Keagan and Miranda visit!!

I woke up a couple Fridays ago to Conor saying, "Wow, the volcano in Iceland is causing major problems in flight travel! Almost every European airport has canceled its flights until further notice." Normally this wouldn't have affected us much personally, so my initial reaction was not much more than "bummer for vacationers"....until a second later when I realized on that particular Friday my brother and his wife -- Keagan and Miranda -- were supposed to depart the US to visit us. We haven't had too many visitors from home, so the possibility of them not making it was quite disappointing.

After being flown to Washington D.C. only to hear they couldn't board their next flight, Keagan and Miranda just barely managed to get on a flight back home to Vermont. (Apparently Keagan charmed the woman at the Vermont counter until she got them on a plane that was supposedly "full".) We waited the next five days with our fingers crossed in hopes that their rescheduled flight would take off and make it safely across the Atlantic. Conor and I tracked their flight online and were relieved and excited to read that it had left D.C. The rest of their travel went fairly smoothly and we met them in Skopje the following day.

Although their time here was shorter than originally planned, we were happy they made it at all and enjoyed showing them our "home". After seeing Conor's work and eating some delicious Bosnian burek Friday morning, we hopped on a bus headed to Ohrid. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon exploring the sites in town and then flagged down a 'wild taxi' to follow the lake's edge down to a monastery. Peacocks call these grounds their home and they proudly showed off for us:

We followed this up with a boat ride through a small "pond" with water supplied by underground springs -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On Sunday we returned to Tetovo and explored a bit, visiting the Painted Mosque and Arabati Baba Teke (equivalent to a monastery for Sufi Islam). The next day I had a meeting in Skopje so Conor showed them around the capital and I met back up with them in the afternoon. We returned to Tetovo that evening and hiked up to the 'kale' (fortress) on the hill above town. The weather was beautiful and we took a lot of great photos before heading back down for 'skara' (BBQ -- traditional Macedonian food) with our friend Alek.

The following morning we took a 'kombi' (van) out to Tearce so Keagan and Miranda could see where I work. My good friend Vjosa and her family invited us over for coffee and showed their great Albanian hospitality. Then Vjosa accompanied us to the school. The children surrounded Keagan and Miranda, curious to see my family and ask questions. (They still all love to comment on how much Keagan and I look alike.) As you can see, they got along well:

We were sad to say goodbye late that night, but have some great memories of their visit. We're lucky to have such wonderful, supportive families and are looking forward to seeing all of you again when we return to the US. Thanks for visiting, Keagan and Miranda!!

One of many pictures of Keagan doing something crazy...