Let's Go: Who wants to be my travel buddy to the Balkans?

I've spent the past two hours refreshing my memory on European history and geography through wikipedia. It's good for that because the links make it easy to envision relationships between people, places, and things. That's something that's always hard for me. And then I forget everything very fast. But each time I (re)learn something new, I tell myself that this time it'll stick. I'll think about it so hard that I can't imagine ever not knowing it. I keep saying to myself "Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia. Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia." But if you ask me in a week what the capital city of Serbia is, I won't know. Or I won't be terribly confident about my answer.

Well...maybe that's a bad example. Maybe I'll remember the capital city of Serbia because that one's pretty simple. You just remember it by failing to forget. But I'll forget something...or get confused. Are the Baltic states a part of Northern or Eastern Europe? Depends on who you ask really. I'd say Eastern but that's because I tend to think of countries like Lithuania as being more similar culturally to the Czech Republic than to Norway or Sweden. But then again, lots of people consider the Czech Republic to be Central Europe and not Eastern. I'm also pretty sure that I'm not qualified to come down on the side of any particular issue.

It bothers me, all of this not remembering and not knowing. I can't even keep my empires straight. Sure, I have a rough idea of the extent of the Ottoman Empire but don't ask me to list the territories it included.

Last year I decided that I wanted to go to Greece. As in, "I'm going to save money and go to Greece in the near future." Not as in, "Yep. Greece. Sure would like to go. Who wants more booze?"

Unexpected expenses caused my idea for this trip to be set back significantly. Since then, my plan has changed to include other Balkan countries.

Flights to the Balkans tend to take nearly a full day and when you figure that I'd probably only get 2 weeks off from work, it doesn't seem wise to try to see more than a few places in such a short amount of time. And what's the hurry? The Balkans have been there through countless wars and have witnessed the formation and dissolution of a variety of governments and countries. They'll be there for a while longer. Might as well take my time and get to know Bosnia and then have a little trip down to Greece. Or, have a fling with Bosnia and then have a tryst with Serbia on my way to a more committed relationship with Romania.

If you go to the tourism website for Bosnia-Herzegovina there's a whole section on how to avoid landmines while exploring the country. What it says amounts to "don't go anywhere that isn't populated," which kind of sucks because the Bosnian countryside appears to be gorgeous. Then again, how often do you actually go on a trip and venture into unknown territory all by yourself, sans a local guide? So yeah, I guess the Bosnian War didn't totally ruin my potential ability to picnic there.

By the end of 2008 or mid-2009, I could feasibly be enjoying the cooling breeze coming off the Adriatic. Maybe not in a swank hotel. Maybe not fanning myself with heaps of cash. To do that I'd probably have to wait until the end of 2009 or so. But I'd be there and I'd be avoiding unexploded ordinance in a country that's been host to horrific ethnic cleansing and that's now attempting to get itself back on track with toursists by calling itself "The Heart Shaped Land" that's right in "The Heart of SE Europe."

Who wants to go? Who among you is willing to say that you'll start saving money now to plan this trip with me?

You see, I've not traveled much. But traveling is a key component to my ideal life. It need not be lavish or all that frequent. Once a year and on a reasonable budget would be fine with me. But it does need to happen. After all, the benefit of being a person that doesn't have or want children is that you can do whatever you want. Assuming, of course, that you'll actually do something. And I want to. I actually want to do something.

The problem is that I'm also not married or in a serious relationship and all or most of my friends are about as brokeass poor as BJs are good. I suppose I could go alone but if I did that, who would I turn to to say, "Look at how silly other cultures are. They don't even put ketchup on the table"?

So take a minute and consider it. Wouldn't you like to see where Archduke Franz Ferdiand was assassinated? Or at least, wouldn't you rather do that than crush my dreams?