Spring Break in Scandinavia

This trip was planned very last minute. I never thought I would make it to Scandinavia during this trip to Europe. A couple months ago I booked a flight to Greece by myself, and my mom wasn’t very pleased that I was going by myself. My friend Julia jokingly said “If you come to Scandinavia with me then I’ll come to Greece with you.” And just like that I was booking my flights to Scandinavia for spring break.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Our time spent in Copenhagen was perfect! Every decision we made worked out for the best! It was truly a happy city and now one of my favorite cities in Europe!

Day 1: We began our trip with a free walking tour around Copenhagen. Normally free walking tours get a little boring after a while, but our guide, PJ, made the three hours worth wild. He gave us a brief history lesson about the Vikings and about Denmark and he also showed us basically the entire city. After the tour it was time for lunch. We were relying on the Trip Advisor City Guides app (if you haven’t downloaded yet, I highly suggest it) for restaurant suggestions. After an hour of looking at different menus and prices we found the winner, Paludan’s Book Café. It was set up like an antique library and had delicious food at a reasonable price. Oh I forgot to mention that Scandinavia is the most expensive region in Europe, with a normal meal costing about $20. Later that night we went to Tivoli Gardens. It is Europe’s third largest amusement park and it is also the amusement park that Disney World is modeled after. We were even able to swing over the city at sunset! It was an awesome ending to a perfect day!

Day 2: Again, another perfect day (you’ll hear that about everyday of the trip). The morning started out with a hunt for bagels. We stumbled upon a little restaurant, which deserves the award for best customer service in Europe. Not only was our breakfast amazing, Deborah, the woman working behind the counter, became our best friend. She was so kind and helpful and even gave us the local discounts.  We took our bagels to the harbor and enjoyed a beautiful view. Along with a beautiful view, we also got to listen to an awesome street band called Pavement Orchestra. Not only did they play well, they were also very cute. We decided to leave them a tip on two American dollars. We write them a little note telling them to come to America and said our goodbyes.

 The day continues with a one-hour harbor tour. Not only was it the perfect amount of time, but we also saw the famous Little Mermaid statue and found our future glass apartments. The next help of our day was probably the most interesting experience in Copenhagen. We went to visit the infamous Christiania. Christiania is known as a “free town” in Denmark. They have their own flag, which you can see below. They claimed to have left the European Union and are regulated under a special law. It is unique hippie town with just over 800 residents. There is awesome graffiti everywhere and they even have a “green light” district where Denmark tolerates the selling and buying of marijuana. It was very interesting to see the different lifestyle and we also enjoyed some awesome falafel!

Overall, Copenhagen was the perfect start of our adventure. It was a beautiful city made up of beautiful locals!

Oslo, Norway

After an overnight bus from Copenhagen, we arrived in Oslo at 6:00AM on Sunday morning. We didn’t have high expectations for Oslo. I’m not exactly sure why, maybe it’s because I’ve never really heard about it. We also were there for Easter weekend, so we decided to go in with the attitude that this would be our relaxing city.

The hostels in Oslo were over $50 and none of them had good ratings, so we decided to try something new- Couch Surfing. Couch Surfing is a website that brings together travelers and allows locals to host travelers coming through their city. It is also a way to meet awesome people and experience a city through a local’s point-of-view, which is obviously the best way to see a city. Each host and traveler has a profile where they have to answer a bunch of questions about themselves and they also have references from other people they have hosted or have met traveling.  After sending about 30 requests to hosts we got accepted by a girl named Maria. She had a lot positive references and from reading her profile she seemed like someone Julia and I would get along with. We accepted the invitation and the journey began.

Day 1:

When we arrived at the bus station we decided to wait a couple hours before heading to Maria’s apartment because it was so early. There were some interesting characters waiting with us. The man sitting next to Julia spit on the floor inside the building right next to Julia’s foot. Maria’s place was only a 15 min walk from the bus station, but we got lost and ended up walking in a huge circle. After 45 mins of wandering around Oslo we finally found her apartment. She greeted us, let us shower, and introduced us to her Italian friend who moved to Oslo to juggle. From the start we knew this would be a good experience. Maria spoke perfect English because her mom is from America, but the people in Scandinavia in general all speak perfect English.

