The Final Countdown. Day 35: Belgrade, Serbia - Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Our transfer this morning was going to be some time between 7am - 8am, so we had to be ready in case it was 7am. Which it turned out to be, as at 6.55am there was a knock at our door from the hostel reception, saying our ride would be arriving in 5 minutes.

Shouldering our luggage we went out and shortly after a mini van pulled up. The man motioned to us to climb in the very back, which did not suit me at all. He started driving off quite erratically, and so I popped myself a travel sickness pill and proceeded to zonk out.

We had been told this transfer would take approximately 4 hours and would take us through Croatia as it would be quicker. NONE OF THIS WAS THE CASE. We were still fart-arseing around Belgrade at 8.30am (one and a half hours after we had been picked up) still collecting people. Soon we had a full van, and the last person to be collected was a lady who joined us on the back seat.

I wasn’t feeling too great - all the winding and stop starting through the backstreets for an hour and a half - and still not leaving the city - wasn’t sitting so well with me. After a little while, Dan roused me to sign the passport form, and in doing so we discovered the lady next to us spoke English, and was from Canada. Dan and she started talking, and occasionally I woke up enough to throw a few words in too. The chat helped pass the time, and Lee (as we later discovered her name) was lovely - we would see her a few times over the next few days!

The day before I had sent an email to a tour company - I had discovered a tour in Sarajevo called War Scars and New Times that would start at 3.30pm - we would surely arrive in time to be able to do that. Not the case. At one of the stops when it looked obvious we were never going to make it to Sarajevo in time, I found some wifi to let them know as we had pre-registered to attend.

We stopped a few times on the way and each stop seemingly took forever. I don’t think anyone else in the bus was in a particular rush. At one stop, the driver came up to us and in halting English asked where he could deposit us. This was a surprise as we had been assured it would be door-to-door, so we gave him the name of our accommodation (Lee also) and he had no idea where it was. Another lady in the bus said that there are no house numbers in Sarajevo so our best bet would be to get a local taxi driver to take us to our accommodation. Not going to happen! We found a square on the map that was supposed to be near us where both us and Lee could be dropped off, and had some choice words about the service.

We had a few border crossings on this trip. First from Serbia to Croatia, and then Croatia to Bosnia. We didn’t any stamps for Bosnia or Serbia, but got ourselves plenty of Croatian stamps. The border crossings didn’t seem to take all that long. Eventually, we were in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Immediately across the border into Bosnia we were greeted with giant Welcome to the Republic of Sprska. At the time this didn't register anything to me other than "oh maybe that's like the Republic of Užupis in Vilnius". What was to happen over the next few days in Bosnia was a huge and incredible education for me - there was so much I had never even realised I had never known.

We eventually get dropped off in Sarajevo at about 4pm. Definitely no opportunity to go on the walking tour! As Dan had been here before he was able to point Lee in the right direction (Altho we had spotted her hotel on the way) and we set off towards us. Mostly uphill.

And then downhill again. Then sideways. We couldn't find it, of course. And now it started to chubby rain. We took refuge under the alcove of another hotel and tried messaging the accommodation. Earlier in the day when our arrival time was going to change they had been particularly responsive, but now they were not replying to messages or picking up calls. Shit. We didn't know where we had to go.

I eventually went into the hotel that we were sheltering under and asked. They said it was House number 1 up the little side street right next to us. Fantastic - a lead! Up this street and there's no signage, no "Apartment Nina". Dan went up the first time and tried ringing the doorbell to no avail. We waited. I went up, rang the doorbell and knocked on the gate. I asked a passing gentlemen and he confirmed this was Apartment Nina.

Finally, umbrella shielding me from the drops, I knocked with force and anger on the gate, which caught the attention of a dog inside and a man opened the gate.
"Apartment nina?" I asked angrily.
"Ah yes!" Was his reply.
"We have a booking. We've been trying to contact you for 45 minutes. I'll get my things." And stormed off.

We are let inside by a very confused lady. Turns out someone else had been past previously whom they thought was us - they were shown our room and declined in. Fuck knows what would have happened if the other people had chosen to take the room? I was like, "you didn't even check?!"

