us and thankfully so as we got separated from Rebecca and Jake and I was running out of time to reach my bus. Which brings me to the stressful moment of the epic tale:

We are too young to know some things are impossible.
So we will do them anyways~ William Wilberforce

Readers you know in a book how you are left wondering if the protagonist is going to make her bus? How she only has that one bus to get her home in time to travel to Sarajevo, and she is over an hour away from where the bus picks her up but she has 25 minutes to get there and she is running up hills, over waterfalls, jumping bridges, and not stopping so she can try to catch her bus? There’s no map and she’s just figuring it out as she goes.  And even when the bus should have already departed-she still keeps running, occasionally looking back to make sure her friend is still with her and she hopes beyond hope that this is the one bus in Eastern Europe that isn’t on time. You know those nail biting events? WELL, this was my nail-biting event. And thankfully this was the one bus that ran late, and we caught it, and I made it back to Zagreb that night to pack and leave for Sarajevo in the morning. But readers I can tell you that when the Sound of Music tells you to climb every mountain they clearly do not take into consideration warning you not to run up every mountain with a back pack, in converse and not stopping to breathe!

Lessons we learned from Croatia:

v*Jake really loves to surprise you awake

v *Rebecca is wonderful at splashing water on Jake to reenact the naming of Zagreb

v *Alex should never take the group photos

v *Morgan is an amazing backpacking fashion icon

Look! It's a Zagreb heart necklace!

v *Kaitlyn has the oddest luck on buses

v *Kelly is a fantastic group organizer

v *Scott is wonderful at morale

v *Always buy a map in a national park

*Converse are not meant to be worn when climbing mountains, but I will wear them for that purpose anyways

I swear it was a braces story

v *If you think positively that you will catch your bus and you run like crazy, you just might

v *No matter how impossible everything seemed in getting to Croatia or being in Croatia, it wasn’t nearly as impossible as a legally blind man trying to read a map and yet he did it

v *I am a force to be reckoned with while traveling, it doesn’t matter how much I have to walk or carry, or that I don’t speak the language; I just figure it out and adapt (which is something I didn’t know about myself)

v *Staying up all night in an Istanbul airport may be taxing but it is worth it when you see the sun rise in Istanbul and then set in Croatia all in the same day

I leave you on this note readers, a song to fall asleep to and dream of a better world, infinite travel possibilities and sunrises and sunsets you never imagined. (It starts out soft but like all cries for justice it gets louder when more people join in!) 

Anna

Les Miserables, the epilogue: