We boarded the train and quickly located the guard who directed us to our couchette (we were slobbing it this time). We soon found that we were in a room with very poor lighting, this greatly impeded out chances of playing cards which had become customary on our train journeys and instead Nina read by torch light and I just chilled (literally) with my MP3 player. Two hours into our trip we wondered whether we had booked tickets to Serbia or Siberia as the temperature seemed to plummet and then plummet some more. Eventually we conceded that the very tatty prison issue blankets given to us by the train guard would have to be used.
Passport control was pretty extreme on the border.We got ours checked at least 6 times, we had the customs guy, we had the guy who just looked at them, we had the guy that stamped them, we had another customs guys and so on and so forth. Amusingly each time they came in they looked for the light switch of course each time they tried we told them the light didn't work. This also meant leaning out of the cabin into the light of the corridor so they could compare our mug shots with reality. Each time we thought it was safe to close the door and get back to freezing to death another official would come along. One got particularly excited when Nina, hastily looking for the passports which had been packed away for the 4th time that night, managed to knock her earring out. That was it - the torch came out and our cabin was thoroughly inspected. Still they were nice enough and let us in so all was well.
We arrived into Serbia about an hour later than expected which had us going through the customary panic of 'are we the last stop, have we missed our stop, where the hell are we', and of course once again the toilets were high on our priority. Once again we had no local currency, once again we could not find an ATM in the train station and once again we had to hold it until we acquired funds to pay or until we had found the hostel, which incidentally we had not booked.
We quickly found an ATM and knowing the success rate we have had using Nina's card each time we arrived in a new country, I went to withdraw some money. Sadly the ATM did not want to play that game, cross legged panic briefly commenced again but for once Nina's card worked first time. (Nina's bank has been a source of much frustration and she had mentioned several times she is going to visit her bank manager upon return to close her account). For once as well we actually found a hostel pretty quickly too although upon arrival we were slightly unsure as to whether they had a bed for each of us or not.
We had previously picked up a few hostel leaflets for Belgrade from other hostels we have been too and figured we had enough of a selection to not have to worry about booking one. This wasn't actually as risky as it sounds (at all bus stations private owners are waiting to offer you good priced rooms). The first hostel we went to was up 3 flights of stairs, we plonked our bags down and asked if they had any beds for a few nights. The reply we got was a slightly unsure 'yeah, we should have'. We did try finding out for sure, but simply got just a vague response and then a colleague chipped in with 'we always have beds...'. We got told to come back around 12 and they can sort it all out.
As it was only about 7:30 by that stage we headed in to the city centre and the place was dead (but then of course it was, it was 7.30 in the morning!!!). We wandered aimlessly for some time before locating the main street and heading down to the fortress. In front of the fortress is a massive park which seems to be the key morning jog spot for the locals. We resisted joining in and found a bench over looking the river and daydreamed for an hour or so. After a bit more of a wander we felt the rumble of hunger approach so decided to head to a cafe for some food. We ended up eating a massive pizza each at 11 o'clock in the morning (I promise I am trying to eat properly mum). The pizza went down well though due to the fact that as mentioned before Sofia train station wasn't exactly bustling with eateries and our initial hunt for food on arrival at Belgrade train station resulted in me getting a stale salted beef roll and Nina getting some kind of cheese pie which seemingly had been cooked in a tub of lard, urgh!
When we got back to the hostel (this took some time as we managed to get lost despite acquiring a map from the tourist info office) we were relieved to see that the hostel did indeed always have beds and headed to ours for a catnap. Nina took the nice safe ground bunk. I on the other hand got lumbered with the 2nd bunk on the unstablest bed ever, the side that faced the middle of the room had a 6 inch high, 1 foot long barrier to prevent me from rolling off in my sleep which considering the other side (on the only bunk that did not rest against a wall) had absolutely no barrier just some rickety old windows to help break my fall onto the Belgrade side walk, I was quite grateful for. Fear alone was enough to make sure that I didn't move a muscle at night.
More refreshed we took a longer wander through the streets.It just so happened there was a big kids basketball event going on whilst we were there so we watch a couple of games of 3 on 3 which were played on courts we saw getting rolled out earlier during the day on our morning wanderings (Serbians take basketball very seriously).
