Santorini: most beautiful island? Maybe not

So I knew when I chose to go to santorini that it would be much more touristy than Paros and that it was a very different island. I was very accurate at this assumption. I will start by saying approaching santorini is incredible. The cliffs that lead up to the towns are massive and impressive. This was such a contrast to having the beach a stones throw away in Paros. However, as the transfer bus inched it's way up the cliffs edge the view was stunning. I couldn't actually believe tour buses could navigate up and down this road. Anyways, I picked a part of the island to stay on that was less city, called Perissa Beach. It's the famous black sand beach of Santorini and is about a half hour bus ride from the port or the major city of Fira. 

I will say that this post will be shorter than the last because I honestly did not do as much as I should have here. Since my hotel was further away from things I didn't really feel too adventurous and the roads here were way more sketchy than Paros so I was less inclined to rent a mode of transportation. This was the first place at least where I stayed in a dorm and was able to meet some wonderful people! The nicest German girl, Nathalie, and I hit it off right away and she was getting ready to go buy a ticket for a day tour right when I got there and she offered to have me tag along. We got a great deal on the tour, only 19 Euro, (usually 25-27) for a full day-10am to 10pm.

The tour was actually really awesome. We got to get on this fancy boat that made you feel like you were on an old pirate ship. It was realllllyyy touristy but we just said screw it, it was cool regardless. The first stop was the volcano where we hiked to the top for some beautiful views. Everyone kept saying it wasn't a big hike- only like 20 minutes-no big deal. LIES! Haha if you know me you know I'm not the best walker/hiker. I like hiking but not when they are crazy steep and it's a million degrees and no trees. At the top, our funny and cute guide gave a mini geology lecture which I understood better than most I think. I tried to explain to people I grew up in WA... Where we have our own volcanos in our backyard to deal with and they have been teaching us about them since primary school. Next we got back on the boat and went to the hot springs. The best part about this stop was A. Being able to jump in the water and B. That there was no dock, so if you wanted to swim to the hot springs, which was why we were there, you had to jump off the side of the boat. It was awesome. The hot springs didn't feel that hot until you had to swim back to the boat and you had to go back to the normal water. It was all clay colored but no sulfer smell I'm used to for hot springs. Anyways this was a short stop but enjoyable. Back on the boat we stopped for lunch at this small traditional village where I decided to hang out by the port instead of hiking up the cliff to the top where there wasn't much. I needed a break after that volcano. Nathalie and I had also made friends with this super nice Australian couple who ate lunch with us and then did brave the hike. 

After lunch we headed to the final leg of the trip which was the beautiful town of Oia (pronounced "ee-uh"). Now this place was breathtaking and it was no surprise people go there for honeymoons. We saw three brides walking around while we were there. At this stop we left half of the boat who didn't buy sunset tickets and i was super excited because i took a DONKEY up most of this cliff. I felt like it was a necessary experience and it was pretty cool. The donkeys were bigger than I expected, more horse size. They didn't take you all the way up but most of the way. Once to the top we were sweating and panting so we stopped and just got a soda at one of the cafés in the shade. A coca cola has never tasted so good. After we had returned to normal, we walked around town. It really is the classic Greek town people imagine. Narrow walkways, white washed buildings, tons of little shops. The only downside to this beautiful place was price. Everything was so so expensive! We had three hours here so we walked around a lot trying to figure out somewhere we might be able to afford for dinner and to watch the sunset. We got really lucky right was we were running out of time we found a perfect restaurant off the main path with reasonable prices and we took the only table with a sunset view through the buildings. For an appetizer, wine, two entrees, water and a free dessert we spent 32 euro, which really wasn't bad. And the sunset was worth that for sure. That's what Oia is known for, all those beautiful photos of Greece with sunsets and white houses? Yeah probably taken from this place. Our restaurant ended up being even more fantastic when we realized it was literally right by the bus station so we didn't have to look hard to find our way to the bus that took us back to our part of island. 

That was honesty the most exciting part of my time in Santorini. The other days I spent either at the beach or the pool, chatting with new people who came to the hostel and trying to plan where I was going to go next. When I was finally decided I wanted to go to Crete. I went back to the lady who had gotten us the good deal on the volcano trip and she told me I wouldn't be able to leave until Thursday! That the boats were full. And then also that she didn't take credit cards. This ended up being a blessing because I went down the street to the other travel agency and that travel agent, a nice, young woman, got me on a boat the next day AND took credit cards. So the other lady was full of it. 

