Aegina

Aegnia
Saturday, August 22, 2009
1:26 AM

So as I realized I had essentially seen everything there was to see in Athens the day before, so I followed conventional wisdom and headed out to an island. While I initially wanted to go to Ios, it was an eight hour boat ride which was not a reasonable amount of time considering that I needed to be careful with how much time I was spending in places as I eventually have a flight to catch. I settled on Aegnia which is one of the closest islands to Athens, and also one of the cheapest to get to.

I jumped on the ferry and had an hour and change boat ride that was really pleasant. Once I got onto the island I saw what people were talking about with the charm factor. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Catalina, which is also pretty damn charming. I walked down the boardwalk, grabbed a quick bite, and ensued the people watching. I knew it was a proper seaside town as old men dressed head to toe in white walked by with girls 20 years younger than them wearing skimpy dresses and huge heels. The entire boardwalk was packed and not much English was being spoken, which judging from what people say about the other islands, was a good thing.

Once I started getting a bit sleepy I walked away from the marina and main beach and found a nice area and set up camp. It was really pleasant to watch the lights of the city twinkling and the stars shining while listening to the sea flirt with the island, I slept very well.

Athens

Athens
Friday, August 21, 2009
1:26 AM

Once I got into Athens I walked around a bit until I could find some WiFi so I could get directions to the hostel I had reserved in Sofia. It ended up being a quick walk from the train station but since I arrived so early they didn't have any beds ready. I figured this would be a great opportunity to check out the Acropolis early. After settling in a bit and catching up with my Dad, I headed out to see what there was to see.

The hostel was also situated on the main street of Athens, which runs straight into the Acropolis even though it’s a bit of a walk. I was skeptical of the claim that the city only needed as quick of a run through as you could do on your way to the islands but I quickly found out that there was a lot of truth to that statement. Athens is massive and full, of, concrete. Aside from the flea market around the Acropolis it is just urban sprawl with little or no character.

The ruins around the Acropolis were pretty damn cool though. Walking around the grounds that formed the core of Western society is pretty sweet. The one huge downfall was that I definitely realized that I was out of Eastern Europe as the crowds were absurd. I had taken Sarajevo, Belgrade for granted. I even griped a bit about Budapest being filled with tourists, but Athens brought me back to reality quickly, it was packed. The Parthenon itself is also very impressive just because its huge and it was made so long ago. As it is up on a hill, you can see the entire city of Athens which is a great sight.

After walking around a bit more I checked in to the hostel and took a nap as I hadn't gotten much sleep on the rough train. When I got up in the early evening I headed back down to the Acropolis and checked out the museum that had opened only a month before. Admission was free with a Student ID and only 1 Euro without one, it was pleasant to see that people weren't being gorged. On the way back to the hostel I ended up getting lost in the 'Old City' streets which was fine as it was great a great place to people watch. Back at the hostel I ended up going out with a few people and had a good time.

Sofia to Athens

Sofia to Athens
Thursday, August 20, 2009
1:25 AM

The train to Sofia was really comfortable but it ended up being the most stereotypically eastern European of the bunch. In the morning when we arrived everyone was in an uproar as they had all been robbed. In every compartment in the train, aside from mine, cell phones and cameras had been stolen. The English kid in my compartment figured that the thieves didn’t want to deal with an American. I figured the thieves were gypsies and I look like a gypsy any way so they didn't rob their own kind.

I ended up walking around Sofia with the kid from my compartment as he had a guidebook and there were no tourist maps to be found at the train station. It ended up that it was a pretty damn big day for him as he was to receive the results of his standardized test scores. In England, schools give conditional acceptance offers that depend on second semester of senior year scores. In Stephen's case he was admitted to the London School of Economics (one of the finer institutions in the world) but to ensure he kept his spot he needed to get a score of three A's.

Although he said the tests had been watered down quite a bit and three A's wasn't tough to come by, the fact that you could be rescinded admission less than a month before you started school would have stressed me out. He was waiting on a call from his parents but ended up checking online when we got to a hostel and seeing that he had done well and was in, which was cause for a few hoots and hollars. Speaking of the hostel, it was the best I've seen and had it not been completely booked I would have spent a night there.

Instead we ended up walking around town and he caught an early train out to another Bulgarian city. I stuck around a bit more and waited on the night train to Athens. Sofia itself seemed to be a pretty small city but it was very charming. All the main streets were tree lined with cafes and a solid vibe. Being hungry I jumped off the main streets and stumbled into a hole in the wall that was full of Bulgarians. I ordered some sort of meat patty thing with a cabbage salad that was delicious. After that I sat at a café for a bit and downloading a season of HBO Entourage while I sipped and people watched. The first leg of the Athens train was dead which was a pleasant surprise.

I spent a big chunk of the ride bullshitting with a girl who was a triple citizen of Mexico, Portugal, and the US who was a Stanford Cardinal and noticed my assortment of UCLA paraphernalia. I'm proud but it is admittedly ridiculous as I wear UCLA shorts most of the time, had a UCLA binder out, and have a UCLA sticker on my laptop. The second leg of the trip to Athens was absurd and the train was almost as crowded as the festival train to Budapest. We ended up staying in the eating car for almost the whole ride which was full of smokers so it was kinda rough. In one of the most entertaining scenes yet almost 10 guys were taken through the train handcuffed to each other by Greek police officers, we got into the city safely.