We eventually got it all settled, we were charged less (as we were supposed to have a private bathroom but they'd messed that up to) and we were all sorted. The daughter of the adults seemed to have her head screwed on, but the other two were utterly hopeless.

Between the 9 hour transfer and the ballache getting checked in, I was pretty damn unimpressed with Sarajevo. Thankfully my opinion changed over the next day and I was sad to leave! First things first: food. We were located right on the corner of the old town so we had a small wander through the streets and back alleys before returning to the main square again where we found a cevapi place Lee had been recommended and which I had also seen on tripadvisor.

Once inside, it was cevapi time. We ordered a late each (7 marks, or €3.50) and the famous sour cream/cheese stuff. These cevapi were markedly different to the ones we had in Belgrade - much much better! And the pita was nice and soft too. We sat here for a long time as it started raining outside - quite heavily! Dan had warned me that it downpours around here then stops, then pours again - it usually passes quickly.

When it had eased up we jumped back out into the streets. During our previous walk we had passed a cool looking cocktail bar called Tesla with a statue of him holding a lit globe outside. It seems everywhere wants to claim his as their own, too! Inside we sat in an open window but soon it started pouring again and we were getting a fraction wet, so we moved a bit further inside the bar.

There were a few crazy looking cocktails on the menu. Dan ordered the Tesla, which was every conceivable spirit combined including absinthe. A bit of a heart starter. I got a Mai Tai to start, and both of the cocktails were very good and strong - a change from the poor ones we had in Belgrade!

Looking around the bar, there were crazy lightbulbs hung sporadically from the ceiling, and Tesla quotes all along the wall. I noticed a man at the bar smoking, and then realised he was a waiter waiting to be summoned! It took a little getting used to, the indoor smoking.

We enjoyed our cocktail so much that we ordered another round of slightly less strong cocktails. Finishing them, it was time to call it a night. We noticed a small shop near our accommodation so we popped inside for some supplies - namely cheap wine!

Til next time
xxx

The Final Countdown. Day 34: Belgrade

We changed our plans slightly for Belgrade - we intended to get a late transfer the next day to Sarajevo but instead Dan organised for a private transfer the next morning. This meant we had to condense our plans into just today - but that was absolutely fine. There wasn't all that much left to  do, to be honest!

The first thing we wanted to do today was the 20th Century walking tour of Belgrade. We had hoped to learn about what had happened since it became Yugoslavia, and what was happening now. Unfortunately the tour only glossed over all of this. I feel like I need to make a hindsight note here: since being to Bosnia my perceptions of Serbia have *drastically* changed. I'll try to keep this as prejudice free as possible but I struggle to have too much sympathy for the Serbians and Bosnia since learning what I've learnt elsewhere!

Either way, our tour barely even touched on these things. Funnily enough, we had the same tour guide as the day before - she was lovely, and she was knowledgable, but I was disappointed not to learn what I had wanted to hear more about. Especially after coming from Tirana and Skopje where our guides had been so open and funny, she shot down any questions that were Kosovo or Bosnia or Communism related. The tour at least took us to some of the major sites, so that was a bonus.

The radio station bombed in 1999, left as a reminder.

She kept repeating that Belgrade is “Love at second sight” - as in, it’s not the most beautiful city to look at as much of it was destroyed in the various wars. Another quote I have from my notes is that “Serbia was dragged into the Bosnian assassination problem” of World War I - wow. Just. Wow. After everything I have now learnt, and researched myself, this statement just blows my mind.

She did briefly explain why the Kosovo area is important to the people of Serbia - that it holds some very important historical locations, however (again, from what I have learnt myself), ethnically cleansing the people of the region is probably not the best way to get it back! I must say I found it a bit rich (in hindsight) the monuments such as “We were just children” when there has been so very much horror coming out of Serbia.

Anyway, I should stop here - I have more notes from the walking tour but they actually now just make me a bit mad to read them.

