Serbia & Montenegro and Me!
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006After my 4 days in Budapest my original plan was to head to Romania, then down to Turkey and then back up to Bulgaria before continuing to move west…but due to the expensive transportation costs between Budapest and Romania ($90 on the train) I decided to scrap that plan. The next closest option for me was to head south from Budapest to Belgrade or Beograd as they call it. Belgrade lies in the north of Serbia and Montenegro. I honestly knew as much about Belgrade as my little brother tom knows about getting arrested for driving his drunk friends around…sorry Tom. My images of this part of the world were limited to TV and newspapers and were mostly of violence. I was a bit hesitant go to but heard a few whispers of backpackers going so I figured why not. To my surprise Belgrade is a very beautiful and welcoming city without any recognizable scars from the wartime we are so accustomed to associating with it. To my knowledge, and I am not a history expert, Yugoslavia was split up into the following regions after the war:
Serbia & Montenegro
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia & Hercegovenia
Macedonia
Kosovo is still part of S & M but is currently under UN control to the best of my knowledge. I think it can still be a pretty touchy subject as far as what happened during the war. I can’t say that alot of the people think too highly of America’s involvment, especially the lady at my guesthouse. This lady was about as crusty as the dirty boxers i put on this morning but she was very nice. She smoked approximately 5.1 Million packs of cigarettes per day but took very good care of me. She was very proud to be where she was from and should you mention you didn’t like Belgrade or Serbia then there was a chance she would give you a massive roundhouse to the groin area…let’s just say I kept my opinions to myself.
I spent alot of my time in Belgrade walking around the streets and taking in the beautiful architecture.
My first day in Belgrade I had quite an adventure at the ATM. One of the things I hate about traveling through many countries in a short period of time is that you have to change to a new currency almost every two or three days. Some of the currencies can’t be exchanged outside of their own countries which means you have to be very careful how much you take out or make sure you spend any excess. I knew i would have about 3 days or so in Belgrade so calculated an approximate amount based on the exchange rate that would give me enough for this time. There is about 60 Serbian Dinar to 1 U.S. dollar. I estimated I would take out about 3,000 Dinar and that might have done me for the time I was there. When the options came up to select the amount I wanted on the screen I immediately spotted the 3,000 and selected it. Little did I know that there was an extra zero on the end and instead I got 30,000…not good! It was basically about $500 and I think I saw smoke coming out of the ATM. I was able to exchange the money a short time later into Euros as I will need Euros for my next destinations but definitely a lesson learned. My bank charges me $3 for every time I use an ATM and this time i also got charged $5 by this local bank…someone will pay for this I can assure you, perhaps with a boot in the ass.
So I left Belgrade and headed north to Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. I will be here in Croatia for about the next week, til probably the 13th. I will head for Slovenia on the Monday the 13th and probably just stay 1 night. From Slovenia I am heading to Venice for 1 day as well, as it is supposed to be bloody expensive. I have a flight on the 15th from Venice to Barcelona, (insert Nelsons laugh from the Simpsons here.)
There is a tentative plan for me to head to Morocco, wouldn’t that be special.
For those of you that don’t know I will be making my grand entrance back into the Good Old US of A on the 17th of December. It is about 5 weeks away…holy crudbugglers. Time is flying by and I have no idea where the past 7 months have gone. I’m on the home stretch and I will do my best to keep the blog exciting and entertaining for the next month. Keep the comments and emails coming.
Talk to you all soon,
Brian
Gagnonius