The Midnight Train to Belgrade

A couple of weeks ago I had to make a trip to Macedonia to deliver a car and so I needed a cheap way to get back to Belgrade.  I also wanted an experience, so I chose (instead of a bus) to take the night train from Skopije to Belgrade.   I had heard horror stories for colleagues bout the night train and how terrible it was so I thought lets try that!  The train leaves at 8pm and arrives at 6am.  This choice was made because I knew it would result in a great blog.  You know wacky characters on the night train, suspicious people, finding the answer to the question: Why are you on this train?

Things started out great.  I arrived at the train station and it was deserted other then a few loiterers.  The station is kind of run down, and very seedy looking.  I thought ok this is a great start.  So I bought my ticket and reserved my bunk in a 6 person sleeping car (see hoping to meet some new people who will create at great story).  I still had a couple of hours before the train left and there were no restaurants or cafes at the train station so I wondered across the street to the bus station.  The bus station was teaming with life, back packers, families, well dressed people waiting to go places.  Now I am a little worried, these were the people I wanted to meet, so who was taking the night train?  (remember the loiterers)

 After a long prayer and an espresso it was time to head out.  I went to the platform and boarded my train (circa 1960, very communist) and found the ticket guy.  He showed me to my car and told me I had the whole thing to myself (good for my comfort level, bad for blogging).  I left the door to my car open hoping to discover those great characters.  I met two families who chose the night train because it was cheap, and the kids could sleep and a couple of British students who new it would be easier to sleep on the train.  That's it and those people were not very interesting.  Turns out I was the interesting guy.  Why was the American alone on the night train.  All the border people kept coming buy to ask me that exact question.  So who knows maybe I am the subject of some Macedonian or Serbian customs officer's blog.  All in all the train was a great trip (if you are not hoping to write a great blog).  It was clean, the bunk was relatively comfortable and the 10 hour trip went pretty quick because I slept. 

Turkey Part 3... Kids having Fun

For part one of the Turkey Blog click here
If you want to read about the Carpet Scam click here
Ok so if your dad is a History nerd and drags you to lots of old buildings there has to be something fun for a kid to do right?  Luckily my kids are easy to please, and we came across some great places for them to be kids.  Our trip got started off with a Bang when our airport transfer was in an a great van we could face each other in.  Wilson was ecstatic!!! He said he loved turkey and gave us the quote of the week "I EAT TURKEY FOR LUNCH"

 STARBUCKS is not just for mom and dad, these girls love a frapucino, and Wilson became a fan too

When you live in Eastern Europe you forget about hings like soft mowed grass and flower beds.  We found them in Istanbul and the kids loved it.  They ran and did cartwheels and rolled in the grass.  You thought we had found the secret garden.  We also went to the beach and although it was still a little cold, that did not stop my crew from getting wet.

Just a swingin

Beautiful ladies and tulips

Cartwheels

In the grass

We finished our trip on the beach and with a little prize.... Domino's Pizza!

Turkey Part 2... The Carpet Scam

My least favorite part of Turkey was the constant people trying to sell you something, show you something, take you somewhere, give you a tour... well you get the point.  This was terrible in front of the big sites (the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia).  My natural inclination is to be rude to these people but this trip I tried to be nice and say no thank you and politely walk away.  Unfortunately this did not work, they just kept following so you had to just run.  Well in the blue mosque, I ran out of room to run.  One of these very nice guys began "taking care of us" and helping us get in to see the mosque.  He assured me he wanted no money and just wanted to show his culture to us.  He explained things in the mosque to us, took pictures (good ones I might add since he took my camera from me and went to places I could not) and was our guide.  As he showed us around he kept mentioning his family business very near the mosque.  After our tour he took me to show me the Business.  I went upstairs in a very nice carpet store met his uncle and cousins and had some tea.  They then proceeded to sale me extremely expensive carpets.  The thinking being if I could afford to vacation in Istanbul I could afford carpet.  (shows you what they know!).  I tried to be polite and explain I could not take a carpet on the plane - that would be outrageous.  No problem they ship worldwide!!!!  Finally I knew this was could take forever so I said I could not buy carpet and got up and ran out of the store (really I ran or at least speed walked it right on out the door).

Apparently I was not the first person to fall for this scheme but I wonder how many people actually buy carpet?

Turkey... Seeing the Sights

This is Part One of the Turkey Blog.  I loved Turkey so I have no idea how many parts this may end up being but indulge me.  Also some great stories will be told, over the course of this series. 

The last week of March we had the chance to go to Turkey.  Our company was having a meeting on the coast so we took a couple of days to see Istanbul. A quick history lesson... Istanbul used to be Constantinople and in 330 become the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire.  In 1453 the ottomans took the city and renamed it Istanbul.  It sits on the Bospherous Strait and is the edge of mainland Europe.  Controlling this city means you control trade from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.  As a lover of history I have wanted to go here for a very long time.  So this was a big treat.

We only had two days in the city, and we needed to be really cheap and save money so we stayed here:

DO NOT STAY HERE

 It was a dump, the outside is the best part.  Jen would not let the kids bathe while we we there.  However it was cheap and close to the sights.  Also there were no bugs (that we could see) so that is always good.
After getting over the initial shock of our room/flop house we headed out to the Grand Bazaar.  This is one of the oldest covered markets in the world.  It attracts 300,000 visitors daily and you can find anything here (except pork, no pork in Turkey... or turkey now that I think of it).  Sense our family has American written all over it we were lightly hassled for a couple of hours by merchants wanting to sell us scarves, bags, carpets, jewelry etc. I broke and the girls all got scarves.  (this hassling would get worse outside the bazaar and will result in a blog all its own later in the week)UPDATE: click the link and you can read about the carpet scam.

