Bad things happen in threes-we’re done for now

We are on the road again and excited about what this adventure will hold for us. I couldn’t sleep the night before we left but that is typical for me. I seem to love to worry about minutia prior to trips. We flew from Portland to Chicago then on to London. The EU has a new policy that only allows one carryon. We each had two so were not allowed to transfer to our flight once we arrived in London. We were directed to the terminal where we were to check our extra carryon. When we approached the Lufthansa counter, we were told we were too late to make our connecting flight although it was still on the ground and about 25 minutes prior to takeoff. We were then directed to a different counter to reschedule. Here we were told by a very unsympathetic agent we would have to buy a new ticket to the tune of 700 Euros, about $1000 for us to fly to Frankfurt. HA! In their dreams. I should back track here. Because we are traveling to six destinations in 82 days and Ron is working for two employers on this trip we have a very complicated itinerary with 10 carriers and multiple round trips to ensure an easier reimbursement. So we went to two other carriers and British Air sold us cheaper tickets and the agent took pity on us and even tricked the computer to get us a further discount of $140. Two hours later we were on our way to Frankfurt. Our second and third bad thing happened on arrival in Frankfurt. Ron’s luggage didn’t make it. He spent about 45 minutes working with an agent to locate it and make sure it was delivered to our hotel in Frankfurt. After we left the luggage area, we discovered a wheel had been busted off my bag. We couldn’t get back in to make a claim but found a security person who got us back in. Then we discovered airlines no longer take responsibility for damaged luggage as long as it is ‘usable’. Ha! That would be a matter of opinion but obviously their opinion counts and ours doesn’t.

So Ron, the sweetest guy in the world, carried my luggage and his very heavy carryon with two computers and I carried the lighter two carryons and my purse. We took a train into town and our hotel was conveniently located right across the street from the station. We were dead tried since neither of us had sleep well on the plane. Something about sitting up in a cramped chair. I shouldn’t complain because we had been upgraded to business class when we had asked for exit rows on the Chicago to London leg. Regardless, we couldn’t sleep. So when we got to the hotel we rested for 30 minutes but decided we had better not go to sleep or we wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. Off we went in search for a new suitcase. Ca-ching, Europe is not cheap! After finding a bag, we headed to a restaurant and had a decent Italian meal within easy walking distance of the department store. This restaurant was laughing all the way to the bank. They got you in and out quickly, there was a constant flow of folks into the place and they had you packed like sardines. And guess what, Europe still smokes! Yuck!

We managed to stay awake until 8:00 or 8:30 and fell asleep until 2:00 a.m. and read until 3:30. There’s no way around sleep interruption when you travel these distances. I managed to stay awake another hour and we got up at 7:00 to shower, dress and eat and head out to the airport. We have been lucky thus far. No rain, although it has been somewhat cloudy most places. So we flew from Frankfurt to Milan and from there to Skopje Macedonia. We got a regular size of bottled water in the Milan airport for $5.00 ca-ching. Get me outta here. I like those Sri Lanka prices much better!

We flew over the Swiss Alps. So beautiful and into Skopje with rolling hills dotted with little villages of stucco houses and terra cotta roof tiles. So romantic…We were met by a UN Development Program (UNDP) driver and Barbara, another consultant on the project who lives in Milan but is from Austria. We were on the same flight from Milan. She speaks five languages, which embarrasses the heck out of me! It took us about an hour to cross the two borders with stops for passport checks. They have real roads here, unlike Sri Lanka (SL). But they have litter here very similar to SL. People dump their garbage near bridge embankments for some reason but ugly plastic bags and its contents that get strewn here and yon mar the countryside. It’s the bane of my environmental existence!! I’ll try not to bore you with my usual tirades on this score. I think I overdid it in SL.

The area appears to be largely agricultural. Vranje, a small town in southern Serbia where we are staying for two weeks is right over the border of Macedonia and near the contested region of Kosovo. I will give you some history of the region with my next installment. So the driver took us to Vibeke’s house first. She’s the program director here. She gave us a loaf of bread, butter, coffee, yogurt, muesili, bottled water, a map and a guidebook for me to use while here. We tried to get a book on Serbia before we left but the only one we found was on the Balkans, not specifically Serbia and it didn’t even mention Vranje. We couldn’t get over her thoughtfulness. Then we were taken about 5 miles out of town to the apartment where we are staying. We had been told that the one hotel in town wasn’t so great and we would be better off renting the apartment from another employee at the UNDP. We were pleasantly surprised, as it appears to be brand new and spotlessly clean. It lacks a refrigerator and the shower is a small tub, no shower curtain so we surmised that you sit in the tub and use the handheld shower head to bath yourself, otherwise you would get the entire bathroom wet including all the cabinetry. Let’s not take our American luxury for granted, folks.

The tap water here is safe to drink but when you turn on the tap, it smells like sulfur. Yuck. I’m fixing myself a cup of decaf now and can’t get the new bottle opened with my weenie hands so will try the sulfur flavored water and report in a moment. The apartment is light with lots of windows, quite near the main highway and is part of Minke’s house. She lives upstairs and I think this apartment might be her mother’s. She must move in with her daughter when she rents it out. We are using a cold pantry, chilled by an open window, for refrigerated items but I am going to be cautious and buy refrigerated items daily as I’m not interested in getting sick here. We managed to stay up until 9:30 and Ron woke up at 1:30. I recommended that he take a sleeping pill since he had to go to work today. I didn’t take one as I had been sleeping well up to that point. Unfortunately, when Ron fell asleep he started snoring loudly and it didn’t matter what position he was in. So I stayed in bed until 3:30 and decided I really wasn’t going to get to sleep. I went into the living room, tried to sleep, got up and read about Serbia in the bathroom so the light wouldn’t bother RB. After reading I felt assured that we would be able to find an ATM that would take one of our three ATM cards. After our problems in SL, we are a little paranoid about travel to rural, remote or exotic places and access to cash. Last night we tried one bank and had no luck so I obsessed prior to reading the book.

By the way, sulfur flavored coffee is not bad. It’s not good but not too bad. While making it, I managed to knock over the drip cone when it was full of hot water and grounds and make a frigging royal mess in the kitchen. And Ron says I’m not clumsy. Love is blind, folks!

So at 4:45a.m.I went back to bed because I couldn’t hear Ron snoring. I forgot to mention we have a comfortable double bed that fills three-fourths of the bedroom. My side is against the wall and I have about six inches between the wall and the foot of the bed so I do acrobatics getting in and out, a challenge for a big clumsy woman. We slept until 6:30 when it was time to get up and get going. Since we are so far out of town, I decided to hitch a ride into town with Ron and our landlady this morning.

Since this is getting so long, I will end here and do a part B so you don’t fall asleep reading. So Ron says “That’s the blurbia from Serbia”. Where did I get this guy?