Back in Kosovo, Back to Work

After an awesome trip back home to Texas, I had to dive right into work as if I'd never been gone. This week has been incredibly busy and I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. More pictures will be coming along shortly but you'll have to make due with these for now! Now some of these are old I know. But about half of them are new to you!

Balkan Nights

Hiking at Lake Matka

I'm serious about being better at updating the world with my travels, even if it's just to throw some pictures out there. It doesn't seem that long ago but, if I can trust my camera, about 4 and a half months ago we went to Lake Matka outside of Skopje to do some hiking.

This place was gorgeous and I'm kicking myself for not going sooner or since. Matka is an artificial lake which was dammed up in the 1950's to build a hydroelectric plant and now it's used as a recreational area. Other than St. Andrew's, which I have a couple pictures of, there are 3 or 4 other churches and monasteries in the vicinity, a couple of which require 900-foot climbs to reach. We didn't reach them that day but I want to go back sometime and make the climb. We kept to the lower trail which still had amazing views nonetheless.

At the end of our hike we had built up quite a thirst so of course we had to stop for my required beer.

Santana pictures are up!

Some of you may already know that Carlos Santana came to Skopje in July and I, along with a hundred other Americans from Kosovo, went to see him play. Here are some of the better pics from the weekend. Carlos was cool, but I'm more excited about seeing ZZ Top in Skopje next week on the 22nd!

2009 Trip to the Land of the Big PX

I know, I know, two posts in one day is pretty amazing. But it occurred to me that I could incorporate some of my posts/notes from facebook and at least get some consistent information up. In reference to the hint in my previous post today about my upcoming trip home, here you go (slightly updated with newer info):

I know everyone is dying to know where I'll be and when I'll be there so here is my tentative schedule, lodging TBD:

October 23-28 - Conroe shenanigans
October 29 - November 1 - College Station/Austin/San Marcos shenanigans (TxState v SFA, tailgating starts at 10 on the 31st)
November 1-3 - More Conroe shenanigans
November 4-8 - Greater Washington DC area shenanigans (my cousin's getting married in Annapolis on the 7th)

So people make your plans accordingly and get your guestrooms ready! And email me your phone numbers because I don't have an American cell phone yet!

Excuses Excuses

Yes I know everyone has them but I'll tell you about mine anyway. My latest excuse for not updating you on a regular basis is that for the past month and a half, I've been working in a new position which has required more stress and more hours than the previous ones. I'm still working in the same building, just in a different office with new responsibilities and a cooler title, Senior Analyst.

Luckily, I no longer have to deal with the daily demands of preparing an update brief. Instead I am now responsible for the quality of all the mid and long term analytical products that come out of my office. That means I, with my almost 29 years and relatively little experience, get to tell career officers, some of whom have been doing this almost as long as I've been alive, when they are wrong, how they are wrong, and how to do their jobs better. Thankfully, I sound like a certified genius when necessary and have gained the respect of most of my colleagues. I'm no longer some punk-ass kid, or at least they've become better at hiding it. Honestly though, when they deploy here on a 6-month rotation, they focus on a single subject or area and usually become very knowledgeable on that subject. I've now been in Kosovo for nearly a year and a half and in my previous position I had to be able to prepare daily briefings on multiple subjects concerning issues Kosovo-wide and make my boss sound smart on everything. So I do bring a wider perspective to a lot of issues than most of the analysts have.

A lot of the stress was caused by a simultaneous reorganization of our office, which jarred a lot of people out of their comfort zones. They've more or less become used to it so now I can work a more normal schedule and have more relaxed evenings. This past weekend was the first since August that I had both Saturday and Sunday off (except for my trip to Istanbul, more on that later).

Now I can play catch-up and tell you all about my second trip to Ohrid, my trip to Istanbul, Pivoland, Prizren, and my trip back to the states next week. I've got lots of pictures to put up but my internet connection is slow so you'll have to bear with me. All my pictures so far can be found right here. Many thanks to Charles Cotten and Jan Robin for checking in on me! Now back to work...

Long Time Coming - Firenze!

Sometimes I think the only thing keeping me from actually becoming President of the World (as predicted in Judy Hirshey's 1994 Texas History class) is my incredible laziness. So now you're going to hear about my trip to Florence, Italy from the end of May. The pictures have been up for a while but I forced you to use your imagination to piece together the storyline and I apologize for that.

