Where do I even begin with describing my experience with Kosovo? The obsession with Bill Clinton? Doing shots in a monastery? Bad covers of Christmas music playing at the rooftop bar? My favorite moments in Kosovo have happened when staying in the Holy Archangels Monastery in Prizen. Staying in a hostel-style accommodation allowed our group …
Author Archives: kellerlynne
Labels
Labels in the Balkans are kind of a funny thing. Take Kosovo, for example. The people who live there identify the territory that they’re on as Kosovo and will staunchly defend that fact. But when you ask a lot of people what they are, most of the time you’ll get one of two answers: Kosovo-Albanian …
First Impressions
After being in Sarajevo for almost two weeks, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Serbia. In all honesty, I was expecting a homogenous society where everyone thinks the same way, looks the same, and only Serbian food could be found. But wow was I wrong. The first night in Belgrade I was enjoying sushi …
Backgrounds
For a place that was embroiled in conflict over identity only 25 years ago, Serbia has a long history of different cultures. Although I learned this throughout the weeks while being here, I didn’t fully understand all of the different influences until I walked through The National Museum of Serbia. Walking through all of the …
Banja Luka
Whether it’s from nature or nurture, I think it’s only human to want to find the “bad guy” in a situation. I believe it makes conflict easier to understand when there’s an easy enemy to identify and blame. At the point in the program where we visited the Bonja Luka, this “enemy” seemed was Republika …
Trust
“No, it’s not possible,” the Serbian fighter said to us. “I don’t think that could ever happen,” the Srebrenica survivor responded. “Impossible,” remarked the man in Banja Luka who let us into the mosque. “Another war could never happen here.” It seems as though there are few people we have met on our trip so …
Obligation
Srebrenica. There really are no words to describe the place. Even days later I am still trying to process what I witnessed and cannot think of any words that can properly do it the justice it deserves. While there, I don’t think I spoke a single worde. I couldn’t bring myself to speak. In fact, …
Two to Tango?
In the first few days of this trip with as little as I knew about this conflict, I was positive that a breakout of war like the one that transpired here in the 90s would never happen again. I walked the streets and saw people of all walks of life gathering and laughing at cafes, …
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition. An eerie juxtaposition. That’s the word that repeatedly has popped into my head the last three days here in Sarajevo. Although I am enjoying the beauty of the natural landscape with it’s little houses dotted all over the massive, green hills, I can’t help but think of the soldiers who were on this hill. …
Welcome to My New Travel Blog
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde. This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Kellie on the Run 