So long, and thanks for all the adventures

Turns out I had another blog entry in me and it is once again for the sake of procrastination on our final two papers due this week.  The trip home was largely uneventful and full of sad goodbyes so there’s not much to say there.  It’s been a bit weird being home and not in the Balkans and especially not with my little Balkans family.  Even as we were landing, as excited as we were to be almost home, it still didn’t feel quite real.  Aside from the goodbyes, it could have been just another day on the trip – breakfast in the morning, load the bus, off to the next destination – except that now everyone is scattered across Europe and the East Coast.  I just wanted to thank everyone involved for an amazing adventure.  It’s an experience I’ll never forget and this is in no small way thanks to the people involved on all levels, speakers, professors, fellow students, and everyone in between.  So thanks and I’ll hopefully see you all soon.

A Catching Up Post

Hello blog reading type people, I’m officially calling this one.  I’ve made it all the way to August 3^rd, just over one month since I started this blogging assignment and it has officially become work.  Lucky for me I only have a few more days of mandatory writing, a week at best and lucky for you I’ll soon be home to tell my stories in person and you won’t have to deal with sub-par summations of my days.  This morning we had another political meeting, yay! Given the location of our hotel in relation to the presidential offices (actually, in relation to everything), we piled into 6 taxis for the drive there.  Then, after being dropped off at the gate, secret service-esque SUVs/minivans came and drove us up to the main house for our meeting.  No, we weren’t meeting with the president but we were meeting with his foreign policy advisor.  The compound where our meeting was is located in a largely residential area because it was initially designed as an official residence for Tito even though he rarely ever used it as such.  I found the meeting extremely interesting, especially the connections and implications to East Germany.  The unification of Germany is usually viewed as a good thing but it also sent the precedent for a state being wiped off the map and the radical redrawing of borders.  Afterwards, it became clear why we couldn’t have taken public transportation all the way there.  To get back to the center we had to take a bus to a train and then later to get back to the hotel we’d need to take another bus.  The interesting thing to note is that Zagreb appears to be a quiet city – much quieter than any of the others and especially the other capitals.  It’s almost eerie.  We found what is likely to be our major food source here, it’s a chain of bakeries that also sells sandwiches and pizza – all our favorites.  During our down time we explored a little bit and got to see a really cool gothic style church. 

Our afternoon meeting was with a ‘language guy’ specializing in the languages in the region; Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are all recognized and all can be understood by the others.  I was looking forward to an interesting discussion on the differences between the language and how they play into politics.  However it turned out to be more of a history lesson, a bit disappointing.  After the meeting, we were all dragging a bit so back to the hotel we went.  Later we headed back over to the mall for dinner again.  It’s really the only close place, there aren’t a lot of restaurants nearby.  Also, Wok & Roll is easily the best food court food I’ve had in a long time – so good.  It was a silly night for our family but so much fun, I hadn’t laughed that hard in a while.

The next day we took public transport into the city (bus 234 to tram 6 or 13) for our meetings.  First up was a tour of the Parliament building and a little bit of history on that.  I found it interesting to learn the members of the Croatian Diaspora are represented in the parliament.  It is not uncommon for there to be some sort of representation quotas in this region, especially in societies that are more multi-ethnic.  However it is odd/noteworthy that anyone with dual Croatian citizenship can not only vote but has a designated representative in the parliament, regardless of where they actually live.  Sessions at this parliament are broadcast on TV in the morning and available online with transcripts for all sessions.  It’s been interesting to see the steps taken by all the different legislatures to build the openness and legitimacy of their bodies as institutions.  A big part of that is making sure the public knows and understands what’s going on.  Broadcasting the sessions is a way to help prevent the story from being twisted too much.  In between meetings we had gelato and not just any gelato, the best of the trip.  My dark chocolate, aka brownie batter, and cappuccino was good enough to pass for lunch.  Next we met with members of the Serb community in Croatia.  The Q&A session was interesting because we got into discussing the identities of our presenters and how they viewed themselves in the broader context of the region.  This was our last official meeting and we had a lot of free time in the afternoon but since Zagreb is soooooo sleepy we headed back to the hotel to work on our projects (presentations were today).  Later we had our final group dinner with all of us, a sort of goodbye hurrah. 