As I've mentioned before, there was a long period where I thought I was leaving Kosovo this summer to train up for a deployment to Afghanistan with my Army Reserve unit. That's not happening (at least for now) because I'm already doing my part to save the world from here in Kosovo. But up until a week before this trip I thought it was. Anyways, back in March my mom told me my grandparents were planning a trip to Italy with her and my aunt and wanted to know if I could meet them somewhere. Well of course I could.

My flight to Florence started on a mostly-empty plane from Pristina, Kosovo. Summertime is the height of travel season in Kosovo, however early on all the travellers are gastarbeiters (German guest-workers) or other Diaspora members living abroad who are going to Kosovo. Remember this point for later. From Pristina I flew to Zurich, changed planes, and then on to Florence.

Now my grandparents like to travel in style so they found the finest hotel in all of Florence, Hotel Pierre. Their, and my mom and aunt's, room was practically a deluxe suite. Mine, however much I like to think I'm making bank, was a closet. But whatever. I got to spend some time with family so I could make do.

Florence was beautiful and full of history, which I love. Little things like a secret archive in an otherwise unremarkable pavilion, a 2-kilometer passageway so the Medici family didn't have to mix with the rabble, a fat cherub riding a tortoise, Dostoyevsky's apartment (where he wrote The Idiot), and an old man wearing some awesome red socks made Florence an exceedingly interesting place to visit and explore. Four days can't really do it justice.

Some things I learned on the trip:

- If out to dinner, my grandparents will refuse to let anyone else pay. I think they do this so I will call more often.
- I hurry too much. I need to slow down so, a) I can walk and talk with everyone instead of leaving them 200 yards behind, which will b) let me enjoy the scenery (Italian girls dressed to show off). I think this is the real reason my grandfather walks slower.
- Tour guides are worth it. The first full day we had an Italian lady take us on a walking tour that included the Medici Loggia, the Palazzo Vecchio, some old churches, and the Uffizi Galleries. She was a wealth of information. The next to last day was a tour of the wider Florence area, not with an actual tour guide, but with a taxi driver who knew all about the area and cracked jokes about Berlusconi.

All in all it was a great trip, made even better by finding out that it was NOT my last hurrah before setting off for the scenic mountains of Afghanistan.

On the way back, I arranged to have an overnight stop in Zurich since I'd never been there before. Unfortunately, takeoff from Florence was delayed for a few hours and I didn't get to do the exploring I wanted. The city seemed like a good place to visit, though it was expensive: my McDonald's Big Tasty value meal cost fourteen dollars!

Remember how I said my plane from Pristina to Zurich was half-empty? Well, the plane from Zurich to Pristina was overbooked. And it seemed like everyone checked in before I did. At any rate, their baggage was checked in before mine and mine didn't even make it onto the plane. Along with half the other passengers. The Kosovar Albanians living and working in Switzerland must take back 4 or 5 bags apiece when they travel home for summer vacation because about 50 of us had to wait in line at the Pristina Airport lost baggage desk when our bags didn't show up. And their computer was broken. And it took 2 hours to clear everyone up. And I was last (this mostly because I didn't want to fight my way through a crowd of angry Albanians). Fun, fun, fun.

Other than that last day the trip was a blast. Mommee, Pap, Aunt Marti, Mom - thank you!

Update: And I most deeply apologize for an egregious oversight: Thanks Dad for paying for the plane ticket!

Turkiye!

Yes, I know I suck at keeping everyone up to date with what's going on but you just have to accept that about me. But, even though I may suck with posting the narrative, the pictures from my trip to Turkey have been up for almost 6 weeks so it's your fault for not seeing them until now!

Anyhow, back to the beginning of this story...As you may or may not know, for a while I thought I was going to be mobilized with my Army Reserve unit for a deployment to Afghanistan. Back in March and early April, I thought I was going to have to leave the Balkans in early June to start training and I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my time here. One of my goals in coming to Europe was to do as much traveling as possible - if I'm gonna be on this side of the world, I might as well see as much as I can, right? I already had a trip to Florence (more on that later) with my mom, aunt, and grandparents planned for the end of May so I needed to get something scheduled for the end of April or very beginning of May. Turns out I'm not getting mobilized, at least not anytime soon, but it gave me a good excuse for a trip!


