Dubrovnik, Bar, Belgrade to Sofia

So I am trying to catch you up on what we have been doing, as I have been really bad about writing. This post covers the last week or so in June and the beginning of July. More to come soon, I promise!

We spent a few days in late June in Dubrovnik, which was very beautiful and relaxing but quite touristy as expected. Still, it is worth seeing- the entire town was built within these huge white stone walls, maybe 40 feet high. It is really incredible and my descriptions can't do it justice. But I recommend going in September when the water is still warm but not as many cruise boats are docking in for the day. Also, one thing must be said about Dubrovnik.... suprisingly the food is was really mediocre. And that's being kind. There really wasn't much to eat within the old town other than overpriced pizza. And when you walk through the town, there is a person standing outside every restaurant, trying to sell you there delicious menu. Other than that, I have no bones to pick with Dubrovnik. We staid in a pretty hilarious place, called "Rooms Ivo" that we found on the Internet. Loren had had some trouble communicating with Ivo over the phone and I couldn't really understand why until Ivo showed up at the airport. No joke, this guy was the real life version of Borat. He picked us up from the bus station in his van that he referred to as his 'giant airplane'... and it just got better and better from there. Apparently, Ivo isn't allowed to cross the border in his van because he has no papers for it and had gotten into a crash at the airport, broken his back windows, and replaced them with some plastic. "Nema Problema!" (or "No Problem!"), he said...he would get it fixed. When we got back to his house, we met his daughter (a classic sullen teenager watching TV in the kitchen) and his son (who tried to sneak into our room a few times and mess with our stuff). We also met his dog, who we learned had been lost the day before. Ivo told us he had gone to the local radio station, gotten on air and announced "Somebody took my dog. Please return her". I looked down at the dog and tried to play with it but Ivo's son told me, "She is in shock." "Why?," I asked. "How would you feel if someone took you for a day?", he asked me, with a completely straight face. " I just nodded and tried to suppress a laugh. Needless to say, we had some pretty funny moments from there on out.

After a few days wandering through the town, laying on the beach, and taking a boat ride to a cool rocky island, we decided to head for Bulgaria. That entailed taking a bus to Bar, Montenegro (on crazy, windy, mountain cliff roads) for 4-5 hours. Then a night train from Bar to Belgrade, Serbia, where we spent the day. And finally, a train from Belgrade to Sofia, Bulgaria the following night. I am sure we smelled pretty bad when we got to Sofia. But we met some interesting characters along the way. On the train to Belgrade, we were sleeping in a 3 person cabin with the most amazing guy, named Labud. Labud is a young 20- something year old Serbian lawyer who is very idealistic, socially involved, and extremely intelligent and knowledgeable about, basically, everything. We stayed up for a long time talking to him on the train about world politics and history and , more specifically, what had happened in the 1990's when the U.S. bombed Serbia, which he lived through. It was really amazing to hear about something that, firstly, I knew very little about because I was 7 when it happened, and secondly, an event that had been so shaped for me by the Western media. It is really important to hear the other sides and realize that most of the people killed by those bombs were innocent people on their way to work, school, living their daily lives. He said that the only way people survived was by going through their daily lives, sticking to their routine. He was so open and kind to us, though, and recognizes that harboring bad feelings towards Americans, especially of our generation, is pointless, as we were not at all involved and what has passed has passed.
Labud is an incredibly inspiring guy and has done so much in his life so far. He started the young lawyers association in Serbia in order to unite a new generation of young people and create an organization that would help teach Serbians there rights, which he says is a problem he sees in society- most people do not know them. He splits his time working for a number of international human rights organizations in Serbia, and knows tons of people working in all the embassies in Belgrade. We got there on July 4, and he had to go to a party at the American embassy where, he said, the Americans SERVED THE PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER OF SERBIA MCDONALDS. classy. Apparently, they politely declined the big macs. After a day walking around Belgrade, Labud met us for some tea and then we were off... it was sad to leave but I am sure we will see each other again, whether in New York, Belgrade, or somewhere in between.

So then we were off to Sofia. We hopped on the train, got into our 6 person sleeper cabin, and inside we found these 2 American guys we had met that morning at the train station buying tickets, who are now affectionately known as the 4th of July jews. It was weird- being so far away from home, on the way to Bulgaria, and meeting guys who I could have known at Ransom, Beth Am, or Columbia. When they realized that we, too, were Jewish, they gave us high fives. It was friendship from there on out. Anyhow, Scott and Jared (their real names) had 3 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of beer between them, and incredibly smelly feet. They had been on trains for 3 nights in a row, and weren't going to stop until they got to Istanbul. They spent every day in a different city and every night on a different train.
We stayed up with them and tried to keep up but there talent in wine guzzling far succeeded ours. Loren and I split a large beer while they consumed their stash. But they shared their goldfish and chocolate balls, which the lady at the drugstore in Serbia had told them was 'authentically serbian food'. We talked about Palestine and Israel, birthright, going to law school, and weird social scene at GWU where one of them went to school. It is such a small world.