Beograd to Sofia

Beograd to Sofia
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
8:45 PM

So Wednesday was to be my last day in the BGD as well as Marko's last full one. We headed down to the river and got lunch with Mike Cavic at one of his favorite restaurants. We had a delicious ham and cheese wrap that I'd liken to a giant hot-pocket. While the food seemed bad it was fine for him because he was at the start of taking a full two months off from swimming. It was interesting hearing stories about Mike's life since he's been living in Serbia. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that he really hasn't been living there much.

Although he recently got his own apartment it isn't complete yet, and for the majority of the time since he finished undergrad he has been on the road. While I've always thought that I'd be fine doing something that requires heavy travel (and I still think I would be while I'm young) I definitely saw that living out of suitcases and hotels wears on you. I also always think its interesting to get analysis of cities from expats because its easy to draw comparisons. Mike, like most everyone I've talked to, also doesn't understand how people live in such an expensive city on such meager salaries. Apparently apartments in nicer neighborhoods start around $150k for a tiny studio and go up from there.

After lunch Marko went to visit his grandparents and I went back to the apartment and started getting my stuff in order. Jovanna came over again and we went down to the fortress so I could buy some postcards which I hope I send out by Italy. Although it is easy to stay in touch thanks to the internet I still think postcards are a nice 'hey I was thinking of you' kind of gesture. Once we finished up, Aunt Tetka served us one last delicious dinner, and I jumped on my train to Sofia.

Cafes and Such

Cafes and Such
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
6:56 AM

We had another day without anything too specific as Marko was flying to Paris on Thursday and I was trying to work out my schedule for the rest of trip but had failed to do it up to this point (semi-busy without internet access). In the afternoon we met up with one of his friends who was in med school in Belgrade and just had gotten back from a vacation in Egypt where she said the sea life was amazing. As the bulk of the conversation was in Serbian I took some time to watch the café television that was showing reruns of ESPN Bassmaster competitions. I found it both interesting and awesome to watch such a decidedly American (at least in presentation) sporting event in a foreign country.

I snuck out a bit early to get some initial travel planning work done and to work on catching up the old weblog a bit. I did have one beneficial finding though, flying from Italy to London then to Dublin would actually be a little bit cheaper than flying straight to Dublin. I've always wanted to check London out, and while it is still disgustingly expensive the pound is weaker than it has been in the past so it is as good an opportunity as any. When Marko got back I readied up to take a jog and we met with Jovanna who was in from Cacak in preparation for an English test that she was going to have to take.

We took a bus down to the Danube and stopped in at Marko's favorite restaurant where they posted while I hit the trail. I took a fairly long loop down the river and around the man-made lake and for no real reason it reminded me of Greater Phoenix's beloved Tempe Town Lake. We had been to the lake for a quick glance earlier in the trip but it was nice to get a look around it. Most of the lake was surrounded by restaurants and clubs and they all looked really nice. When I got back to the restaurant we grubbed a bit.

Marko and Jovanna went out but I elected to stay in as I needed to finalize all my travel plans. I needed to know when I was going to fly out of Italy and how quickly I was going to get to Greece as I wanted to stop in Bulgaria and I entertained the thought of hitting Istanbul. I decided that Istanbul was a bit too far out of the way and would have been too costly as my Eurail pass doesn't include it but I've heard great things so I definitely want to go next time I'm out in this area. I ended up booking a flight to London for a total of 25 Euro, 10 of that being my bag fee, and 5 of it being a fee for the pleasure of using a credit card.

Ballin in Perestroka

Ballin in Perestroka
Monday, August 17, 2009
4:07 PM

As we had another relaxing day set we had a lavish breakfast when we woke up and then got ready to go play a little basketball at the school across the street. Before that we went into the house where Marko's Mom grew up, which was on the same property. Looking through old pictures was great as I saw one of both of Marko's parents sitting on the couch that we were sitting on looking at the album.

From there we went to shoot around and as per normal I was ice cold from the field. While I was able to dominate in Italy it definitely wasn't due to a nice jump shot. We played a best-of-3 game that I really enjoyed. A person chooses a shot, takes it 3 times, then the others have chances to do better. While it’s a really simple game I think that it is challenging and excellent if you're tired of horse or around the world. One of the more interesting things that I had noticed before, but for whatever reason took into more consideration that day, was the lack of American-style urban sprawl.

Although the city's population was under 20,000 there were still fairly large, multistory, apartment buildings. There were also what looked like industrial buildings or factories and the square that I mentioned yesterday was also pretty large, with a few cafes and tons of shops. It just seemed like far more things than a city of 20,000 would support . In the states people would definitely spread out a small town quite a bit with strip malls and tract houses (which I generally like) but I guess American small towns used to be more dense too. After relaxing a bit more and getting another good meal we headed back to Belgrade .

Beograd to Perstoka

Beograd to Perstoka
Sunday, August 16, 2009
4:03 AM

As the weekend had been action packed Sunday ended up being a day of recovery. After getting some laundry done thanks to Marko's beyond hospitable Aunt Tetka, we headed out to her and Marko's Mom's hometown. Although Western Europe runs on trains I definitely got the feeling that Eastern Europe is far more Bus friendly. While the trains almost always depart late, and arrive late, the busses tend to just run a little late on arrivals and run very frequently.

