Blech.

That's how I feel today. Blech. It's not all that hot, but it's humid and it's just beginning to rain...everything is sticky and yucky. School ends on Friday and my kids are out of control. Today my seventh graders whined that we should have class at the "beach", by which they mean "pool". (It sounds funny in English, but in Bulgarian, a pool complex is called the beach.)

They crazy.

And on Saturday, the first day of my summer vacation (ha!), I have to go to Blagoevgrad to plan the camp that I'll be working at in July. Then it's off to Dupnitsa for my Mid Service Training Conference. I'll be back in Pavel Banya on Wednesday, and my summer classes start on Monday. No rest for the wicked Peace Corps Volunteer.

Almost incredibly, I am no longer on that damned bus.

The bus ride from Skopje to Sarajevo was something else. Let me first say that in planning my trip, I had to decide whether to travel via Skopje or Belgrade. There is no direct line from Sofia to Sarajevo. Unfortunately, there is also no information on the web comparing these two options, so I spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting, and finally went with Skopje because a. the Belgrade bus station people struck me as idiots (I emailed them to ask how much the bus ride cost, and they emailed me back when it arrived; further emails received no response), and b. I'd heard Skopje was nice and the Belgrade wasn't.

What I didn't realize was that I didn't even need to choose! Because the bus from Skopje went through Belgrade. Best of both worlds! Look, here's a map. Feel my frustration:



We also took a little detour into, of all places, Croatia. My best guess as to why is that we were following the best roads. Balkan transportation is not always very efficient.

Total time spent on bus: 15 hours.

And I get to do it again, in the opposite direction, on Friday! Yay!

However, I'm not at all regretting that I didn't go through Belgrade. Because I have no reason to think that would have been any better, honestly.

Anyway, I have a lot to say about Sarajevo, but I'll save that for my next entry.