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Published: July 14th 2010
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Belgrade by Night
A beautiful city by night Day 9 Budapest to Belgrade
So. To start with, anyone who said "yeah right" to my early night comment on the last entry may also now justifiably say "I told you so". But no gloating! Maybe we didn't get an early night but we did have a good time at Champs bar celebrating the world cup. Which we all agreed was positively the most boring game we have seen. We had a little wager (and when I say little, I mean 100Ft each, which is about 30p) but no-one won, so the waitress got a very measly addition to her tip. Oh well. I got the score right, I just picked Holland to win. Can't say anyone was too invested in the game though, as Thomas was watching it at the Spanish Institute and not with us.
Well today was a moderate travel day and our first crossing into a non-EU country. Which was a little odd actually. This is the first trip I've done where I am the odd one out being Australian. And not only am I the only Australian, but I'm also the only non-EU citizen on the bus!
Leaving Hungary, the border officials took my passport off to check which took ages. Of course Norma was a little upset that I was the only one who got a stamp for the crossing, but everyone else simply took delight in teasing me and trying to guess how many times I would be the one singled out at border crossings. Just wait til we get to Oz - then we will see who's laughing! And of course I was diplomatic enough not to comment on the fact that my Iran and Pakistan visa's cost much less...
At least Norma was satisfied with the stamp that everyone (not just me this time!) got when entering Serbia.
So we drove through to Belgrade without too much trouble besides the heat, and went past a lot of derelict buildings. Also passed the bombed out buildings from the 1999 bombings, which are still there.
So after arriving in our hostel, which was a real backpacker’s hostel this time, we went exploring on foot. Most of us headed off to the fortress, which had some stunning views over the rivers of Belgrade, before finding a charming little cobbled street with a million bars and restaurants. Okay, so that was a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean. We found a lovely little place to eat and not only was the food fantastic but the waiter was amazing too. Brilliant combination that is alas fairly rare, I can tell you!
And it was here in Belgrade that we had our first casualty of the trip. Jana's foot, which she had wounded on the first day, was infected and after a trip to the hospital in Belgrade, she was informed she would need to stay there for at lest 3 days, and then the options were either to fly home to Germany or fly ahead to Istanbul and meet up with us there. So she will see how she is doing after 3 days of antibiotics and then hopefully we will see her on Saturday in Istanbul! Very sad to leave a member behind, even if just a week ago she was a perfect stranger. As I have mentioned before, proximity breeds familiarity and it's like leaving behind a member of the family.
Tomorrow should be a moderate day of travel, depending on the border crossings and I will try to get a group shot of my "family" up soon.
Cheers!
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