After refreshing up a bit Maria had to go to work, so she gave us some tips about the city and we began our adventure for the day. After eating at a cute café we made out way to the famous sculpture park. The walk was so nice…and so long. On our way we stumbled upon the Royal Palace and the Embassy section. It was interesting how you could walk 20 mins and be in a completely different part of the city. We walked through a gorgeous neighborhood and picked our future houses. After walking for about an hour we finally arrived at the park. Since it was Easter the park was filled with families, cute babies, and playful dogs. We wandered around the park and enjoyed looking at the 200+ funny sculptures of people. We then plopped down on a grassy hill and took a nice nap. The sun was shining, people were laughing, dogs were barking, and it was clear blue skies. It was perfect!

Delicious food can always make you love a city a little bit more. Thanks to our handy Trip Advisor app we were able to find an awesome tapas restaurant full of locals. Our waiter was beautiful and the entire menu was in Norwegian so he just decided out entire meal for us, included cava sangrias. Definitely one of the best meals I’ve eaten in Europe! 

It didn’t get dark until 9:30PM! It would be really cool to live here in the summer, but we were told that during the winter it gets light at 10:00AM and dark at 3:00PM, so if you have a regular job you never see sunlight…I don’t think I could handle that. Later that night we took Maria and her roommate out for a drink to thank them for having us. Some of their other friends joined us out who were also really fun people. There were some places we couldn’t even get into because the age to enter was 23 year old! Crazy stuff! We went to an outdoor bar/club, where it was the first time I’ve experienced the guys leaving the girls at the table to go dance. It was so fun and so different than America. It was definitely another happy day!

Day 2:

Our first night Couch Surfing meant legitimately sleeping on a couch and on a cot, but it also meant being able to sleep until noon. We decided today was going to be a very relaxing day, because it was technically still a holiday so everything was closed. Maria made us a yummy little breakfast and after chilling and talking with Maria and her roommate it was time to say our goodbyes. She let us keep our backpacks at her house until we needed to go to the airport later and gave us a key to leave in her mailbox when we left. Having our own key made us feel like locals.

On this sunny, warm day we thought it would be a good idea to relax on top of the famous opera house. The opera house is situated right along the harbor and has a slanted roof so hundreds of people just hangout there all the time. We lied on the roof for a couple hours listening to music and tanning. It officially felt like spring break! After relaxing on the opera house we made our way to the fortress also situated along the harbor, which again was beautiful and sunny. Dinnertime rolled around and we knew exactly what we wanted- juicy cheeseburgers! We walked to the restaurant that we knew had good cheeseburgers only to find the server telling us he ran out of food for Easter. We ended up eating at McDonalds, but that is okay because it was much cheaper.

After picking up our bags from Maria’s we went back to the opera house, sat on our backpacks, and enjoyed sunset. Since our flight was at 6:00AM and we would’ve had to arrive to the airport around 4:00AM we decided it was best to just sleep at the airport. We went to the bus station to catch our airport shuttle and somehow we missed the first one, but that was okay since we had many hours until our flight. If the worst thing to happen to us so far was missing a shuttle and having to wait another 30 mins for the next one, then I’d say our trip was going pretty well! We arrived at the airport, situated ourselves on the couches at the closed Starbucks, and entertained ourselves until our early flight.

 In the end we had a fantastic, happy, and relaxing time there. It might not be my favorite city, but it is still a beautiful, diverse, and sunny city. Oslo surprised me in a good way. We met people we never would have met otherwise and had a fabulous time Couch Surfing with Maria. I don’t think I will ever come back, but I am very pleased with my time spent there.

Stockholm, Sweden

The moment we arrived in our hostel in Stockholm, City Backpackers Hostel, we knew it was going to be a great experience. They let us check-in early, our roommates were Israelis, and they gave check-out chocolate to everyone who was leaving as we arrived. We spent 4 nights in Stockholm, so instead of going day-by-day, I’m going to highlight the best parts of our time there.

City Backpackers: Definitely the best hostel I’ve ever stayed at! Not only was it in the perfect location, it also had awesome staff, comfy beds, free pasta for anyone to cook, and a very social environment! Our experience would not have been the same if we stayed anywhere else. It felt like home and we were sad to leave.  One night we came home from the bar with some other people in the hostel and we walked into the kitchen where a guy from Slovakia was playing the cello, a guy from Argentina was playing the saxophone, and a girl from Israel was doing contemporary dance to go along with their music. It was incredible and only in a hostel will you experience such creativity and unity.

