On the Registering of a Jeep in Kosovo...

This morning I finally got off my lazy ass and set off into the wilds of Kosovo in order to register my Jeep so I can drive it legally. I thought this would only take two or three hours tops but little did I know what kind of shenanigans I was getting myself into. I drove into the center of Ferizaj, found an insurance company and, in broken Spanish (the guy knew Italian) and Albanian Engrish, attempted to buy an insurance policy. This was actually the smoothest part of the day and went pretty well.

After getting the policy I had to get the Jeep inspected and here was where the fun started. The inspection place is on the other side of town so I followed the sales guy and another customer through the streets of Ferizaj. The inspection itself went fine but while preparing my paperwork, the inspector noticed that the Customs officials (I had cleared my jeep with Customs a few weeks ago) had entered some incorrect information on the import documents, the correct information being necessary to register the jeep.

To fix this, I had to drive 30 miles south of Ferizaj, through the mountains, to the customs terminal at Hani I Elezit. I fought my way through a crowd of unbathed Albanian truckers and asked the first uniformed officer I saw, "Anglisht?". No Anglisht. But 5 minutes later and English speaker showed up to help me. Unfortunately their station chief was needed in order to correct the documents because this guy didn't have high enough computer privileges so I had to wait an hour for the chief to return from lunch.

With corrected customs documents in hand I headed back to the insurance office in Ferizaj so the salesdude could fix my insurance policy (he had copied down the incorrect customs info). Valid insurance in hand, I fought my way across town to the Kosovar Department of Motor Vehicles (not actually called this but you get the point). Fighting my way through another crowd of Albanians (they don't understand the concept of lines) I asked the harried-looking lady, "Anglisht?". No. But someone there did. And she helped me. Thankfully, all my paperwork was in order but I needed to pay various registration fees, for which she prepared two forms, and these had to be paid and receipted at a bank. There is no bank nearby. Again, I set off across town, this time fighting the afternoon rush hour traffic in a city of 85,000 but no traffic lights.

I decided to go back to the bank where I had paid for the insurance because, presumably, they would remember me and could speak some English. The cute teller took my euros while her coworkers smiled and giggled at me in Albanian. Fees paid, it was back to the registration office. Not even 20 meters away from the front door of the bank, I rear-end some guy in his "mint-condition" 1989 Volkswagen Golf. It was stop-and-go traffic; I went and he stopped. Out of the car he comes, yelling in Albanian. I smile and ask, "Anglisht?". No. But some thoughtful onlooker thinks to ask me, "sprechen zie Deutsch?". I respond with "nicht Deutsch" which was obviously a lie since I knew enough to say "nicht Deutsch". I show the guy my insurance policy but apparently he didn't want anything to do with that. I didn't really want to make a claim on the policy on the very day I bought it, either. So in the interests of a) not involving the authorities, b) getting the hell out of a very busy intersection during the very busy rush hour, and (not least) c) not pissing this guy off so much that the next time he saw my jeep he would throw a grenade at me, I gave him 50 euros which he took with a smile. Relieved, I cautiously made my way back to the registration office.

I walked through the door with less than 10 minutes to closing time. All the locals have gone and I hand my paperwork back to the nice English-speaking lady who helped me earlier. All my paperwork is in order, the fee receipts are tallied, and I'm missing the 3rd fee. For which she had not given me a form. So now it's back to the dance tomorrow...

Post-Christmas, pre-New Year's update

To everyone who was concerned my Christmas would be a depressing event, worry not! While definitely not the traditional family Christmas I've been accustomed to, it was an enjoyable occasion.

Unless you're American (or an Albanian Catholic), Christmas in Macedonia isn't celebrated until January 7th (Macedonians are Orthodox). That meant I could still get some last-minute shopping done on the 25th without looking quite the pathetic procrastinator if I had done the same back in the States. I was thankful for that because shopping opportunities on Camp Bondsteel are quite limited if you're looking for something other than the average PX crap.

After the last minute shopping, I returned to my apartment, quickly wrapped presents, and got ready for the evening's festivities.

My coworker, Dave, and his wife Billy have more or less adopted this lost American and the benefits of that adoption have included various holiday parties and dinners. Billy had cooked up a storm for Christmas - the menu included roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, pumpkin pie, and homemade cookies. Not quite the spread I missed back home but definitely welcome and tasty. After stuffing our faces we exchanged presents and then watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, courtesy of my mother. I prefaced the movie by explaining that it was typical of all American Christmases and as proof I showed them a picture of the Christmas light display at the Smiths' house in Wroxton. All were suitably impressed.

