Blogs from West, Serbia, Europe - page 22

Belgrade is smoky... Its the last bastion of political incorrectness in a world of micro-anti-viral same-ness... I have a theory why they smoke though... Its very clever (thank you, thank you...) it's to prevent lead poisoning. Yes, thats right. You see the traffic is so damn congested and hazardessly toxic-fume enhanced, that by reducing their lung capacities with smoking it reduces their exposure to the traffic fumes. I could be wrong though, maybe its just they enjoy the double entendre of asking someone if they want to smoke? (do you remember the Hugh Grant incident???) Actually its not so bad, and Cairo smog was worse... but the traffic has increased in the last three years ... People are smiling more and I believe I've already mentioned its generally cleaner. You get the roadside rubbish dumping outside ... read more

In Australia, streets in most towns and cities become deserted at night... The rest of the world comes out to party after the sun goes down and in Belgrade this happens with gusto and style! This town is pumping and never shuts down. Its also very walkable and there are cafes and bars every two steps... just in case you are hungry, thirsty or both. Enjoy the tour... Some memories too for my Boban... Please excuse some blurring - I had to use a very slow shutter to get the night shots...... read more

After deciding that we'd spent more time than was needed chilling by the "beach" in Montenegro, the group thought that it may be fun to check out Serbia. I don't think that anyone really knew what to expect from a place like Belgrade but whatever our expectations, they were certainly surpassed. Considering Belgrade got it's arse severely kicked in 1999 when NATO bombed the crap out of it for pissing off its neighboring countries, the city had a lot to offer. Arriving in the morning after a 12 hour overnight bus, we checked into our hostel. It was a converted penthouse apartment and definately one of the strangest setups I've seen in a hostel but a very good atmostphere. Deciding we were all hungry, we left to find whatever for Serbia had to offer in the ... read more

After arrivin in Belgrade me and these other 2 aussies id met in Ljubljana and then bumped into on the bus. went lookin for the hostel... the Cyrillic street signs made it alot more difficult to find our way around... after walkin around in circles for a while we just asked a serbian lady for some directions, she ended up taken us all the way there.. serbians were generally some of the nicest people id met on the trip.. after checkin intot he hostel i went and got some food and some drinks and went back tot he hostel had a few drinks with some canadian dudes and the owner of the hostel.. the next few days were spent walkin around lookin at the sights and goin out with a few serbians that we met, to ... read more

Woke up this morning feeling better. I'll probably be about 85% when I leave tomorrow. This morning, Ivan cooked breakfast. We then listened to music, talked, etc. I also read some more about Irish history... which is getting more interesting the more I read about it. Later on, Bobana came over to Ivan's apartment. Ivan cooked dinner (pancakes... but not the American kind... this were kind of like crepes except folded in squares and triangles... some with chocolate cream and others with meat, cheese, and sour cream). We talked and ate for about three hours. It was good to catch-up with Bobana (both last night and tonight). Ivan and I also talked today about politics, his work, Serbia, and news. Lots is happening here... there is some flooding and some landslides in Valjevo from melting snow ... read more