Nije lako bubamarcu
zum zum zum zum
Bubamarinom muskarcu
zum zum zum zum
Usred tolikih bubamara
zum zum zum zum
Iste boje, istih sara
Znati tko je
Njegova mara
zum zum zum zum

I just got my passport renewed and received my cancelled old passport this morning. In it was a piece of paper with the above children's song written on it. It's in Croatian and it concerns bumblebees. As Svicha explains, "zum" is the Croatian onomatopoeia for the sound a bee makes, equivalent to the English "buzz."

Anyway, this appeared in my passport during my 1998 to Portugal, where I attended the International Conference of Physics Students in Coimbra. Students from all over the world came together and had a big party (with SCIENCE!!, time permitting). One of them was a woman from Croatia named Svicha who taught me the above song. And yes, I know the tune and proper pronunciation.

Along with the really humorous 1996-vintage photo of me with massive hair and the song du Hrvatska, the passport contains several interesting stamps:

Gatwick 18 July 1996—travelling to Reading, England, for a conferece, my first trip to Europe.
Dover 26 July 1996—my first trip to France, with Nate Nelson, which lasted about 45 minutes and consisted largely of playing hackeysack in Calais. We only went because the ferry was almost free as a result of the newly constructed Chunnel, and I'd never been on a ferry.
Chicago 28 July 1996—returning home to Cedar Rapids.

Gatwick 20 March 1997—travelling to England to do my undergraduate research at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Abingdon.
Channel Tunnel 1 April 1997—traversing the chunnel coming back from Grenoble where I did the other half of my research at the ILL. Got to take the TGV through France, which is the fastest land vehicle I've ever traveled in.
New York 3 April 1997—returning home to Cedar Rapids.

Boston 4 September 1999—way out of order, this was on my way home from Ireland! I guess they just take any available spot in the passport.

Lisboa 9 August 1998—arriving in Lisbon for the ICPS (here's some pictures).
Lisboa 16 August 1998—Leaving Portugal having just attended Expo '98.

Helsinki 14 August 1999—arriving in Finland for the 1999 ICPS. This was the beginning of a month spent all over western Europe. Pictures of the entire trip are here.
Helsinki 20 August 1999—leaving Finland on a cruise ship bound for Estonia.
Rosslare 3 September 1999—(out of order) arriving in Ireland via ferry from France. Most of the border crossings in Europe I couldn't get to stamp my passport even by asking repeatedly. So there isn't much evidence in the passport of the fact that I visited 13 countries.
Helsinki 19 August 1999—leaving Finland on a cruise ship destined for Stockholm, Sweden. This was the end of the ICPS conference phase of the trip and the beginning of the backpacking-through-Europe-with-a-Eurail-pass phase.

And that's it for the contents of that passport. It lasted me throughout the second half of college and all of graduate school. I had an earlier passport during highschool to support my trip to Barbados and Puerto Rico, but I have no idea what ever became of it. Now we're on to Passport 3.0, which should see a dramatic increase in the frequency of use and the general exoticness of the destinations. The passport is currently in Washington DC, where it is having a multi-entry visa for Russia applied. Woo!