Blogs from Belgrade, West, Serbia, Europe - page 20

I arrived last night and hit the sack after a short ride around the town. The place brings back major memories from my childhood. Most of them pleasant. I got up at 5 am to the sound of roosters. How cool. I am staying with my friend Srdjan in a suburb for the time being. I went around the city on foot for 4 hours. Managed to pick up a book by a local writer and relaxed in the sun, reading the book and drinking mineral water...and that was all before noon. I met my elementary school friend Nenad for lunch and he took me to an amazing restaurant in Zemun on the bank of the Danube river. (the picture does not do it justice) I am taking a bit of a nap now in ... read more

Finally, the first post during my journey... I successfully left my hometown, which is now known to some more people (who are always welcome to meet me there in the short time I spend there...if I'm absent, my family will gladly help you I guess ), and my "hitchhiking skills" safely brought me to Sibylle, a friend of mine who's trying to improve the educational situation in Germany in the front line by being a primary school teacher in Fuerstenfeldbruck in Bavaria. The next stop to China was Innsbruck, the capital of Tirol in Austria, where I met my yearlong, preferred flatmate Hermann who started a late career as a part time student in this city surrounded by beautiful mountains. Under a perfect blue sky, we both climbed one of these mountains, which was the ... read more

After a long train ride via Croatia (go figure) we arrived in Belgrade. Emma had a hostel in mind so we jumped the terrifying, rattly tram and headed for the top of the city. After a bit of wandering around we finally found it but to our dismay, it was full. The next hour and a half saw us wandering around the city in search of accommodation. We got lucky as we passed one hostel that no one had seem to heard of. It was pretty ordinary but good enough. I was somewhat looking forward to getting to Belgrade as I had heard good things and I wanted to get the other side of the story about the siege of Sarajevo. The problem was that Belgrade is, in my humble opinion, a shit hole. It stinks, ... read more

Friday March 2. I set off at 7 am and made excellent progress. There was little wind and it came from the side or behind so I sailed along at 20 - 25 kms/hr. By 2 pm I was in Topolo having done 120 kms. I could have gone further but it has rained all day and I was wet through. I checked into a rather grubby motel and went to bed early only to be woken by the noise of loud music and heavy raucous laughter from the bar. Saturday March 3. I hoped to make Belgrade today but there was a strong wind from the south east which slowed me down - soul destroying stuff. I finally reached Novi Sad and sought a hotel but the prices were rediculous. The centre is a pedestrianised ... read more

The bus driver seemed to be under the wierd impression that we liked to sleep under tropical climate so he made sure that the temperature in the bus wouldn't drop below 35C which made sleep not very comfortable/impossible. Fortunately after a few hours of this treatment someone managed to convince the driver that putting the temperature at "sauna" level was a bit excessive afterwhich, a peaceful night ensued. I was dropped in a bus station in Belgrade slightly before 6AM and it took me quite a while to figure out how the tram system worked. In fact I didn't exactly get it until the next day. I bought a ticket from a stall but when I eventually found the tram stop and got on the one which was supposed to go near the hostel I was ... read more