Slowly Moving West (email #10)

21st: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA to BELGRADE, SERBIA – Had to get up while itwas dark to get a 9 hour bus trip to Belgrade. Didn't eat or drinkanything beforehand coz it was too early for the shops to be open. Ididn't realise that as soon as I got over the border, that I wouldhave no Serbian money to buy anything with! So I starved to Serbia,then walked 4km uphill with my pack to the hostel in 35degree heat. Bythe time I got there, I just CRASHED! Didn't end up eating anythinguntil dinner, when I went out with 4 semi-pro AFL players who atepizzas the size of a small coffee table. Try as I did, I couldn'tfinish mine – but the boys did for me! Sat up playing cards with themuntil they left to go to Greece, then had an early night. Just beforeI passed out, we heard that Karadzic, the war criminal, got caughtabout 3 or so streets away from my hostel! Woo! News doesn't reallyproperly break til tomorrow though (more about this is a second)

22nd: BELGRADE – A beautiful, rainy day! This city looks a lot betterunder the mist… It's actually quite endearing… As it was dripping allday, I spent a lot of time drinking lots of coffee and reading lots ofbooks it lots of cobblestone cafes… A nice change in the pace I'd beenliving for the last 2 weeks. That night it all changed though! Due tothe whole war-criminal-capture thing, the city went a little nuts!Admist demonstrations and riots, there were bombs set off. I'm gettingkinda used to this whole terrorism-following-me-wherever-I-go-thingnow, so instead of being scared, the entire hostel decides to go out!And what a night to go out! All of the youth that had grown up underKaradzic's oppression were out in force celebrating… We went barhopping around our area at first, but progressively ended further andfurther and further away from the hostel. The first couple wereaverage, but eventually we ended up at a nightclub on a barge! On topof that, 2 separate bunches of aussies that I had met that day werethere to. But I spent most of the night talking to a music journalistfrom Portugal – who is ALSO an orphan!! There was so much to say andask and tell that we didn't shut up until…

23rd: BELGRADE to NOVI SAD, SERBIA – 7am. Had to checkout by 10am.That hurt. Spent the morning with the wind and the rain in my hairstrolling around the castle grounds, before boarding a bus to NoviSad. Don't. Go. To Novi Sad. I got there, wandered around for an hour,went to the train station and booked the next possible train toBudapest!

24th: NOVI SAD to BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – Had a great train trip with abunch of Spanish boys who kept me amused through passport control!Also possibly loved it because I was getting out of Novi Sad…Alternated between talking, sleeping, staring at the sunflower fieldsand cutting my hair (yes, in a train! That's how busy I feel!) untilwe got into Budapest at 4ish. Got to the hostel, and fell in love withit. Turns out it's been voted one of the best hostels in Europe acouple of times… And I can see why! I went for a quick walk up to thetop of a really tall hill to get my bearings before going out with oneof the guys who works in the hostel, Harj. He came here a year agofrom Leeds, and didn't want to leave! So it was like being taken outby a local, minus the language barrier. We went to see Zion Train(kinda like Fat Freddy's Drop) at an outdoor bar. I'm not sure if itwas because it was one of the first good bass beats I had heard in 5months, but it was one of the best gigs I've seen! The beauty of beingout with a local expat is that they know where to go – so I ended upon my way to a club on an island! However, this is where the storygoes a little less than expected… There were 2 Malaysian girls thathad tagged along at the last minute, and long-story-short, they didn'tget off when we got off the bus… And they didn't know where they weregoing… And it turned out we got off on the wrong stop and didn't knowwhere we were… And no way to contact them… Ahhh!!! So we both freakedout a little… A lot! So we tried to find them, and then ran into somepeople who had just been beaten up and slashed by a crazy Hungarianthat was walking around… And we helped them call an ambulance andstuff… and by this stage we were getting REALLY scared and just neededto get somewhere where there was lots of people. So we went to theclub! But alas, the girls weren't there, and the club was shit, so weleft pretty quickly. So now it's 4am, we don't know where the girlsare, and there's a knife wielding Hungarian wandering around the area…Just to make it worse, we got kicked off the bus in the middle ofnowhere when we didn't have tickets. And were stuck about 6km out oftown. 6km and a hell of a lot of blisters later, we were home just asis was getting light. And the Malaysian girls were there and alive!Yay!

25th: BUDAPEST – Essentially spent the day retro/op shopping andlounging around in the thermal bathes with a cool Texan guy.Recovery!! Intended to do some sightseeing, but just didn't get aroundto it… That night, latched myself onto a California girl who had metsome more Californian guys that day, and went out for a traditionallate dinner. Went on to one of the coolest bars I've seen this trip –it was 2 floors, and had both a rooftop bar full of red lights andfilm posters; and a bottom area that was split into a really rad dancefloor and foozball tables! Got into bed at about 3ish. Pitiful effort…

26th: BEDAPEST – forced myself up earlish to get in a full day ofseeing all the stuff that I hadn't seen in the past 2 days. I tried tofind an antique markets in this beautiful, massive park, but stoppedpretty quickly when I realised I was being stalked. Creepy guy hissingand whistling at me, trying to cut me off my path and grabbing at me…Stuck to the main paths and got the hell out! However, when I got outI found myself outside the contemporary art gallery. And THAT wasAMAZING!! Hungarians really love the whole abstract conceptual ismthing… Very quickly changed me plans for the day and gallery hoppedinstead! I felt a little guilty at 4ish when I STILL hadn't seen anyof the touristy places, so made a half arsed attempt to see some… Butthey were all under construction anyway. Made me feel a little lessguilty. I'm now preparing myself to go out with a bunch of people fromSydney, and possibly meet back up with the Californians, beforekeeping Harj company until the sun comes up (24 hour shift, theunlucky bastard). I'm just gonna sleep on the train methinks.

And tomorrow to Slovenia! And hopefully some sleep. Maybe.

Gotta go and get ready! I'm going to really miss Budapest. I thinkit's my favourite place so far... Yes! I did just say that I like itover Croatia!! What's news back home and abroad?

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