We capped off the evening with two impromptu fireworks displays, the first off the balcony at Dave and Billy's apartment. The explosions were awesome but were accompanied by a horrific rotten eggs/sulfur odor. We then went across town to one of their friend's neighborhoods and set off some more rockets in honor of her father, who's birthday was on the 24th. We got some dirty looks from the neighbors but he enjoyed the hell out of it, as did we.

Interspersed with the fireworks and presents and food were alcoholic beverages aplenty so Christmas this year was celebrated in the famed Kneisley style.

Wednesday night brings New Year's Eve which, minus the presents, looks to be Christmas Part Deux. Photos are coming soon!

Christmas in Skopje! Yay?

In what is probably the saddest episode of my adventures abroad, for the first time in 28 years I'm spending Christmas away from my family. Even when I was in Iraq, I made it home. This was my choice, so I have no one to blame but myself, but it's still a hard thing. I had a great time going back to the States in November and if I could have made it back for both holidays I would have. Time and money made that unlikely.

I will, however, be celebrating Christmas tonight with friends in Macedonia so I will not be missing out on my annual installment of food, booze, and presents. To everyone in Texas, Merry Christmas! And since I can't be there have a drink for me!

Secret Santa

I got a surprise package in the mail today. It was not the usual care package filled with my Mom's cookies or something I ordered from Amazon, but an anonymous gift pack from Hickory Farms with summer sausage (which I love), a smoked cheddar blend (which I am unsure about), and spicy mustard (which I also enjoy).

No clue as to who sent it, other than a single line on the shipping label under the heading Gift Message which read, "MERRY CHRISTMAS." Santa Claus came to my house once in 1986, maybe he's sending me gifts in Kosovo?

To whomever sent it, thank you and Merry Christmas!

Interesting article on the Pristina real estate market

This is in the British newspaper Financial Times and the writer seems to think he's a bit of a comedian. From Taking the stairs:

On first arrival in Kosovo's capital city, most people are struck by the ugliness of the place. From the northern approach, two ageing thermo-electric power plants spew out whitish-grey smoke over Pristina's uncontrolled sprawl. Closer to the centre, the jumble of dull concrete buildings becomes only a little more orderly. Since 1999, when weeks of pounding by Nato warplanes forced the former Serb regime to pull out of Kosovo, the main city of around 200,000 has swelled to roughly half a million - without a trace, except on paper, of an urban plan.

Internets

Finally, after three weeks of not trying very hard, I complained enough times to get the company that runs the internet service in our rooms to come fix mine. No longer do I have to trudge half a kilometer to check my email.

If you can't tell, I'm fairly excited. I won't be enjoying it this weekend though - I'm heading to Skopje. Hopefully I'll be getting my internet fixed there too.

Apologies for my laziness

I've been extremely lazy over the last 6 weeks and haven't updated anything. I'll try to get at least one post up here weekly to at least let everyone know I'm still alive and not in a Macedonian prison.

Nothing too new this week except that I returned to Kosovo after almost 24 hours of travelling back from vacation in exotic Conroe, Texas. It was 10 days filled with booze, food, family, and friends so I could not have asked for much more.

Prague! (part two)

One of the things Prague is known for is its jazz scene so, being a new jazz fan after my Amsterdam experience, I decided I would find some jazz to listen to. I had read a couple reviews of a jazz cellar called Agharta so I set off to find it, which was much easier said than done. The difficulty was partly due to the maze-like nature of old town Prague and partly due to my complete lack of knowledge of the Czech language. Amazingly, I seem to usually find what I'm looking for even after being lost and it didn't take too long to find Agharta. And I was not disappointed.

There's a sign for Agharta on the street but you have to go through a small passage into what is almost an indoor courtyard and then down a series of tight, low-ceiling stairs. I had to duck in a couple places to avoid hitting my head. I went to the bar, got a bar, and then settled in to enjoy the show. Which I did. It was not quite the same atmosphere as the jazz bar in Amsterdam, this one was much more subdued. The Amsterdam show was a good place to be drinking with friends; Prague would have been better to take a date or your parents to. Interestingly, the upright bass player looked a lot like Robert's friend Meltzer.

The show was over at 1AM and since I had to drive to Budapest the next day, I headed back to the hostel to get ready for the drive and then hit the sack.

Prague! (part one)

After driving all day from Bremerhaven, I finally made it to Prague late on Friday night. It took some effort to get to my hostel because although its website showed pictures of its sign on the building, the sign wasn't there in real life. I drove right past on the first shot and even though I figured out pretty quickly that I had gone too far, I was trapped in a maze of one-way streets and pedestrian zones. All the streets are cobbled and I don't speak Czech so it wasn't easy figuring out where the pedestrian zones started and ended. Nevertheless, I found my hostel, parked in a garage, and checked in.