As you may or may not know again, I've been dating a really cool Macedonian chick, Julijana, for the past 7 or 8 months and I wanted to be able to do something fun during what I thought was going to be our last month together. I had heard a lot of good things about a Turkish resort town called Antalya from several contractors and a Turkish friend of mine (Sevinc!) so that's where I decided we would go.

For the past 20 years or so, Antalya has been developed as the "Turkish Riviera" with dozens of 5-star, luxury, all-inclusive resorts stretched up and down Turkey's Mediterranean coast. I could have picked one of these but the history nerd in me wanted to find a hotel in the center of the old Turkish town. Our hotel, the Marina Residence, isn't exactly 5 stars but it can't be beat for location. If you want to be in the middle of all things Antalyan, that's the place to be. I do have to admit, the taxi ride from the airport was a tad harrowing as our driver flew down these narrow-ass, cobblestoned alleys. How we didn't kill some poor tourist hugging the walls I don't know.

Getting there was fun, but we had a blast exploring the city. The old town (Kaleici) is full of crappy souvenir stores as well as genuine crafts shops. Of course there are some overpriced tourist restaurants but there are also a lot of reasonably-priced, excellent eateries. One up-market restaurant I will recommend is the Vanilla Lounge, which is managed by a Turkish girl who lived in England for a while (at least from judging by her accent). We had to wait for a table but my steak was one of the best I've ever had.

The local beach had awesome views but unfortunately early May is a little too soon to plan on swimming in the Mediterranean. I got in up to my knees but not a step further! At night we hung out at a nearby hookah lounge (also known as Nargilah or Wasserpfeiffe) ran by Adnan, who wore white jeans and one of the raddest, greasiest mullets I've ever seen. We were in Turkey, so of course we had to try the coffee and went to Starbucks! Don't judge me - sometimes you just have to have a taste from home. It might not have been Turkish coffee but the cheesecake was delicious!

On our last day we took a guided tour of the ancient sites of Aspendos and Perge and the waterfalls at Kursunlu. It rained the whole day and we got soaked but it was still a lot of fun. The older Canadian couple with us didn't agree though. The Aspendos Theater is one of the best preserved Ancient Greek theaters and was amazing to see. The place could seat over 15,000 spectators which is an absoluting astounding feat. After Aspendos, one of the stops we had to make on the tour was at the sponsoring leather factory's store. This was billed as a chance to have some tea and warm up, however it was really a chance for some pushy Turks to make sales pitches for 600-euro leather jackets. Thank you, but no. After the leather factory it was lunch time so we went to an out of the way restaurant (another tour sponsor) that was conveniently co-located with a souvenir shop. Then we went to the ancient Roman city of Perge which at one point was visited by Paul the Apostle. This is where the rain really started pouring down and the damn Canadians wanted to cut the visit short. We did manage to drag our feet and climb on some ruins and pose for some pictures though.

Our own transportation would have allowed us plenty of time to explore but then we would have missed out on our guides corny spiel. I hope she was still new to the job. I kind of wished there were more people on the tour so I could have taken a nap but when there's only 4 people on the bus you feel sort of obligated to listen. Between Perge and Kursunlu, our guide wanted to take us to a jewelry store in order to "wait out the rain" but by this time we were soaked and just ready to finish the tour. When we got to the falls the rain really started to come down and the wind picked up. The Canadians chickened out and sat on the minibus but we insisted on our money's worth! The falls really were beautiful and would have been even more so without the rain - not so much for their size but for views around them. Everything was so green and lush - it would have been an awesome place to swim in. After practically swimming all afternoon, we were thankful that the tour was finally over.

Our trip was basically 4 nights and 3 days which is probably a day and a half too short to see everything in Antalya. It was fun, but, as with most vacations I take, was shorter than I wanted. Oh well. Good food, good sights, good company. That's about all you can ask for on any vacation and that's what I had.

So now, I promise I'll get the pictures and story of my Italy trip up next week. I can't promise which day, specifically, but I know you all check this blog every day so you'll see it when you see it!