So my final thought on Santorini is that it's overrated.. I mean it was beautiful sure but not anything exceptional.apart from Oia and seeing why people for sure would honeymoon there, it was not better than Paros and it actually ended up being so windy I had to even wear jeans my last night there! It was over priced and just so touristy. Needless to say I was ready to move on and four days was more than enough time there. Next up: CRETE!

Paros: island number two

Paros: The second island I visited but the first stop alone. Of course I waited until last minute to book a place to stay. I selected at random from booking.com and hoped for the best. It seemed like a decent enough deal, around 74 euro for three nights. Since it's less of a tourist spot there really weren't hostels to choose from so I ended up picking a studio to rent. This is actually a cool thing that they do here. Studios and apartments are cheaper yet similar to a hotel room and if you don't book them before you get to your island, when you get off the ferry there are hordes of men with signs offering rooms to let and rides to those hotels. So crazy and chaotic. 

Anyways, I did at least book a day before and it appeared my hotel was in walking distance from the port, although when I got there I was skeptical and thought about trying to find a taxi. Turned out there weren't any so I just started walking the direction it had looked like it was on the map. Sure enough, only about a 10/15 minute walk and I was there. The hotel itself was nothing amazing. Pretty standard, but the manager Nikos made all the difference. He was so wonderful and welcoming. Only 28, and cute to, he was pretty much the only person I talked to while in Paros that wasn't a sever or cashier. 

The first day i kinda wasted.. I was so exhausted from having to leave Athens at 7am and hadn't slept much the night before I took a nap and by the time I woke up the day was pretty much over. So to salvage some time I went out to dinner, got some delicious mussels and then after went and had a glass of wine as the sun set. Not too shabby for a first night. The second day I spent relaxing at the beach that was only about five minutes away. Real simple- this is where I took my photo with my corona. Nice beach, a little crowded and touristy but still nice. The third day, since I hadn't been very adventurous I decided I needed to go out on an adventure. SO I rented an ATV and got to drive around the island on my own adventure. I went in search of one of the great beaches mentioned on all the maps and travel sites.. I'm on a bus right now writing this so I can't look up what it's called at the moment but it starts with a K. Anyways, it's this beautiful beach with amazing rock formations and turquoise water. Not only was it a blast getting there but once there I actually wandered off from where you pay for a beach chair and umbrella and laid for a while on the rocks.Then after going for a swim I saw two people in lounge chairs totally separate from everyone else in this semi closed cove. When they eventually left I took their spot and essentially had a private beach to myself the entire day. (And didn't have to pay for the chairs and umbrellas that were there) It was probably one of the coolest and most enjoyable afternoons ever. 

After I was sufficiently crispy from the sun and it was nearly five o'clock, I packed up (sadly) and got back on my ATV. On impulse I decided to go drive around the other main town, Nousa or something like that, and walked around for a bit. It was a cute place but I was tired enough that I probably didn't do it justice, another time I wished I was with someone who would have convinced me to stay and eat dinner there. Regardless, at least I went. I got back on my fancy ride and drove back to the port where I did discover much more to the place than I had realized and ate dinner at the far other end. After dinner and sunset again I went back to the hotel where I again had a lovely evening of chatting with Nikos where he offered me some free local wine. It was really a great stay. 

As a final note worth mentioning, the rental of the ATV was great timing because for 12 euro I had it for 24 hours so in the morning when I had to leave for my ferry I had a vehicle to drive to get me to the port with my heavy bag. WIN. And then I was off to Santorini :-)

Agistri: first island adventure

Like I mentioned, I was really lucky to have Myrto and her boyfriend as my hosts. It turned out that they to had been wanting to get away for a weekend and it just happened to work out that it was the weekend I was there! We wanted to pick somewhere semi close to make it worth our time for only two days so we picked a small island only an hour and a half ferry ride away. Since we also wanted it to be economical we picked free camping. Fun fact about Greece: camping for free is actually illegal everywhere. Luckily, most people don't follow that law although you can technically get a ticket for it. 

We woke up pretty early to catch the metro to head to the port. This was good for me because it gave me the chance to figure out the port with help and people who knew what they were doing. We got to the boat just in time and did have to do a little bit of running to make it. Once onboard I was kinda surprised. I'm used to big ish ferries, going back and forth from whidbey and everything, but this boat was way bigger than that! Add in the fact the entire upstairs where all the passengers sat was so packed we almost couldn't find somewhere to sit. The ride itself wasn't bad at all, quite enjoyable actually. 

