Where's Serbia?

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8:00am

So, here we were in Serbia. Abruptly awoken by banging on the door to our cabin to inform us to get of the train we were the last stop. Jolted from sleep and thwo outside, I was very groggy, very freezing, and I realized I had to pee like nobody's buiness After we said goodbye to our friend I felt like we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I needed the toilet. We followed the WC signs which led to ourdoor Hickory Run-like toilets. I didn't like them in Pennsylvania...i doubt I'd like it in the Winter in Eastern Europe. Plus you had to pay and we didn't have this currency. So we go into the ticket office to buy tickets and they don't accept credit cards. We look for a cash machine and there isn't one. luckily I travel with extra cash so I converted 100 dollars. It gave me like 7,500 or so. I felt rich. We ran over to buy our tickets which were 1,600 (or like $20) We went to the tourist office like he told us but it was closed for another hour. We didn't have time to waste. We had five short hours to roam Serbia and I surely wasn't waiting for anone to sell me a map.

Our friend from the train had pointed us in the direction of the town center so I started of in that direction. I was awake now and slightly less cold but I still had to pee major bad. We made our way to McCafe (our new best friend) to use the bathroom and hopefully the internet. This one didn't have he internet but oh did we use the bathrom I washed up and changed in there...brushed my teeth. I felt slightly better although my hair was greasy and I had grown too much in the last two days to fit into my jeans.

We basically walked around for the entire time. For some reason I was expecting a shady and war-torn area by the name. I feel like I've heard something on the news about it. But pleasantly to my surprise it was a really cute city. I felt totally comfortable and people were all generally very friendly. Not many people spoke english which was surprising. I've been taking advantage of people knowing english for the most part. We were really on our own here...

We weaved in and our of streets following random signs and sometimes ending up in someon's backyard. It was all cute though, all the backyard stops. We tried to stay on the main street as much as possible just because we didn't have a map and with the little time we had we would much rather not get too side-tracked. We saw signs for a market and both of us love markets so we went in that direction. The market was mostly all food. I was hoping for homemade trinkets. We never found anything like that which saddened me. We bought a kilo of apples for 40 dinar and I boughta head of cauliflour. It was bay and super fresh. it was so tender and delicious. We just roamed. Exploring and having no general agenda. We spent...let me rephrase this...we WASTED an hour at an internet cafe. Ivana emailed me back saying she was closest to the station we were going which was perfect but she wouldn't be around from this afternoon to Sunday afternoon. What chance. Twice now I had amazing and random connections and they were away when we were there.

We left and I realized we only had an hour and a half until our train pulled out and we weren't entirely sure where the station was. We knew a general direction though. I had no idea where to go after awhile. I asked a guy who didn't speak english. I showed him the ticket and he walked out of his way to how us where the station was. It was so nice of him we couldn't believ it It's all CJ though. She seems to bring that out in people. They are just nice to her.

We got confused when we were boarding the train because the lters they use are so different we couldn't figure where croatia was. I asked a conducter who pointed the way. I was about to get on another train for another 7 hours. It was ridiculous. Ther wer no empty coaches so we chilled with two lder women going to Zagreb too. The one spoke english. She was really nice. I have ben so taken back by how many nice people we have run into this trip.

The guy came to check our tickets and again we were in the wrong section...We haven't figured this out just yet. The woman translated that these were reserved seats but the guy said we could stay because it wasn't aproblem yet. Again...another nice person.

I know nothing in Croatia and have no hostels written down incase we need one, so I hope we figure something else to do. I also really hope--this is the important one--that ther was a train from Zagreb to Brno by the time our plane leaves. This should be interesting. For some reason this is a very slowmoving rain. I fel as if we are crawling No wonder it's taking us 7 hours. Someone is out back pushing the train. It's beautiful scenery though. So I couldn't complain. Kind of reminds me of home with all the fields. It hits me how incredibly lucky we've gotten this trip. I hope I don't jinx us but it has gone surprisingly smooth the past two days...

I fell asleep on the train and when I woke up it was dark. I had only been sleping for about an hour. I was told you are not permitted to use the toilet. When the train is stopped because it all falls straight down. Apparently, I could have gotten in a lot of rouble for that Good thing to know. I illegally crapped in Servia. I left a little of me behind.

The guy that stamped our passport this time reminded me of Coach Rosenberger. I really don't know why he sort of looked like him though. He was a cool easy-going guy (didn't say anything to me in English but I got this vibe from him) yet with the gun on his side about a foot from my face was like "hey, remember im in charge. " I learned why our passport is requested so often on the train. Twice for every country. Once, when you enter by the police to say " hi, everythings good have a nice journey. " and once by customs to see if we have anything to declare. I'm not sure which one stamps it though. I think it was the police but I wasn't paying enough attention. It happened so often i can't separate them in my head anymore. They always seem to come when we are sleeping so we end up scrambling half asleep to find the passports and everything. After a while I just kept all CJ's stuff since most likely I was awake and she was sleeping. Plus it works out faster. You couldn't imagine how lovely it is to be in a warm cabin. It was so nice to have this luxury. We felt spoiled. Especially since we didn't even pay for it. I'm just glad the guy signed it like we did so we don't have to leave. I feel worthless only speaking english. I want to learn one of these languages besides french so when I come around later one I can speak for myself.

The woman sitting with us on the train was so cool. We were talking about life and love and politis and traveling and being happy. It was so cool. She's been al around the world. She was so cute. Her friend dint' speak any english but she was going to point us in the direction. We didn't understnad spoken word we were saying to eachother but it still worked.

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