Long Flights, Rushed Rome and Booze in Belgrade

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How do we even begin to sum up the last 2 days...The flights were uneventful and Kristie did pretty well all things considering, although there may be some residual minor brain damage due to her forgetting to breath and Peg's hand is sore from being squeezed so often.

For a time we thought that Rome would become the journey for the most expensive ice cream ever. It was clearly obvious that none of us understood subways and public transit. We found the train, which was 30 minutes late, and got into Rome fairly easily, then walked a maze of tunnels to get the Metro. We ended up going in the wrong direction, but with the route well marked near the door we rather assumed it was a loop or would simply reverse and head in the correct direction. Alas, we were quite wrong and a rather exasperated drive yelled at us, "get off, get off" at the end of the line. Many giggles (from us as well as the locals) and we found the correct subway and made it to Spagna St. We quickly saw the spanish steps, Trevi Fountain and had a gelato. Due to late trains and our errors, we took a taxi back to the airport, which was $15 bucks cheaper. Go figure.

As for me, Eileen, I had three wonderful flights, all arriving early, not late, and met some wonderful people so the time flew by. I did have a four hour wait, because the guys coming from Rome were late, but met the lovely Anna from Montenegro who was waiting for a plane and we exchanged addresses and took pictures. It was a good feeling to see some familiar faces when Two planes arrived from Rome at the same time and I did not know which one they were on and people were coming from all directions. Our boys that met us and drove us to the hostel are so cute and nice. However the map he gave us evidently did not help!!!

Our hostel is an adorable 2 bedroom apartment in the midst of Old Belgrade. We ate at a local restaurant and gorged ourselves on wild boar, Bambi, pork tenderloin, soup and salad. After much arm twisting we were talked into having the local schnapps. Um, let's just say it wasn't what we expected and became the start of a local alcohol induced stupor. It was the place our boy made reservations at so we could enjoy the local food. The decor is so neat and his dress was old country. After becoming lost for the 2nd time in a day (well, it was another country so we're not complete morons, right?) we ended up at the bar across from our hostel. We are still shaking our heads that 3 rounds of drinks and several rounds of shots cost 1600 dinar, about $16 but the 5 sodas we got to go cost $6. Not that we are complaining! The bartenders were fabulous and we learned much about their country, customs and language. Although who knows what we'll remember in the morning.

Kristie: Let me straighten a few things out right away! Although you may be thinking our first day was filled with 'Kristie Shortcuts"...I had nothing to do with getting us lost 😊 I tried to get us back from dinner to the hostel; but we had to ask around a few times as the street names on the map aren't spelled the same on what is posted on 'some' corners & the others had an issue with me reading the map upside down...I still don't understand the problem with that 😊 I am very glad to have 3 weeks before I have to think about flying again! Initially, I thought I was going to have to take up citizenship in Italy in order to avoid having to fly again! LOL Hopefully on our flight back, Jane will be seated next to another hot, young man...watching them converse the whole flight & having to remind them that the armrest does in fact go down was rather funny & took my mind off of being freaked out 😊 But they would have nothing to do with the armrest & it was only after they slept together that they decided to introduce themselves to each other.

Peg - HELP!!!!!!!!! Someone save me from this group.

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Comments

[rosie0412]

Peg...good luck with the group! Who gave Kristie the map? Take it away...DON'T give her another one! Love this blog...looking foward to more!