Once we arrived it was chaos. So you know in the states when you take a ferry, there is an order to it. First they let foot passengers off, then each row of cars, then they let the new foot passengers on and then the new cars. Yeah. Um. Not how it works here. It is 100% free for all. Massive crowd of people pushing to get off and on, cars honking to try and make there way off the boat and through the hordes of people... Aka chaos. Quite an experience. So anyways, once out of the massive crowd we started walking towards our campsite which I won't pretend was close... Also it was hot as hell. This trip has been a nice reminder that I should pack less. Seriously, self, next time you travel PACK LESS! 

Anyways, after walking a ways we found a decent spot in the shade on the cliff. It was a beautiful view. Right away we changed and headed to the beach. Such a beautiful beach. Of course we had to walk a bit further to get to the beach and it was actually located at the base of the cliff so we had to manuver down the steep incline at just the right spot. I thought it was rather fun, but some other people kept getting stuck because it was scary I guess? Once down we were able to find a decent spot and commence laying out. Of course I'm back in Europe so most of the people were naked and beautifully tanned. I still have some work to do. Especially how even after this first summer sun day I ended up white and red, even a little speckled due to bad sunscreen, not tan. Alas, the plight of not being Greek! The beach was amazing though and besides loosing/leaving my very expensive sunscreen it was a perfect afternoon. 

Once we were crispy we all decided to walk down to the port. Again I was fully surpsied, this time by the fact there was a lot more to the port than it had seemed getting off the boat. We got some ice cream first: priorities, and then preceded to walk around past all the shops and restaurants (more restaurants less shops). As we walked around Yannis ran into some friends of his and when we finally decided we should eat, we picked where they had been. I tried octopus for the first time! And that was pretty delicious, as well as calamari, and a Greek salad. Dinner was yummy but as time passed I could feel my sunburn getting worse. 

Once we finished eating it was only 9 o'clock and we were trying to decide what to do. Option one was grab a drink and relax by the water in the port, option two was go find their friends campsite and hang out with them. I wanted option one or really my only stipulation was I didn't want a lot of walking... If you can guess we went with option two. Apparently it wasn't supposed to be that far.... Let me tell you right now, it was frikking more than far. We walked a 5k. Literally. Not figuratively or exaggerated. Actually. I was in crappy old navy flip flops, shorts and a tshirt. Thank god I brought my light zip up because when we got there after nearly an hour and half of walking, my sunburn kicked in and I was freeeezingggg! The first hour or so was fun, we played never have I ever which was interesting because I had to have someone translate everything to me and so it was funny delayed. I socialized a bit but after nearly three hours i was frozen, exhausted, my feet hurt and I was grumpy. I could also mention that I was running off of about 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say I was thrilled when everyone else finally got too drunk and started passing out which prompted my group to finally call a taxi. 

The next day my legs were totally beat. Every step took effort and the blister between my toes was rather unhappy. We had initially thought about staying one more night but that morning as we lay in the tent we decided it would be best to go back, so we ended up walking back down to the port to buy our tickets. After trying to find a beach close to the port, we were unhappy with how dirty the water was and decided to hike back to be beach we were at the day before. It was a little less hot this day and we were out a little later as well which helped with the fact my body was already burnt and crispy. As we relaxed basically just waiting for it to be time for our ferry, we realized it started to get a little cloudy. About five minutes after I said "wow those clouds look ominous" we decided to pack up and get to our tent in case it rained. Sure enough, just as we climbed up the cliff and started walking, the rain and thunder kicked in. We picked up the pace knowing our tent was open and all our stuff inside. Luckily it didn't start to really downpour until all our stuff was packed and we were walking back towards the port again! This time looking for somewhere to get out of the rain and maybe grab a snack. We were soaked by the time we got there. Luckily I'm from Washington and I like the rain, especially when it's mostly warm. The best part about this story was that we were so incredibly lucky we had changed out minds to leave earlier that day. The boat was already nearly full and after the rain started and it being Sunday everyone was trying to get on that last boat. Needless to say it was an adventure and I made some memories in those two days. Not a bad start to a trip of islands..

Athens: officially in Greece!