After checking in, I got cleaned up as quick as I could, and then set off to find something to eat and drink. I succeeded so well at finding something to drink, that I can't remember my success (or lack thereof) of finding something to eat.

The next day, I got up, showered and set off to explore Prague which turns out to be one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. The winding streets, the architecture, it was all amazing. I really wish I had had someone traveling with me because it seems almost a waste to have been there by myself. There's a medieval clock tower in the center of the city, from the top of which you have awesome views in all directions. Because many buildings are built so closely together, some of the best views of a couple churches are from the clock tower. Additionally, the clock has a set of very elaborate chimes, and at noon a skeleton comes alive to pull the chain that rings them.


I had lunch at an Irish pub nearby where I had an awesome hamburger and watched the final match of Tri Nations rugby between New Zealand and Australia. It was really cool to watch because it seemed every Kiwi or Aussie tourist in the city was at the pub watching the match. Not only were the younger travelers harassing each other, the older crowd (grey-hairs in their 60s and 70s!) would harass each other too. The women too! The game was pretty exciting. New Zealand was favored to win and they took an early lead. Australia then had 3 unopposed scores and that really set the Aussie crowd off. The Kiwis finally came back to win 28-24 and the pub erupted in shouts and cheers. It must have really worried someone because shortly after, about 8 police cars and over a dozen police officers had shown up, looking ready to control a riot. I was done with that mess, so I left to see more of the city.

I wandered around and found the Charles Bridge which spans the River Vlatava and connects the Old Town to what in the 14th Century were the suburbs and the Prague Castle. As with any structure nearly 700 years old, there is a lot of history in the bridge, including the spiked heads of 20-something revolutionaries which were placed there as a deterrent to future wannabes. There are 30 really cool statues lining both sides of the bridge with various stories attached to them, however these are all replicas of the original 17th Century statues which are all housed in the National Museum now. The bridge was incredibly crowded with tourists, vendors, and street performers and I bought a cool photo of the bridge, cleared of people, and with Prague Castle in the background. Other than my Jeep, it was probably the best purchase of the trip.

Bremerhaven-bound to pick up my Jeep, and then to Prague

The next morning, I woke up at about 6:30, showered, dressed, packed all my crap, and headed to the train station. My train wasn't until 8, but, me being me, I had to set my alarm early since I tend to sleep through those pesky buzzing sounds. It was now time for four and a half hours of fun. There is no direct train between Amsterdam and Bremerhaven and really no indirect train between the two either. Instead, I had to change trains 3 or 4 times, each time paranoid that I was either going to miss the right station or get on the wrong train. I managed though and arrived in Bremerhaven at about 12:30, in plenty of time, or so I thought, to pick up my Jeep and clear German Customs by 2 (the unions which run Germany's public sector have apparently decreed 6-hour workdays for customs workers).

Trying to plan for the unforeseen rail strike or my more-likely oversleeping, I had told my sales-rep in Kosovo that I planned to pick my Jeep up on Thursday, but that it was possible I might not make it until Friday. I reiterated this several times. Still, that was somehow interpreted as I would definitely not be in until Friday. So when I showed up on Thursday to pick up my Jeep, none of the customs documents were ready and could not be made ready until Friday morning. And it is no use trying to cajole German administrative staff into hurrying up the paperwork process. They are efficient within their own rules and carry out their tasks promptly according to their own timetables. They have no concept of American-style customer service. So it was off to a hotel, which the admin staff was gracious enough to arrange, although not enough to offer to pay for.

I had not planned on staying in Bremerhaven and had no idea what attractions or historical sites existed to keep me amused for the day and night so I hopped on the internet to find out. After scouring several travel websites I found out there was nothing. Bremerhaven is a busy seaport with lots of warehouses and holding yards for shipments and doesn't have much else. I took a nap and then set off to find something interesting, but only found industrial storefronts and fishing boats. I did find a decent Italian restaurant close to my hotel and had a pizza and several beers.

After sleeping in, I was back at the port the next day to pick up my Jeep. All the paperwork now in order, I eased through Customs and was on the road, headed to the Autobahn. Driving through a construction zone, I promptly missed the sign for the entrance ramp and drove into a residential area. Searching for a good place to turn around, I ended up in a school zone and got stuck waiting for a rather large group of kids to cross the street in front of me. Finally turned around, I made my driving debut on the unregulated speeds of the Autobahn, which were limited to about 45 MPH because of heavy traffic. Part of me was okay with that because I needed to take it easy on the new engine for the first few hundred miles but I never expected traffic to be that bad all the way across Germany! It would be like driving from Houston to Dallas on I-45 with Houston area rush hour traffic the whole way.

