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After adding a night to the apartment we are renting in Višegrad, Bosnia, Masayo and I had an extra day. The plan was to hang around in the apartment and work online. I wanted to catch up on some work on t1dwanderer.com.
My day began a lot like yesterday did: I woke up early because I was low. This time, I was 43 at 6:30. I had a Mars bar and went back to sleep.
#bgnow 43 early in the morning, second day in a row like this. Hope the Mars bar doesn’t make me over 200 like the Twix did yesterday.
This time I didn’t wake up later high; I was 134 at 9:30. We had a nice breakfast: muesli and yogurt, plus eggs and bacon made by Masayo in our full kitchen. A nice day was shaping up already!
#bgnow 134 at 9:30 am — much better. So what was the problem yesterday?? I’ll never know.
Cereal and eggs and bacon breakfast
Masayo did some laundry while I worked. We had heard from the husband of the couple that owned the apartment, and who lived upstairs, about a meal at 3 pm today, but we were unclear if we were invited, or what it was. So we went out about 1 pm to buy some cheese and crackers to tide us over until then; if we were wrong and there was no meal upstairs for us, we’d have a nice dinner somewhere.
Although it was New Year’s Day for the Orthodox Church, things seemed to be open. While walking around town I checked, and was 88. Excellent.
#bgnow 88 on the streets of Višegrad
I didn’t get a good photo, but this little kid was carrying a Guy Fawkes “Anonymous” mask.
With street signs in Višegrad
Masayo looking at my socks on the coffee table. She puts up with a lot.
Around 3:30 in the room, we figured there would be no meal upstairs; I checked again, having had crackers and cheese for a snack, and I was 161. Not too bad. Just then, we heard a knock on the door!
#bgnow 161 in the afternoon after crackers and cheese
It was the husband, saying “it’s time!” We got our shoes on, grabbed the chocolate sampler plate we’d bought as a present for them a couple hours earlier, and went upstairs. They let us in and we met the wife for the first time, and we all sat down at their table, just the four of us.
The meal began with a shot of plum brandy, from a plain, unlabeled bottle; Masayo, who can not drink much at all, sipped hers. Then came the food: organic broccoli and potato soup, freshly cooked local mountain lamb, bread slices, a Russian egg salad, paprika sauce, and cooked potato and vegetables, and slices of cheese. Also, the husband, who hails from Macedonia, poured us all some Macedonian wine that he had made himself.
It was unbelievably delicious, worlds apart from the type of stuff we usually eat. (Even the nicest restaurants we go to aren’t home made like this!) After half a glass of wine, Masayo had to lay down on the couch for ten minutes, but she was soon back and in the pink (though she avoided any more wine).
I went into the bathroom halfway through the meal to take 7 units of Humalog, not sure at all if it would be enough because I was having several helpings of everything.
The dishes were cleared and then came dessert: we each got two slices of thick cake, a perfect ending to the meal. And more wine, of course.
The conversation was about Višegrad in general, and the bridge and Andrićtown, and then of course, as it always does, the talk turned to the war of the 1990s. They said they had fled Sarajevo, leaving everything behind, and ended up in Višegrad, where she was a family physician and he an electrician. Her mother lives in the next building, and their son studies in Novi Sad, Serbia. We told them about our lives, and my teaching English in Japan. All in all, it was a fun talk about the differences and similarities in cultures. Personally, I felt privileged to be at such a non-touristy setting, talking with people as friendly as this.
Eventually we had to go though, and we thanked them a lot and went back downstairs to relax the rest of the night. The first thing I did was take 4 more units, thanks to the cake, though I wasn’t sure it was enough for everything.
Sure enough, at 9:30 pm I was 215 — which I felt great about, because I’d eaten a lot, and 215 is better than it could have been (300 or 400!) I had another couple units and we called it a night. It was a great day… and tomorrow is another international border: by bus to Serbia.
#bgnow 215 after the big meal — all in all, not bad!
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