Athens. What can I say?! Let's start with the fact that I decided to couchsurf here and my host has been absolutely wonderful! Her name is Myrto and her boyfriend is Giannis and they have been the  most welcoming people. I got here early in the morning on Tuesday and I will say I was exhausted after leaving Geneva at 4am. Once I landed I took the train into the city where there was some complication while I figured out how to get a hold of her... Realizing we had just agreed on the metro stop and not where to meet once outside of there. In addition, it seemed to take forever to get from the airport to the city and I was worried she either had been waiting forever or had given up. Let's add to this situation that I had no phone or internet and therefore no way to get ahold of her. SO. I got out of the metro and walked around a bit trying to look for another young female who might appear to be looking for someone... No luck. After about ten minutes of total confusion I found a sign at a cafe saying free wifi so I walked over and asked the person at the counter to put in the password. I called her via skype with of course the worst connection possible and she couldn't hear me at all. Giving up on that I switched to sending a text of my location also via skype and she found me! Yay!

Once we met up we had a short walk to her apartment which is super cute as is her adorable dog tunni. (Not sure if that's how you spell it) right away she welcomed me into her home and we sat and chat for awhile before she allowed me to take a nap :-) which was wonderful considering I was running off hardly any sleep. When I woke up she fed me a delicious meal (a super yummy dinner that's a real local standard-basically chicken in puréed tomatoes with species and then with something like homemade egg noodles) after that her and her boyfriend insisted on taking me out for a sweet. I tried orange pie. It was super good but totally a weird texture. After sweets and singing them the dorky sorority version of the Greek alphabet, they took me to their favorite summer spot for a drink. It was this awesome little place on top of a huge hill, all outdoors, and dimly lit. I ordered a simple greek beer Alpha since I was literally sweating my ass off. It was so hot for me. I also tried this traditional liquor, Raki- plain it was awful and sooo strong! But you could also order it with cinnamon, honey and spices and that was much better. Some of their friends joined us, one I really like, Aggeliki, who I will talk about more a little later. We had a really nice time though and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better welcoming into the city . 

The second day was slightly less exciting except I was lucky enough to meet Myrto's mom who came to town! She doesnt speak a lot of English but we found a way to communicate. What was really luckily about her visit was being able to try some of her homemade cooking. She brought this big traditional dish-pastitsio. It was SUPER yummy. Basically beef, noodles, and cheese in a casserole type dish. Her mom was really nice and I just wish we could have talked more. We did get some time together the next day when we went to see the acropolis since I failed at finding it on my own that day.

The visit to the Acropolis was actually really awesome despite being the most touristy thing you can do in Athens. There is something about knowing just how old it is and being in awe of the things mankind have been able to create. I will say it was bloody hot that day! Like sweltering and we had to literally climb a mountain. It was pretty intense but quite rewarding once at the top. After taking the token photos we went back down to meet back up with Myrto's mom. She was in heels and decided not to go up with us. Unfortunately after a delicious over priced icey, Myrto had to go to work and left her mom and I to see the Acropolis Museum without her.  This was also pretty cool considering it gave a bit more context to what I had just seen. 

Other notabale events from Athens: getting to meet Myrto's friends, relaxing and having a beer with them, buying a new pair of sandals, which the jury is still out on whether they are comfortable or worth the price, having my first officially Greek Slouvaki which is a Gyro. Above all else was the wonderful weekend away of camping.. Which isn't really Athens and why it gets it's own post :-)

Geneva: the 5th most expensive city in the world

We arrived in Geneva late. We were rushed to make sure we caught the train into the city and it turned out to be a little confusing. I thought more signs would have been in English for being such a well known international hub... They do provide a free train ticket at the airport which is nice and makes one thing easier.  We got a little lost trying to find the right platform but luckily there weren't that many options... I was also pretty positive the train going to "Geneva centre" was the one we wanted even though Kelli was less sure. But like always we figured it out. Hit another snag when we got off at the station the hotel website said and realized we had no other information...haha so, Kelli asked a taxi driver who gave us pretty good directions but as we were waking Kelli was again unsure and stopped into another hotel to ask. I had said we should walk just one more block, and sure enough one block up and you could see the hotel flags. I really am good with finding things. 

The man at reception was so lovely and we both couldn't wait to put our stuff down and crash. Of course we got all situated and went to try and turn on the AC and it was broken... Of course the Americans want AC but hey, for $130 a night I felt slightly entitled. They moved us the next day. Oh I should also mention that apparently they were in the middle of a heat wave.. High 90s and high humidity  the whole time we were there.