Getting cultured: After a couple days of relaxing in Oslo it was time to have some fun being active in Stockholm. Our hostel had a “Swedish meatball experience night” where we learned how to make Swedish meatballs and had a fabulous dinner! We also went on a 3-hour bike tour with our hostel around the city. During the tour we biked up to an overlook to stop for some coffee, which was the highlight of the tour. While Julia was having a Skype interview I went on a free walking tour of the Old Town with some people from the hostel. The Old Town was so cute and quaint and our guide had a really funny accent because he was from Arkansas. One night we participated in the hostel’s pub-crawl and went to different bars around the city…that was an interesting night. Since we had 4 full days in the city we also walked to a lot of parks around the city and sat by the water. Stockholm was filled with interesting and beautiful people, so people watching was also an experience in itself. 

 Proud to be an American: the game started in Copenhagen, but continued throughout our trip. Everyday we would count how many people were wearing New York Yankee hats or things with American flags on them. In 2 hours we counted over 45 people. We went to a voodoo shop and while we were talking with a woman she explained to us how there used to be a bit of an anti-American feeling in Scandinavia, but recently it has shifted to a more positive view.

New Friends: A Scottish guy called Julia and I the friendly Americans because we talked to everyone in the hostel. We met so many interesting and fun people that I even have a page in my journal with all of their names and a description about each other them.  The list is made up of 30 different people and the countries consist of Israel, Australia, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, England, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and America. The Australian guys actually came to Dubrovnik after and I was able to show them all around the city! I love hostels for this exact reason; you never know whom you’ll meet and you never know when you’ll run into someone somewhere else around the world. 

Stockholm treated us so well! I can’t decide if I like Stockholm or Copenhagen better, so I’m just not going to choose. Scandinavia is officially my favorite part of Europe! It is definitely very expensive and if someone were traveling on a tight budget I would recommend Eastern Europe, but I think everyone should visit Scandinavia at some point in his or her life. It is a beautiful region, with friendly locals who all speak English, and offers much to see!

Exploring Eastern Europe

I’ve wanted to do a trip around Eastern Europe since I arrived in Croatia in September. When I came back to school I found out again that I had three magical weeks of no class. I decided to stay in Dubrovnik for a little while to just hang out and relax, but the consisted of sitting inside watching movies because it was raining all day. I had enough of the rain, so I packed my backpack and began my journey with a bus ride from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo.

My main reasoning for this journey was to visit two of my friends Puki and Rebekah and to meet the Jewish communities in Sofia, Bulgaria and Skopje, Macedonia. In order to get to these cities I was able to experience a couple other places along the way.

When I told my mom my travel plans of course her first reaction was “please do not go by yourself” and “please be safe.” I had to remind her that I have been in Europe for five months and nothing bad has happened to me, but after being in America for two days during my winter break my mom’s car was broken into and my wallet was stolen. Many people have a dangerous view of Eastern Europe. Yes, I agree that we must always be aware of our surroundings and be safe and smart when we travel, but I think many people forget that big western European cities like Paris and Madrid are dangerous too.

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina                                                                                    

I failed to mention this part to my parents, but at the time of this trip there were many protests and riots going on in Sarajevo because the citizens were tired of their corrupt government and low unemployment rate. I even got a message from my study abroad advisor about a travel alert in Sarajevo....oops. It’s okay; I am home safe and alive. I only went to Sarajevo for one night because it was my connection to Belgrade. The owner of the hostel was nice enough to pick me up from the bus station because the main roads were closed during protesting times. During my one day there I ate delicious cevapi and bought homemade slippers. It was the first time I was the only person in the hostel, but that was okay because I stole all the pillows off the empty beds. The next day is when the trip really started.

Belgrade, Serbia                                                                                                    

For those who don’t know, Serbia and Croatia were at war with each other twenty years ago. There are two sides to every story, but I have been taught that Serbia started the war, but if you ask a Serb they will justify their actions for trying to keep Yugoslavia together, either way they both strongly dislike each other. When I told people in Croatia I was going to Belgrade (the capital of Serbia) I got mixed reactions. The younger generations would tell me that Belgrade was an awesome place to party, while the older generations told me not to go there.

 

When I first arrived in Belgrade it was a grey, cloudy day and there were only 4 other people in the hostel.  I was beginning to regret my decision of doing this trip during off-season by myself. I also arrived on Valentines Day, which is not the best day for solo travelers to experience a city. My crazy Friday night consisted of trying a local food, pljeskavica, which is basically a big hamburger on a plate), and watching a couple episodes of Girls and the Wolf of Wall Street at the hostel with some other travelers.

