Belgrade, Serbia

I wish I had taken a photo of the private transportation Peter and I arranged to take to us Belgrade. It was really just a dude and his wife that had a European minivan. We got in there with two other dudes that were from our hostel in Sarajevo, they were from Sweden, pretty nice dudes, but we never saw them again after the car ride to so I don’t have much else to say other than they were nice dudes, one was a doctor, one was a teacher.

The van ride was packed and reminded us of the family vacation road trips we all had taken as kids. Felt bad for Peter because he’s like 6’7″, essentially knees to face, kissing his own ass for 6 hours in a shitty minivan is probably the best way to describe it from his perspective.

The boarder crossing from Bosnia to Serbia was interesting. The crossing guard sniffed out that this transportation was in no way legit and made our “guide” get out of the car for a solid 10 minutes with all the passports in hand…We all agreed this might be the end, and that Bosnian prison sounded rather dreary, Peter suggested we all jump out screaming and run in different directions, we debated it, but due to nothing other than laziness, I’d like to believe, we remained seated in our minivan seats and were eventually on our way.

The air in Serbia was more a less the same as Bosnia, although my time there was short, I gained a similar sense that I had in Croatia, much more relaxed and far less war afflictions present in Serbia than in Bosnia.

The first night Peter and I just went and got some food and then went to bed. The next day was really mellow, I just chilled at the hostel and met some people. There was a pub crawl that night. Which was rowdy as ever. The first bar was lame, but I didn’t mind as I had to quickly finish of my daily wine dose prior to bar admittance, I was good and lubed up. We walked miles and miles and miles, stopped at a lot of bars and eventually wound up at a club.

Once again, I’m not much for clubs…It’s really not my scene, but pub crawls involving all of the people from the hostel are always a good choice and the majority of the clubs on Belgrade are on boats docked on the Danube River…So they are actually a pretty damn fine time in my opinion, nice to be outside on a boat with 100’s of people jammin’ out. Don’t really recall how or when, but we eventually made it back to the hostel, drunken recall should really be studied, as I oftentimes impress myself. Woke up with my previous nights clothes folded neatly and important things locked in the locker, but no memory of any of this taking place, very impressive.

I woke up ravenously hungry and dying of thirst so went to the grocery store next door and bought a half chicken which I savagely plowed through and washed down with a goblet of white wine. Ready for the day I’d say. Peter and I went on the walking tour.

Mid-tour the guide had us all take a pull of the national drink Rakija… Quite the beverage I must admit.

After the walking tour a few of us had lunch

I went to the restroom and came back to find my seat all but occupied by a band member serenading Peter

Then a crew of us went to watch the sunset over the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers while sitting on the ruins of the ancient cities walls. Sunset was great, but the company was better.

Two dudes roll up and join the group, they were apparently staying the same hostel, I didn’t recognize them, but welcomed them all the same. One of the dudes was looking at me and finally says, “AH!!! Finally I’ve got it…We have a mutual friend on Facebook…Ally Engel, you were tagged in some photos she posted…That’s how I recognize you!!” Hats off to him for recognizing me, small world though, I met Ally, from Oregon, 2 weeks and 2 countries and many miles ago and here I am watching the sunset over Serbia when a stranger walks up to me and informs me we have a mutual friend. I love it!!

Rad pup outside of the food shop I stopped at.

After the sunset concluded I grabbed some food to go and caught the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria. Once on board I realized I was in for a long, long night. I was able to get a bed this time which was a big score, however, it was the top bunk, which had a hellish climate consisting of 100+ degree stagnant air, 80-90% humidity, due to human perspiration, and it was so cramped that I couldn’t sit upright on my bed…choice. The Canadian in the bunk across from me said he couldn’t figure out the window it was stuck closed, within 5 minutes of getting into the cabin my entire body was drenched in sweat, the Canadian and I both had our shirts off, absolutely dying of heat.