It also turns out that in Geneva the weekend is Sunday and Monday. So the two days we were there most things were closed. We spend the whole morning and early afternoon walking around old town seeing the sights on Sunday even though the streets were truly deserted. It was totally weird. But we got to see most of the stuff we wanted. After heading back to the hotel and having a nap, we attempted to find our way to dinner. I had found a cool place on yelp that was some Asian fusion but when we couldn't find it we settled on pizza/Italian. We split a house salad, a pizza and a bottle of water and the total was around 35 Swiss franc. Expensive! When we had been walking around during the day we saw that a simple chicken sandwich was around 15franc. 

Anywho, we enjoyed our dinner and headed back to the hotel to work on our papers. The next day we went and saw the United Nations which was the real thing we were excited about.*nerds*:-)Took a million pictures, saw a few more tourists this day but after the main sites we were sweating and ready to head back. We also realllly needed to write our papers at this point because all other mentions were not very productive... 

Once we had made significant progress on our papers it was time for dinner. Considering it was again so expensive, we pooled our money together to see what total we could spend, we had 28 franc I think... We went and wondered around town a bit and actually found a sushi place! Knowing we probably wouldn't have sushi again for a long while we went with it and it was actually quite tasty.

And that pretty much sums up Geneva. I will say it was a beautiful beautiful place and the city had a lot of charm. It's super safe and clean for a city and the landmarks are better than the photos show. It made me brush up on my French and the people who could speak English were quite nice to us. I wish I had more money because I think the city likely has a lot more to offer if you can afford it. 

Our last evening we tried to go to bed early because our flights were at 6 and 6:50 am... Soooo early! We had to catch the first train of the day that left at 4:43am to the airport. This time it was good we had given ourselves time as the airport was surprisingly busy at that hour and the line at easyjet was crazy long. All the sudden a lady came asking for those going to Athens and I had to rush away hardly without a goodbye! After quick hugs I left kelli in line as she was heading off to Rome to meet her husband. I will see her again shortly tho, either in Croatia before IPSI or in bologna itself on July 5th. But with that sudden transition I was off on my own adventure heading to Greece!

Pristina: a surprisingly lovely city

So who would have thought that Kosovo would be such an enjoyable place. I'm not sure what I was expecting or what I had imagined after all the books and articles I had read, but regardless, I was pleasantly surprised. We drove into Kosovo on a bus which allowed me the chance to see some of the beautiful country. Heading through the mountains reminded me of home. I will say that right before this part of the trip I had a horrible realization: I forgot my headphones in the states. Now you wouldn't think this would be such a horrible horrible thing until you're on a bus for three+ hours with all of the most annoying boys sitting behind you. Now, not to say they aren't great guys, but seriously having to listen to their conversations for that long was awful. Especially when I didn't sleep the night before, had a killer headache and just wanted them to shut up. So needless to say I was thrilled when we got to the monastery we were staying for the night.

This monastery was beautiful. So high up in the mountains, surrounded my beautiful trees and ancient architecture. It really was a sight. I was also pleasantly surprised with the accommodations. It was very much a comfortable hostel, clean beds, a balcony, some crappy food and wifi that didn't work. But really, who needs wifi in the middle of the mountains? No surprise there. Anyways we were only there for a night and it was a pretty awesome place to stop in my opinion. 

We woke up early the next morning to drive to North Mitrovica, which is the divided city in the North of Kosovo. Here we got to meet with a lawyer and analyst as well as the mayor who dropped in on our lunch. Interesting lunch of fries and sausage in this small restaurant that apparently the mafia hangs out in...? I don't know. We kept getting told to not speak because we would be identified as American... Un duh.. There was no way to hide that fact and I thought it was silly to all the sudden act silent inside this restaurant where people clearly knew we were American. Now I get not bringing attention to ourselves while walking around but in the restaurant... I just kept thinking if this is a sketchy place why are we here in the first place? Anyways, small rant over. The conversation was interesting enough before we got back on the bus and headed to Pristina.

A quick summary of Pristina is to simply say I loved the city. It wasn't anything special but the people were so nice, excited that we were American in contrast to where we just were, and just overall a quaint, small/managable, kind city. The food was good, everything was cheap and a lot of people spoke English which was nice. I enjoyed almost all the meetings we had here which included some MPs , the Swiss ambassador, a journalist, a mayor, and a couple more political figures. We were there days before their elections so many of our meetings were brief and we were lucky people made time for us. 

