Cracking the Shell

After making yet another batch of cookies, we took some over to our neighbors next door. We anticipated meeting both apartment neighbors tonight, but only got one taken care of. We put some cookies in a container, rang the buzzer, and this older lady with curlers in her hair answered the door. Wiley introduced us, and I played the part of village idiot and stood there and smiled, and she asked if we wanted to come in. Not to be rude, we accepted, so we took off our shoes and followed her inside. Not wearing shoes in the abode is big here - no shoes except out. She showed us around their place, which looks so different from ours! They don't have a balcony, so their room extends a bit. It's lovely. Our hostess, Raza, showed us around, so we saw their bedroom, their kitchen - which had two bigger fridges in it!! - their son's room, and the bathroom. There's a sliding door that locks the kitchen so it creates a hallway. Our apartment seems so empty compared to theirs! If there's one thing I hope to learn, it's how to create a homey-home. They didn't have a lot of stuff - in the living room, they had a couch, loveseat, table, TV, one picture on the wall, and a hutch with crystal in it. How do you create a homey-home without a whole bunch of crap? I'm going to figure this out. Raza's got it down. She told us how to make moussaka correctly (we tried again today and it's very good), and then I asked about the baklava she served us. If you've never had homemade baklava, shame, shame, shame. I'll just say this: it makes Coke taste bitter. It's excellent, and I want to try to make it. She said it took only half an hour to assemble, but then it's got to cook for a couple of hours. So involved, but not too involved. She told us that we have a cop and a professor living across from us, so hopefully tomorrow night, we'll meet them. Tomorrow, we're going hiking! We're going with a company called Green Visions, and we're going to the Lukomir Highland Village, the highest mountain village in Bosnia right on the Rakitnica canyon. The weather should be beautiful and sunny with a high of 70, so I'm hoping for a good time and some good pictures. Hopefully my little toes and my hiking boots serve me well.