The busses themselves are normal charter busses although I've yet to be on one that has a bathroom. I actually consider this to be an advantage as I've had some nauseating rides due to having toilets on board. The bus to Perstoka was a two hour trip from Belgrade and somehow it ran a few times a day even though there were only 12 people on our bus. Once we got there we were greeted by Marko's Aunt and Uncle and nine year old 5'8" cousin. They tend to be a bit worrisome and had called eight times to make sure we were alright as there was a crash in Bulgaria earlier in the week.

We walked from the bus station to their house and upon arriving I was asked if I was hungry to which I, like almost always replied that "I'm fine". Six courses later, I was excellent. Easily one of my favorite things I've eaten on this trip was the stuffed peppers with rice and ground beef. Something about how it all melded together was just magic. After dinner we played some Pro Evolution Soccer and I continued the losing streak that I started in Italy when I was playing Carlo at FIFA.

I also realized that I needed to get in touch with the family and having not spoken with them in a little over a month and as I was feeling a little homesick I went on a mission to make a call with Skype. At a bit past midnight local time I started roaming around the square looking for a WiFi signal. Just as I was about to give up (whatever I could find was locked, or useless) and chalk the failure up to the fact that I was in a small town, a single bar signal came up. I tracked down the signal to a little photo shop outside of the main square and posted up on the curb and called the 'rents who both said I sounded great. Marko had gotten worried as I had been gone for awhile and after a search considered calling the cops, but settled with bitching me out for being gone for so long at such a late hour.

The Suburbs and Harley Davidson

The Suburbs and Harley Davidson
Saturday, August 15, 2009
4:00 AM

On Saturday we got picked up by family friend of Marko and headed out to the suburbs of Belgrade, roughly 20 minutes outside of the city. Once we got to the house we were greeted with Raijka and a hearty lunch. Much like Filipinos and Italians the Serbs are always concerned about their guests getting enough to eat. I do think it’s a universal thing when Moms see me that they never think I eat enough at any single sitting but Marko assured Sasha's Mom that I was well fed.

The layout of the property itself was pretty sweet. At the front was a three story (four story if you include the usable attic) house. In back of the house was a garage, and a dedicated kitchen. By dedicated kitchen I mean one with three different types of ovens, an outdoor barbeque, and a meat smoker. Outside the kitchen was the porch where we ate and as the house and kitchen formed an L shape the rest was a yard with a volleyball court and fruit trees on it. After lunch we went up to the house to play some ping pong. We had a four man tournament and defying all odds Marko emerged victorious and had a good time gloating about it.

After we finished up there we headed back to Belgrade and went to a bar owned by a legendary Serbian classic rock artist. It was called Harley Davidson and upon walking in the band on stage was playing the Guns 'n Roses classic 'Sweet Child of Mine'. The lead singer was butchering the ballad in a way I'd never heard it done but it made for an interesting rendition. After that we met up with the Cavic's again and went to the barges again and had a lot of fun dancing to some pretty awesome euro techno mash-ups. Nirvana and MLK's "I have a Dream" speech were both in rotation.

After the club we went in search of burek, the classic Serbian breakfast food. The girls swore they knew a great place, which took almost 45 minutes to get too then ended up being closed due to it being Sunday. Eventually we found some burek and although it is delicious, it is easily the heaviest breakfast food I've ever eaten with any consistency. I had a meat one that consisted with a ton of flaky crust on the outside with a kinda doughy center and ground beef cooked in. The kicker is that most of them are so greasy that the paper they're wrapped in is see through and to eat it properly you dip them in yogurt, delicious as a heart attack.

Beograd Beer Fest

Beograd Beer Fest
Friday, August 14, 2009
3:57 AM

After arriving off the night train back at Marko's Aunt's house we both took the opportunity to get a bit more rest. In the early evening Marko had some errands he needed to run and I wanted to take a run so we both took advantage of that. I was told to simply 'take a left at the intersection and that'll lead you straight to the fortress'. In a lack of foresight I didn’t realize that the left I was taking was down the main promenade. Once I hit the crowds my run turned into a brisk stroll.

Belgrade's population hovers around the three million mark with the metro being a fair bit larger. Every evening the promenade is packed with vendors, street performers, people sipping at cafes, and foot traffic cruising around - the weekend is just a bit worse. After I reached the fortress I was able to pick up my pace again and I cruised down to the fields off the Danube and watched a bit of what looked a lot like a high school football team practicing. Apparently football has started growing in popularity a bit with the younger kids and given the massive builds of Serbs it seems like a natural sport to excel in.

When I got back we readied up and met with Sanya, a dancer from Belgrade, and went over to Mark's, an expat from San Diego. After chatting a bit over there we cruised down to the legendary Beograd Beer Festival which was, like Guca, unlike any festivals in the states mostly because they didn't gouge you on food or drinks. The focus of Beer Fest was definitely the music and they had some great bands up on a huge stage with at least a solid 50k people in the crowd.