Inside the bazaar, after scarf shopping

Day two was the day I had been waiting for.  We were going to see the Hagia Sophia - The Church of Gods Wisdom.  But before we went there we went to the Blue Mosque.  Essentially this is a 500 year old mosque that is an architectural rip off of the Hagia Sophia.  It was neat to go inside and see but on a 1 to 10 scale about a five.  The interior is decorated with 22,000 blue tiles, so that is impressive.  It did not change my life much... but I did get roped into a carpet scam which you are going to have to come back and read about later because that's a separate blog.

Stevens Family in the Blue Mosque

Now for the Hagia Sophia (History Nerd Alert)...
Emperor Justinian commissioned the building of the church in 532 and it was completed in 537.  At the time it was a structure with no equal.  Upon completion Justinian is rumored to have said  "Thank you for your glory God... Solomon I have outdone you".  Justinian's goal was to create a church that the people could experience the wonder of God in.  He very well may have succeeded.  This was the largest church in the world for 1000 years and after the ottomans took the city it became a mosque.  In 1930 the turkish government declared it a museum.  Today it stands as a contrast between the muslim and Christian world as signs of the mosque still exist next to 1500 year old frescos and mosaics depicting Christian figures.   It very well may have been the coolest place I have ever stood.  

In front of the Hagia Sophia

One happy history geek inside the church

We finished our day with some great friends and a traditional turkish dinner.  Of course like any good American we went to Starbucks for coffee on our way back to the hotel then down to the sea to stand on the edge of Europe, becasue will we ever have that chance again?

Proud of this kid...er young lady

I have written before about how great this kid is.  I think she is the bravest kid I know.  After living here seven days her parents just dropped her off at a foreign school and she never flinched.  She just learned and made friends and has continued to amaze me with her bravery.  In the days when I am struggling or barely making it, I look at her and see a kid that is thriving and growing to be an amazing young lady.  Those of you that know her already know all of that so today I am going to tell you one more reason that this young lady is AMAZING... she loves the Word of God.  This year she has put her heart and soul into AWANA and has memorized a ton of scripture.  She finished her book nearly three months early and is chomping at the bit to get the next one here.  Of all the things she could decide to do, or to read, or to learn about, I can think of nothing more spectacular then hiding God's word in your heart. 

MIKI TURNS SEVEN... SAY WHAT?

I can not believe this little angel is 7 years old.  She was barely a toddler when we arrived and now she is a big kid, kinda breaks my heart.
For her birthday she took her two best friends and sister the "Mickeys Magic Adventure Show"  It was a live Disney show, like Disney on ice without the ice.  After the show the kids came back to our house and ate Mickey themed food.  They ate pizza that had Mickey shaped toppings, American homemade chocolate chip cookies shaped like Mickey and cupcakes with Mickey shaped decorations. We were blessed with many packages from the U.S. full of Lego Friends sets.  I think the girl now has the complete village of Heart Lake!  Thanks to all of you out there for taking care of her and us.

So who is this seven year old kid.  She is really funny and witty.  She gets a little pleasure out of  tormenting her sister.  She is smart!!! She speaks and reads in two languages.  I barely can do either in one.  She likes life, she likes laughing and having fun.  I hate she is growing up but I love who God shaping her to be.

Jen made Miki a super sign for her super day

After the big show

cupcake with a torch

Celebrating with our Serbian Friends Filip and Boris and our Jgirl Amy

Everyone gets some presents.... Share the Birthday love

 

Catching Up with the Stevens Family

So two months without posting, I know pretty grievous sin.  But I have thought about writing blogs about 1, 237, 411 times in the last two months, so that has to count for something.  My lack of writing has been a combination of things: very busy, very busy, procrastination and extreme laziness.  It's the end of the winter here and by Febuary I  slip into survival mode and just want get through the day.  But the sun is shinning and spring is coming so let me take a minute to catch you up on what has been going on.

Prague, probably one of Europe's top five most beautiful cities.  Jen and I had to go their for some training and we were so looking forward to spending time together in this wonderful city.  Our first night was amazing, we got a great tour of the old part of the city and ate at the hard rock cafe... and then I got the Flu... and then Jen got the Flu and we spent our time in a lovely hotel room.  Prague = epic fail. 

Hard Rock Prague, about 2 hours before massive fever.

The rest of the month was taken up with copious amounts of paperwork and administration and Miki's Birthday (that's a seperate post coming soon).  Jen set up a couple of super family nights.  We celebrated valentines by making secret message hearts and then painted them to reveal the message.  Paints are always a hit with our three.

SHARE CONFERENCE:  We finished the month with a family trip to Sopron, Hungary to attend the SHARE conference.  This is an education conference that hosts expats from around Europe to help us figure out the best way to educate our kids while living cross culturallly.  With full disclosure being important to me, Jen handles 99.9% of the kids education, my input consists of "that sounds like a great plan".  So my goal was to spend time with the family, get away from Belgrade and see my super friend Wes, who lives in Spain and I rarely see. The conference was really good, and Jen got a ton of great information (I even picked up few good nuggets I immediately passed on to Jen).  The best part was watching the girls interact with friends.  While we learn the kids go to class with other Americans.  I think its just a great time for them to learn in English and be around kids living the same kind of life they live (big time decompression for them).  The kids love this conference because we eat picnic dinners in the room every night.  Now that may not sound fun, but these are not regular picnic's.  They are picnics with all the American goodies we can't get in Serbia... soft sandwich bread, seedless grapes, cinnamon toast crunch, Cheetos, and they have these amazing sandwhich cookies from England that we all enjoy.  Truly amazing dinners.  We finished our trip with a stop at BURGER KING!!!! #notmcdonalds.

A boy and his momma

Kids performance (if yo look in the back you can see K)

The prince and princess