Tonight I wept

I have wept tears of joy, tears of appreciation, tears of sadness... tonight I wept, but the emotion is hard to describe. 

I am in Mostar, Bosnia. I am staying with a man who lived through, participated in, lost friends and family members to, has rebuilt his house because of, and vividly remembers the 1990's and the devastation ("devastation" by most "modern" standards) that impacted this area. The bullet holes in buildings all over the area paint a picture, but I am, even with my vivid imagination and highly trained empathy, sure my picture can't compare to the reality.

A similar feeling occurred when I stayed with an Austrian family in Vienna. The mother and child (a baby at the time), were buried alive when bombs were dropped on their farm in the 1940's. Neighbors dug them out, and the yet to be conceived daughter of that woman(the baby at the time) became the gracious couchsurfing host that I was able to share meals with (meals from their postwar, replanted garden). 

Tonight I wept.  Tonight I appreciate.

Spontaneity = 12 people, a couple hundred KM, a VW van, and a music festival.

Hours before my planned departure on an overnight bus from Pristina, Kosovo to Ulcinj, Montenegro was to leave, the proposition to get in a van with a group of fellow hostel stayers, the hostel owners and a few locals was raised. How can you go wrong with something like that! 

You can’t! and we didn’t!

The evening started off just right! We all barely fit into the van, but had plenty of snacks and beer.  We sped off, slower than most cars because the Van must have been 30 years old, and hoped we would make it, but knew if we didn’t it would still be fun.  Two pee stops, a few beers, a sun set, and a couples hours later we made it!

The town was alive with music, people, and dancing. The energy in the air was contagious, and the rain that released on us for a little while had a minimal effect, other than cooling us down and helping us style our hair.

Dancing continued into the wee hours of the morning, at which point my memory, and the memory of many others may or may not have become a little hazy. At any rate, we made it back to the hostel shortly before sunrise, with a few good photos, a great experience, a few aching muscles, and heavy eyes.

The extra night in Kosovo was well worth it. Thank you spontaneity.