Sarajevo is a very bi-polar city. As you are walking around, you see many beautiful buildings, such as this one. It is the Sarajevo Academy of Fine Arts, housed in a former church:
Beautiful, right? In fact, it is so beautiful that you may have overlooked this bridge in front of it:
Festina Lente bridge. It is so freaking cool looking.
Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons where Lisa becomes a vegetarian? The family starts out at a petting zoo. A lamb walks up and they all “Awwwwwwwwww” it. Then a smaller lamb comes up and the “AWWWWWW” gets louder. Then the third….and then when the poor first lamb returns, they have seen so much cuter that Homer “Get out of the way YOU”s it?
Capri Island is that petting zoo.
First you get off the boat and you are at the Port of Capri. Oh wow! Look at this! You take like fifty pictures, it is so beautiful.
So I consider myself to be a bit more street wise than the average human being. So when planning a trip to Paris, I had the whole security thing to consider. Yes, the internet is full of people who have been pick pocketed in Paris. But surely that would never happen to me. But then I keep thinking about my sister. She was obsessed with the Eiffel Tower. I mean OBSESSED. It is all she ever talked about. Every trip I took to Las Vegas would have her begging me to bring back something Eiffel Tower related. She talked about this stupid tower ALL THE TIME.
Finally, she is going to Paris. She is going to the Eiffel Tower. She is so excited. Flash forward about an hour after she gets to Paris, and I get a voicemail I can barely understand because she is crying and choking. She tells me to call her back, does not leave a number or a hotel name. I had to break into her email to find the confirmation. Turns out, she did get to the Eiffel Tower. As soon as she got off the plane. And she got pick pocketed and was now broke in Paris.
I know my sister pretty well. She doesn’t like to pay attention to anything. She carries ginormous purses that are never closed. I don’t necessarily want to blame the victim here, but these things did cross my mind. She swears that she was super careful.
So now my turn to go to Paris comes. I don’t want to do things like carry a money belt or whatever. I want to just go. I am street savvy, I can do this. But in the back of my mind, I can’t stop thinking about how stupid I will feel if I am robbed. I picture the conversations. My sister saying “I told you so”. So I buy a money belt. But I still don’t want to use it. So I compromise. I head for the Eiffel Tower with only 5 euro on me, in a change purse. I leave my wallet back at my hotel.
This was just way too good to not share immediately.
I am a budget hotel kinda gal. Always have been, always will be. Every now and then a budget hotel will surprise me. Today is one of those days.
I get to Sweet Sleep Bed and Breakfast this morning and my room is not ready because I am too early. I am brought out onto the communal outdoor terrace, where I am stunned at the view.
April 25, 2013 – The day we all have been waiting for. The day I leave for Europe!! I had a typical bad day at work, made even worse by it being “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” Finally the day is over and I am FREEEEEEEEEE!!!! Europe here I come!!
Well it seems that in addition to being “Bring Your Kids to Work Day”, it is also “Bring Your Kids to Belgium Day”
Whenever I book a flight, I pick my seat. Last row, window seat on the right side of the plane. Last row because it gives you the best chance of having a row to yourself. Window seat because i can not breathe on planes. Having the window next to me is psychosomatic and makes me feel like I have more oxygen. Right side because that’s the way I lean when I fall asleep sitting up.
Tonight I get on the plane. I am still at the door and I can hear the SCREAMING kid. SCREAMING. Now let me stop and explain a bit here. Usually when someone talks about a screaming kid on a plane, it’s about a kid having a meltdown and just scream crying. That was not what this one was doing. It seemed to have having the worlds LOUDEST conversation with itself in a language only it spoke. Lots of “BEEEEEEEEEEE BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP” just nonstop.
I make my way to the last row for my seat and this SCREAMING kid is in my seat. Not in my row, not next to my seat, but IN MY SEAT. Screaming away IN MY SEAT. Not only that, but it looks like it is in for the long haul. It is standing on my seat, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP-ing away, with all its stuff all over the place. All over my seat, the floor, the seat back pocket. It has a bag under the seat in front of it. I recheck my boarding pass because surely I am at the wrong seat? I’m not. So my next logical thought is that this thing is in the wrong seat. I try telling it that it’s in my seat and all I get back is “BEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP” Finally, the father surfaces and asks me to switch to a middle row aisle seat. Oh Hell no. Don’t tell me you got on the plane and completely unpacked your kid in my seat, just expecting I would agree to switch because I won’t. I tell him no, I need the window or else I will vomit.
So the kid is then moved to the available aisle seat next to mine. This is an enormous production since it had so much stuff unpacked and all over the freaking place. Even though we are at the back of the plane, there are still people trying to get by so now we have a traffic jam. The kid is still screaming. Never once did its father try to get it to be quiet. Not once. Finally its out of my way and I am free to take my seat so I do.
I get settled. Get my stuff out. Notebook, pen, gum, MP3 player, headphones. I now have everything in the back seat pocket, I am ready to go. Now that I am all settled, this guy now goes all over the plane trying to find someone to give up their window seat to me, so that I can move and still have a window seat. Then this SCREAMING kid can have my seat and the new person can take the middle aisle seat. He finds someone. I am tempted to still say no. I never actually said I would move if he found me a new window seat. Everything about this is obnoxious.
Woo hoo I am going to Europe! Oh I am so excited. As an extra special send off, I am spending my last day at work during “Bring Your Kids to Work Day”. No please, never bring your kids to work. Ever.
My finalized itinerary is as follows:
Belgium – Sleeping in Geel for both Groezrock Fest and the pre-show, which is in Ham, Belgium. So excited for this. I will also have one night in Brussels. I wanted it to be Ghent but I waited to long to plan this out and I simply didn’t have the time to research it. Until I quit my job and travel forever, I will keep my Type A personality and never be able to travel freely without over planning.
