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Part I: "Gearing Up" We departed Kitzingen with a big send-off from friends and family and arrived at Rhein Ordinance Barracks in Landstuhl to load pallets and wait for our flight. We spent a couple boring days there before catching a flight from Frankfurt to Skopje. Macedonia. Here's a picture of the bay we stayed in at Rhein Ordinance:
After arriving in Skopje, we spent a few more days at Camp Able Sentry, inprocessing and waiting for our vehicles to arrive in Greece. After they arrived, we boarded a bus and endured a 5 hour ride to Thessaloniki Greece with only one bathroom stop. It was pretty painful. I thought I would get uromicitisis poisoning (Seinfeld fanatics will get that one...). As you can see, I'm not the only one who had trouble with the journey:
The border of Macedonia and Greece. Funny story - The Greeks are still upset about their neighbors to the north calling themselves Macedonia. As far as they're concerned, Macedonia will always be part of Greece. In fact, the region of Greece on the border is called - you guessed it - Macedonia. So as you cross the border, you see a sign telling you that you're leaving Macedonia, followed by a sign telling you that you're entering Macedonia. Those crazy Greeks...
The NATO war in Kosovo was extremely unpopular in Greece. Everywhere we went in Greece, we were met with anti-American and anti-NATO signs and graffiti - which I always thought was funny, seeing as how Greece is a NATO country. Here's an example of some of the "encouragement" we encountered from the locals...
We reached the port in Thessaloniki, emptied our bladders, and prepared to download our vehicles. I was desperate to experience some Greek culture - I had to settle for talking to one of the locals who was driving our bus and testing out the 3 or 4 words I knew in Greek. My attempts were met with laughter and a quick lesson on how to curse in Greek. We also spent a night on a Greek military base, which gave me a chance to sample some Greek food (those olives!). Here's a picture of the ship that our vehicles were shipped on...
We left Greece and made the looooong drive up to Kosovo in our HUMVEEs. Anyone who has ever driven a HUMVEE can imagine what it's like to drive one for 6 hours. It's not fun. But the journey was made easier by the anticipation that I felt at the thought that, after reading about Kosovo everyday for the past 6 months, I was soon going to be right in the middle of it. I didn't know what was in store, but I knew it would be exciting. Here's a picture taken at the border of Kosovo and Macedonia...
The initial entry into Kosovo is very scenic and mountainous, with deep river valleys. It was hard to believe that the atrocities I had been reading about and seeing on the nightly news actually took place in such a pretty, tranquil area. Eventually, the view gave way to stretches of road lined with orange tape - put there to signify mined areas. It was a jolt back to reality, and a reminder of why we were there. Drive off the road and you risked hitting a mine - and I thought the autobahn was dangerous?
The further we went, the more in evidence was the destruction. Everywhere, there were whole villages decimated, such as the one in the picture below.
In some ways, driving through Kosovo reminded me of driving through the Bronx...
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