The following day we headed back to the fortress this time to go to the military museum which was very proud to display parts of the US stealth bomber shot down in 1999. The military museum was really really impressive, covering comprehensively all forms of arms and armour from the medieval times right up to the end of the first world war. For some reason though there wasn't anything on the second world war (did they just keep their noses clean?). It jumped right from 1919 to 1999 and the NATO action against Serbia alongside the fragments of the stealth bomber were fragments of the cluster bombs NATO were alleged to have illegally used during their 70+ days of aggression (Serbians words, I'll remain on the fence until I've read up a bit more). Coincidentally the day we chose to visit the museum was also a special European culture day in Serbia which meant we got in for free woo hoo, unlike the torture museum in Sighosoara though we would have been happy to have paid.
Also in the grounds of the fortress is Belgrade Zoo. We did um and ah about this for a while knowing that many many foreign zoos seem to lack the knowledge or intelligence to look after animals in a humane way however we are happy to say that generally we were impressed with the enclosures, one or two were a bit shabby, there was one particularly peed off Panther, and some snakes that need to be out of there quick sharp, however the others seemed pretty well kept. Highlights included the most laid back Kangaroo ever, some extremely bouncy wolves (which one dopey bloke decided to give a metal pole to, the wolves proceeded to growl, grab the pole and scare the #£*" out of the bloke) and a hilarious chimp who taken exception to a few blokes pointing a laughing for a bit too long decided to spit at one and hit the target perfectly.
That night we experienced the first travellers we actually wanted to kill and unfortunately they were British. You see we have by now stayed in many hostels some times in private rooms and some times in dorms and people have always been civil. Yes they may go out until 4 in the morning but upon returning generally they are aware that other people are in the same room and sound asleep, not these muppets though. In they came at 4:30, totally spaced and a noisy as you like, they then proceeded to have an argument amongst themselves before eventually settling down. Turns out in the morning both Nina and I were equally narked with them and both had it in mind to get up particularly early and make as much noise as possible, sadly though they had an early train to catch and beat us to it. Not to worry though we sent enough bad thoughts their way (rant over).
On our third day in Serbia we took a bus to Novi Sad. I was dropped a hint about going here before leaving by a guy who had recently been to the ever increasingly popular EXIT festival which is held in Novi Sad's citadel grounds. Because we hadn't slept too well the previous night (I won't start again) we got there later than planned but still had about half a day there. We spent about a quarter of our time waiting for the right bus to get us from the main bus station to the town centre When it eventually did come it drove for all of 5 minutes and we were there. We then spent the next quarter looking for the bridge which would take us to the Citadel, Lonely Planet guide failed us again here due to crappy directions. Eventually though after asking at a local bar and with the assistance of all 3 staff members we found the old town which along side being simply stunning was also adorned with dozens of elaborately painted cows (I'd seen something similar in Brussels about 5 years ago). From there it was quick walk to the bridge and then an up hill struggle to the citadel. We broke the up-hill part up a bit by nipping into an Irish bar which was deserted.
The citadel itself is massive although not overly spectacular. However we did find an awesome restaurant at the top which we decided to eat at and enjoy the view and the sunset. On the way back down we passed a couple of lads who were picking lose bricks from the path way and throwing them onto the roads below (it was reassuring to see not only Britain has chavy little tykes), eventually we made our way back to the bus station to grab our bus back to Belgrade.
On our fourth and final day we spent the morning booking a hostel in Montenegro (Hippo Hostel) which seemed to have a shortage of reasonable priced places to stay and sorting out our transport there, this time we opted for an overnight bus (why, why, why). The bus was booked for 9:20 that evening so we had a bit of time to kill and amongst other things we visited the National Bank of Serbia which had a really interesting exhibit on the history of Serbian/Yugoslavian money. A history of money not that interesting right? Wrong, what with the hyperinflation suffered in the late 80s and the change from democratic governments to communist governments and back again there was a lot to learn. We also got our own mug shots printed onto Serbian Bank notes (very amusing).
Both me and Nina were a little unsure about going to Belgrade for a few reasons including not knowing much about it except a little while ago they were the bad guys (but Slobodan was long gone now) and that a lot of people we had met had said they found it pretty dull. We were both surprised that it actually turned out to be a really vibrant lively friendly place, it's not exactly cheap but it is affordable and it is really really interesting, despite recent history they have grabbed westernisation by both horns and are making a real good go of things. It was mainly our enjoyment of Belgrade that led us to opt for Montenegro as the next stop on our trip however this, the newest country in Europe and possibly the world, turned out to be completely different.
The plan ... well really there is no plan, but there is a good reason ...
Watch out Europe here we come. After working in travel it's time to put in action what I've learnt!
I can't take you all with me but here's the next best thing - share our travel highlights and fun experiences as we check out as much of Europe as possible over the next 10 weeks.