Man at Bar #2

Last weekend (April 25-26) I took part in something I never expected to happen when I set off for Southeastern Europe - a tourism commercial for Macedonia. Last fall, just for the hell of it, I went with some of my friends to a casting call for a production company. The girls were more serious about it, but my friend Dave and I were there so why not sign up ourselves?

Dave actually lives full time in Macedonia and speaks Macedonian so there was some plausibility to his involvement but I just go there on weekends and have about a 50-word vocabulary, so I never took it seriously.

7 months later, Dave's wife Billy got a call from the production company wanting the four of us to be extras in a commercial promoting tourism to Macedonia. We would have to leave Skopje at 6 AM, drive 3 hours to the Ohrid airport (St. Paul the Apostle International), spend maybe 12 hours on set, have no speaking roles, and get paid 1000 denars (about 20 bucks). Of course I said yes.

That Saturday morning was probably the earliest I've been up during the whole of the past year. I don't get up any sooner than 8:30 for my real job but I was up at 4:45 for my shot at Macedonian superstardom. Most of the extras were being provided a bus ride to/from Ohrid but since this might be the only chance I ever get to see Ohrid, I insisted on being able to drive myself there so we could spend the night and explore the town the next day. Also, I wanted to take the Jeep on what is probably one of Macedonia's prettiest drives.

Ohrid's airport is the second-busiest in all of Macedonia so after that day's only plane arrived and the passengers disembarked at 9:30, the airport belonged to us and we could make as many bomb jokes as we wanted. In fact, the whole commercial turned out to be a bomb joke - the storyline was about a traveller arriving to see Mount Bomba (yes, there really is one) and airport security overreacts when he tells the officer at passport control he's coming to see "bomba", which is also the Macedonian word for bomb.

I was picked to be in the first scene of the day which consisted of normal airport activities - people standing around chatting, waiting in line, drinking coffee, and Dave and I standing at the bar. Since I am no gloryhound, I let Dave be "Man at Bar #1" and claimed "Man at Bar #2" for myself. I'm thinking about creating an IMDB entry for it.

We shot take after take after take. I never realized how much extras have to work for the crappy pay they make. I'm fairly sure extras in Hollywood make more than I did but probably not by much. Craft services! A meal was provided which was a lot cooler than what I expected but they didn't exactly break out the 6-foot Subways for us. Instead we had cold and questionable "chicken burgers" which were drenched in mayonnaise and ketchup and had french fries on the inside. Needless to say, I was almost starving by the end of the day. Thankfully I had brought a one pound bag of Twizzlers to snack on.

Macedonian Tourism doesn't care much for chronological accuracy in their commercials. Through my skillful use of time travel, I managed to appear in two scenes which take place at the same time. While at the bar, the kid in line says "bomba" and everyone panics and flees in all directions across the shot behind the passport line. At the same time, on the other side of the passport booth, I'm walking across the shot up to the check-in counter (the airport is that small). I doubt anyone will notice (or care) but there I am, acting my ass off, looking like the quintessential American traveler. Well, except for the socks-with-sandals thing. I briefly considered that but wisely decided to pass.

We finally finished around 8:45 that night. All the other extras crowded onto their bus back to Skopje but my friends and I headed to our hotel in Ohrid. Unfortunately we were too wiped out to really get into any shenanigans that night. We ended up eating dinner in a fish restaurant called Fish Restaurant (it might have had another name but that's what the sign said). If we had had a little more patience we would have found some nicer places but we (the men) were cranky and hungry.

Dave and Billy had to go back to Skopje early on Sunday but Jule and I devoted the day to exploring Ohrid. The old town maintains its Ottoman and Byzantine influences with old churches, narrow and winding streets, and white houses with overhanging upper-floor expansions. One of our first stops was an old Byzantine-era church which was quite different from American-style churches. No pews, no set service, and no priest (at least not one visible). Instead there was iconography everywhere and people would go to their (family, favorite?) icons and pray for intercessions. In the background what I assume to have been a recording played of Orthodox hymns and a sermon. I didn't pray for any intercessions on my behalf (I couldn't find St. Tomislav) but I lit candles and said prayers for my grandparents (Nana and Papa) and my Great-Aunt Pat and cousin Shannon (who both recently passed away).

