Country Refreshment

The past weekend was the first venture out of Belgrade.... and the trip went quite seamlessly (well almost). Zlatibor, as it turns out is quite the Serbian vacation spot. Picture a mini Aspen. It is in the hills (which they call mountains) and is a quite touristy spot with lots of comfy chairs to sit and drink coffee in. After showing up and realizing that no motel would let us stay there because they couldn't register our paper copies of our passports with the police (our originals are still in lockup at the embassy), we found a small apartment that would rent to us for a reasonable rate. The apartment was complete with doilies and scary baby dalls (see picture).

Saturday, we went on the Mountaineering trail for a hike. Aparently mountaineering means a stroll through the forest to the top of a few wooded hills. It was quite an adventure as the trail was not well marked, and a stray crippled dog made his way with us. It was great to get out of the city and into fresh air though, and Jamie, Ethan and I all thought it was just right for us.

Sunday, we headed to Uzice (with lots of accents over the z and c). This is almost a very quaint little village had it not been for the communist building sticking out of the center of the city. The highlight of this town were the ruins of a mideval fort on the outskirts of town. We hiked around the fort and practiced our newfound rock climbing moves on the walls.

It wasn't until the way home that our real adventure started. We thought it would be fun to take the train back even though it was about an hour longer. When we stepped on the train, we immediately realized why everyone recommended busses.... it was standing room only. We ended up finding enough room to sit on the floor at the very back of the train next to the WC (toilet in case you were wondering). We opened the back sliding doors for some ventillation and it wasn't entirely uncomfortable unless someone needed to use the restroom at which point it was an AWEFUL smell.

Luckily, we made it back to the rainy Belgrade. We had missed all of the bad weather. This week has been a whirlwind of activity with open house last night, student council elections today and preparations for a middle school dance on Friday. I have also now convinced six unknowing middle school students to run cross-country, so it sounds as if we will be able to travel to Kiev in October. More later..... Serbian Lessons call!