I had originally planned on spending Thursday night in Magdeburg and then having a short drive to Prague for Friday night. Because of the hangup in Bremerhaven I had to nix Magdeburg and head straight to Prague. Google Maps told me it was about a 6-hour drive. Google Maps is a liar. It took me closer to 11. Google always seems to over-estimate drive times in the States and has the exact opposite problem in Europe. Now I know it didn't help that I missed a few turns, but they weren't nearly significant enough to add 5 hours to the trip. Still, I made it to Prague safely, found my hostel, and then found an incredibly expensive parking garage to house my new Jeep for the next two nights.

Stories from my Euro Road Trip: Amsterdam

I know, I know. These are a long time coming but if you know me, you also know that I'm incredibly lazy so you'll have to forgive me. So we'll start with the first leg of the trip, Amsterdam.

Because I was taking my new Jeep outside of the European Union, I had to pick it up in the German free port of Bremerhaven, which is on Germany's Northwest coast. My airport options were Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Berlin. From each of those, I would have a 3 or 4 hour train ride to Bremerhaven, so I made the decision any good young traveller would and flew to Amsterdam.

A friend I know through Matt and Jess Stubbs lives there and just finished a Master's program so I thought it would be cool to see him again, but he decided to flake out on me and visit his family in the States. Luckily, my friend Ann Marie from Texas State was going to be there for a day at the end of a VIP cruise for her auction house (she's an art auctioneer), so I was excited about getting to see a friend from home.

So I flew into Amsterdam, made my way from the airport to the city center and found my hostel, the Flying Pig, which is where Matt and I stayed on our great backpacking trip after we returned from Iraq. If you are young and headed to Amsterdam, that's the place to stay. The crowd is mostly college-aged with a mix of parent-supported backpackers in their mid- and late-20s. It also has a bar and sometimes live music so there's always a lively crowd, unlike some other hostels I've experienced across Europe. Since I got into town relatively late, I stayed in and hung out at the bar, playing pool, drinking beer after beer and finally crashing around 4:30 or 5. Of course I woke up cheerfully as always at 11:15.

Only problem was that I was supposed to meet Ann Marie at the train station at 11:00. So I got up, showered as quickly as I could with my booze-induced headache, and headed to the train station, arriving there at about 11:45. If you've never been there, Amsterdam Centraal is a pretty big place and their currently doing renovations which funnel passengers out through two exits. I had not known this before I got there so for the next 45 minutes I ran back and forth from one exit to the other, hoping to see Ann Marie, but assuming she had given up on her late-arriving friend and gone on to explore the city. Luckily, she was late too and I found her at about 12:30.

We were both starving so we wandered around the city until we found a place that looked promising. Now, I wasn't expecting much since most places in the touristy parts of Amsterdam aren't known for their high quality food, but we had an excellent lunch, with some excellent beer, even if the service was typically European. I have no idea what the place was called. I would make a horrible travel guide author. But lunch was good and afterwards we wandered around the city, stopping for beer every 30 minutes or so, and saw all the main attractions of central Amsterdam, which mostly amount to canals, old buildings, and the red light district. We finished the afternoon drinking at a place called The Old Sailor, which was partly in honor of Jason Henderson, who has just entered Navy Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. After that, it was time to take Annie back to her boat, which was quite impressive to me, who, even as well-travelled as I am, had never before seen a cruise ship up close. For that I blame Mom and Dad.

After the ship sailed, I headed back to the hostel to take a much-needed nap and to get ready for the evening's adventures. I ran into a guy from Oregon whom I had met the night before and he and his buddy were heading out to a jazz cafe to see some live music. The nap felt great and so did another shower.

After I woke up, I set out for the jazz cafe and when I got there, the place was packed. The guy playing that night was Hans Dulfer, who is apparently kind of a big deal, at least in the jazz world. It was a great show though and I now have a little more appreciation for jazz, so much so that I would find another jazz cafe later on in Prague. But back to Dulfer. The guys from the hostel had met two German girls, one of whose mother lives in La Marque and who was planning on visiting there for Christmas. I, of course, told her how exciting La Marque was but that there would probably not be much left after the then-impending Hurricane Ike came through. While I was talking to her, and unnoticed by me, Hans Dulfer had become upset that I was holding a side conversation, had completely stopped playing music, and announced to the crowd that he would wait until we were finished. Oops.

At the end of the show, the girls wanted to go dance somewhere, but since I was literally the fifth wheel and had to get up at 6 the next morning, I headed back to the hostel to hit the sack.

road trip pictures!

Some pictures from the road trip are up! More will come shortly. These are Amsterdam, my new Jeep, and some pics from the road.

Back in Kosovo

Well, I survived my road trip through Europe. My new Jeep drove great and guzzles gas like I can chug beer. Fun is not cheap! I will have more info on the trip and pics posted as well over the next few days.

