There and Back Again

I'm coming down off of two weeks of vacation and I wish I felt just a glimmer of excitement for class tomorrow. But I don't. I am, however, excited for the provided lunch and all of the salad options and the coffee machine on the second floor. Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me, sometimes I think I'm pretty okay.

During vacation, I went on a week long trip that went like this:
Home (bus, taxi) Antalya Airport (plane, plane, taxi) Sarajevo Bosnia (taxi, train, car) Mostar Bosnia (taxi, bus, taxi) Dubrovnik Croatia (long walk, shuttle, shuttle, shuttle, plane, plane, plane, taxi (to be explained)) Pristina Kosovo (taxi, plane, plane) Antalya (taxi) home.

Here are the bits of vacation that I remember the most and don't want to forget. It was a good vacation, despite the 20-odd forms of transportation required to make it happen.

In Sarajevo...

• Roses. A lot of bombs went off in Sarajevo not that long ago for reasons that, even after visiting and reading about, I still don't understand. Many went off on sidewalks. In these places, they have filled in the missing chunks with red cement and now call them Sarajevo roses. Here's one in front of a church in the main part of town:

• Graveyards and other frequent reminders of death and war. You don't have to walk very far to find a massive graveyard or a tribute to a group of victims from the war. I didn't need to visit these places - Sarajevo, Mostar, and Kosovo - to realize that I hadn't lived through much in terms of suffering, but visiting and seeing these things does something humbling to your brain. And knowing that every single person around you over the age of 20, every kind person who calmly gives you directions in broken English, every waiter who smiles as they take your order, every shopkeeper who meekly watches you look at their dusty items on the shelf, every one of them once feared for their life and for the lives of their loved ones. Every one of them saw their city torn to bits and undoubtedly lost friends and family members. Every one of them survived something awful, and now there you sit, waiting for them to fill your glass with water and bring you some bread as you plan out your next day of sightseeing. Oof.   

• Residence Rooms Hostel. This was my favorite hostel of the trip...center of town, interesting and kind owner, old building, lots of floors and rooms to wander around in. I found myself drawn to the living room, where there was an incredibly out of tune grand piano, at least 5 couches, Christmas lights that twinkled nonstop, and old books. I didn't think to take any pictures inside the hostel, but here's a little GIF animation thingy from the stair well. It's the first time I've made such a thing. Please enjoy:

• And, lastly, intriguing and weird statues:

Next up, the delightful city of Mostar. To be continued soon.