After the walking tour, Dan and I made our way to a burek place (called Non Stop Burek, so there was no doubt what they sold) and got ourselves one to share and some dessert - in total coming to about €1.50. Cheap and easy lunch! We returned to the hostel briefly and then the plan was to make our way to the Fort for some more photos. We took the round about way - first via a Second Hand Store (because I couldn’t help myself) - I bought a top for €1, and then through the main shopping district.

Here I bought a dress for €14 - hand made in Serbia and I thought it was very pretty - it would be good for swishing around Italy! We also bought some ice-cream (much more expensive than the previous few cities) before finally making it to the fort. We spent some time looking at the rows and rows of tanks and shell cannons, which again in hindsight seems pretty damn disrespectful.

We managed to secure the lovers seat overlooking the nude Victor. The day before on the walking tour, our guide explained why he was situated there - he’s a little bit on the nude side, and he was supposed to sit in the main square but he would have offended the conservative lady’s sensibilities, so they put him up high and mostly out of eye-shot so no one could see his offending pinky.

After spending a little bit of time up here, we walked down and through the fort and straight through a film crew set which was waiting for people to get out of the way. We watched as they did a single take, before packing up, and moving about 5 metres further ahead.

Now it was time to finally visiting the floating lounges - the splavs. We walked up and down - most weren’t open, or tonight was going to be their opening night. I had contacted one called ShakenShake which was supposed to be great and reserved ourselves a table - for midnight. I asked if there was anything earlier but because it was opening night, that was it! We walked past them and could see they were setting up, and others were busy hastily painting the handrails.

In the end we chose one of the few that was open called TAG. It had a cool outdoor area where you could sit in netting over the water, but it was really windy and wasn’t great weather for that. The cocktails we ordered were pretty ordinary, the food was quite tasty (but treated me badly) so we only stayed for one drink and kept going. I was a bit disappointed but hey, we tried them! There was one along the way called “HOT MESS” which wasn’t open yet for the summer - and the water around it was absolutely insanely filled with trash. It certainly was a mess, alright. It’s hard to imagine what it would look like pumping in the summer.

From here we walked back to the accommodation, it was quite a walk but our feet had been rested from the floating lounge. We grabbed some snacks and supplies for our transfer the next morning (which was, of course, an early start), and hit the hay.

Til next time,
xx

The horses are riding the men.
Also, protest flags.

The Final Countdown. Day 33: Belgrade

It wasn't the most rested night of my life, but it sure beat sitting up in a bus. I was also insanely pleased that a) I was able to sleep on the bottom bunk and b) we had the whole compartment to ourselves. It would have probably been even more unbearable than a bus if we had crammed 6 people in there. As it was, Dan and I could spread out, change our clothes, all in privacy.

The night passed relatively slowly, but eventually Dan's alarm went off and it was time to repack what we had unpacked, and try to make ourselves human. At one point, I went to the toilet and came back to find Dan with his head out the window, taking pictures. I had apparently arrived so softly that I had startled Dan, resulting in him colliding his head into the top bunk and leaving a mark. This is actually the third head wound of the trip that Dan has sustained - the first, when a zip came flying off the backpack when trying to be zipped up (and he donked himself, full force, in the nose), the second, he collected a key to the forehead on a cupboard.

I ended up snoozing for a little bit once all packed and ready, until the conductor came past and it was almost time to get off. We shouldered our bags, climbed off the train and stood blinking on the platform. There had been a handful of other people in the sleeper compartment of the train, but not many.

Our accommodation was supposed to be really close and it actually was just across the road from the station. Getting there was a bit complicated, as we had to wait for about 6 lots of traffic lights, but we got there eventually, went up 1 flight of stairs (after we couldn't get the lift to work) and checked in. It was too early to take our room (about 9.30am at this point), but we were able to leave our stuff and come back for it later.

The lady behind the counter at Hostel Play tried to explain where we could get a map from, which didn't help at all, and so we went back to the station thinking there might be a tourist office there. This was clever thinking, we got a map, and then decided to figure out something for breakfast. It seemed that most things were in the same direction, and soon we came across a place with some gentle electro thumping, some outdoor couches on astroturf and a few people sitting. A quick look at the prices - stupidly cheap - and so we settled for here. In hindsight, it may have been a bit more expensive than normal, but it was cheap for us and it turned out to be awesome!