I've returned to a colder and wetter Kosovo than the one I left. At least that should provide lots of mud for me to play with the Jeep in!

Thessaloniki Pics!

My latest adventure was down to Thessaloniki, Greece this past weekend. I've got the pictures up now so go take a look!

It's time for bed tonight, but I'll have more details on the trip in the next day or so. Next week, I'm off to Amsterdam and then driving from Germany back down to Kosovo!

Back in the Saddle Again...

Well now I can say I'm fully back in the intelligence world. I've been a little stressed out these last two weeks because I've been working on a briefing for our Commanding General on weapons smuggling, human trafficking, and drug smuggling. I had to recreate a lot of historical information largely because my predecessor did not leave behind any kind of comprehensive product on any of those topics. I finally got us to the point where now I'll just have to make sure it's regularly updated. Then I'll be able to leave that to whoever replaces me next year so his job won't be so hard to do. All in all, it ended up being around 55 slides of information.

I presented the briefing this morning, to an audience of about 40-50 that included the CG, his senior staff officers, and most of the maneuver unit commanders whose soldiers are the guys out there patrolling. It was the first time I've done a briefing of this magnitude since I was in Iraq (over 4 years ago now!) so I was a little nervous. That probably came across a little but it seemed like I kept most people's attention. That was a daunting task itself, because the briefing came in at just over an hour. The CG came up to me afterward and said he was very pleased and that parts of it would go up to the NATO chain of command. Can't get much better praise than that so it's good to know I've still got it. Now I just hope I haven't raised everyone's expectations too high!

Bad News Bears pt II

Well we lost in softball again today. It's almost comical. But it's still fun. I was 2 for 3 with a 2-RBI sac fly and two doubles. The score was somewhere in the range of 23-11. Oh well.

On a more pleasant note, I'm trying to become more creative with the way I prepare the food they serve in the chow hall. Yesterday was grilled chicken day at lunch and the chicken they serve is bland, tasteless, and dry. Usually, they'll only serve us one chicken breast, but I winked and smiled my way to two. She thought I was weird for not wanting a bun (the buns they serve in the line are dry, generic wonderbread-type and taste like sawdust), but I had better plans. One I cut up into smaller pieces and made a grilled chicken salad with. The other I smothered in a sauce I mixed up with mustard, hot sauce, and something called "Buffalo Bob's Anything Sauce" which is supposedly good on anything but tastes horrid by itself. One thing the food service people do right is put out locally-made breads in the salad line. I grabbed one that looks more like the kind of bun you'd find at the Tap Room in San Marcos or maybe Honey-B-Ham in Conroe. Anyway I tore it in half, toasted it, then used that for my bun, and added cheese, lettuce, and onions. I know that's not gonna win me any cooking awards but there's not much to work with. Since I arrived here, I haven't seen one American do anything similar. Maybe they know something about the bread that I don't but as far as I'm concerned, it tastes better and at least makes the meal more interesting.

This week I've been watching the HBO miniseries John Adams, based on the book by David McCullough. It is excellent and provides a lot of insight into a President who is often slighted for the Alien and Sedition acts but arguably articulated the best case for independence from Great Britain.

That's all for now. Off to the gym with me!

Bad News Bears

Another exciting (sarcasm) weekend in Kosovo! It was pretty laid back except our softball team had two games this weekend. Yesterday was a makeup for last Monday which was rained out. We got beat although I was 1 for 2. We lost again this afternoon to a slightly ridiculous score of 21-6. Our team is at a slight disadvantage in that we really don't have any time to practice outside of our games. Me being a civilian contractor, I only work 8 hour days but all the Army guys are on 12-hour shifts so our games are our practices. We're learning to play better as a team but there are still a lot of kinks to work out. We've got another game tomorrow evening so hopefully things will come together.

Other than softball, it was a pretty low-key weekend. Went to the gym on Saturday and got a good little workout in to get loosened up for the softball game. There haven't been any good movies at the theater in the last week so I made some progress through all the DVDs I've bought since I got here. I watched The Kite Runner which was really good and really sad. I still haven't read the book so now I'll have to go buy it. And I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which I'd recommend to anyone reading this. I read the book for a class back in school and it's a sad but very inspiring story.

That's all that's been going on. The next few weeks should provide a little excitement. I'm working on a briefing for the commanding general so that will keep me busy at work and I'm also in the process of buying a new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. It's on hold for me in Germany and it will be an interesting adventure going to pick it up. It looks like I'll be going over Labor Day weekend (which means nothing in Europe), flying up to Germany and then driving back across Europe over about 3 days. I've tentatively mapped out a route that takes me to Salzburg, Budapest, and Belgrade. I'll probably get lost or abducted by a roving band of gypsies but it should be fun. And yes, a Jeep Wrangler is probably not the most fuel efficient vehicle I could buy for driving around Europe but I'm living in a converted shipping container for free so I'm okay with it.

