Rollercoaster travel week

As I've written before, traveling sometimes is filled with ups and downs. Sometimes they are so close together and intertwined that it's hard to pick them apart.

I traveled in Slovenia with two lovely travelers: Kim and Nolan. We took a day trip to Bled, Slovenia, rented a row boat and ate and drank on the lake while enjoying the amazing fall scenery. (Photos will be posted in the future). Then I headed to Zagreb with Kim, where I didn't click as much with the travelers (although she did). I still enjoyed the city, although it rained too much. I took a train over to Belgrade, Serbia... a train that was supposed to be 6 hours, that lasted more than nine... as one guy on the train said, "This is travel in the Balkans."

Belgrade is a really nice city... not exactly pretty, but it reminds me of New York a little bit: Fast paced and great food. Actually, the food is not specific to the city; Serbia seems to have really good food in general: lots of excellent meat dishes! Last night I had an amazing Roasted Lamb dish; and a salad with real olives (I love olives), not the tasteless California olives I've been getting everywhere. I also had really nice company of some locals, including a very nice local film director. The salsa scene here is alive and kicking, but I've only seen Cuban style... I haven't seen a single person dancing on1 or on2... I probably went to the wrong club. I also did a day trip to Novi Sad in the north... cute town with a cute Citadel.

But travel has been a little rough (at least mentally) since my mom was sick for a couple of days... and although she is better now, it was a big scare for me. (Love you mom)

Today I'm off to Sarajevo, Bosnia... hopefully on an on-schedule bus. (8 hours... no problem!)

I posted more photos, including:

The street where my grandma lived in Warsaw.

The cemetery in L'viv, Ukraine where many of the graves have sculptures or busts of the deceased.

And some of my own modern art.