Random Thought: 12

So,

Is it pathetic that every night before I retire I must watch another episode of Grey’s Anatomy? I don’t know what it is about this show that has catapulted it to favorite-things status, but I can’t get enough. Even when really great characters make bad decisions, I need to see more, in hopes that they rectify themselves. If anything, a year from now it should be interesting to see how I view the Anatomy, as it should have a fairly high level of nostalgia for southern Europe.

So anyway, yesterday may have just been the single best day of my time in Europe so far. I have met a few girls whom I spent my time with in Mostar, and we actually booked a ‘tour’ through our hostel, though we don’t know where it goes. It’s just around, to places you can’t really get by public transport, apparently. I put tour in quotations because, as my friend Genevieve put it, it was more of a glorified taxi ride. But I’ll get to that later. Genevieve is Australian, and she has been backpacking across EASTERN EASTERN Europe for 2 months now, and is on her way to Spain soon for 3 more. I could sum up her time so far as being everything I am so excited to do someday and everything I’m terrified of happening to me someday all rolled into one trip. For instance, she started out her trip in RUSSIA. ALONE. She got there, lost her immigration card (which is like losing your passport in Russia), and had to spend a whole day fixing that mess, which could totally be its own blog entry, so I’m gonna leave it at that. She then went to Ukraine, and spent a whole day wandering around the Ukrainian countryside, lost and unable to communicate with anyone. She couldn’t even call her hostel because there was a POWER OUTAGE in that city, and then she had to call up her friend who speaks Russian and just walk up to random strangers and give them the phone in hopes that her friend would explain her situation that they’d take pity on her and help her out. I know. I would have called my mom, told her to book me a one-way flight home and I would have been home by now, out of tears to cry.

Anyway, she’s way fun. As I said, she’s spending 3 months in Spain on this sweet deal where she lives in this family’s home for free, in exchange for 10 hours of English lessons a week for their son. I know right?! Then I also met Kristina and Emily (probably not spelled right), 2 Danish students backpacking around the Former Yugoslavia for about a month. I’m literally fascinated with everything about Denmark now and I’m totally going to go there someday. Weirdly, Kristina is coming to the US for a road trip in February, driving from San Francisco to New York, and driving thru Iowa on i80. That means she’s passing Iowa City AND Tipton! So I told her she could stay with me. Anyway, they’re so informed, it’s ridiculous. They know all about health care reform, and immigration, and they’re also in Iraq! They said they often forget they’re a nation at war. Anyway, apparently ALL television in Denmark is American, and after asking them what shows they like….guess what we have in common?

Yeah, they’re huge Grey’s fans. However, sadly, they’re also Meredith fans. But they told me to stick with it, and that I’ll like her more…and they also admitted that she was quite pathetic in the early seasons. And they don’t like Private Practice…which is sad, because I hope I do. But everyone says it sucks. So anyway, they said the best part about Grey’s is that now they know all this medical terminology in English, and they proceeded to do all these little impressions of doctors in an American ER. It’s fun.

So anyway we’re on this “tour.” This Bosnian man (who never introduced himself, but was friendly enough) picked us up from the hostel and took us first to a couple of towns that were somewhat ancient, but are now in ruins. Some are in ruins simply because of time, some because of bombings, some both. This was fun enough and usually would have been enough sight-seeing for one day, because it took like, over two hours. Also, he had probably the most unique mixed CD on while we drove…it was this strange mix of Michael Jackson, the Black Eyed Peas, Celine Dion and Beyonce. Like, literally we heard at least 3 songs by each of those artists, plus other ridiculous songs such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Beautiful, and I Saw the Sign. I know, enough said.

Then he took us to this Dervish house…which I took to mean traditionally Muslim. Jessica, help? It was all very fascinating and fun, because the girls had to put on scarves and cover their shoulders and everything…even though no one lived there. But I guess it was also a place of worship, by the looks of it. And there were all these amazing things you could buy, but sadly I’m at the beginning of my trip still, so I knew I wouldn’t have room for them all or want to carry them for so long. I still have rocks from the Cinque Terre weighing down my bag. The best part of all this is that Bosnia is so Muslim, it’s like a taste of Turkey, and since I won’t be going there anymore, it’s nice.

He then was like ‘want to go swimming?” and it was like fuck yeah, Bosnia is as hot as a crotch. So he drops us off at this kind of park, and he says to walk down this path, and we’ll find it. So we’re like ok HOT. We’re walking and walking and walking, and we begin to hear the sound of rushing water. This was very exciting, but as we went on, we realized that nothing would prepare us for what we were about to see. Literally 5 huge waterfalls right out of Thailand, set down in the middle of Bosnia! Like, I couldn’t believe it. One of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. I have always wanted to see a full-on beautiful waterfall, and I assumed I’d have to wait until Thailand to do so, and this wasn’t just a little splashing here and there, it was huge and powerful and beautiful and the coolest thing in the world.