Hope everyone in Texas is having fun with the heat!

An Update!

For those of you who check this often, I apologize for not updating in a while. However, there really hasn't been much going on so you haven't really missed out.

The most significant recent events were last Thursday and tonight, Monday.

Last Thursday, CACI, the company I work for, sponsored a night dining off-post for its employees here on Camp Bondsteel. This is supposed to be a monthly event so I'm looking forward to those. We went to a place close to base called the "Kruja Restaurant". I have no idea what "kruja" means, whether it is someone's name or if it means something significant in Albanian, but the food was pretty good. I had the "Skenderbeg Sword" which is really a skewer of grilled beef and some vegetables covered in what I assume to be Skenderbeg sauce. It was pretty tasty. Most everyone else opted for the "filet mignon" and I use quotes because it definitely did not appear like any filet mignon I've seen in the States. And Albanians automatically cook their meat well-done so there wouldn't be any point in ordering it even if it was real filet mignon. I also had 9 Peja beers, which, after the first beer I ordered took 20 minutes to arrive, I ordered two at a time. CACI paid for everything so all in all, we had a really good time. Go see the pics here.

I signed up for the ACE (Analysis and Control Element - the office where I work) softball team and tonight we had our first game which we lost. In my one at-bat (we have a lot of people on the team), I hit a single to start a two-out rally in which we scored 3 runs. It was fun but also a weird sensation after not having played softball or baseball in over 10 years.

So that's all that's new with me. I'm planning on going down to Skopje for the weekend so maybe there will be some excitement down there.

San Sebastian

San Sebastian was the main focus of my trip and Saturday was supposed to be a full day a relaxation since that was the only day of my five days off in which I wasn't travelling. Unfortunately, it started raining at about 2 AM on Saturday morning and still hadn't fully stopped by the time I left on the train for Madrid on Sunday. It was mostly a drizzle, as compared to real rain, but it was enough (and with enough cloud cover) to turn it into a dreary day.

Besides the rain, San Sebastian was beautiful and would be a great place to go back to, as long as it didn't take so long to get there. My trip started on Wednesday when I left Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and headed down to Skopje, Macedonia. I spent the night there and then flew out Thursday afternoon, first to Budapest, then on to Madrid. My flight was delayed a little bit, so I landed late in Madrid and didn't get to my hotel until just after midnight. Me being me, I checked in to the hotel and then headed right back out to find something to eat and drink. Friday I got up early and then made the hour trek by subway to the train station for my 6.5 hour ride to San Sebastian. I took a different train back on Sunday, so the return trip was only 5.5 hours, but still that was too long to spend on the train. My flight back from Madrid started at 8:30 Monday morning and what was supposed to be an hour and a half layover in Budapest turned into 3 and half hours. I really don't mind long layovers when I'm flying as long as I know about them before hand so I can be ready to find something to do with that time. I am not a fan of surprise layovers.

Lesson learned: If you only have 5 days of vacation time, do not spend 4 of those days travelling to and from wherever it is you're going.

Other than the getting to and getting from, I had a great time in all the places I stayed and plan on going back. But I'll be in Skopje (an hour and a half drive in bad traffic) sooner and more frequently than I'll be in San Sebastian.

Skopje Pics are up too

You can find them right here.

Spain Trip

Madrid Photos are up! More to come soon...

¡Feliz Cuatro de Julio!

Happy Fourth of July from San Sebastian, Spain! I hope everyone back home who is keeping up with me and checks this thing is doing well. I´m having a great time on my trip so far and will write and post a bunch of pics as soon as I get back to Kosovo. Much love to all the family and friends who are checking up on me!

I go for a drive...

This last Thursday held quite a little adventure for me. A couple of colleagues and I were planning to drive up to Pristina to take a look around an investment summit that was going on. Since we were taking the company truck and since it's always parked a good 10-minute walk from our office and since I'm the new guy, I got volunteered to walk over, pick it up, and pick up my two co-workers. They also decided they were feeling adventurous and wanted me to drive. Off we went!

