Dani Beograd to Bond

For the Belgrade component of this travel blog I'm going to describe a few relatively unrelated things.

1 - The Three Cats Hostel is probably my favourite hostel ever (possibly tied with the Orbit in L.A.). The owner met us at the bus station. He looks like a Viking: probably 6'4" 220 Ibs., long wavy red hair, a long time smoker's face, pretty major facial hair, and an obvious grudge against the government (which I could certainly understand). He doesn't say much, but when he does it's cool. Favourite quote: "Are you stupid or just American?!" (to this American guy that hangs out there all the time). He taught us his name as follows: "Laden... as in Osama bin Laden". He didn't laugh when I said that I was Ben as in Osama Ben Laden. But then most of you probably wouldn't have either. There are about 10 beds in the place, the internet is free, and everyone is relaxed, good natured, and cool. The beer's in the fridge if you want it. Everyone watched a pirated copy of Grindhouse the night we arrived... except the three of us who had gone to nap (a plan which went awry when it turned into a full night's sleep) and didn't hear about it until the next day. I was disappointed.

2 - It's a dynamic and bustling, self-possessed metropolis. It's neither a museum nor an antique... in that way it seemed more North American to me than any of the other cities we had visited so far. At the same time you feel the weight of history and pride in the people themselves. This is both a positive and a negative (the negative side of things really stood out to me coming from Sarajevo): There's no war guilt and even a sense of victimization regarding the way things ended up happening through the 90s. A locally published guidebook talked about the "NATO aggression of '95"... though maybe it was a weird translation. Brent had a weird experience too when a money exchange clerk told him that he should really not be wearing his Croatia patch so visibly on his backpack. Does time in fact soothe all sorrow? The positive side of that is that it lends a real vibrancy and vivacity to the atmosphere on the streets, in the cafes and in the bars. The culture seems more alive and unburdened than I've seen elsewhere.

3 - The night life is better than the day life.

4 - Tito's grave (which is not clearly marked on any maps though apparently has an entire museum built around it) closes at 3pm. It's stupid. We wasted a trip (got there at 3:02 and met a completely unsympathetic guard).

5 - I could have stayed much longer... the impressions I've written are really just inklings and I'd have loved to explore them more deeply.

Yesterday night at 9 we caught a sleeper train to Sofia (from where I'm writing). As Brent sees it we were basically in the same car that James Bond was in From Russia with Love. It was pretty awesome and very comfortable. The conductor was probably the nicest old man I've ever met. He took good care of us. I slept well. Karin had some trouble brushing her teeth, but I'll let her tell you about that if you're interested. Ask her about it. And also about then night when she fell backwards into a bush and couldn't stand up again because her backpack was too heavy (we have a very good picture).

Apparently we might be sharing a room with a Romanian hip hop group. They seem like dicks. I hope that doesn't happen.