I fiddle with the window for a while and eventually get it down just as we are pulling out of the station. With the doors closed to the train, we realized that there were only 4 of us in the cabin, so, the Canadian and I folded up the top bunks and claimed the middle ones as our own. Things were looking up, I had head room, and the cabin was starting to settle down to a bearable temperature. Then of course, as per usual in life, nothing is that simple, some sort of adversity must be faced… The older couple, 65ish, began fumbling with the window to put it up without saying anything.

With no success in closing the window, the husband says, “it’s unnatural to sleep with the window open, we must return window to its natural state.” The Canadian and I still sweating and shirtless, look at each utterly confused,

Canadian says: “Sir, It’s an oven in here, we both have our shirts off, we need that window open, it’s still at least 85 degrees in here.”

Husband: “You wait until you my age, you young, you don’t understand.”[sic]

Me: -Confused look

Wife: -Silence

Canadian: “Nobody could possibly sleep in this heat”

Husband: “Would you treat you father this way? Don’t you have any respect for your elders.”[sic]

Me: Dumbfounded look, as I am holding the window down and putting my body out of it to cool off, thinking to myself, my dad sleeps with the window open in the Utah winters and he’s honing in on 60…

Wife: -Silence

Canadian: “The window is staying down, we are dying of heat.”

Husband: “You two just young and stupid…you idiots”[sic]

At this point I get out of my bed and walk up and down the train, every other window on the train that could be open, was open. I talk to the train manager and try to explain what’s going on, he shrugs…I ask for blankets, I get two thick blankets and return to my cabin.

Me: “Alright sir, here are some blankets, we will put the window up in an hour when it cools down and we go to sleep.” Seemed like a fair compromise to me, it was about 10 PM at this point and I would guess the temperature inside was now around 80, outside temp was about 65.

Husband: “Are you retard? You must be idiot. Nobody sleep with blanket.”[sic]

Me: Once again a dumbfoundedly confused look on my face, took zero heed to his insults, I was just lost, and replied something like “Well every other cabin has there windows open, and admittedly nobody has blankets, because it’s way too hot to have a blanket, but when somebody is cold, which you claim to be, they use a blanket.”

Wife – Silence

Canadian: Frustrated and confused look, still shirtless, as was I.

Husband: “You jackass, why would you dare compare us to anyone else? We are own cabin meant for cozy sleeping.”[sic]

We offered to switch beds, he agreed and then quickly realized the middle bunks were the ones that got the most wind, therefore the coldest and switched back…The arguing continued for some time, the Canadian and I agree to ignore him and keep the window down until it cools off…

The husband kept yelling and insulting us, 5 minutes later he was walking up and down the train with the manager, who, seemingly pointed out that every cabin had the windows open and nobody had blankets, as the manager himself had many buttons undone on his own uniform.

The husband storms back in huffing and puffing declaring that they were moving cabins. I pretended not to hear, even though his yelling far surpassed the volume my iPone headphones could cancel out. He gets up in my face motioning to take my headphones out, I do, he is just pouring the insults on, I was laughing at this point which probably didn’t help the situation, but I didn’t give a flying fuck anymore this dude was ridiculous and thankfully leaving my cabin soon.

I replied to his slew insults and demands calming asking: “Sir where are you from?”

Husband: “Australia”

Shaking my head and laughing…I said something along the lines of: “There is no way you’re from Australia, people there are too cool, based on all of your demands and one way beliefs, I’d guess you’ve most likely escaped from North Korea, even then you’re still poorly representing your country.” Screaming insued, I put back in my head phones and closed my eyes. When I opened them he and his silent wife were gone, me and the Canadian talked about how strange that was. Laughed it off and then I quickly had a 750 ml nightcap and hit the sack. Slept like a baby.

I love the trains over here in the Balkins, you can open the windows all the way allowing you to put you’re entire upper body out the window. This video was actually taken a while ago somewhere between Austria and Slovenia in the early AM, but it gets the point across: