In D.C. and Travel Plans

April 23, 2010 by host

I’ve been staying busy with classes at the Smithsonian and wandering around DC with my camera.

My summer trip plans so far have me leaving the first week of June and escorting my parents to Bosnia. I’m really excited about this part of the trip because I have so many relatives there that I haven’t seen in ages and hardly even know. It makes me excited and nervous at the same time, kind of like loving someone from afar.

I’m especially happy to be escorting my parents, who haven’t been back since before the war. This will most likely be their last trip to Bosnia, and it’s my first trip back with both my mother and father.

After visiting with relatives in Bosnia, I’ll make my way to the Adriatic coast, and plan on stopping on the island of Korcula (birthplace of Marco Polo) in Croatia, before going on to Montenegro.

Then comes the tricky part.

Surprisingly, there really isn’t a direct means of getting to Greece from the Adriatic coast — no boats from Croatia or Montenegro. I would actually have to take a ferry from Croatia to Italy — going in the wrong direction — and then take another ferry from Italy to Greece. Or I could take a bus from Montenegro to Macedonia, throw in a side trip to Lake Ohrid, and then take an excruciatingly slow train from Macedonia to Thessaloniki. I know the train is excruciating because it’s how I got to Greece many years back, and I swear it traveled around 30 mph.