Once everyone else left, kelli and I had one more night at Hotel Afa on our own. It was glorious. We woke up when we wanted, napped in the middle of the day, ate lunch at the hotel and just chilled out. After the ten days we had just had, I can tell you it was a much needed day of rest. Our flight didn't leave until around eight pm the next day so we stayed in our room until checkout at noon. Then we worked on our final papers, ate at the hotel one last time, and then took a cab professor Grigorev had arranged for us to the airport. 

Of course we were so nervous about the airport we got there wayyy too early. And of course since we were flying eastjet there weren't even people at the counter for a good 45 minutes while we waited. They always make it seem so crucial to be ontime and then they wait until the last minute to open the counter. Dumb. Anyways, we got there with plenty of time, went through security with no problem and no line, and off we were to Geneva!

Woohoo! Traveling Again! It begins in Serbia

Now of course I am not off to a very good start. I have already been abroad for ten days and this is the first time I have even had time to remember that I wanted to keep a blog again. Considering this part of the trip has been mostly academic based, I supposed I should get a pass. However, I write to you on the evening before my groups departure back to the States and I must say that overall this trip has been a pretty awesome one.

We started in Belgrade on May 28th and stayed at the Hotel Prag right in downtown. It was a decent hotel and my wonderful Norwegian friend Aurora was my roommate. We got in and of course everyone was exhausted as normal after a long flight but luckily we arrived in the early afternoon. After freshening up and getting settled, we walked to our first group dinner that had already been arranged and paid for at Restaurant Caruso. This place was beautiful! It was up probably 5 stories and was located on a balcony that overlooked the entire city. When we arrived we learned that the men on the trip could not enter because they had on shorts-this was pretty funny because normally us ladies were worried about what to wear and if we were dressy enough and the boys almost always wore jackets and slacks. SO as a solution, the restaurant actually provided them with swishy/stretchy black pants that they put over there shorts. Quite worth a chuckle. Dinner was delicious, authentic Serbian cuisine with a beautiful view and the company of the woman travel agent who had helped arrange our entire trip. I must say it was a fantastic welcome.

Once we had finished our first evening that was very relaxing and enjoyable, we started off the next morning bright and early for a full day of meetings. I will say we started with probably the best speaker of the trip at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Gordana Comic, the Vice President of the Serbian Parliament and a member of the Democratic Party. She. Was. Brilliant. Wonderfully candid, funny, intelligent and addressed crucial issues of women and gender in Serbia. After that, we got to meet with another MP, tour the Assembly, eat lunch and then go to the home of Jean-Daniel Ruch, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia. There, we had a very unique opportunity and evening, discussing social action and nonviolent resistance with his other guest Srda Popovic, who is the director of an NGO and leader of the student resistance movement during Milosevic. We were given wine and little snacks while we mingled in his garden. I can tell you that was a pretty awesome experience and one I never thought I would have. The remaining time in Belgrade we spent going to the US Embassy and then meeting the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Kosovo. A cool note to mention here is that we met the Advisor at the Office of the President of Serbia in the room which used to be Milosevic's office.  

That evening we had one of the most amazing dinners of my life. Professor Grigorev's friend hosted and paid for our dinner at this classic Serbian restaurant that turned out to be a five course meal. Possibly more then that. It was soooo much food but so delicious! There is no other way we would have had the chance to try so many great things without this dinner. He also brought a guest speaker to the dinner, Tanja, who is the Chief Negotiator for EU Accession for Serbia. So naturally it was not just dinner but also interesting intellectual conversation. It was seriously so amazing. Unfortunately, I cant leave this post without stating that apparently people in my class do not have any manners and were having super inappropriate conversation with the hosts wife and daughter.... Add in that a handful had HORRIBLE table manners, it ended up being a bit embarrassing since I was so honored to be there and I felt like my classmates shot it-and our reputation in the foot. A huge downside to traveling as a group.

Regardless, after that evening we met a couple other people who were interesting but not particularly worth mentioning and then it was already time to move on to Kosovo. My first impression of Serbia was that it was a pretty interesting place, super cheap, with lots of history. We were super lucky with the weather and I only wanted to kick people a handful of times, which is quite a success for me.