Globe Corner Blogs

I was sad to leave Belgrade, Serbia. I had stopped there briefly to visit a friend on my way from Romania to Croatia. But the journey had to continue and my next stop was Sarajevo, Bosnia. I assumed that buying a one-way ticket would be pretty straightforward. I was wrong.

The friend that I was visiting knew all of the ins-and-outs of getting from Belgrade to Sarajevo, and thanks to her, I knew that I had to ask for a ticket to “Lukavica” in Sarajevo – not for the main bus station. I knew how many buses went daily. I knew what time I wanted to leave and how much cash to bring to the bus station. Even though I have studied Serbian for several years, I still get a bit nervous speaking it, so I even reviewed the vocabulary necessary for the transaction.

I made my way to the Belgrade bus station and had no problem finding the correct desks. I got in line and readied everything I could possibly need to buy my ticket. When I got to the front of the line, a woman at the ticket counter barked, “SLEDECA!” NEXT! I was trying to maneuver in the line to end up at the window of the grandmotherly woman’s who looked very sweet and kind. However, she was still nicely helping another person. The woman who was yelling “NEXT” was at the counter beside the grandmother. This woman didn’t look too friendly. I summoned some courage and walked up to her. Continue Reading »

Playa Zicatela--photo by Lisa

Having endured several cold and harsh winters in Boston, I have begun to understand the appeal of heading south for the winter. After a particularly freezing walk home I booked my ticket to Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is a beautiful city in the southern part of Mexico and I have always wanted to go there. It is a well known culinary capital and is also home to lots of folk artists. After researching more about the region I decided that I also wanted to go to the coast for a couple of days and Puerto Escondido seemed like the perfect destination to soak up the sun and get away from it all. Puerto Escondido means “hidden port” in Spanish. These days, though, it is becoming more of a destination even though it can be kind of treacherous to get there.

Continue Reading »

Bus in Mysore decorated for Dasara - photo by Nicole

1. The elephants and cows have better jewelry than you do.

2. You are in line at the foreign money exchange and are approached by a septuagenarian, sari-clad Indian woman who, after introducing herself, whips out her cell phone and calls her son. “Here is my son. His name is Manjuth. He is a salsa dancer. You talk to him.” (This happened to a friend of mine while we were waiting for our rupees. The lady seemed determined to make this very pale, fair English girl her daughter-in-law and was only assuaged after being given a fake phone number so that Manjuth could call this lily-skinned girl for follow-up dates and, presumably, for blue-eyed grandchildren for his mother.)

3. Pizza masala. Not quite the same as back home.

4. You get on a sleeper bus for the next nine hours to get to a World Heritage site, full of

amazing ancient ruins, and realize that the bus has no front door. (The bus is also full of Sri Lankan basketball players who sing Hindi and Tamil pop songs until four am.)

5. The air in the morning smells like chai tea and jasmine flowers… with just the slightest hint of cow dung and urine.

Painted Bull in Bangalore - photo by Nicole