The only thing not so good about the restaurant was its name/theme. Mr. President, with a back of the head view of Donald Trump. I feel that they change their signage each time a new president is sworn in... We sat down and had a look at the menu. A lovely girl came to serve us, and she seemed a little enamoured that we were from Australia and New Zealand, and that we had come from very far away. We ordered a Serbian coffee (you know this is very strong? she asked - to which we replied that we hope it is, we need it!), a juice each (as I was still struggling with this potential chest infection, and eggs benedict with salmon.

After she returned with our coffee, I noticed something on the menu called "Plazma shake", and asked what it was. Her face lit up, and she said "This is a Serbian speciality! It's sweet, I don't know how to describe it." She looked so excited that we had asked, that we ordered one to share to try it. It was going to be our breakfast dessert.

Our eggs benedict returned and they were seriously delicious. Instead of holondaise sauce, it turned out to be some kind of truffle sauce and with our coffee and juice we were sated. Then came the Plazma shake. Out came a large cocktail glass filled with looked to be the colour of coffee with milk, with two straws and a spoon, topped with cream and cookie crumbles.

How to describe it...What I thought was cream on the top was probably egg white, and the coffee coloured part I think was crushed cookie - it was so think we basically gave ourselves an aneurysm trying to drink it with the straw - the spoon was much better! It was actually delicious, and a perfect way to end out enormous breakfast (just what we needed after the big night and what would be a big day!) and we were thankful we didn't get one each.

Our plan for now was to go to the Tesla Museum, one of the main attractions (for us) in Belgrade. I had read that you had to book ahead of time for a tour, but could find no where to do it (without ringing up). Dan had asked the lady in our hostel if this was something we needed to do, but she seemed confused, and said we can just go straight there. So go straight there we did. By now, the day had heated up considerably. And there was little shade. We reached the Tesla Museum to see a reasonable crowd outside milling about.

Once inside, I asked for two tickets. The lady behind the counter said the price for the tour. I then asked if we needed to do the tour, to which she replied that we would have to if we wanted to play with the exhibits. Ok, tour it is! By now, it was just after 11am, and a tour went every hour. As there was a large crowd, we said we would wait for the 12pm tour. This gave us time to look around the (albeit very small) open section of the museum which housed a collection of Tesla's clothing and a few other little artifacts. Including Tesla himself - his ashes in a spherical urn.

One of the museum staff encouraged us to join the 11am tour which had clearly gotten underway. I made my way there - saw that I would never see anything, and decided that we would wait for the next one. I think she was trying to shove as many people through as possible! Because we were around for the entirety of the previous tour, we knew what to expect. So when it came our turn to take a seat, we chose seats that were close to the back so we could jump up and be near the next lot of action, but close enough to the front to be able to see and hear what would happen at the front. Being 5" tall I always have to think of these things! (Otherwise I get really grumpy).

We were supposed to take a seat 20 minutes before hand but we were early. Thankfully so - the room started to fill up quickly and a lot of people had to stand. Our presenter started off by showing us a video about Tesla's life - thankfully (I believe) skipping over the whole Tesla-Edison controversy and choosing to focus on his achievements instead.

He pointed out Tesla's first alternating motor - sitting right next to Dan and I. This was quite exciting, and I learnt so much about how Tesla has brought the light to our world.

Next up, the Tesla coil, of course! I raced myself to the front, pushing past children, til I was on the front line. There was a reasonable size coil, and the presenter explained how it worked, and started handing out fluorescent bulbs. As I had seen this from the adjacent room, I quite desperately wanted to be holding one of these, so I held my hand out and was handed one. The rules: don't go beyond the line, and hold it with two hands like a light saber! A little boy in the front row kept going too close to the line and kept holding it with one hand, and I was sure he was going to be electrocuted.

Three
Two
One

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The lightbulb in my hands glowed bright blue, as the Tesla coil arced above us.

