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These are recent stories - the rest are in my latest book,"Walking Through Adversity."

Stories about European Trips (1)

Rob bryant
2006-01-09 11:25:36

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7 AM when I arrived (1 AM ESB time) and it struck me odd that less than 12 hours ago, I had been staring at the lush green Appalachian Mountains with it's blue hues in the morning and evening. Now I was staring at one of the largest mountain chains in the world over 4,700 miles away. After some strong Swiss coffee, I took part in a short company meeting at an airport conference room (since I only had a five-hour lay-over). By noon, I was flying East over Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I landed at Skop Je in Macedonia deep within the Balkan Mountains and in the heart of where we fought the recent war in Kosovo against the former Yugoslavia. Although we helped Kosovo with freedom, Americans are resented and UN troops were everywhere around me. Most of them were from the US and neighboring European countries. The trip was about to get off to a bad start when I discovered my luggage did not make it, and I was supposed to be picked up at the airport by a DynCorp employee, but no one showed. I rolled outside only to be rushed by almost 100 taxi drivers when they saw I was a "rich Americano." I waited over two hours outside in the heat and gave up waiting. I took a taxi across Skop Je to the Hotel I knew I was supposed to stay. I made a few phone calls to let DynCorp know where I was. The local folks apologized over and over and said they had the wrong flight information. I assured them I was not angry, and then after 36 hours of sleepless travel, I slept 12 straight hours - oh what bliss!

Macedonia-Land of Dangerous Diversity: I woke up much too early since my body-clock was off by 7 hours, and I rolled through the streets around the hotel and ate breakfast with locals we talked about life in the Balkans. The hotel attendants told me to be careful rolling around by myself, but I was too curious and threw caution to the wind. I rolled down the Quay of the river Vardar, and saw the famous 1,500 year old Castle on a hill that overlooks Skop Je. Macedonia is primarily agrarian with a slow economy due to the many wars fought here for literally centuries. Beautiful Muslim Mosques rose from the ground everywhere like marble dinosaurs, and I was struck with the diversity of the culture. Many local women were completely covered and even wore veils, while European women dressed in practically nothing (not that I noticed). Buildings were very old and plain, and it resembled Harlem with its hollow condemned buildings looking like huge turtle shells. Americans are still here in force and dressed in Western Style clothing which appeared so out of place with Muslim garbs in the background. The extreme cultural differences caused tremendous tension between countries here. I saw things like McDonalds sitting next to Macedonian restaurants. Large apartment buildings were right next to factories spewing smoke into the air. High billboards advertising cigarettes might be sitting next to a religious building. Macedonia seems to be struggling for an identity and the only thing that everyone seemed to agree on is that they hated each other. Unfortunately, "ethnic cleansing" is still a stark reality. Most people spoke broken English, so communication was relatively easy. My driver picked me up at the hotel and we drove North through Macedonia and into Kosovo. The UN Troops and the Kosovo Liberation Force (KLF) were everywhere and the destruction from the war was still very evident. However, the UN had so much relief money and supplies, they practically had to give it away. As we approached the border, over a mile of trucks were parked by the side of the road that would have to wait over a week to enter Kosovo due to the political situation in the Balkan region. Politics took precedence over spoiling food for hungry children.

Copyright by Rob Bryant

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