Blogs from West, Serbia, Europe - page 11

I quoted Orwell in a previous blog (" We are all equal but some are more equal than others"). Here are four Communist paradoxes that were the credo of the former USSR's bloc countries: - Everybody works, but nothing gets produced - Nothing gets produced, but the production quotas were met 110% - Production quotas were met 110%, but stores had nothing to sell - Stores had nothing to sell, but the standard of life was continously growing. For those of us who grew up during the 'Cold War' and the time of the 'Iron Curtain' perhaps the memory of Tito, the now deceased leader of the former Yugoslavia, is hazy. I really had no understanding of the situation but I can recall my father saying that when Tito died 'all hell would break loose'. A ... read more

Album I’m listening to: A Blur album that’s on someone’s laptop in the hostel. So Belgrade was an experience, not really so much for the sights but more of the interaction with the locals, the people at the hostel, and the nightlife. There was much to see in this city of 3 million but I seemed to have missed much of it as I only had 2 half days and a whole day there which is not nearly enough. The train to Belgrade left at 7am, so it was an early start to the day. Marijka, the Dutch girl staying in the hostel, was also taking the same train but was heading to Budapest. She ended up being my wake up call as I didn’t hear my alarm go off. So for a few hours we ... read more

Belgrade The train from Sofia to Belgrade was the worst ever and I was on it for 11 hours! Really dirty, people smoking in the carriages, and a police raid half way through; I found out later they found a load of brown paper bags stashed inside the seats of one carriage, presumably something on its way from Istanbul to Western Europe. In the end it wasn't so bad, it was just me and one Serbian guy in the carriage, having a kind of half conversation with what little English he knew and my phrasebook. My couchsurfing host met me at the station which I was so grateful for because I was knackered! Jelena (pronounced Yelena) lives about 30 minutes from the centre of Belgrade and I didn't fancy navigating by myself at night after 11 ... read more

let's see: from belgrade, serbia i took the slow train to sarajevo, bosnia/herzogovenia. we crossed through croatia and made all the required passport checks. we even changed train engines at each border? why is beyond me because none was any faster than t'other. at least i added a bunch of stamps to passport, or rather i should have. i have had to just rely on the border guards for my stamps because i don't know what the hell they are doing. i didn't get stamped leaving serbia and worried a bit about this. especially when the croatian border guard balked when she perused my passport and then said "moment" and walked away with passport. i heard her calling in my numbers to check on it. a short while later she returned and stamped passport. don't know ... read more

Day 8-Sailing Day 8/24/10 Ditto on the weather. How long can this last? Today we sailed all day without stop. There were two river locks, known here as the Iron Gates, that we passed through. This, I guess was the technical highlight of the day. I missed the second as I chose to get a massage. We passed through the lock as I was getting my back rubbed down. I did not see a thing but Jackie said it was interesting as there was a large hydro power plant at the site and the lock bypassed the dam. The most scenic highlight was area known as Danube’s Gorges. These were impressive. We were also surprised to find their version of Mount Rushmore. I can’t remember who was the face carved into the mountain side but it ... read more