Kosovo and Macedonia

 Five years later, here is a new blog post! I am currently in Prishtina, Kosovo. This trip has been really awesome thus far, minus the saga it took to get here (canceled flight from Phoenix to Chicago, no flights available for 5 days, canceled initial ticket and rebooked entire itinerary, flight to Germany super delayed, canceled flight to Vienna meaning an unexpected night in Frankfurt, delay to Stuttgart, and finally a single on time flight to Prishtina). The only upside to the unexpected re-route was that I got to hang out with Jette in Frankfurt, and I got to see Jutta in the Stuttgart airport. I will sadly miss my day in Switzerland with Pirrko though.

Hanging out with Jette in Frankfurt

I was meant to arrive on Saturday evening, but I didnt arrive until around noon on Monday instead, meaning I lost two full days here. Luckily I have been able to squeeze many of the things I wanted to do into my new itinerary, though a few things like Lake Ohrid had to be saved for another time. On arrival to Prishtina I took taxi to the hostel, check in, and pretty immediately took a four hour nap since I had woken up at 3am due to time zone confusion. It was much needed. After my nap I walked around and explored a bit. I got to see the National Library, which has been called the ugliest building in the world, but I think is quite cool brutalist architecture. Definitely the most unique building I have come across! I tried to find a spot for dinner, but ended up just having a tornado potato and an ice cream cone (only 50 euro cents!). 

Arrived at the Prishtina Center Hostel

National Library of Kosovo

Unfinished (and somewhat problematic) Serbian Orthodox Church

Fanta Exotic (!!)

On Tuesday I started the day with the city walking tour. It was quite a nice walking tour of Prishtina and hit all the main sites, like the mosques, churches, market, Newborn statue (for Kosovo's independence in 2008 as the newest country, now Europe's youngest country and the world's second youngest after South Sudan), the library again, and lots of other cool stuff. After a girl from England and I had a drink with our guide, stopped for some meatballs and bread that were very tasty, and then rested a bit. After the guide took me to Gracanica Monastery and the Prishtina Bear Sanctuary. Kosovo used to have restaurants that would have caged bears to attract customers, but luckily this has been outlawed and the bears were rescued in 2013-2014. After I went bowling and got a 99 (so damn close to 100). 

The oldest mosque in Prishtina (under renovation currently)

King's Mosque

Traditional house

Cathedral of Mother Teresa

Gracinica

Fanta Tropical Exotic (too sweet)

Top of the Bear Sanctuary, quite a climb up

On Wednesday I took the bus to Prizren and explored the city there. On the way to the bus station I finally saw the Bill Clinton statue. There are statues here of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, as well as streets named for Bill Clinton, George Bush, Bob Dole, and Bo Biden. Apparently there is also a street for Tony Blair of Britain here too. Anyways, Prizren is quite beautiful and I enjoyed walking around, but oh boy this was my peak of tiredness. I had a delicious food of pastry filled with meat and cheese (forgot the name), and got a mango ice cream. I mostly just walked around and enjoyed myself before taking the bus back. When I got back to the hostel I fell asleep at 6pm and when I woke up at 8pm bascially decided just to shower and go back to bed!

Bill Clinton Statue

Stone Bridge in Prizren

Yet another new Fanta, flavor literally translates to "Funk"

On Thursday I woke up quite bright and early to catch the 7:25am bus to Skopje in Macedonia. The bus ride was uneventful again, but this time included a border crossing and passport control, which was fine. Skopje is a really interesting city. The main square is impressive and quite beautiful. I saw the site where the home of Mother Teresa was born and raised, learned some history, saw the bazaar, and evetually had lunch with the group. Our guide was super awesome and we all had a great time. I even ended up staying for 3 hours longer than I thought I would because I really did enjoy the city! 

Biking in the City

The last three months have been great. I finally finished intern year and started anesthesia. Yay! Lots of days of little sleep and lots of stress, but overall life is so much better. 

Today I had a lovely day off. I was going to meet a friend on the east side, and I decided to bike there. Half way there my friend said she was leaving and that some of our other friends were having brunch at Lechon downtown, so I diverted my path to end up there. My friend never showed up, but I had a nice time hanging out with our other friends. I ate some of their leftovers and then we walked around the Portland Saturday Market and went to an arcade for a bit. When we were done walking around I broke off and decided to bike to Apizza Scholls for dinner since I have always wanted to try it. I got there about 20 minutes prior to opening and waited in the line (this place notoriously has a long wait, but I got there so early there was none yet). The pizza was super delicious! I'm really glad I went. After eating I biked back to the west side to catch the bus back home. I  Portland you can put your bike on a rack on the front of any bus, and seeing as the way home is a lot of uphill and I had already had biked roughly 15 miles in the 85-90º weather I was ready to sit in an air conditioned vehicle and relax. I still had another half mile to bike from the transit center, which unfortunately includes two hills and boy was that hard at the end of the day. 