Driving in Kosovo is only slightly less dangerous than driving through Baghdad. No, there are no roadside bombs waiting to ruin your day, but you have to deal with the other drivers instead. To get to Pristina from Camp Bondsteel, you have to take the main "highway". I use the term "highway" with some reservation because I've driven down plenty of rural FMs in Texas that are better developed and maintained. It is a two-lane road, filled with potholes, and lacking shoulders. Driving along, you will pass all sorts of interesting modes of conveyance, from tractors to horse-drawn buggies, from a brand-new Corvette to the so-called "Kosovo Harley" - a roto-tiller pulling a trailer that the driver sits on. A little more than halfway to Pristina, you come upon the safety-conscious road crews, working to widen the highway. Unlike road construction in the States, where generally concrete barriers are put in place to prevent drivers from plunging off the road into the work zone, Kosovo's road crews seem determined to tempt your fate with sheer drop-offs ranging from 2 to 6 feet. And in place of blaze orange traffic cones, they use dirty, red-and-white striped concrete blocks, which won't prevent your car from plunging over the side, but will definitely tear up your bumper/radiator/axel before you go over. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any pictures, what with having to concentrate on the road and all.

Thanks to my highly skillful driving, we arrived safely in Pristina and set about looking for a sidewalk cafe to eat lunch in. I had my first two beers since I arrived in Kosovo and a cheap but decent bowl of penne pasta with some kind of meat thrown in as we watched the (relatively) gorgeous women walk by. Peja (pronounced with a "y" not a "j") bills itself as the finest beer in Kosovo. I've also been told it may be the only beer in Kosovo. It kicked my taste buds around a little bit at first, but then it calmed down and was pretty decent. After lunch, we walked around until we found a Nokia store and I bought a phone. Nothing fancy, just something I can use (hopefully) to get in touch with people here if I need to while I'm out gallavanting around southeastern Europe. After that, we headed to the hotel where the investment summit was being held. Oops! We arrived too late, as the summit had shut down 30 minutes prior to our arrival. Oh well, I wasn't too upset. I got to take half a day off from work, drive around the countryside, and have a couple beers. All in all, not too bad.

Had to work all day today, because I'm taking off Thursday and heading to Spain! I'll actually spend Wednesday night in Skopje, Macedonia so hopefully I'll get to do a little sightseeing around there as well. I might even end up trying to look at some apartments there.

Fotos de Mi Casa

I think I've got things arranged in my room like I want them finally. At least it seems like this will work. Anyways, there's not really a whole lot you can do with the limited space. Here's my little hovel, home for a year!

More Pictures!

I went on a bus tour of the American slice of Kosovo yesterday and took lots of pics of the countryside. You'll have to forgive me, but since most of the shots were from a moving bus, they're not the best quality. But they should at least give you an idea of what the surrounding area looks like.

We left Camp Bondsteel around 12:30 and first drove through the city of Ferizaj. I was pretty lazy about taking pics here but it's a large city (over 100,000 people) and I plan on spending some time there once I get my own vehicle. Then we headed to the far southwest of the American sector to the Serb-majority municipality of Strpce. It's a really pretty drive through the foothills of the Sar Mountain range - there's even a ski resort in the area, though we didn't get close to the resort.

After Strpce, we backtracked, stopped at the Ballkan Petrol station, and then drove through Vitina, Partes, and Gnjilane. The first pass through Gnjilane, we stopped at the Drini Supermarket. I bought a Fanta Exotic (which I still have not drank because the tab popped off as I was trying to open it), a Crazy bar (with "Extra Crazy" - it's a chocolate wafer bar covered in chocolate and popped rice), and two Pop-Keks. Pop-Keks are delicious little concoctions of various flavors that are kind of similar to a Hostess cupcake. One was "Cocoa Creme" and the other was "Karamel". This bounty of Balkan junk food set me back a total of one euro.

On the east side of Gnjilane, there's another Serb-majority community called Ranilug that we drove by, but not through. After Ranilug, we turned around and headed back into Gnjilane, where we stopped at the Restaurant Bujana. Bujana was a really nice place to eat (I heard people talk about how good their steak was), but I stuck with the pizza, which would actually compare pretty nicely to some pizza I've had back in the States. After Bujana, we were stuffed and tired and it was time to head back to Bondsteel.

Take a look at the pics, enjoy, and check back later in the week. I gotta get some things in my room rearranged and then I should be able to post some shots of what it looks like now that I've filled it up with all my crap!

Photos!

Only two so far but I'm still trying to figure this out. Hopefully, this will work as an online photo album that will have a permanent link on the right-hand side of my page. And when I update it, I'll announce it here.

The Gym

After my first real workout since I've arrived in Kosovo, I feel weak and confused.

Confused because when I'd been working out back home, I knew exactly (more or less) how much weight to use on each machine. Here, the machines are completely different so I had to figure out what machines to use to get an effective workout and then I had to guesstimate how much weight to use. I had to keep adding or subtracting weight to find one that felt manageable and then just do as many slow and steady reps as I could.

Weak because I've been a lazy fatboy since I first found out I was coming to Kosovo and almost as bad since I got here. I've got a long way to go to get back to where I was in April. But there's not much else here to get in my way so I've got plenty of time to do it.