Saturday was a beautiful day with blue skies, sunshine, and warm weather! I decided to give Belgrade another chance. I started my day walking down the main pedestrian street. It is a huge street full of happy people, many stores and cafes, and no cars. I’m not sure if it was the nice weather, but everyone was outside. It was really hard to not smile while walking down the street and observing my surroundings. You would see cute little children running around, people playing with their dogs everywhere, and many freelance musicians playing wonderful music. My breakfast even consisted of chocolate and fruit fondue at a chocolate café. After that I knew it was going to be a good day.

I met a guy named Oliver while I was wandering around. He was born in Dubrovnik, raised in Holland because his family was placed as refugees there during the war, and is now working with the EU in Serbia. The pedestrian street leads all the way down to the fortress, which also serves as a big park that overlooks the river. We sat for coffee at the fortress and he tried explaining to me the history and politics of Belgrade and how it has served at the capital for seven different empires. After a while it all became so confusing that I was totally lost. We spent the day chatting over coffee and walking around the fortress. We even got to watch the sunset in Belgrade and it was beautiful of course! We went to “the best” sausage restaurant in Belgrade. For just $2 it was definitely one of the best meals I’ve had in Eastern Europe. I said goodbye to my new friend and headed back to the hostel. Some people from the hostel and myself decided to experience Belgrade’s nightlife, which we realized was hard to do if you didn’t know the right place to go. Every bar we walked into was completely full. We met a local named Danko and he came with us to one of his favorite bars. We sat for hours chatting and tasting their home brewed beers. At one point I went to the bathroom and one of the girls standing in line noticed that I didn’t speak Serbian. She was really nice and in her broken English she asked me what brought me to Belgrade. I tried to explain that I study in Croatia and wanted to travel Eastern Europe. After our short conversation she was returning to her table and she said to me “Bye, you are so nice and have a good time in Belgrade because it is way better than Croatia and I don’t like Croatia.” I had very mixed feelings after that interaction. She was so nice and didn’t say anything wrong, but it was very interesting, as an outsider, to experience the smallest aspect of hate within this ongoing internal conflict between Serbia and Croatia.

The next day a Swedish girl named Marie and I were invited to hangout with one of the Catalonian guys in our hostel named Jon and his Serbian girlfriend and her friends. It was a very interesting group dynamic. Jon and his girlfriend communicated in Spanish, Marie, Jon, and I communicated in English, and Jon’s girlfriend and her friends communicated in in Serbian with very little English. It ended up being really fun to hangout with a group of locals. We walked along to river for a couple hours and ate the biggest pancakes ever. We would all laugh at each other when we couldn’t understand what the other was trying to say. Everything would take much longer to communicate because the friends would first decide where we were going in Serbian, then Jon’s girlfriend would say it in Spanish, and then Jon would tell us in English. Overall the day was filled with laughs, broken English, delicious pancakes, and new friends.

I was supposed to stay in Belgrade for only three nights, but I was enjoying it too much to leave so I extended 1 more night. My last full day in Belgrade consisted of hanging out with an American named Sam from our hostel who was studying in Germany. We took a bus to a popular lake and just walked around and relaxed on the rock beaches for a couple hours. We had some time before it got dark so we decided to walk back to the hostel. The walk took an hour and a half, but it was worth it. Sam and I were both heading to Sofia as our next destination and we were deciding if it was better to take the bus or train. While we were walking along the river we came across a half sunken boat with some graffiti on it that was a fish saying, “take the bus.” Clearly it was a sign. When we arrived back to the hostel we decided to spend our last night relaxing so we went with Marie and our other American friend named Eric to the roof bar next to our hostel. 

 

The next morning I went to buy my bus ticket and realized that we got the bus schedule wrong, so we had three hours to either sit at the bus station and wait or go to a café to find WIFI. Clearly we chose the latter option. Instead of finding a cute Eastern European café we shamefully went to McDonald’s. I usually do not eat McDonald’s back in America, but there is just something about the McDonald’s in Europe that appeal to everyone and we do not have any fast food restaurants in Dubrovnik so it was a must. Maybe they are just a slight reminder of home or maybe it is fun to see how each country offers something different. Either way we spent the remainder of our time in Belgrade feasting on breakfast hash browns and WIFI.

Belgrade might not be the prettiest city in Europe (at least it had cool art on the doors), but it is one of the liveliest cities I have experienced (that says a lot considering I’ve visited 35 European cities).