So we get in and the water literally feels like what I imagine the Atlantic Ocean felt like for the victims of the Titanic. It was the coldest water I had ever been in, and it was salt-free, so it wasn’t disgusting or bitter or full of crap. So it’s like 1 PM now and I’ve already done more sight-seeing than on my entire trip, so I’m ready for bed, and our tour guide’s like ‘We are now going to Medjugorje!’

If you don’t know what it is (why would you?), Medjugorje is this tiny town where people have reported seeing the Virgin Mary appear to them. My mom is like obsessed with it, apparently. I know this because oddly enough, Jessica went to Medjugorje a few weeks ago because she’s a devout Catholic. She came back and, knowing I was visiting Bosnia, told me to visit it. I happened to go home soon after she told me, and wanted to check my email or someshit. I open Safari on my mom’s computer, and literally the entire bookmarks bar is filled with bookmarks about Medjugorje. But then I click, and every single link is the same page. I think she was trying to add a regular bookmark to the dropdown menu, but didn’t realize they go directly to the bar, so she did it like 10 times before giving up. Anyway, Medjugorje totally plays it up, and it was worth it just to see the commercialization of this so-called phenomenon. For instance, there was a MODAna Boutique….get it? Like moda, which means fashion in romance languages…and there also the Regina Hotel. Yeah, the first one was clever.

So, anyway, none of us have our guidebooks, and none of us knew we were going there, but I knew enough to be like cool! Let’s see some Mary. He drops us off at this little Church which is really pretty, and Mass is just getting out, so it’s like super-crowded and all these people are crowding around this bus of the Madonna. That was cool enough to witness and all (ps, let me just say this. I’m so far removed from the catholic faith that witnessing a catholic mass felt as foreign to me as visiting the Dervish house…I felt like an anthropologist, ready to analyze and explore the church, rather than a lamb coming home to graze), but we were like, now what? He said he’d be back in 20 minutes, and we had seen this church in like 5. We were kind of confused, and it definitely felt like we had missed something….but then when I got in the van, Virgin Mary popped out and was like hey! Not really.

So we head back, grab some food at an awesome restaurant (and let me just say THIS. I have had 3 amazing meals now in Bosnia at really nice places, each for the price of about 5 euros, that would break the fucking bank in any other country, everything here is so cheap, thank god, because I spent way too much money in Italy/Germany/Croatia), and we laughed more about the music selection. After talking a bit about our plans for after Mostar, all three girls inform me that they’re heading to Sarajevo next. I don’t want to be left out, so I decide to change my plans to hang out with my girls some more. So instead of heading back to Croatia to lounge on the beach for a few more days, I’m heading to Sarajevo for 3 nights! We’ve book a room at some place called the Harris Hostel. It’s got wifi, so I’m down. And I’m really excited to transition from a sleepy little town to a bustling capital. It’s like, small towns are nice because they’re not hectic, and you probably won’t get as lost…but when I’m in a city, I feel so much closer to civilization, like train stations and airports and bus stations and restaurants and banks and post offices, etc. Like I’m not as scared of getting stranded. There will always be a hostel or hotel with a vacancy, or a train to the next city, or a store where I can by new headphones or batteries or whatever.

OH! Speaking of cities, I’ve yet to go to like some crazy ridiculous European bar in Amstedam or Munich or anything like that. But, I had a really unique experience last night. So when we arrived, we walked past this place of business called Ali Baba. You could walk into it from the street, and immediately you’re walking downstairs underground. We were like ‘ooh cool restaurant or whatever.’ So the next morning I’m at a Bosnian version of a Tabbachi and I see these Irish guys from my bus to Mostar. They’re like ‘Man have you been to Ali Baba???’ and I’m like ‘Um….oh! no, why?” and they’re all ‘It’s a club in a cave, you have to see it.” So last night we decide to do so. When you get past those stairs, you keep walking down and down into an actual cave. Water is dripping everywhere and everything. Then you get down into the actual bar and it’s ridiculous. There are strobe lights and flat screen TVs of JLo on the catwalk and all the waiters are wearing matching Capri Pants and there are dancing fountains, all inside this HUGE cave! It was awesome. And definitely the coolest bar I’d ever been to…and it was in Bosnia, haha.

So yeah, last night I get back to my room and lay down to sleep, and I open up my book to read about Medjugorje. Apparently, we did miss something. Something awesome. There’s this huge Jesus which apparently seems to float in midair, that bleeds holy water and people like come to bathe in it and stuff. It’s behind the church. We were definitely in front of the church, and didn’t think to walk around.

Ok, love you all and wish you were in Sarajevo with me!
-Josh A