Today is somewhat of a lazy day in the sense that I haven’t left the hotel.  We had presentations and discussions this morning and now we’ve spent the time getting tickets organized for tomorrow, writing last minute papers, and just chilling.  There’s a chance that this will be my last post, especially since it took me several days to finish this post so I just want to thank everyone who’s been reading throughout the trip.  I’ve had a blast and am already looking forward to coming back.  Bye!

A beautiful day at the lakes

                After my last post some of us went wandering in search of food into downtown Split.  Even though it hadn’t seemed like there was much around when we arrived at the hotel it turned out that if one walked for 15 minutes or so, they ran into an old town and then the water.  We meandered through and found this amazing electric rock cello player and listened to him for a while.  Further wanderings brought us closer to the water and to our dinner.  Afterwards, we walked along the promenade and enjoyed more views of the Adriatic before heading back to the hotel.  I actually got the rest of my postcards written and addressed so now all I need is a few more stamps and they’ll begin showing up at your doorsteps.  In the morning it was off to Plitvice where we would see the national park.  On the way we stopped in Knin, the former capital of the area for both Serbs and Croats, for some lunch and a chance to stretch our legs.  After some more time on the bus, we arrived at our Plitvice hotel.  It wasn’t really near anything, just off the side of the road but I actually really liked it.  It seemed very old school country in feel and décor.  We had our own balcony with a view of the countryside, fast internet, and cool air – we couldn’t ask for much more.  Since there wasn’t really anywhere we could go for dinner, we all ate together in the hotel restaurant.  It’s nice to have the whole group together like that, relaxing at individual tables; it’s less hectic than when we all sit down at one HUGE table for a meal.  The professors had pre-ordered for us and it was definitely all good choices; everyone was stuffed by the end of the meal.  I spent last night just doing work, we have another assignment due while we’re in Zagreb and I needed to read the article like a good kid. 

                Today we left our lovely little hotel and headed off to Plitvice Lakes National Park.  It’s one of the largest in Southeast Europe and the largest in Croatia; it contains 16 lakes and waterfalls.  After our last mad scramble for bus seats we were off.  Luckily, everyone ended up where they’re ‘supposed to be’ for our last day of bus travel.  I was pretty excited about today’s trip because even though it was definitely more touristy than academic, it sounded like lots of fun with a great chance for some exercise and nature.  To slight disappointment, the park was reasonably developed with pathways made of crushed stone in some areas while paved in others and actual stairs and ramps surrounding the falls but it was still a lot of fun.  Our little group successfully broke off from most of the tourists in order for some more quiet exploring time.  There was a catch though - we may have gotten ourselves lost in the process to find the big waterfall and some quiet.  After taking a ferry across the water for the first time, we set off.  There were two possible roads, the high road and the low road and we chose the high road for its great views of the whole park.  Only we missed one of the turns and ended up walking 2.5 km out of our way and 2.5 km back.  On the upside, the road was empty of people and most cars and we had a fun walk through nature.  The water in and of itself when we found it was incredible.  The water was a clear turquoise and undisturbed except for the falls which were cascading down throughout.  I’m adding some pictures so you can see for yourself.  After getting lots of great areal views we headed down a lot a lot of stairs to the water.  If anything, it looked even better up close.  We took a jaunt around the water and then climbed up a switchback of ramps to the top of the valley.  A tourist train later and we were back near the parking lot.  Here there was a place to refill both our water bottles and our stomachs – we’d worked up an appetite hiking around.  As we waiting for everyone in the group to come back, we played games in the parking lot.  I felt like a little kid, kicking around a soccer ball and tossing a disc while we dodged cars.  After the park, we headed to Zagreb where we’ve now checked into our last hotel which is unfortunately nowhere near the city center.  Pretty much the only thing near our hotel is an arena (not much use to us) and a mall which was home to our dinner and entertainment; we saw Captain America or Kaptan Amerika as it’s called here.  It’s a bit odd that we’ve said goodbye to Driver Dragan and Tour Guide Dragan and that on Saturday I’ll be bound for Boston.  I plan to make the most of these last couple days before heading home.