Sofia, Bulgaria                                                                     

My hostel in Sofia (Hostel Mostel) was only 8€ a night and it was one of the best hostels I’ve stayed at. It is very rare to find a full hostel in the middle of February, but Hostel Mostel was just that. I arrived in the evening and went out with some people from the hostel. We mostly wandered around not knowing where to go on a Tuesday night and we ended up in an Italian wine bar… after a glass of wine we all agreed that we should experience somewhere a little more local. That is when we discovered Art Hostel. I’m not really used to partying at different hostels other than the one I am staying at, but Art Hostel was different. It had an underground bar that served as a hot spot for locals. I wish I took pictures of this place; the walls were covered in awesome designs, paintings, and doodles!

The next morning my friend Puki picked me up from the hostel and gave me a fabulous tour of his city. Puki and I worked together last summer in Israel, so I was really excited to be able to visit him and meet the BBYO Bulgarian teens. BBYO is an international Jewish youth group that I was a part of in high school, so I was really excited to meet the members of the Bulgarian Jewish community. Bulgaria has a pretty amazing story when it comes to its Jewish community. Bulgaria is one of two countries (the other being Denmark) that were allied with the Nazis during WWII that saved its own Jews.

It is really amazing how much knowledge Europeans have about their own cities. Puki gave me an in depth tour around his city, including a detailed history lesson. I always wondered why I never appreciated history and I think I finally understand why. Being from a young country, though we do have an interesting history, we cannot just walk around and see Roman ruins or buildings from the Ottomans. During the tour we came across a huge painted egg which is called the "Egg of Happiness" and every time you pass by it you are supposed to touch it and make a wish.

 After touring the city we went for a traditional Bulgarian lunch. Puki was adamant about me trying tripe soup orШкембе чорба in Bulgarian, which he described as a milky soup with cow stomach. Although the description did not sound appealing, it was actually very good. The meat was too chewy for me, but the broth was delicious! Bulgarians also love their cheese fried, so that was a must try. I think we ordered half of the items on the menu and everything was so good! After lunch we wandered the city some more and found ourselves walking towards the Starbucks. Again, another American company that is not in Dubrovnik. Puki tried telling me how inexpensive Starbucks is in Sofia, but I refused to believe him…until I actually saw the prices on the board. Picture the prices at your local Starbucks, now imagine the same numbers but instead of in dollars the numbers are in Bulgarian Lev-which is basically half the price.

After a full day of exploring we went to the Jewish community center to meet up with the BBYO teens. Puki is a program director so he was there to oversee the meeting. After meeting all of the teens it was time for the meeting to begin. One of the teens planned a program about living a healthy lifestyle. Puki translated the entire time for me, so I was able to understand everything going on. In high school we always had fun at BBYO meetings, but I am pretty sure the Bulgarians have way more fun. After BBYO, Puki invited me to hangout with his friends for a night of watching football (soccer). Puki lives in a Moishe House, which serves as a place that holds events for young Jewish adults to gather together.When we went to his home he introduced me to his friends and roommate. Now this is just another testament that the world is a small place. Puki’s roommate Martin and I met four years ago in Dallas, Texas at BBYO’s International Convention. Martin and I became Facebook friends, talked maybe a couple times after meeting in Dallas, and now (unexpectedly) here I am four years later hanging out with him in his own city and own home. 

 It was so nice being able to catch up with two friends and meet the wonderful Jewish teens from Sofia. Not many people from I know can say that they visited friends in Bulgaria and for that I am fortunate to have these incredible opportunities. If I had more time I would have loved to stay and explore the city more, but because I spent an extra day in Belgrade I had to continue on with my trip if I wanted to make it back in time for class in a few days.

Skopje, Macedonia                                                                              

Macedonia is another Balkan country that, embarrassingly, I had never heard of before. The only reason I made my way to Skopje (the capital) was to meet Rebekah, another friend from BBYO.

On the bus ride from Sofia to Skopje I met Travis, a fellow American who has been traveling for one year. We chatted during the bus ride and said our goodbyes once the bus arrived to Skopje. Now fast-forward about 3 weeks later. I am sitting on some rocks in Dubrovnik overlooking the sea and guess who walks in…Travis! It just proves that we do live in a small world. 

 Rebekah and I actually never met before this trip. We worked together in BBYO on different projects and talked through Facebook and e-mail. We have many mutual friends that put us in contact with each other when I arrived in Croatia because Rebekah helps with the Jewish community in the Balkans. She greeted me at the bus station and immediately it felt like we had been friends forever.

The day began with dropping my bags off at the hostel (which of course I was the only person at again) and then heading out to grab some food. Later that night Rebekah invited me to the Jewish community center to meet the BBYO teens and some other members of the Jewish community. Two of the teens that were there had just returned from BBYO’s International Convention in Dallas, Texas and it was so interesting and exciting to hear about their experiences. Never in a million years did I think I would get to hangout with a Jewish community in Skopje, Macedonia.