After church we wandered the streets for a while and scared a little old grandmother peeking out at us from her doorway. She did not want a picture and slammed a door on us even though she was hardly in the field of view. We wound down the hill to the lakeside and found a cool restaurant to have lunch at, Taverna Momir. They had a terrace right on the lake which even had what was supposed to be a small dock which water taxis could bring guests up to. I say "supposed to" because the lake was above the top of the dock and the lamppost at the end stuck up out of the water by itself. After lunch, it was time to head out.

I wish I could have stayed in Ohrid longer or visited sooner but I already had a 5-hour drive back to work in Kosovo awaiting me that evening. The town is amazing and if you ever visit Macedonia, you're hurting yourself if you don't make it to Ohrid.

New Pics!

I know it's been a while since I've put any new pictures up and that you're all wondering who I've been hanging out with over here in southeast Europe. Lucky for you, I've uploaded new pictures of the crowd I'm running around with so go check them out! Also, next weekend I'm taking a trip to Antalya, Turkey so I should have a lot more new pics up fairly soon...

On the trials and travails of the NIC Crawl...

One of the cool things about being a secret squirrel on the NATO headquarters base in Kosovo is that there are a lot of international secret squirrels running around too. And in the spirit of international cooperation, all of us here have an occasional event called a NIC Crawl. This involves going around to several of the various national compounds, eating and drinking local delights, much the same as you would do in a pub crawl. That is, if the pub crawl had different food, beer, and liquor from various eastern European countries whose natives all wanted you to gorge on their wares. (Please note: except for NORDIC, the allotted time at each location was only one hour)

This was the adventure I embarked upon last Saturday night. I arrived late, because I was driving up from Skopje, but I got to the first stop, the NORDIC (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish), at 5:30, halfway through their stop. I knew I needed food so first I had a plate of reindeer meat, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries. Food in belly, I marched up to the bar and downed 3 shots of Finlandia vodka and a pint of Efes beer before the NORDIC closed at 6. I was on a mission.

The next stop was the Italian House (Casa Italia) and here I had some lasagna, a cup of sangria, another beer, and then some homemade Greek firewater that was a cross between ouzo and mastika. If you don't know what either of those are, consider yourself lucky because they are brews sent from the depths of hell. Afterwards, I had to have another beer just to get the taste out of my mouth.

After Casa Italia we (about 150 people) went to the Czech House where the Czech (duh), Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Romanian, and Polish contingents awaited us. Somehow I first went to the Slovak (I think?) table where I was forced(!) into drinking some pear-flavored concoction. Then to the Slovenian table where I had another shot of firewater, a Slovenian beer (Union - it's great!), and some Slovenian prosciutto. I tripped past the Hungarians and Romanians and ended up standing next to the Polish table where the friendly Pole offered me a vodka with an apple juice chaser. It was delicious so I had two more! Then I had a pint of Polish beer which contained 10% alcohol. Recognizing that I probably needed some fresh air, I stepped outside onto the porch where my friends were all smoking. To my surprise, a Czech officer sat out there with a hookah, an instrument with which I immediately claimed expertise and began to lecture the nearby unfortunates on its proper usage and function. Meanwhile, Radek the Czech went inside to find us shots of the featured Czech liquor, which had a cinnamon flavor reminiscent of Goldschlager. I had 4 and hated every one. Toasted, I stumbled to the French NIC.

This is where my memory begins to become a little hazy. I remember going to the French NIC and I remember what I drank (3 bottles of Chimay), but I can't remember specifics of the conversation (or diatribe) I set upon other than I can recall expounding on the superiority of Chimay to all other Belgian Trappist ales (the expounding of which was apparently done through much slurring of the speech). Even though I love me some High Life Lite, I can be a beer snob. After converting at least one lucky soul to the pleasures of Chimay, it was time to go to the British compound.

Was I excited about this? Hell yes! For I was sure there would be some Guinness or Smithwicks or at least some Newkie or Old Speckled Hen. None of that! All they had was American shite, MGD and Heineken. I had my fair share, I'm sure, but was terribly disappointed.

Nevermind that, the USNIC was next. Here is where things started to go awry. I remember the walk, I remember a fire, and I remember making Maker's and Coke (praise Jesus!) but I remember very little else. Apparently I danced up a storm, gave a friend an awkward man-hug, spilled drinks, and comprised the entertainment of a significant section of the crowd. This is what I've been told, at least, but details I cannot recall. Several women have told me how cute I was, whether they meant this condescendingly I do not know. Eventually, it was time to go to the German NIC.