When I got home it was time for a nice cold shower and then I worked on some pre-ops for Monday. So tired now and very ready for bed!

Last Full Day

This morning again started out the same. I got up at 7AM (thanks to my roommate who's alarm was going off for at least 15 minutes and she definitely wasn't waking up to it), and sat in bed for a little bit until breakfast was available at 8. I got up and ate some toast and then went to get ready for the day. Unfortunately I noticed that somehow my watched wasn't charged, ugh, so I there it on the charger and watch YouTube videos for a bit to pass the time. I finally left the hostel a bit before 10:30 (admittedly I got a bit distracted by the videos). 

I didn't know where I wanted to go, so I hopped on the subway going in the general direction of most things. Luckily there is only one line at the closest stop, which makes that decision easier. On the subway the cutest, frailest old man stood up with a huge smile and told me to please take his seat. I obviously didn't because he was in an area designated for the pregnant, elderly, and disabled, but he was just so cute. He then thanked me for coming to Korea with a huge smile and told me to have a good day. He definitely made the first part of it good! Always feels nice to have pleasant encounters like that when traveling. 

I eventually decided to go to the Korean War Memorial. It was a pretty interesting site, and I learned a lot about the Korean War from the museum there. I wandered for a while in the museum, pondering how close the north was to successfully taking over the south, and also how close the south was to uniting the entire peninsula in freedom. Alas, we were left exactly how it began, and we know the end (or confining) result of that. 

After the memorial/museum I hopped back on the subway to Gangnam (wop em Gangnam style!) to go to Samsung D-light.  When I got out of the train station I decided to grab a street corn dog, well, because they're everywhere here and I had to give in eventually. When she was giving it to me she asked if I wanted sugar on it. WTF, who eats corn dogs with SUGAR!? I'm sure it doesn't taste bad, but definitely different than I'm used to. I said no thank you and went on my way. I eventually found Samsung D'light and explore it. They had some really cool technology, and definitely made me wish I got another chance to pick out a fridge, because the one they had there was the coolest thing I've ever seen! I also got to try the virtual reality head seat, and totally flinched. The had another one set up with a moving seat to simulate a roller coaster, and I really felt like I was on the ride! It was so cool! They definitely made me want the Galaxy S8. That is a REALLY cool phone. If it weren't such a total pain in the ass to switch from Apple I would be buying that phone in a heart beat. 

After Samsung I went back to Lotte World Tower to explore the mall and also went to the aquarium in the mall. It was pretty cool; there were some fish I'd never seen before, which is always neat. They also had a bunch of paiche, harbor seals, and theoretically California sea lions and belugas, but I didn't see either of those. I explored for a bit and then went back out to the mall. I wasn't in too much of a shopping mood, so just window shopped mostly, but that place is very large. It's also only been open about two weeks, which is awesome to get to see it so early. They also had a store dedicated to Ebichu merchandise. Ebichu basically looks like a slightly shady Hamtaro. I got excited initially thinking it was Hamtaro, but alas, it was not. No Hamtaro time this time. 

After shopping around I took the subway up to find the traditional market, where I had read there was street food galore. I didn't find it at first, but some trusty wandering and I found the traditional mung bean pancake I had been searching for, and it was super yummy!! After eating I walked back to the hostel, discovering along the way that the area near my hostel was actually quite cool, I just hadn't explored it much. Maybe I'll do that some tomorrow before I leave. When I got back I chatted with a British couple and their five year old son for a while. They have been traveling since December and will go back to the U.K. in August. Their trip sounds amazing! Time for bed now. The journey home starts tomorrow. 

Lots of Exploring!

Today was a VERY long day, but I did a ton!