 The next morning Rebekah gave me a tour around the city. It is funny because Skopje recently decided to become a city full of statues. I’m not kidding. There are statues everywhere. During the tour we went to the Holocaust museum, which again I hate to admit this but I did not know there was a Holocaust museum in Skopje. After the Holocaust museum we continued on and visited the Albanian side, which was organized more like an outdoor market place. It is a pretty small city so it only took about an hour or so to walk around.

 Later that night Rebekah invited me out with all of her friends. Everyone always says it is best to party with locals and everyone is right! One of her friends’ bands was playing at a local café so the night began by meeting some friends and heading to watch her friend sing. His band was awesome and it was so funny because they were singing a bunch of older American songs like “Hit the Road Jack” and “Sweet Home Alabama.” After his band finished we headed to a nearby park to celebrate her other friends’ birthday. Yes, they have birthday parties in parks at night and they are so fun! All of her friends were super nice and they all had amazing English. I didn’t expect the people from Macedonia to have the best English, but it goes to show how surprising Eastern Europe can be. The night ended at Club Marakana where we danced to a mixture of Macedonian and American music all night. It definitely was one of my favorite nights out in Europe so far!

 The next morning was kept short because I had to catch a bus to Kosovo, but Rebekah was nice enough to invite me over to her house for tea and walk me to the bus station. Like I said before I never would have thought that Macedonia would be on my travel list, but I am so happy it made it on there. Skopje is an interesting city, full of wonderful people. I definitely would not have enjoyed my time in Skopje if it were not for Rebekah and warm her hospitality.

Pristina, Kosovo                                                             

Kosovo has a very interesting story behind it and I’m going to try and explain it as simply as possibly. Again, I never heard of this country before taking my European Union class last semester. Kosovo is a very disputed territory and has still not been formally recognized by a large number of states, including neighbor Serbia. 

Kosovo used to be a part of Serbia, but its Albanian population declared independence in February 2008. The two countries were at war with each other in 2004 killings thousands of civilians. The fact that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a country becomes problematic when traveling around the Balkans. The rule is that if you start in Serbia then you may enter Kosovo and return back to Serbia, but you cannot do the opposite. You cannot enter Serbia from Kosovo if you did not begin your journey in Serbia because Serbia will look at your passport and pretend like the Kosovo stamp does not exist.

Along with being a fairly new and controversial country, it is also one country that is loves Americans. Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, is probably the only city in the world with both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton boulevards. This love came from Bush’s influence and support for NATO's bombing of Serbia, which led Serbian military to withdraw from and Clinton’s support for Kosovo’s independence. You can walk through Pristina, buy an American flag on the street, and see a 10-foot tall, golden statue of the Bill Clinton. They say that Kosovo is one of the most pro-American places in the world. 

Kosovo was on my way back to Dubrovnik, which allowed me to spend one night before making it back in time for class. I was excited because I got to stay with my friend Theresa who I met at my hostel in Montenegro. She is one of those friends that even though we only spent a couple hours together we bonded right away and have kept in touch since. A couple weeks after this trip Theresa and her friend came to stay with me in Dubrovnik!

My first day in Pristina started with a quick tour around the city. Theresa has many visitors so she is basically an expert tour guide. We stumbled upon an abandoned church and then the National Library, which was voted as one of the ugliest buildings in the world (second picture below). After our tour we went to Theresa’s favorite local café. We ended our night by eating a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant, which I really enjoyed because we do not have any restaurants like that in Dubrovnik.

After a relaxing day in Pristina with Theresa I began my long adventure back to Dubrovnik, which consisted of two bus rides, sleeping in a bus station from 2:00-6:00AM and making it to my 12:00 class!

 Have you ever had someone approach you on the street and just shake your hand just because of for your nationality and demand to take you for a coffee? If not then you should visit Kosovo, where you will feel appreciated as an American.

My adventure around Eastern Europe was everything I hoped it would be and more! I saw cities I never thought I would ever visit, I met people from all different cultures and backgrounds, I ate delicious food, and I learned so much about each city. Eastern Europe is definitely an underrated region and if you ever have the opportunity to explore it I highly recommend going!

I have mentioned a couple times how I believe traveling alone is the most rewarding and exciting experience. After I returned home from this trip I wrote an article for The Abroad Guide on why people should travel alone. Check it out: http://theabroadguide.com/travel-alone-study-abroad/