The Germans! I assume they had beer but I cannot honestly say for sure. The two distinct memories I have were of an incredibly stinky cheese that was scraped onto some bread (it was delicious!) and of arguing with a British woman while making fun of her in a horrible English accent. I was later told by my boss that she and I almost got into a physical fight, but when I tracked her down two days later to apologize, she didn't remember! I wasn't the only one who made an ass out of himself that night!

You would think I was done, and I probably was, but somehow (and I don't remember this even happening) I made it to one of the bars on base for the last hour of service. I have been told I was there and held at least two conversations but I remember none of it. Nor do I know how I got back to my room. But I did make it and was surprised the next morning to wake up in my bed. And surprised to see my jeans folded neatly on my nightstand, my coat hung on a hook, and my sweater on a hanger. But I should not have been surprised to find the mess in which I was laying, which also continued to the wall next to me and the floor. Thankfully, my pants were dry.

Parents, please don't judge me. Brothers, please don't imitate me. As an American I had to put these internationals in their place. Just because neither they nor I can remember me doing so doesn't mean I wasn't successful. But it does mean I don't want to attempt that feat again for a long, long time.

New Job!

I know everyone's been wondering where I've been with this whole blog thing but a lot of stuff has been up in the air for the last month and a half so you'll just have to forgive me.

As some of you may know, I had been a little anxious about the future of my job status over here in Kosovo. CACI, the company I worked for initially, lost the re-compete on the contract we were working under, losing out to a relatively new company called SOSi. SOSi decided to subcontract the Kosovo positions to Northrop Gruman who in turn was supposed to make offers to us analysts who were already on the ground to stay. That was supposed to be done by Thanksgiving but we heard nothing. Two weeks later, still nothing. New Years and still nothing. Meanwhile, I had heard through the grapevine that another company had an opening at a different base in Kosovo, the NATO KFOR Headquarters base. I sent in my resume, made some phone calls, and two weeks later I had an offer that I couldn't really refuse. Two weeks after that I was working somewhere else.

"Where is that?" you ask. Well I now work on Camp Film City in the KFOR Headquarters building, preparing daily update briefings for the KFOR Commander, an Italian 3-star general. It's a pretty cush job, and although it's not quite the position I originally came here for, it seems like this job was made for me. It's a little bit farther to drive to my weekend apartment in Skopje, but the base is smaller here, it's filled with internationals, and there are multiple restaurants where I can get great food and have a beer! Sometimes, it's the little things that count.

Happy New Years! And other assorted news

I am now back at work (but hardly working) after my second 4-day weekend in a row. I could get used to those. Unfortunately this will be a full week for me.

New Years was fun but nothing too exciting. Fireworks, alcohol, and the new incarnation of ABBA in downtown Skopje. Saturday night I gambled a little on my cooking skills and attempted to make chicken fried steak for the first time ever. The end result tasted good but bore little resemblence to the gold standard, chicken fried steak as cooked by my mother. I think I had too much oil in the frying pan because I couldn't get the crust as crispy as it should have been. My gravy was just so-so - I didn't add enough milk so it turned out thicker than I wanted.

The sky dumped loads of snow all over Macedonia and Kosovo this weekend as well. When I got ready to drive back to Kosovo on Sunday, my Jeep was buried in snow. It probably took 15 minutes to clear it all off. Unfortunately, idiot me forgot to take pictures of it. When I got back to Kosovo my parking lot was full of snow as well so I had to fight my way through that. Once I got to where my room is, I had to shovel 18 inches of snow out of the way to get to my door. Trudging three quarters of a mile to work through the snow isn't fun either. I think I may need a snowmobile or at least snowshoes. Thankfully I have a pair of winter boots my mother bought me when I was back home which have turned out to be one of my smartest decisions ever.

The snow-covered landscape is pretty though. It covers the dirt and trash that line most of Kosovo's roadways. Little snow-covered villages with smoke rising from the chimneys are very picturesque as well. My only complaint is that it is now getting damn cold as well. Today's low is 14F which I thought was pretty bad until I saw the forecast for tomorrow - 8F.