Whirlwind tour of the Balkans

Next week is Spring Break and I am going to be taking a mini-tour of the Balkans with some of my friends. We are going to Macadonia (Former Republic of Yugoslavia), Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, and Kosovo. It's going to be a quick trip, with almost only one night in each country, but I'm sure I'm going to have some interesting stories to tell.
We'll drive from Blago across Macedonia to Tirana, the capital of Albania. From there we'll go north to a town called Shkodra. Then we'll head into Montenegro and spend a day in Kotor. From there we'll jump up to Dubrovnik, Croatia (which you should google because it looks beautiful). Then we'll go from Dubrovnik back to Montenegro and into Kosovo. From Pristina we'll head to Skopje (pronounced Skopia) and then back to Blago.
Below is a map of our proposed route. Since we're kind of backpacking it this is subject to change, and who knows, we may love Tirana so much that we'll just stay there the entire week.

If you double click the map it enlarges and you can view the route better.

Baba Marta

Bulgarians celebrate a holdiay on March 1st called Baba Marta (grandmother March). On this day everyone gives their friends and family little pins or bracelets made out of red and white string called martenitsi. You wear all the martinitsi you recieve (either pinned on your shirt by he collar or on your wrist) until you see your first stork or your first flowering fruit tree. By giving someone a martinitsa you are wishing them health and happiness and also welcoming the Spring. The legend is that Baba Marta can sometimes be an angry woman and the red and white colors please her so she brings spring sooner. Here's a webpage if you would like to read more:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martenitsa


Today we had a workshop to make martenitsi. A little baba came and told us the story of Baba Marta and showed us how to fashion the martenitsi. There have been street vendors selling bunches of these all over town for the past week.


Me attempting to make a martenitsa bracelet.

My Bulgarian friends Yavor and Maya. They were pros.

Bracelet martenitsi

Martenitsi you pin on your shirt (or backpack)

Independence Day

On Sunday Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia and the Kosovars threw a party in the dorms. I would say there is a population of about 15-25 Kosovars here and it was really exciting to be able to celebrate with them. They watched the celebrations in Pristina on Euronews for awhile and then watched the speech by the Serbian Prime Minister (who said that the US had humiliated the UN). Then they cranked up the music, started dancing, and brought in a ton of wine and beer and snacks. All the Albanias and Kosovars were so happy. They were hugging and congratulating each other. My friend Sara, who is from Kosovo, was close to tears and wanted more than anything to be at home. They hung up a couple of Kosovo flags and one guy even asked me if I had an American flag to hang next to it. We had a good time congratulating them and celebrating with them. I never would have had the opportunity to meet anyone from Kosovo unless I had come here, let alone celebrate their Independence Day.
They will be celebrating the rest of the week as countries recognize Kosovo and then on Sunday they will throw another huge party.

Taste Fest!

Last week at the University was International week. They had a couple activities throughout the week, such as traditional dance night where I watched some Belarussians perform a really cool dance. The Taste Fest was the culmination of the week on Saturday night. Groups from different countries prepare some traditional fare and then students and professors come and partake of the deliciousness. There were about 8-10 different countries represented and about 150 people in attendance.
According to the dean of students (who is an American and made chili and corn bread...mmmm) this was the best showing the US has ever had (in past years the Americans hadn't really cooked)! Nathan and Rachelann made breakfast burritos, Kim and I made apple pie, and Morgan made peaunut and banana sandwiches. It was really hard to figure out what traditional American food is but we did our best. The pie went over amazingly well! People were coming back for seconds and thirds. The table that won, however, was either the Bulgarians or the Macedonians (and I've decided it's because they can easily get all the ingredients for their dishes). I got to try some Bulgarian meat on a stick, a bean dish and biscuit/cookie things from Macedonia, and some Bulgarian Rakia, which is their liquor made from plums. It was some strong stuff! After the food was gone they played traditional Bulgarian and Macedonian music and we did their national dance - the Horo. Here are some pictures.


Oscar, Morgan (in the yellow - she made the sandwiches) and Kim (in the green - she helped me make pie :) at the American table.

Nathan and Rachelann made breakfast burritos.

As American as apple pie and pb and banana sandwiches. (not pictured - chili, brownies, and breakfast burritos)

The Bulgarian table. Their food looked gourmet.


Macedonia!


The Russians.

The Mongolian table.

You can kind of see Morgan and I dancing the Horo.

Video of the Horo. This is actual a Macedonian song (but it's pretty much the same in Bulgaria)

Eating out

Well, after about 4 weeks here and eating uncountable meals out I have noticed and been instructed in various Bulgarian food idiosyncrasies. I now know many of the restaurants that have English on the menu (sometimes the translation is a little scary). If you order anything "Mexican" that just means it has corn in it and possibly some hot sauce. People usually get a salad, often to share, but then each entree is separate. For example, you can get some hamburger patty type food but you also have to order your side separately, like potatoes or vegetables. Everyone eats bread with their meals but you have to order that too. The waiters bring out each dish as it's prepared so when you get your food you eat it because the person next to you could be waiting for another 10 minutes.
People eat ketchup here on the oddest things, like pizza. Pizza toppings vary from scrambled egg to corn to pickles and have very thin crusts. There's no such thing as free water so people mainly get a few large bottles to share at the table. And unless you ask for the bill, (which I just learned how to do :) you could be sitting there for a long long time. Tips are very small, often not even 5% of the bill. Desserts are pretty good and they have incredibly cheap baclava here which is very exciting to me.

More Pictures!

Another view of the main walking street. There are a ton of little kiosks like that white one that sell candy and magazines etc.

This is a very large angel sculpture dedicated to some revolutionaries.

This is Varosha - the old city. It is very quaint and quite and all the buildings are painted white.

This is the Orthodox Church in Varosha. The inside is decorated with detailed woodwork. It's very beautiful.

That mountain is part of the Rila Range to the East.

Superbowl Sunday (or very early Monday morning)

So, my friend Morgan and I really wanted to watch the super bowl. The Bulgarian sports channels were broadcasting soccer instead (which isn't a surprise, even though the superbowl didn't start here until around 1 am monday morning). But Morgan and I found out that the American Football Club (which, by the way, is the largest intramural sport here...not soccer) was broadcasting the game from the internet and invited us to come watch. So Morgan and I made some salsa (we were out of luck for tortilla chips...just had to use some Lays) and at 12:45 we headed down to watch the game. We were the only girls there. I guess no Bulgarian girls even like to watch soccer so the guys were really really surprised American girls would watch football. But we hunkered down and waited for the game to start.
Well, the only site that they could find the game on was in Danish. So we watched the game in Danish accompanied by a lot of commentary in Bulgarian. It was the strangest way I have ever watched a football game. The Danish site only had about 3 commercials but there was this one that all the Bulgarians liked. It was for a sport drink and this kid puts a little of the drink in the lid in his yard and waits for a squirrel to come and take a drink and once it does it starts juggling its acorn like it's a soccer ball. Everyone cheered everytime they played the commercial (which was during every commercial break).
I could only stay awake until halftime but I'm pleased to see the Giants win.