First trip!

One of the reasons I decided to come to Kosovo is to travel. So I'm trying to not waste any time doing just that. In two weeks I'll be in the air and on the way to Spain. Not exactly the first place I thought I would go while I'm here but the opportunity presented itself so off I go!

My friend Danny from Sam Houston is headed over there for a 12-day vacation which will include (for him, not me) the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Hopefully he won't get gored. I have Friday July 4 off already so I'm taking that Thursday as well as the Monday off to fly over.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday I went up to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, to take a look around NATO Headquarters. The excuse for going was that we had to get some face time with some US personnel up there since I'm new but it was really just an excuse to get off Camp Bondsteel so I could get a look at the surrounding area. The NATO base, which is called Film City, has soldiers from all the NATO and affiliated countries taking part in KFOR and is a much more civilized setup than what we have here on Bondsteel. We have a Taco Bell, Burger King, and Anthony's Pizza. They have a full service Thai restaurant, a German restaurant, an Italian restaurant, two pubs that actually serve alcohol (which is not allowed on Bondsteel), a tailor, and numerous other places to spend money. If I ever come back to Kosovo after this year, that's where I need to work.

The ride up there and back was pretty nice. The roads suck but the countryside is very pretty and there's new construction of businesses and homes everywhere. There's a lot of money pouring into Kosovo and it is easy to see. The drive to Pristina is mostly through the middle of a wide valley but there's green rolling hills on each side. It's hard to believe a genocide was taking place here not even 10 years ago. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera and so do not have any pictures. That's something I'll get to soon though.

Coleman gets a lesson in...

...Electricity!

An eighty-dollar lesson, to be exact. While trying to make my accomodations a little more livable, I went to the PX and bought a speaker system for my computer. Assuming that since my computer works fine when plugged into a surge strip which is plugged into my 220-volt outlet that my new speakers would work as well, I got everything nice and ready to go and plugged it in. Pop! Speakers are no more. Hmm, laptops are rated for 110v and 220v. Nothing else is!

I'm an idiot.

Kosovo Weather

I'm learning pretty quickly that the weather here is damn near unpredictable. You would think having the United States Air Force, with its access to a worldwide network of satellites and weather stations, as our "weatherman" would mean you have an inkling of what the weather will be from day to day. Apparently not.

Yesterday started off bright and sunny and remained so for most of the day. However, at about 6:30, the sky opened up into a torrential downpour. Today started off bright and sunny as well, but at 4:00 we had more torrential rain. Within 45 minutes though, it had passed and the sky was bright and sunny again.

I had planned on buying a bike from the PX today but the rain kind of dampened my enthusiasm for riding around. Maybe this weekend will be clear and I can do some sightseeing.

A Boring Week

Okay, okay, I know everyone is hoping for daily updates but there's really just not that much going on. I've started working so that's exciting but not really. All this week, I've just been reading all day, every day, trying to get up to speed as to what is going on around the American sliver of Kosovo. And there's not much going on. But I have to get familiar with the various towns and municipalities and the various characters associated with them.

On Friday, I managed to talk one of the systems admin guys into installing some new software on my computer that will make my job easier once I finally get going. So that's a plus.

One thing that's sure to impress the parents (and, to be honest, anyone who knows me), I have woken up, without needing the alarm clock I went out and bought, at 5:50am every morning since I got here, without fail, no matter what time I've gone to bed at night. This is deeply disturbing to me since that's at least an hour and a half earlier than I need to get up. Maybe something has clicked in my screwed-up brain that since this is a real job, with a meaningful employer, I can't be screwing around and showing up late. Even though the Army captain who is my military supervisor said he didn't really care when I came in to work, as long as I put in my 8 hours. I don't think I'll try to push that by showing up at noon though.

Maybe next week there will be some more action but for tonight, it's movie time.

Arrival

I have arrived safely in Kosovo and have spent the first day tired and sleepwalking through inprocessing. I left Houston at 3:35 on Wednesday and did not arrive to Camp Bondsteel until midnight Thursday. Thank you, delayed plans and lack of flights to Kosovo.

So far, things are relatively nice, especially as compared to my time in Baghdad. Not so much compared to San Marcos though. My "apartment"/converted shipping container is about 8 feet by 20 feet and if I'm laying on my back I can touch both walls. Doesn't seem like much space, but maybe it will force me to be organized. Ha!

Still a lot of work to do to make it feel comfortable but at least I've already bought sheets, a pillow, and a blanket which will be much more comfortable tonight than the stolen Lufthansa blanket was last night.

Oh, and the PX sells Dr. Pepper. Thank you, Baby Jesus!