Blogs from West, Serbia, Europe - page 20

Didn't expect Belgrade to be this....developed! I mean, the shops and everything!...The standard of living is still kind of low...many street stalls and cheap food...but I like the vibe so far!..seems like a pretty nice city! I took the night train here and MY GOODNESS...it was bad. it was a train full of people going to EXIT festivals...which means...smokers, drinkers, and exciting people. The two guys in my cabin were just going in and out smoking and rolling..weeed? dunno..I was too sleepy to even look. People in other cabins were screaming and stuff... got through 4 passport checks..and I think I got a stamp from Croatia.....dunno why that is. and also 3 ticket checks.......-___-" Didn't get much sleep in the end...-o- Got to Belgrade finally!!! went to this hostel I read about online that was good ... read more

The highlight of today and this week has to be getting press all stage passes to the Chemical brothers show in Belgrade's Arena. I was thinking of going to see the show, but did not feel like spending the $40 that the tickets cost. My friend Nemanja, came up with press passes that not only let us in to see the show, but allowed us almost all access passes to most of the places. The show started at 6 pm and was going till 4 am or so. We arived around 10 30 pm just in time not to miss the Chemical brothers that started at 11. It was a great sight to see. Beautiful women everywhere dancing to the beats. Beer was flowing and everyone was having a great time. the whole 16 000 people. ... read more

6/03-8/03 In the summer of 2003, I was back to my old summer traveling habits. For some reason, I was still not done with Europe. I had pretty much given up on Western Europe due to the expense, but Eastern Europe still offered everything I wanted, including a special surprise in Romania. I flew into my former hometown of Prague and went from there. Here are some blurbs of what I did in each country. Czech Republic- Prague, Benesov. My grand return to Prague was cut short by the temptation of going to new, undiscovered places. Germany- Dresden. Checking in on my favorite German city. Poland- Wroclaw, Warsaw, Zakopane, High Tatras. I based myself in Poland for mountain hiking in the High Tatras. I also made a stop in Wroclaw, my favorite Polish city. Lithuania- Vilnius, ... read more

After a few days of rain, the sun is back in Belgrade. I ventured out again and took a few photos as I strolled through the city and read my book on the Kalemegdan park. After that, there is nothing better than sitting at the local coffee shops and people watching. ... read more

Damjan and I traveled to Belgrade to give a presentation on Black Carbon and the Aethalometer. About 80 people were in attendance, and it was probably the largest audience I have had for a talk like this. Belgrade is a very interesting and beautiful city, the point where the Sava and Danube rivers meet. On the way back from Serbia we got stopped at the Croatian / Slovene Border because of a small problem at Customs which cost us ~150 euros and 3 hours of our time. It was a really long day.... read more