The most interesting development of the night was when Mike Cavic and a few of his buddies met up with us. Mike was a swimmer at Tustin HS and Berkeley, but chose to swim for Serbia rather than for the US. The world championships just finished up and Mike won a medal, he was on billboards all over Belgrade, in the newspaper, and in all the tabloids. I'd known him through Marko from playing video games with him back home so it was crazy to see people constantly harassing him, asking for pictures, and buying him drinks. His brother Danny, who is the same age as Marko and I, played basketball at USF and plays professionally in Croatia now, got to take care of bodyguard duty. Eventually we headed down to one of the barge clubs where Mike had a table and we had a solid night.

The Castle and Citadel

The Castle and Citadel
Thursday, August 13, 2009
5:29 PM

In the morning we had a delicious breakfast/lunch of traditional Turkish food that was prepared for us by Edena's mom. Marko was still feeling pretty under the weather but he had started a slow revival. We planned on heading back to Belgrade that evening, so we figured it would be best to get the last of our needed sightseeing. We had walked past the castle and citadel in the days prior but hadn't had time to fit them in.

Both were healthy treks and gave beautiful views of the city. The castle was up on a fairly wide hill and was really more of a small city than just a castle. Easily the most unfortunate thing about the area was that a Hilton had been put in near the top and done in a very poor fashion. Although I'd assume it wasn't built during the 70's due to communism, it looked like it was and had really aesthetically displeasing brown glass windows.

We also came across the best hustle either of us had seen in Europe. There was a guy with 3 bottle caps and a little red ball playing the old Bruin Shuffle switch-a-roo. But, the twist was not with that he was taking all comers, it was that he would constantly do it, poorly, then take losing bets for over $200 USD or 200 Euro from 'random' guys in an attempt to rope people in. I tried to get a game for the Hungarian equivalent of $10 but he wasn't having it. As we wound up our walks we went back to the local kebab place and feasted one last time, then caught our train back to Beograd.

Turkish Baths and Sziget

Turkish Baths and Sziget
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

As we had all bit a bit under the weather, and Yaron and Marko had been inching closer to the light as they had the plague, we figured it would be a great idea to go to the medicinal baths. While there are quite a few baths on the tourist map that we were using, and the hostel directed us to one that couldn't have been more than a mile from where we were, nobody had any idea where the baths were. At this point I'm not sure if it was people being unfriendly or just clueless but we went on a goose chase to find the first one, then after failing went in the complete opposite direction to get to another one.

Once we got there everyone was hungry so we crossed the river and walked down one of the main tourist streets in search of food. While the first place we passed was a kebab joint, we didn't pass any more quick service places aside from a Burger King thus highlighting the lack of easy food in Budapest. After a long walk and the purchasing of some fruit we got the kebab and headed back to the bath.

The bath itself was impressive and dated around the 17th century. The room was fairly large with 4 pools on the corners then a large one in the middle and they all had varying water temperature. It was definitely refreshing, and while it did not cure Marko of the plague, it was still appreciated. From there we headed back to the hostel and said our goodbyes as Ron and Mitch caught a train to Munich for their flight back to the states.

Marko and I then met up with Tjiana and Edena and a bunch of Edena's friends to head to the huge festival that was going on. Although Marko and I were interested in attending, we were both deterred by the $60 pricetag. Luckily, the locals had some sneaky methods of getting everyone in for free. First we headed to the main exit where they cut wristbands off people who were leaving the festival and sized them up for everyone as we joined a pretty large group. Once we were out of plain sight they super glued the wristbands on so it seemed as if they were using their original adhesive. Then we headed over to a boat where we could reach the festival by another entrance that had much less security.

The festival was massive with tons of stages, booths, and as it was a huge campground also, tents. As Marko was feeling terrible we ended up spending much of the night searching for the first Aid tent which took over an hour to find as (much like the baths) nobody knew where it was even though it was on the map. Eventually Marko took a cab home early and I stayed and had a blast cruising around with everyone else.

Terror Museum and Hipster Bar

Terror Museum and Hipster Bar
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
3:03 PM

So after initially being told that we only would be able to have our hostel for a single night because the place was packed, we found out the next morning that we would be able to secure it for another night. Interestingly enough although there were six beds in our room, and the place was still supposed to be packed, nobody new checked in so the four of us had a room to ourselves. They also stiffed us on the bill charging us roughly a 20% premium to the night before, but at that point we were researching parks to sleep in as no hostels online had space for four people.

As that was settled we headed down to the Museum of Terror. Around WWII Hungary was first taken over by Nazi's, then it was Soviet until 1989. With those influences came all the paranoia and negativity that accompanies them. The museum was housed in the former headquarters of the secret police where a lot of torturing and intimidation took place. If you've been to the Museum of Tolerance in LA or DC this was in the same vein.

Most of the exhibits didn't focus on specific sights but rather on video or audio clips with artifacts accompanying them. Unfortunately almost everything was in Hungarian aside from hand-outs that sought to describe the relevance of the rooms but really lacked on information. We still enjoyed our trip through the museum but it could have been done much better.

After that we went back near our hostel and asked where we could get a fairly classic Hungarian sit down style meal. The suggested restaurant ended up being right next to the kebab place we had eaten the day before. Hungary's most famous food is Goulash, a soup with meat and potatoes. We ordered two kettles that came with flames under them and they were herby and delicious. The salad, like every other salad that has been ordered in Eastern Europe, was heavy and although considered a 'vitamin' salad, was full of a mayo based sauce and had no lettuce. Although we all ordered different meats, everyone was terribly confused on what was actually what. Marko claimed that he knew which was which, then decided that him and Mitch had the wrong dishes about half way through and proceeded to switch. Everything aside the food was great.