I swear I must have had a bit of metal on my forehead (or maybe there's a chip in there?) because my forehead became a bit buzzy each time the toil was turned on. I'm not a scientist so I won't go into the details of how it worked, but essentially the coil is supposed to be like a wireless electricity source - if you're reasonably close to it, items will conduct electricity. Hence the bulbs lighting up. In real life, this wouldn't work so wonderfully, but Tesla was on to something trying to bring electricity to the masses!

From here we also learned about how Tesla essentially invented wifi and wireless transmission (eg, remote control) as well as a few other experiments. In all, the museum is really small and I was sad that Dan didn't get to participate in any of the experiments - there were literally too many people. It's overrun. I don't know what time of day is best for you to go, I thought midday might be slow as people would be eating lunch but it was still very overcrowded. Hopefully one day they extend it a little more?

L: Mr Tesla.
R: Dan with the coil

After the museum, we went back to the hostel to check in. On the way, we passed some bombed, ruined buildings - turns out these were some of the buildings that NATO had bombed in 1999. I have since learnt a lot more about all of this, and while I always believe you should never fight violence with violence - from my perspective, what the Serbian people were doing was atrocious (what I know of it), and it seemed that these bombings brought a halt to it.

By now our room was ready, and it seemed that the place was overflowing with young university students making a racket. I was stuffed, so we had a bit of a break in our room. I had researched a couple of free walking tours and found one that started at 3.30 and one that started at 4. As we were so stuffed, we couldn't pull ourselves together quick enough for the 3.30 tour. On the way, we found a shop which sold the new Fanta we had seen advertised: turns out it is mango flavour.

This was our first walk into the main city area of Belgrade. I didn't realise it was going to be so uphill! The walking tour started "by the horse" in the main square.

I didn't take notes for this walking tour as my phone battery was being temperamental, so I don't really remember everything we learnt. Our guide spoke so quickly as well, and she rolled all her words together so I had a bit of a hard time following.

I do remember, though, stopping in the Skardalia area, the bohemian area of Belgrade, where she whipped out a plastic bottle of home made rakija for us all to try. It was actually delicious - far nicer than any we had tried already! It was honey flavoured and easy to sip. We were sitting next to a fountain and she encouraged us to drink from it - I love the fresh water in these Balkan countries!

We mostly did the tour as we wanted to get our bearings in Belgrade. The tour wasn't spectacular, there was a lot about the Ottoman Empire (I'm getting ottoman fatigue) but we ended up at the Belgrade Fort in Kalemegdan Park. Here we had quite a lovely view over where the two rivers meet.

After the tour it was time for dinner - as our breakfast had been so big we didn't end up having any lunch. I had wanted to eat in the bohemian area and had a place on my food list that I thought was in there but it turned out to be a bit further along.

At the time, the food was tasty. In hindsight, we've had much better since! However the service and the starters we had were delicious. For starters we had Balkan dolmades, and for the mains cevapi (for the first time!) and some other tasty sausages. We topped it off with local beer. After the fact, I can say we have definitely had better cevapi since!

After dinner we went to Skardalia for a drink and to people watch. Turns out most of the places there require you to eat as well, but one of the waitresses pointed out an establishment that was just for drinking. Phew! It was getting a little windy now but we still sat on the deck where we could watch the street.

We ordered a local beer each and also a rakija each, one quince and one apple/cinnamon. As we drank our beers, we watched as a group of musicians would stand by a table and start to play music to the patrons. They would only leave when you paid them money to go away. We were thankful we were up off the street level and couldn't be bothered by these musicians! It was funny watching the people being bothered as they tried to ignore them, eventually crumbling and getting out their wallets.

At this point we called it a night. It had been a really long night and day and we were more than ready to crash. Our accommodation is as again over run with what sounded like children (the uni students) so ear plugs in and off to sleep.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 32: Skopje, Macedonia - Belgrade, Serbia

Guess what? It was time for us to check out again - we don't stay still for long, do we? Check out was easy enough - we placed all our bags in the downstairs reception (unmanned) and hoped it would still be there when we came back.

