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.