From there we tried to join up with a pub crawl that had been advertised at the hostel but ran far too late after it had taken the customary two hours to eat dinner. We tried to trace the steps of the pub crawl but were unsuccessful and we ran into a UCLA Alum that suggested we go to the same bar that our friends happened to be at. When we got there we were all taken back by the sheer size and style of the place. It was very hipster-ish, in that the surroundings were interestingly grungy in a stylish sort of way. Marko and I ended up talking about how hipsters would love this bar but we came to the conclusion that they would not have fun because everyone was too easy going and friendly. Surely enough two hipster girls from Florida came up to talk to us and lamented about their experience as 'nobody understood them or knew what music they listened to and if they tried to describe it we wouldn't understand' - priceless indeed.

Budapest

Budapest
Monday, August 10, 2009
3:00 PM

We got in at about 5AM and Tijana's friend from school in Germany, Edena, picked us up. We went to her apartment and crashed out as we were still pretty spent. When we woke up we had a little breakfast then headed down to our hostel. Budapest has a great bus and subway system that although a little antiquated, gets you around the city comfortably.

Budapest is actually a combination of the two cities, Buda and Pest, on each side of the Danube. They were combined after the bridge was built but distinct differences still exist between the two. Pest, where the train station was, is considered to be the poorer, newer side, and the side where people actually live. Buda, where our hostel was, is where all the old things are like the castle and citadel, and where the rich old people live.

Regardless, both halves of the city are absolutely gorgeous, and we all agreed on that. The architecture is classic, there are landmarks everywhere, and the streets are wider than any European capital any of us had ever been in. Considering Hungary was under Soviet control for so long it was a pleasure to see that the town was not overrun with ugly soulless concrete buildings, but I'm guessing we just didn't run into them. Once we were situated in our hostel we went in search of food. After about an hour of walking down the streets near the Danube we had passed a total of 3, all sit down, restaurants.

This would come to be Budapest's great failure, simple quick service street food is few and far between. We ended up heading to a kebab place near our hostel which was delicious but still fairly pricey for the portions. As we were all used to Serbian portions $4 in Budapest bought a wrap that was half the size of anything we were used to eating in Serbia. After that excursion we headed back to Pest to meet up with Tijiana and Edena and had some wine with coca-cola on the lawn near a jazz club called Gora. The atmosphere there was great as the whole area was packed and everyone was having a good time.

Novi Sad to Budapest

Novi Sad to Budapest
Sunday, August 09, 2009
2:02 AM

The girls headed out early that morning and said bye while we were half asleep. We decided on taking a night train to Budapest so we spent the day wandering around Novi Sad. Marko insisted we visit the Jewish quarter and we found a massive Synagogue that was pretty damn cool, Yaron snapped a few pictures. After that we found ourselves with a bit of time to still burn and everyone feeling pretty tired and in need of a relaxing activity so we went into a casino.

We all threw 200 Dinar, or about $3.50, into an electronic roulette machine and entertained ourselves for a few hours. At first everyone played conservatively but the Rondog invited a piano player technique for betting that made things even more interesting. I would assume that the people that were working in the place hated us as we were really loud the entire time and speaking in our 'chacaron' Serbian accents. I'll try and upload a video soon to emulate it but I'm sure plenty of you have a feel for it already if you've ever heard anyone impersonate Marko.

After that we headed back to the hostel and grabbed our gear and went to catch the train to Budapest. Marko assured us that it would be late and it was a solid 30 minutes late. We were told that we didn't need reservations because there would be plenty of space on the train but the ticket lady didn't consider the fact that Sziget, a 20 stage festival, was starting the next day. We spent the first half of the night train ride standing as it was too packed. On the train we met up with Tijana, a friend of Marko's who we had all known from the states. We eventually got our own car for the 5 of us and put most of the seats flat and had a comfortable ride.

Cacak to Novi Sad

Cacak to Novi Sad
Saturday, August 08, 2009
1:42 AM

So Mitch and Ronnie's days were numbered and we all wanted to go to Budapest but instead of heading straight there we decided to spend a night in Novi Sad, which is about an hour or so out of Belgrade and the second most populous city in Serbia. The girls had a flight out the next day but wanted to check it out so they came with us and grabbed a really early taxi the next morning.

Once we got into the city it struck me how pretty it was. It wasn't a huge city like Barcelona, Turin, or Belgrade but it wasn't a smallish town like Cacak. The downtown area was absolutely gorgeous and after we settled in we walked up to the fortress that, like all towns on the Danube, was on a hill and overlooked the river. Once we got to the top of the fortress there was a great restaurant that looked expensive but was actually reasonably priced so we all sat down and had dinner. Although I've complained about the two hour meals in the past this one was perfect. The place was packed so the chatter was perfect, the view of the city was absolutely amazing, there was great live music and everyone agreed that the food was delicious.

Probably the strangest thing about Serbian food is what they consider a salad. While I did not discuss it when we had dinner before the second night of Guca in Cacak we were told that the café had the absolute best Greek salads in town. That salad consisted of no lettuce. When we ordered a mixed salad to start at the fortress I figured it would have lettuce, it did, a single leaf. The salads are delicious but they end up being really heavy and built much more like a potato salad than what Americans would consider a salad.

