Euro-Birthday Bus Trip

Circa Summer 2019~ Having a July birthday as a teacher has its benefits--Mainly, I always have the day off and the freedom to celebrate in whatever big or small fashion I'd like. Although I'm not someone who likes to celebrate my birthday with a great deal of fanfare, I do generally like to mark the day with a trip or an adventure. Keeping with tradition, we began looking around the internet for a fun birthday Euro-romp. Without digging too deep, we found a one-way flight deal that would take us from Montenegro to Poland...and how we'd get back to Albania, well that would be a problem for an older and wiser Mary. 

After driving to Montenegro, and leaving the old girl (our '91 VW van) tucked safely away in trustworthy-looking folks' backyard, we flew off to Warsaw, Poland. Although Poland was never at the top of our travel list, we were excited for some vodka, pirogies and...whatever else Poland had in store (again, just a destination of opportunity, not a lot of background knowledge). Once arriving in Warsaw we struck out to check out the (new) Old Town (having been reduced to a pile of rubble in WWII, the Old Town was meticulously rebuilt and is oh so charming!), Łazienki Park (a place to while away the hours with palaces, odes to Frédéric Chopin, pavilions, promenades, and lush greenery), the Warsaw Uprising Museum (to get a little WWII context), the phalic Palace of Culture and Science (a Stalinist complex that was a ‘gift from the Soviet Union to the people of Poland). Generally we walked around, fuelled by vodka and an open-mind about a country we had no preconceived notions about. I will say, Warsaw was amazing, and would love to explore more of the country! 

Reality Check-In~ All the while, we got a call from a school in Canada, offering a job interview for both Tyler and I. While we had planned on taking an extended summer holiday, cruising around in our van until November when we were due back for a teaching contract in Toronto, we thought, why not do the interviews? So we ended up completing our interviews in the lobby of our hotel, and from there things moved quickly. Suddenly we were both employed and needed to speed up our leisurely summer+ plans. We needed to gear up to pack-up and get back to Canada ASAP. This meant getting back to Albania on a quicker timeline than previously expected....bbbuuttt we still did want to see a few things along the way (don't ever try and rush us while on vacation!). So we opted to do some overnight buses and stop in a few cities before arriving back in Albania. 

Spending the night on a bus and being unceremoniously dumped in a new city at 6am can be a bit jarring-Where's the Tim Horton's, guys? No worries! We'd head to the hotel, take a little nap and be fresh to begin to explore Prague!

...ohhh wait. We're not in S.E Asia anymore, where hospitality is paramount, rules are mere guidelines, and an unannounced 7am check-in request is met with a smile and an invitation to check-out the breakfast buffet. Instead we were reminded of the rigid and unwavering hotel policies that we agreed to when reserving our over-priced 2-star hotel room. 

So how do you kill the better part of a day before you can finally lay your head down for a cat-nap? Why not a free walking tour! Checking out the sights of the Old Town and Jewish Quarter, and hearing a series of historical tidbits and humorous antidotes was a perfect way to ride out our exhaustion and make the most of the time we had in Prague. Capping off the morning with a riverside picnic, we finally tucked ourselves into bed for a quick kip before continuing on with the (now self-guided) tour. Take it from us, Prague is super charming at any hour of the day...The bridges, the castles, the quirky statues. Prague is the perfect city to wander, perch and explore. 

After a couple of nights, we boarded the bus again for a quick jog down the road to Budapest---Which we were super excited about as it is, in our limited opinion, one of the best cities in Europe! Having visited Budapest before, we weren't as inclined to hit up the biggest landmarks and sights. We did spend the next couple days wandering around Margaret Island, (an island city park on the Danube River), catching sunsets along the river and popping into the occasional ruin bar (bars housed in the abandoned buildings of the Jewish Quarter as a result of WWII). And of course, the food!! Hungarian food really hits all the high marks for us--soups, peanutty sauces, cheese, sour cream, bacon, fried dough, I mean come-on! Despite it being 40 degrees, we just couldn't pass up multiple bowls of goulash. As a very serious side-note--does anyone have a killer recipe for paprika chicken they'd like to pass along?

Next we made the quick little hop, skip and a jump down to Belgrade, and were feeling good to be back in the Balkans! In contrast to our previous city-stops, Belgrade was roasting! Being so hot, we hit up Ada Ciganlija, or the 'Seaside of Belgrade', an artificial lake and beachside just outside the centre of the city. The lake was a hive of summertime activity! We spent the day hopping on and off the tourist train or walking to the next beach, where we would find a different vibe. This lake is a serious gem! From family picnics, water skiing, tikki bars, or full-on day-clubbing scenes, this lake has something for everyone. Unbeknownst to us, while sitting on a relatively quiet stretch of beach, we even found ourselves being propositioned by a curious individual who kept asking us, "Should we Shwing? Us, we shwing?" Although flattered--"No sir, please move along." Again, something at the lake for everyone.

Spent my birthday perched on the walls of Belgrade Fortress and sampling the local raki

For the final push back to Albania, we boarded an overnight bus towards Montenegro to retrieve our sweet rolling home. Since we had left Montenegro 10 days ago, our life plans had changed, and we were now looking to sell the van. First things first, we stopped in at a gas station, filled up the beauty and posted her for sale. Well then, it was as if the old girl had felt the sting of abandonment and immediately acted out. Just over the Albanian border we heard that gut wrenching clunk that's usually accompanied by various degrees of heartbreak (and smoke). We got her pulled over, and eventually a 'tow truck' came (Mercedes station wagon hauling a homemade flatbed juusssst big enough for the van), where the guy looked under the hood and quite simply said 'kaput'. A universal word needing no explanation. So she got taken to a garage/junkyard, where Tyler and a couple of boys pushed her into her final resting spot, while I looked on with the bossman, and cried like a baby. 

R.I.P sweet girl--Thanks for the adventures 💕

And just like that, our Albanian chapter was coming to an end...