Fellow Travelers

I met a group of great travelers the other night at theold hostel where we stayed the first 3 nights after the conference in Sarajevo. We sat out in the backyard, talking, laughing, and drinking lovely Montenegrin red wine until the wee hours of the night. We polished off 3 bottles of wine among the 6 of us and things just seemed to get funnier as the night went on. Unfortunately I lost my purple corkscrew in the process (I loved that thing, and this was the first time I had even used it on the trip!).

So these folks I met were very cool, and I will describe them each in turn...

Sarah (another Sarah, not my Sarah) is an English girl who had been traveling in Asia for a year; she taught English in Chang Mai, Thailand for some time before coming back to Europe. She had just come from te Exit Festival (a "rebel" festival in Serbia) and she was on her way to a Rainbow gathering which is apparantly happening in western Bosnia for the next month! I was tempted to check it out until she showed me the directions... It sounds like no buses or trains go within 40 kilometers of the gathering, and her plan is to take the bus as close as she can get, then hitch-hike the rest of the way. Those protective people in my life (boyfriend and mom at the top of the list) will be happy to know that plan was not going to fly in my world. But more power to Sarah and I wish her the best of luck in getting to what i am sure will be an increadible gathering. Sarah makes jewelery, and I bought a very nice pair of earings and a necklace that she made. i will think of her when I wear them, and i will smile. She was a real traveling soul and I count myself lucky to have had the chance to meet her and spend an evening together.

The other four travelers can somewhat be introduced together, because they had all been camp counselors at a summer camp in Croatia which brings together young people from many countries (especially Balkan countries) to show them a good time and to help them develop relationships/friendships upon which a foundation for peace in the region can be formed. Their stories were unbelievable and funny and wonderful. I am missing T-Camp for the first time this year, so i was so happy to meet up with some "camp" people and get a vicarious taste of that energy. They had only met 2 weeks prior at this camp, but now they are thick as thieves and it was awesome to see their bonds with each other and to know how close you become after doing camp with people. Maybe next year I will work at that camp... they gave me the information about whom to contact to get involved.

So there was Jema (maybe spelled totally wrong), an Irish girl who apparantly starts everyday with a deluge of swears you wouldn't expect from a nice Catholic girl (most of the words start with F* but she is very creative in using the same word in multiple different ways to express the subtle nuances of unhappiness at awakening). While we were sitting at a cafe today, a pidgeon pooped right on her, and she was so cool. She said it was good luck and made a wish, then of course she cleaned herself off... She had a beautiful singing voice and serenaded the group frequently and the others would join in too.

The other girl in the group was Becca, who in addition to being beautiful had one of those sunny personalities that just lights up a room. She was really interested in my work and said she was very impressed that I had presented at the conference last week. She is from England I think and was heading that direction on a bus with Jema tonight. She shared juice and water with me after we all hiked up to a gorgeous vista point where you can see all of Sarajevo.

The two guys were Mike and Mark. Mike was an English guy; very funny and gregarious. He was so friendly and he was the first one to talk to me and tell me about the camp. He is one of those people who just makes you feel comfortable right away and you feel as though you have known him for ages even though you've just met.

Mark is a new Yorker, but it sounds like he hasn't been in NYC for a long time, and he has that "extreme traveler" vibe. Mark's claim to fame has to do with pidgeons (and there are plenty of them in sarajevo's pidgeon square where we sat today). He throws a small thing (such as a wallet) in to the air in the middle of a crowd of pidgeons and every single one of them flies into the air in a huff. Simply chasing them isn't nearly as effective. Mark is headed to Kosovo and Albania next. He hasn't told his parents exactly where he is or where he is going; he just said he is "in the Balkans."

Anyway, these folks really made my day when they asked me to sit with them in pidgeon's square because I was sort of wandering purposelessly at that moment. The same thing was true the other night in the backyard of the hostel; I wasn't feeling too sleepy but it was nighttime, and the good conversation and great laughs made me so happy. One of the best joys of traveling truly are the characters you meet on the road. Hostelling is the BEST!!