After the great dinner we wandered around and took a lot of pictures. On the way home we headed downtown and grabbed a drink at the market and spent a bit of the evening people watching on the steps of a store. All the bars were situated in one narrow alley and it was jam packed. Once we decided to venture into one (that was playing Journey no less) it got shut down as it was too late, and considering the musical taste of the bar it was surely for the best.

Monasteries, the Spa, and more Guca

Monasteries, the Spa, and more Guca
Friday, August 07, 2009
1:14 AM

After a solid nights rest we got together with the girls and headed out to see some of the Monasteries in Cacak. These were some of the most famous in Serbia and were places of refuge during the numerous times that war raged throughout the region. The first one was quite a bit off the beaten path and very peaceful. It had two large buildings and a chapel, but only two people lived there which was surprising.

The large areas were for services and over a hundred people came out to the monastery every Sunday. Mala, Aleks' sister, even had her wedding there. The chapel had been rebuilt numerous times since it was first constructed in the 1400s and was beautiful. The second one was up in the hills and was actually a bit larger. When we arrived we were initially told to look at the chapel very quickly because a christening was about to take place. We ended up watching the majority of the ceremony that felt a lot like a Catholic ceremony in Latin with the priest seeming to mumble almost all the words. The second site was especially well known because the current head of the Serbian Orthodox Church was once a monk there.

A spa/hot spring was right down the road so we stopped in to relax a bit before Guca. Everyone wanted to get massages but they were booked so we got jacuzzis. To our surprise the jacuzzi didn’t go over 34C which is lukewarm at best. We were pretty frustrated but still surprisingly refreshed. Mitch and our 'tour-guide' Dargan had a few rousing games of ping pong then we got what we planned on being a quick dinner downtown. That quick dinner, like anytime you sit down, especially in Eastern Europe, took almost two hours.

We got back to the hotel and headed out for another night of Guca. Although we were with a much smaller group this time as it was the weekend the festival was quite a bit different. The crowds were out in full force and we spent quite a bit of time dancing around at the main stage. Guca really is the most anything goes place I've ever seen, we had a blast.

Red Star Game

Red Star Game
Thursday, August 06, 2009
1:13 AM

Thursday signified the end of our adventures with Aleks' buddies as they all headed back to the states. The morning was a rough patch for almost everyone. After a really late night at Guca we finally realized that Marko had gotten Yaron, Mitch and I all sick. When confronted the conversation went something like this:

US - Marko are you sick?
MS - Huh? What are you talking about no I'm not sick
US - Are you sure you aren't sick?
MS - Well I've been feeling kinda shitty for 3 weeks. I've been coughing a bit too but only at night
US - Are you serious? Doesn't that mean you're sick?
MS - I said I've only been coughing at night that doesn't count!

After spending most of the day feeling like the death I sacked up and jumped in the mini-bus and headed to the Red Star Beograd soccer game. The trip went smoothly aside from a few suicide lane car-passing moves by the daring driver to keep everyone on their toes. 14 of us were dropped off at the stadium and met up with another 10 people to make a pretty healthy group to go cheer on Beograd's finest vs Dinamo Tsibili from Georgia.

Red Star has been in the pits lately and as a result of an earlier loss needed to win the game by 3 goals to advance to the next stage of the tournament they were playing in, and after a first minute goal by Tsibili, the odds of that happening weren't good. The stadium was half full, but of the 4 sections, the South (the visitor fans area) was completely empty, the east and west, where the 'regular' fans sit were half full, and the north section, where the ultras and hooligans sit was completely packed.

The north looked like a student section on steroids, regardless of the score they stood, jumped, cheered, and sang, the entire game. By the entire game I mean half-time included. There are actually people that stand up in that section and watch to see if people aren't standing and singing the songs. If they don't then they either get beat up or kicked out of the section. At the end of the game riot police are out in full force to ensure nobody gets out of line. We walked down to the center of the city and saw plenty of people celebrating along the way, after which the mini-bus picked us up again and we headed back to Cacak.

Guca

Guca
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
1:12 AM

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling pretty drained although Tuesday had been really relaxing. While the rest of the group took a trip into downtown Cacak to walk around and get lunch Mitch and I stayed behind. Mitch delved deeper into Harry Potter and I caught up the blog like I had been meaning to. I've been carrying my beloved IBM ThinkPad around and doing my best to write posts in OneNote as I'm traveling in between places then uploading them in bunches whenever I have a good WiFi connection.

While I have no problem cranking stuff out on planes or trains, in Serbia we've spent a lot of time on busses which I have a lot more trouble getting focused on. My biggest shortfall recently has been doing single picture posts as although when I post to the blog everything is already written finding the pictures and uploading them to the posts tends to be the tedious part that gets rushed. In the earlier posts when I had a bit more time work with and less competition for time on my laptop I really liked having multiple pictures because it tells a much better story than anything that is written down. On that note, if there is anything you'd like me to share/focus on, or any questions/suggestions about anything please shoot me a Facebook message or email and let me know.

