BEYOND THE BORDERS

Each time Glenn and I fly out of the Budapest airport (recently re-named Ferenc Liszt Airport; no longer Ferihegy Airport), I love to look for the Parliament building, the Castle, and Margit Island.  If you look closely, you can see Margit Island in the middle of the Danube River on the bottom right-hand side of the photo.

We left last Monday for Bosnia to visit with our personnel.  This was our first trip to Bosnia, and I have to admit, I was surprised by the beauty of the country, particularly of it's capital city, Sarajevo.  

Commonly referred to as Pigeon Square by the locals, this part of town is the heartbeat of the city.  It was very quaint with its tiny shops selling everything from spices to scarves, hats to hose, and jewelry to junk. It very much has a turkish look about it.

While Glenn was enjoying a cup of turkish coffee with one of our young men, I browsed in the nearby shops.  Most of the shops along this street are jewelry stores, selling mostly silver necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  I was able to buy two silver chains that will help rebuild my jewelry collection since our 2009 break-in.

Not being a big coffee drinker myself, I left the honors of sharing a cup of turkish coffee to Glenn.   He also got to enjoy their Turkish Delight candy, for which they are so famous.

We walked and walked and walked around Sarajevo even though there was this lovely red and white polka dot tram available to us.  I doubt if you can read the web address on the front, but it is cilek.com.  I was particularly fond of it because it had my name in it!

Bosnia and Kosovo were part of the former Yugoslavia until it broke down in the late 1980's.  Even though the civil war is over, there are still signs of the bombings that destroyed parts of the city.

This man is a shop owner in Pigeon Square and he makes many things out of the mortar shells and shell casings from the rifles and machine guns used during the war.

This toy airplane is one example of the kinds of things he makes out of the shell casings.

Salt and pepper shakers, candle holders, lamp stands, book ends, and whatever else he could think of!

I prefer to remember Sarajevo as beautiful rather than war-torn.

Mid-week we arrived in Pristina, Kosovo.   Because Bosnia does not recognize Kosovo as a legitimate country, we had to fly to Croatia first, where we had a 5 hour lay-over, and then on to Kosovo, which shares a border with Bosnia.  Five hours is a long time to sit in a small airport that doesn't have any coffee shops or duty-free shops or free wi-fi ... so we exited the airport and walked for an hour, sat on a bench in a park and soaked up some sunshine, and ate some snacks we'd brought.  We'd left our hotel in Sarajevo at 11:30 am and arrived in Pristina, Kosovo at 11:45 pm.   I was tired, to put it mildly, by time we finally got to the apartment where we were staying and into bed.

The next day we met with our personnel that live there in Pristina, and one of the men took us around to see the sights as we talked.  This is a statue of Mother Teresa, born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia to parents of Albanian descent but who lived in Kosovo when she was a young girl.  It is reported that she was living in Kosovo when she received her call from God to live a religious life.  At age 18, she left her home and began her journey as a Catholic nun, never to see her mother or sister again.  Aie!  I will never again complain about not getting to see my family very often!!!!  

This is the public library in Pristina.  Quite modern looking, but not able to lend books.  The basement level is where the books are stored for people to read "on the spot", but they can't be loaned out because they don't ever get the books back!  

I was so glad that Glenn and I weren't having to drive in Kosovo!  There were way too many cars for the roads and finding a legitimate parking space was impossible so you just park where you can.  

This is the road in front of the apartment where we stayed for two nights.  Because of cars parked on the sides of the road, only one car could go at a time down the road.  Glenn and I just watched with grins on our faces to see the drivers maneuvering their way through.

Notice the color of the building on the left?  It's brownish green, right?

Walking toward that building, it changes colors.  Now it is brown and pink.

Standing directly in front of it, it is pink.  PINK?  Yes, PINK!

On Friday, we were driven to Peja where another one of our families live, but before we were dropped off at their house, we were taken to the scenic Rugova Gorge for a photo op.  :-) 

And so that our co-worker could refill his water bottles from the springs that are so prevalent in the area.  There is a water bottling company in Kosovo, Rugova, that is located just a mile or so from here, and supposedly, this is the same water that is used for bottling.  

The sky was overcast, making the water look very, very cold!

As we drove through the Rugova Gorge, we came across these signs warning us not to get off the path because of the mine fields.  I didn't want to push my luck so I stayed in the car on the asphalt until we came to the restaurant where we ate lunch and visited with another one of our co-workers.

Later that afternoon, we connected with friends that live in Peja and stayed with them for one night.  Their town is nestled in the mountains and is quite beautiful also.  I loved how you could look down the streets (away from the city center) and see mountains in the distance.

I always love the sidewalk markets wherever we go!

Our friends run a combination coffee shop-bakery called Sweet Beans.  They make all their desserts by hand and unintentionally, it has become the local hang-out for pre-teen and teenage girls.  All the other coffee shops in town are full of men who are unemployed, but theirs has become a safe place for young girls to hang out and talk.  It was quite interesting.

That night for dinner, we ate in the roof-top restaurant, seen above, where you can have a 360 degree view of the city.

It doesn't get much better than this, does it?  Unless you live in Budapest.   :-)

We're home for a week.  Glenn and I have a tendency to "nest" when we come home from our trips.  We cook from scratch, work around the house and in the yard, and in general, try to stay as close to home as possible.  Tuesday (April 10) is Glenn's birthday so we are going into town to try out a new restaurant that friends told us about and then we will enjoy some German Chocolate cake (his favorite) and ice cream.