I started off (after the same breakfast routine) by walking towards the area with the main palaces. They are quite close to the hostel, which is very nice. The gate to the first is also right across from Seoul National University Hospital, wheee one of the medical schools is located. I think the Younsei University Hospital looks way nicer (I've passed it a few times), but SNUH still looks like a fine hospital. There are two Taiwanese medical students in my hostel doing an elective/observing surgeries there. Anyways, I headed into the first palace, Changgyeonggung. It was fairly early, so there weren't too many people, which was nice. To be honest, I didn't realize I wasn't at Changdeokgung palace for quite a while while I was exploring. I'm an idiot haha. They are connected, so it's no that crazy, but I didn't realize there were two palaces in the same area there. I explored the grounds a bit and then found the entrance to Changdeokgung Palace. It was perfect timing, because the next tour for the secret garden was starting in about 15 minutes. I had read that it was really difficult to get tickets if you hadn't booked in advance, but I think that because of the rain in the forecast there weren't too many people trying to get the day of tickets that are always available. The tour of the secret garden was really cool. I really enjoyed walking around the grounds. It was also like my own personal landscaping heaven, and entire forest of Japanese maples! Well, sort of. The beginning had more maples, but they were still everywhere. The tour lasted an hour and a half, and we saw lots of different buildings that the royal family used to use, and some beautiful landscaping. It was very forested as well, which is always a nice respite from the big city. 

After the secret garden tour I explored the palace ground. They were very pretty, and quite interesting to look at. Unfortunately, it started raining while I was there, and I got very wet. At least I had a hood. The Portlander in me did not have an umbrella, nor did she consider buying one. Haha. I stopped and got a citrus tea (holy crap it was sweet, like the put sugar syrup in it!) and waiting for the rain to lessen. I eventually set out and just accepted I'd get a little set. Luckily the worst really was over. 

After leaving Changdeokgung I walked west towards the Bukchan Hanok Village, an area were there are many old traditional homes. I wandered for a while, without any clue as to where I would see the best hanoks, but eventually found exactly what I wanted to see just by wandering not. Thank you directional skills. Also to thank, Pokémon. Hahahah. When I was trying to decide which was to go I would look and see which direction had a Pokémon I preferred at the Pokestop. Then I would go that way. Surprisingly that method led me to so many things from this point on today. Also, Pokémon is huge here. Anyways, the hanok village was pretty cool, and I got some excellent views as well. On my wanders I grabbed a chicken and green onion skewer for lunch, which was quite yummy. 

After the hanok village I set off towards another palace, Gyeongbokgung, which is the original and largest palace. Unfortunately I got side tracked, but it was a good side track. I instead headed south and explore Insadong. It is a cool neighborhood which lots of tourist shops and vendors.  I got some traditional Korean honey candy to bring home. I got a sample and it was pretty good. Can't wait for you to try it! I also got a delicious chocolate filled poop shaped pancake thing that was delicious! When he handed it to the customer he always said "Choc-o-lot POOP." Haha, loved it. I continued to wander and found my way all the way to Cheonggyecheon, a stream formerly covered by a highway and now reconverted to a stream and green space. I had wanted to see t and happened upon it! Yay! I walked along the steam a bit and it was lovely. I then continued south towards Namsan Market, and happened upon the old gate to Seoul along the way. Also saw the metropolitan library, which was a super cool building!

The Namesan market was okay. Nothing I wanted too much. I did get a malasada look a like thing, but I think it was fried mochi in cinnamon sugar. Whatever it was, it was yummy! I then stumbled upon a HUGE department store. I mean 14 floors huge. I thought it would never end. One of its sections was Banana Republic, like your would see Ralph Lauren or whatever at Macy's. So random. I saw some pants I like and looked at the brand and thought "of course it is." I also managed to end up with new Oxo silicone cooking chopsticks...

After exploring the store I ventured to the area near one the the women's universities to go to the raccoon cafe! They were initially asleep when I got there so I waited and killed time, which I needed because I had been walking all day and my phone also needed charging. The cafe also has a super cute corgi who I played with a lot. There's also randomly a capybara, but you can't play with it. Eventually one of the raccoons woke up and I got to interact with it a bit. It was pretty cool. You don't get to be so up close with them too much at home. 

After the cafe I got on the subway towards Itaewon, but since it was late, changed my mind and got on the train the other direction to Myeongdong for some street food dinner. All the stores were also still open, which I thought was so weird. I guess the shopping does t stop until 11PM here. Anyways, I had an egg cake, baked cheese, fresh orange juice, and a traditional ice cream topped with honey in a waffle/waffle cone shaped like a fish! It was super fun and all very delicious. So much more I wanted to try too! I then finally went home, and am super exhausted. Tomorrow is already my last full day here! 

11.7 miles, 31,840 steps