While that was a fairly long detour as far as writing was concerned, my afternoon was actually spent napping. After everyone got back we all cleaned up to head out to Guca. As far as trumpet festivals are concerned Guca is, like many things in Serbia, the #1 in the World. Miles Davis once said that "I didn't know a trumpet could be played like that" and Marko had built it up pretty huge for us. The Festival itself doesn't have any tickets and is held in a very small town in the mountains about 5 miles outside of Cacak. Our bus had a police escort right into the thick of things and we looked like great tourists with the entire group wearing 'Jelena and Aleks' Big Fat Serbian Wedding' T-shirts.

Once we began walking through the streets sounds of brass bands could be heard from everywhere. To say the atmosphere was wild would be a great understatement, but with a few thousand people in a tiny area and 2 Liters of beer costing just under $3US do your best to grasp it. We danced a bunch then were rounded up for a live interview of Jelena, Aleks, and their entourage for a local television station. After asking the group a few questions we all danced the Kola for the cameras which I'm told by people who saw it, went well. Once I get a hold of the video I'll link it up for sure.

Visiting the Village

Visiting the Village
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
4:13 AM

So while Cacak was Aleks' family town now, the real place was a village roughly two hours outside of Cacak, which was already two hours outside of Belgrade. We jumped back on the bus and Steve (Aleks' Father) gave us a great history of the region during the trip. Once we veered off the main road we were on a small, windy, mountain road that passed through numerous hillside farms. Steve said the village had a population of 8 which seemed pretty ridiculous after driving through all these towns but where we needed to go was definitely not on any paved road.

Once the paved roads stopped the bus parked at the bottom of a canyon and Aleks came up in a Trooper and started shuttling people the 2-3 miles to the actual village. There were about 25 of us so he took as many people as he could and everyone else walked. The walk was a pleasure, the entire valley was absolutely gorgeous and we even saw the schoolhouse that Aleks' Mom went to when she was a child. I was in on the last car ride and we had 5 people inside the car and 3 outside. Hanging off the side was wonderful and at some point I'll upload the video as it was pretty entertaining to go through the mountain dirt roads hanging on the side of the car.

When we got to the village I believed the 8 people statistic. It had quite a few houses but most of them were no longer in use. Only grandparents still lived there as everyone young had chosen to move away. They running water, a repeating phone line, and electricity were all fairly new additions (within the last 20 years when the locals were in their 70's). Every building had been built by hand by Steve's granduncle and everyone farmed the land, milked the cows, and of course distilled the raijka. It was great to get a taste of true country life and everyone was incredibly warm and welcoming to us. I'll echo again how beautiful the land itself was, I can't think of many places aside from the Japanese countryside and the Eastern Sierras that feel better for the soul.

Wedding Day 2

Wedding Day 2
Monday, August 03, 2009
4:11 AM

So after recovering from the first day we all got on a bus and headed out to Aleks family town, Cacak, to do it all over again but in the country. Although Cacak is one of the larger towns in Serbia its population is only around 100k. We drove to the family home where his grandmother lives for 6 months of the year (the other six months she lives in San Pedro) and his Mom and Dad live roughly a month a year.

In country fashion they had a pig and a lamb roasting on spits and a huge pot of cabbage cooking next to those. Both the pig and the lamb were cool but I had seen similar setups at Filipino functions in the past. The pot of cabbage on the other hand was really interesting. It was set up on a sheet of steel and heated by wood that was lit directly beside the pot. Heat was kept at an even distribution by turning the pot every few minutes.

As everyone started filing in and the sun went down the band was set up and the music started playing. By this time the Pivo and Raijka had already been flowing and the food was coming out in multiple courses. We started with a platter of sliced meats along with bread, then moved to the cabbage that was served in bowls, then finished up by first taking the meat directly off the lamb and the pig. As you could imagine both were excellent and really tender. After that we danced late in to the night. The biggest surprises were hand grenades that were thrown out in to the field which is a common tradition, and the arrival of two local police on duty police officers that joined the festivities around midnight. Contrasting the city and country styles was great and also a lot of fun.

The Wedding!

The Wedding!
Sunday, August 02, 2009
3:52 AM

So we lingered around a bit and went downtown as we didn't have to leave for the wedding until 2 in the afternoon. We got ready then walked across the street and grabbed a cab to hit the wedding. Although it should have been obvious from the start this was going to be the cab ride from hell none of us were too concerned that our driver took 10 minutes getting directions from other cab drivers.

Eventually after going in what seemed to be multiple circles we crossed a pair of train tracks on the outskirts of a park and ran into a dead end. The cab driver asked for directions again, then drove out of the park, then asked for directions again. We were told that it was a 5 minute ride from the apartment, but we were now a solid 30 minutes in. The icing on the cake was waiting at an 11 minute red light to make a left turn, it ended up taking almost a full hour but we got there plenty early as Serbian time runs an hour or two late any way.

The forcing of Raijka began early, and watching people arrive was great. I think the headcount was somewhere in the high 200's low 300's and the venue was big. Jele and Aleks came in to great fanfare and then the civil ceremony began. The actual word choices were fairly interesting and fun as they asked if both people had truly thought it through, and which name Jelena would like to take for the official records. After the ceremony everyone that was at the wedding congratulated and took a picture with Jelena and Aleks individually which took as long as one would expect.