Today the intention was to visit Lake Matka as it was supposed to be beautiful. This did not happen. Sorry for ruining the story line this early in, but we never, ever made it to Lake Matka. We came reasonably close, but not close enough. How did this happen? You need to know the date for this story. May 1. First of May. May Day. Public holiday.

We arrived at the bus station just after 11am (going to the wrong bus station first) and saw a fair few people milling about. Each bus park had some numbers above, and we found the one with 60 as that was the one that was supposed to take us directly to Matka. A crowd was starting to gather - and we knew that the next bus wasn't supposed to leave until 12.10pm (about an hour away).

As it got closer to the time, some groups of people started crowding nearing the front and side of the bus in the 60 parking lot. The crowd grew bigger, and started to squish closer together. I chatted briefly with a girl from Sweden behind us, who said we needed to buy a travel card - which Dan did while I held our place in the line.

At about 12.05, there was a massive flurry of movement to our right, and it turned out that bus 60 had arrived in a parking space further down. We ran. We didn't want to miss this bus as the next one wasn't for hours, and it seemed that half of Skopje was waiting for this bus (which it probably was, as we were to find out later...)

There was almost a riot getting onto the bus. Dan and I made a beeline for the middle door entrance as many others were, and squeezed our way on - managing to secure the window standing space. Within a few seconds the bus was rammed, and we realised we hadn't booped our ticket as there wasn't one in the middle as we had assumed. Oh well, if an inspector tried to get on, he'd never get past the first 3 people!

The next hour passed very slowly and sweatily. The bus stalled multiple times. Barely anyone got off. When someone did want to get off, the driver never opened the door. We literally crawled through the streets of the city - I thought we would speed up once we were out onto the open roads! But no. We came to a grinding halt.

The bus journey is usually around 30 odd minutes. An hour later, and we were only half way there. We could see the neverending line of cars ahead of us. Occasionally, the driver would open the door to let people out if they were getting sick of being on the bus.

Eventually I got sick of being on the bus, and felt like I wasn't too far off fainting, so Dan and I hopped off the bus near Lake Treska and a town called Shishevo. I didn't have internet but my GPS was working on google maps so I had a rough idea where we were. We powerwalked past all the cars (and buses) ahead of us. I joked that the bus just up ahead was the 10.30am bus that we had missed. It probably was, actually.

Looking at the line of cars ahead, it was clear that on the bus we would have NEVER made it to Matka, or if we did, it would have been about 4pm. And we had a train to catch late that night.  We walked for a little while along the rows of cars (watching as one tried to go up the wrong side of the road, to be shouted at by a policeman). We wandered through Shishevo a little, and the decided to go back to the lake we had seen previously to sit down, regroup, and figure out how the hell we were going to get back to Skopje.

We grabbed a super cheap icecream and wandered down a path towards the cemented Lake Treska. We sat here for a while, gathering our wits and attracting ants with our icecream sticks. There were a lot of bugs, most of which were crawling on me, including some cute little caterpillars. Some people were splashing in the lake, although it didn't look too appealing to me, to be honest, it had collected a lot of rubbish. The plan then was to do a lap around the lake, then just walk back in the direction we came until we bit a bus stop.

Nothing interesting to say about the walk around the lake, so we hit the hot and dusty road. Taxi drivesr honked and stopped to see if we wanted a ride. No thanks! We'll figure this out ourselves. We knew if we kept going we would eventually hit a bus stop. Up ahead, we spotted quite a large group of people and we stopped near a bus with a hand drawn 60 on it. It was off so we kept walking. As we crossed the street, the bus fired into life and it pulled up near us. I ran to the open day, shouted "Skopje?", while he waved his hands frantically (which we took to mean yes) and we grabbed a seat. And so we were on the bus back.

All we could do was laugh. What a debacle! As we drove back we noticed that the police had blocked off all the streets leading onto this one street, and were making people turn back the way they had come. I'm not surprised, it was entirely gridlocked earlier in the day. We were thankful we were on the bus, with a nice breeze, hadn't gotten stuck or trapped anywhere, and even though the object of the day had become a failure, it had turned into a rather hilarious story.

