It's been a while ...

Since I last updated 6 weeks ago, I've been to 6 countries and had 3 wonderful weeks in Budapest.  The photo above was taken in Kosovo, the last stop on our most recent 12 day trip.  Let me start though with our first trip!

When we were planning out our summer schedule, Glenn suggested we add on a short trip to Poland with a meeting in Germany so that I could shop for that wonderful blue pottery that I love so much!

I bought lots of pottery but in my own defense, it was not all for me.  I also bought some for my daughter who likes it too, tea sets for our 2 newest grand-daughters, a few gifts for friends, and fulfilled requests for a couple of others who don't have an opportunity to go to Boleslawiec themselves.  

From Poland, we drove to Germany to attend a meeting in a retreat setting. It was a great week of fellowship and worship.

After our trip to Germany and Poland, we had 3 glorious weeks back in Budapest!  We had guests a couple of times, so we did some more sightseeing in town.  This photo is taken from one of my favorite spots overlooking the Danube River.  If you squint your eyes, you can see the Parliament building on the left at the far end of the river.

Glenn and I did some massive yard work so made a couple of trips to OBI, much like Home Depot, even down to the orange and white logo!  However, I don't think there's a Home Depot in America that sells stills for brewing your own hootch.  :-)  

This large bottle of water is found in the automotive department.  We thought it was distilled water but it is actually mineralized water.  Can you tell me why apple scented mineralized water would be used in a car?

At our small Campona Mall down the street from our house, there's a kiosk in the middle that sells random food and drink items from around the world.  Imagine my surprise when I found Dr. Pepper Zero there, especially when you can't find it anywhere else!  By the way, our Tesco (think Walmart) is consistently selling Dr. Pepper (regular), as are a lot of other grocery stores too.  Finally!

Our last trip was a 12 day journey to visit our families in Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo.  Below are a few shots of our trip.

First stop:  Sarajevo, Bosnia.  Sarajevo is one of our favorite cities, especially it's old town area.  We visited one of the ruins of the site of the Winter Olympics in 1984. In it's glory days, this is where the bobsled competition was held.  It is sad to think that 10 years later the city would be sieged and the country would enter a four-year war.  At the end of the 3 kilometer bobsled ride down Mount Trebevic is a bombed out spectator area that once held hundreds of people.

From Sarajevo, we drove to Mostar where we experienced a torrential downpour while walking through the market area with the family we were visiting.  The water was gushing down the hilly streets, knee deep in places, and was pouring under storefront doors.  This man is trying to deflect some of the water so that it won't enter his store.  He was soaked!

We came to this street that was flooded up at the top of the hill where we needed to turn, so we had to camp out at this sidewalk cafe until the water level receded.  It was here that I learned to like Nescafe!

I took about 300 pictures on our trip of the many towns and villages through which we passed, and of the humongous splendorific (evidently not a real word since my computer is underlining it in red) mountains that were all around us.

I thought it very interesting that even though each of the countries through which we passed were mountainous, they all had a little different look about them.  I don't know if it was because of the different types of trees, the soil composition (rocky or dirt), or even the shadows from the clouds affecting the color of the leaves, but I never tired of the gorgeous views.  I did, however, hide my eyes on many occasions as we wound around many a mountain top with hairpin turns on skinny roads. 

Welcome to Montenegro!

We were enjoying a meal at a restaurant in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, and across from the hotel restaurant balcony in plain view were these unprotected Turkish ruins.  Can you believe it?  Unprotected and undeveloped.

On a funny note, the waiter gave me this menu and I noticed it was a different color from Glenn's and it says "For Ladies".  Now, why would they have a different menu for ladies?  

This is what it looks like inside.  So, do you notice any reason why this menu is for ladies?

If you said, "it does not show the prices", you would have been right and won a wonderful prize (if I was offering a prize).  This is the men's copy with the prices listed.  I guess the hotel is saying their restaurant is a fine one where women are brought to be wined and dined.

For our Sabbath, we decided to take a short detour into Albania for a day and a night.  We rented a room about 1/4 mile from the beach (we could see the Adriatic Sea from our third floor balcony) and enjoyed walking along the "boardwalk" along the beach.  There were 8 1/2 miles of dark sand but we only walked 2 or 3 of them.  We agreed we probably would never choose to vacation in Albania, but we were glad we chose to visit the country.  

By the way, that makes 61 countries that I've visited!

Albania was mountainous and beautiful, but the trash along the roadway was a little much for us.

From there, we drove to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.  

We stayed in the same hotel we've used before so we were in familiar territory.  We saw the Bill Clinton billboard and statue as before, but this time we came upon a quote from John F. Kennedy on the side of a university building.

Our last place to visit was in Pec (or Peje).  We saw this Pizzeria USA and wondered if there were any similarities with any pizzas in America!

One of the main things we saw in ALL FOUR countries was the abundance of peppers for sale on the side of the road.  We love peppers.  Sweet red peppers, long yellow ones, round orange ones.  We also visited a waterfall while in Pec (first photo) and took a couple of walks through their small downtown area.   In Pec, everywhere you look, you see mountains in the distance.

From Kosovo, the shortest route back to Budapest would be through Serbia but because those two countries don't have a good relationship, we had to go back into Montenegro and then pass into Serbia.  We have families in Serbia but since we have already visited them this year, we didn't stop.  Besides, after 12 days on the road, I'm kind of like a horse that sees the barn!  

Home for the week, then on the road again.  :-)