The dancing started almost immediately which was great. Everyone gets in a long line facing each other and does the kola (not sure on the spelling) but it’s a really simple dance that for someone with shitty feet like myself, is a lot harder than it seems! The most interesting thing to me was the pacing of the wedding because it was drinking, ceremony, then nonstop eating, drinking, and dancing, til about 2 in the morning. American weddings usually break the 3 apart completely, but having them all together really made for a fun time. Everyone had a ton of fun and I heard from tons of Serbs and even hotel staff that it was the best wedding they had ever attended.

The Day Before the Wedding

The Day Before the Wedding
Saturday, August 01, 2009
3:51 AM

A few people needed to pick up last minute things so we went to the mall which had been only been open for 5 months. All the same stores are in the same areas, and by the same stores I mean that there are 12 shoe stores side by side, 8 electronics stores side by side, etc. The prices were about 10% cheaper on average for clothes, but electronics were absurdly expensive. A 360/PS3 video game ran almost $100 and an iPod touch was almost $500. I still don't understand why video game publishers make games so expensive in Europe, even with the taxes they should realize that people can't play at those prices.

My hair was getting pretty long too so I took the opportunity to get a haircut before the wedding. You might not know but I've had my hair cut by the same person since I was a Junior in high school, so having a random haircut was daunting as the couple other ones haven't gone well. The salon was pretty fancy and interesting because nobody inside talked, at all. Any place I have ever had my hair cut had people rambling up a storm so it was crazy to hear the dead silence.

Later on everyone got together for some more food and a cruise on the Danube. The boat driver ran into 3 or 4 boats just getting off the docks so that was entertaining. The cruise spent most of the time lingering around the fortress but it was fun and everyone took it easy and was in recovery mode. Marko's mom made us promise we wouldn't go out even though it was Saturday night. In our best interests we stayed in and got a great nights sleep before the big day.

The Dinner

The Dinner
Friday, July 31, 2009
3:43 AM

We woke up on the late side of the clock for once and spent the day catching up on odds and ends. We hit up an internet café that had the first decent speeds we had in Europe, then got some pizza which was among the finest I've ever had and only 6 bucks for the equivalent of a large.

We then headed back to the apartment and washed up for the rehearsal dinner which was at a restaurant just around the corner. It was relayed that it was of the utmost importance to arrive at the 7:30PM start time but we didn't sit down to eat until at least 10. The 2.5 hours in between as people came in were spent being forced to drink Raijka and Pivo, which wasn't all that bad. Once everyone was settled and dinner was served a band came in and played traditional brass music which was a ton of fun. Eventually everyone was dancing and having a blast.

At about 1:00AM when the dinner was finishing up we all jumped in cabs and went back down to the docks to hit up a different club. I still need to echo how impressive these places are and how fun it is to be in the all open air environment. We had bottles again and everyone had a blast.

Beograd

Beograd
Thursday, July 30, 2009
2:48 AM

Once everyone woke up Marko took us all on a little walking tour of Belgrade. We went through the downtown and the girls demanded to go shopping for shoes among other things. The downtown area was quite nice and bustling. From downtown we walked to the old fortress which overlooks the Danube. Both Red Star and Partizan, the two big professional sports clubs in the city, have youth courts on the grounds fort too which is pretty cool. We had a little photo shoot on the wall that overlooks the river then headed over to a café and enjoyed the latter part of the afternoon.

We went back to the apartment, washed up, then headed to Hotel Balkan where most of Aleks' friends had just arrived from the States. We all shot the shit for a bit and headed back to the fortress to get a feel for how it was at night. From there we headed out to a club. All the big clubs are actually barges in a fairly out of the way place on the Danube. This serves 2 purposes as far as I can tell. For one they are able to be as loud as they possibly want to be, and secondly they don’t really have any issues as far as square footage is concerned since they are on the water. We all had a table and had a great time going through a few bottles.

Sarajevo to Beograd

Sarajevo to Beograd
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
12:13 PM

With only a morning/early afternoon to spend in Sarajevo we decided to take the advice of the hostel owner and hike up on a hill that overlooked the city. The views from high up were gorgeous but we soon realized that we were running a tad bit late for our 3PM bus to Belgrade.

We debated between a cab and the city bus to get to the Bus station but again followed the advice of the Hostel owner, yet we forgot to ask for the actual time it took for the bus to get to the station. So after missing the 2PM bus, we got on the 2:25 bus, which dropped us off 10 minutes from the station at 2:51. In a feat of agility the Rondoggie ran, with his backpack, to the station in time to hold up the bus.

The bus diver spoke no English, but Ines, a Balkan 10, helped him out and had the bus held up on account of being the daughter of a friend of the driver. We ended up hanging out with her and bullshitting for the next 6 hours on what ended up being the most entertaining bus ride that any of us had ever had. Everyone on the bus was jovial, talkative, and very friendly. We were all given tons of different foods to try and had a great time.

Once we got into Belgrade Marko was waiting for us at the bus station and we were all stoked to be reunited. We went to his aunt's apartment and caught up with the family and met our new roommates for the coming week who all went to undergrad with Marko's sister, the bride, Jelena. After drinking some Raijka and getting dance lessons we went to a sandwich shop called Gold's, had possibly the largest 2 dollar sandwiches I've ever seen, then headed back to our apartment and crashed out.