Paris – I never wanted to go here. Now I am and oh hey, I’ll be there on a Monday when things are closed and also on May Day when things are closed. Grade A Type A fail.
Naples – I will be going to Capri, Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.
Rome – I am excited to cross the line into Vatican City and add it as another country I’ve visited on my list. It’s not cheating. I swear.
Bosnia – Sarajevo and Mostar. I may take a train one way between Sarajevo and Mostar as I’ve read it has really beautiful scenery even if it takes a lot longer than the bus.
Serbia – Sigh. After doing and redoing and doing and redoing and (insert more and more and more doing and redoing) this part of my trip, I am settled. I am going to Nis. I want to be in Nis so bad. It just took a while to get it to fit. I would like to thank my new laptop and its installation of Free Cell for working my brain to be able to solve the puzzle of how to do this. I am getting a partial overnight train ride on here. That’s a cross off on my “List of Things I Want to do So Badly in Life”.
Bulgaria – Oh so excited for this part of my trip. I knew NOTHING about this country when I started planning this trip. Now I know everything. I will be in Sofia, traveling to the Rila Monastery, Veliko Tarnovo and the place I am most excited for on this entire trip – BELOGRADCHIK. Let me post the picture again!
I can not wait to have my own picture to post.
Then last stop, Istanbul. I still have no idea how to get there. I have so many routes printed out. Nothing is clear at all except that at one time, there was a train from Veliko Tarnovo to Istanbul. It may or may not be running due to construction. It may or may not leave at 23:04, 23:28, 00:04. There is also a bus…maybe. It may be run by Matpu or Oz Batu or maybe there’s two, one by each company. What time do these buses leave? Damned if I know. Matpu shows schedules from Plovdiv, not Veliko Tarnovo. Oz Batu doesn’t exist on the internet.
So that’s that. I can not wait!
I need this vacation so bad. I can not wait to be out in the world where my biggest stress is not being able to find iced coffee.
I am STILL not ready to leave. I am not even sure how this happened. I am one of those “packs months in advance!” neurotic kinda gals. My life is just so hectic right now. I can not wait to escape it. I can not wait to be standing HERE:
How do places like that exist on this planet and why the hell have I waited so long to see them?
I am also insanely excited to take my first steps on the continent of Asia. Sure it’s cheating as I am doing this in Istanbul. But I’m counting it.
Yesterday, my job asked us to pick which summer Fridays we want. I love picking summer Fridays. I love how I was already off for four of them, so I am gaining back more vacation time. This also means I now have an additional two long weekends that I need to make plans for.
My head is all over the place today. My job is insane. The people who work here should not be allowed to see daylight. I can not wait to be far away. Come on one week from today…..just one more week. I can do this.
I am getting freaked out about how close my trip is. I am still not ready to go. I am also still redoing my plans. My last revision now has me going to Belgrade, Serbia and taking an overnight train to Bulgaria. I have always wanted to take an overnight train. I am sure that the reality of it will never match the vision of it that I have developed in my head. But in the end, I will still have crossed yet another item off my bucket list.
It is so difficult planning travel in the Balkan countries. Public transportation information is basically nonexistent online. Adding to that, there is just so much to see. It is killing me to know that lack of complete freedom in life is keeping me from seeing these places that I will be so close to:
This morning I got up for work. My first thought was “THREE WEEKS UNTIL VACATION!!!!”. While getting my morning iced coffee out of the refrigerator, I noticed a fortune cookie that was leftover from last weekend. I opened it and got THIS:
Yes misspelled fortune cookie, yes I am.
My trip is so soon and I am still not ready. Today I have decided to redo my itinerary again. This is all because I can not find out if the Nis, Serbia bus station has luggage lockers. I had planned to stop there for a few hours between Sarajevo and Sofia. If i take a chance and leave my trip the way its been cemented in for weeks now, I may find myself carrying my bag around sightseeing. The internet tells me nothing. So here I am right now taking a break from going nutso and redoing my itinerary to switch out the “stop there for a few hours” part with “spend one night in Nis”. Then I have to find a night in Bulgaria to give up so that I have a night to spend there. I really need to consider booking more flexible trips, where I don’t insist upon seeing so much at one shot, so that I do have spare days. But I don’t want to, because I want to see every inch of planet earth right NOW.
So my updated upcoming travels are now:
April 26 – May 20 – Europe
May 22 – May 27 – Seattle, WA
May 29 – June 3 – Austin, TX
June 6 – June 9 – combo of Chicago and Toronto.
I am the opposite of a fan of my job. But I will admit that I am in love with both the amount of vacation time I get, as well as the fact that they let me take it all in a row like this. Most places would not.
Just about every trip I have ever taken has revolved around either bands or casinos.
A few years ago, I was booked for a fest in Austin. Shortly before, I ended up backing out. But I did not want to undo my vacation time, so I had to find somewhere else to go. Armed with a free roundtrip Greyhound bus ticket to anywhere Greyhound travels to, I decided to take a long distance bus trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Why Milwaukee? Who knows. I wanted to go somewhere around 20 hours-ish away so Wisconsin won. It’s really that simple.
I had booked two nights via Priceline at the Hilton City Center. Gorgeous hotel. Just in case you are unaware, www.biddingfortravel.com is the most useful tool when Pricelining a hotel.
When I was researching things to do in Milwaukee, I stumbled upon a bed and breakfast inside a mansion. This looked so cool! So I extended my trip to leave a day earlier so I could spend one night here.