Exploration

Well, I have been all over the place since I last posted. Right now I am sitting in my hostel in Belgrade, Serbia. In Serbia they use the Serbian dinar and there are about 67 to a dollar. I will now give you the highlights since my last post and there are a lot of them as I have not had a lot of time to post things.

May 17
After we left Krk we went to the Plitvice national park. There they had amazing waterfalls. I cannot wait to show pictures. (If you are wondering why I do not use contractions it is because the keyboards are different here and hard to figure out where certain things are like an apostrophe key). I wish we could have had more time there. From there we went to Sibenik where there was a cathedral with an amazing baptistry. From this day on the cathedrals get better.

May 18
This was one of my favorite days. We went to some Roman ruins in Salona and were allowed to climb all over them. It was an amazing time and fun to get as high as you could. It was like a giant playground. It was fun to watch us all climbing on everything we could. Next we went to Klis where there was a fortress. This was another place we all tried to climb to every place that was possible to get to. I have to say the view was amazing as all the views on this trip are. Trogir was next with yet another amazing cathedral. In this cathedral we were allowed to climb the bell tower. We had a short time to do it so Pearse told us to get up there as fast as we could. I led the charge up the winding stairs and then the scary metal stairs to the top. We all had to crowd into the top before we could start down. The view was yet again gorgeous.

May 19
This day we went to Ston which has the world's second largest wall (found the apostrophe finally)! Stephen got us permission from one of the people that was working on the wall to pass a stop sign so we could go farther up the wall. This part of the wall consisted of only stairs going straight to the top and was very tiring. But it was worth it. However we couldn't go as far as the wall would go as we didn't have nearly enough time to go there and get back. Dubrovnik I didn't like as much because it seemed that the only people there were tourists and the only Croatians were trying to sell things to tourists. Despite this the architecture was amazing and the old city on the waterfront was picturesque. The place we stayed at was north of Dubrovnik and my favorite place. Here we went swimming in the Adriatic.

May 20
After some people had a very cold early morning swim we went into Montenegro for the day. The thing I liked best about Montenegro was the mountains but overall I prefer Croatia. We went to Perast where there is an artificial island that was created by placing rocks around a coral reef. We then went to Cetinje where we visited an Orthodox monastery. Cetinje used to be the capital of Montenegro. The monastery was very basic but they had a lot of treasures and relics.

May 21
This day we left Croatia behind and went to Bosnia. Bosnia is a very Muslim country with Catholics, Orthodox, and other Christians mixed in. It tried to be multireligious and there license plates make it impossible to identify where someone is from so it cuts down on vandilism. The first place we went to was Mostar where we visited a evangelical church. We then went and saw a bridge that had been destroyed and then rebuilt by fishing the stones out of the river. In Blagaj the only thing we saw was a Dervish house. It overlooked a river and was very plain. This was the first time we had to put headscarves on. Let me just say one thing about headscarves. We do not put them on to conform but to show respect to the culture we are it. In that culture as well as Orthodoxy headscarves are a sign of respect for God and it is unthinkable to not put them on in a place of worship as that would disrespect God. It is actually not a bad idea as it makes you modest and is a sign of respect and devotion to God.

May 22
Then it was on to Sarajevo which is split between a Muslim/Catholic federation and an Orthodox east. Pearse didn't know his way around too well so we tended to seem like we were lost. We saw many museums and visited our first mosque. Muslim artforms are expressed through their caligraphy, carpentry, and the painting of their mosques so it is a beautiful place. We once again had to put headscarves on to show respect. On our way back to where we were staying we stopped where Prince Ferdinand was shot.

May 23
We have gotten to the point where we have mostly long bus rides and not much to do. During the semester we read a book about a bridge on the Drina river. This day we went to Visegrad where this brideg actually is located. It was destroyed like the one in Mostar and then rebuilt. We got a group picture of us all on the Kapia which is where people used to hang out on the middle of the bridge. Then we had a long bus ride to Kraljevo, Serbia. We got there late and then went to dinner. There had been a mistake made and instead of meat platters to share amound a table each person basically got their own meat platter (which seemed to have at least 2 pounds of meat) and in Europe you have to eat all of your food or at least as much of it as you can or it is impolite. So we all had to eat a ton of food which we couldn't. I think we are all put off meat for a little.

May 24
Today we visited two Orthodox monasteries. The artwork in these places is wonderful. The views were especially so. I have to say that after this trip I will have some awesome pictures to turn into quilts. Then we went to Belgrade where every room has a computer which made me happy as I can actually update this blog. Tomorrow we will explore Belgrade and then return to Croatia. We will soon be done with EMW as we end on the 30th and then I will be going around Italy with Hannah and Katie. There is a British Airways cabin crew strike but we know we can get to London. From London to home it seems like we can as they say they will run most flights but there is the slight chance we will have our flight cancelled. They won't know there flight schedule until June 1st so please just keep that in your prayers as we would like to get home after we are done in Italy. Well I better let someone else use the computer as I have monopolized it for long enough. Maybe next time I will be home and can post pictures. Until then TTFN.