Basically, that the entire population of Skopje goes to Lake Matka on the May Day public holiday.

By returning to the city, this meant we had another opportunity to find some more statues and have a bit more of a look around. We got ourselves another ice cream near the Old Railway Station, which has been preserved as a reminder of the 1963 earth quake that devastated the city, before going back to Kaj Seradot for dinner.



So as you may know, I google the best places to eat in every city we visit, and make a bit of a list of places to try that are affordable and full of local cuisine. We had eaten at Kaj Seradot the day before, and when we had returned to our apartment, I decided to google it. Turns out, it was at the top of my to-eat list! So we went back there of course, and it again was delicious. At first there wasn't a table for us, but she had us sit upstairs until an outside table came free, which didn't take very long. This time both Dan and I got the sharska burger each, and we definitely got the bread with cheese this time! Accompanying it was a very cheap 1L bottle of white wine. The whole thing was coming to maximum €10 when I impulse suggested we get a shot of raki.

Upon delivering it to our table, she also delivered an even bigger shot (in a small glass you'd use for water) - she had given us an extra shot from her! We had said we were return customers, and when we said "This meal was delicious," her response was, "I know!" She knew what she had going for her.

At one point, we were mildly inebriated and Dan went to the bathroom - knocking the airconditioning unit of the wall in the process. The stairs to the toilet were complicated - a bit like a ship stair case, very narrow and steep.

As we stood up to leave, we heard a hello from behind us, and there was a gentleman who had been on our walking tour the day before. We said hello, and then decided to stay for an extra beer and a chat! Eduardo was from Brazil and also on an extended travel, so we had a lot to talk about.

Once we had finished our beer, we realised the time was a little later than we had hoped. We started power walking, but soon my bladder started making itself known. Both of us dived into an Irish pub, relieved ourselves, hoping not to be noticed. Success! And then we raced on back to our accommodation. We grabbed our belongings and got to the train station about 20 minutes early, unloading our bags from our shoudlers.

The time for the train to arrive came and went. The crowd on the platform grew and grew, and eventually about half an hour later a train arrived. There was some confusion finding our carriage and our bunk room, as the man did not speak much English at all, but he waved us into the bunk with the corresponding numbers on our tickets. He came and went a few times, delivering a pillow, and then a sheet, and motioning to us to put these on the bunk. Our bunks 65 and 66 were supposed to be the top bunk of 3 bunks on each side (something I wasn't overly happy about) but the inspector seemed to be suggesting we had the whole compartment to ourselves.

We started putting our sheets and blankets on the bottom bunk each, and when he returned he didn't say we were doing anything wrong, as so we decided it was so. He looked at our tickets (and took them away), saying "Ah, touristy tickets!" which I think is why we had the full 6 bed compartment to ourselves.

It was all far too confusing for almost midnight and a few beers, wine, and rakia deep. The train started off. Then stopped. Then reversed. Then went forward. Then backwards. This went on for a full half an hour - I seriously have no idea what was happening - but eventually the train pulled away for the last time and we were on our way.

We were so tired, but in a short while it would be the border crossing from Macedonia to Serbia, so we had to stay awake. Passport control was definitely interesting...

Our train stopped. On hopped a lady, who came along and asked if we had anything to declare (in Macedonian first, but then changed to English), any cigarettes, alcohol. No, we replied, and she continued along the carriage.

A few minutes later, a man appeared at the door, wearing a uniform. "Do you have anything to declare?" he asked, to which we looked puzzled, as we had just had this questioning, and then he continued to ask us if we had any Macedonian money on us.
"Yes, a little," we replied, confused.
"It's illegal to take Macedonian money out of the country," he responded.
Huh?
I wasn't sure what was going on, it was about 1am at this point, and I was smelling a little bit of bullshit. I said, "A lady has just come through here asking us all these same questions," to try to throw him off a little.
"She is the passport controller, I am the financial controller," he replied.
Right.
This went backwards and forwards for a few minutes. We assured him we weren't aware it was illegal, and I asked him to show us some documentation stating it was illegal (which he of course did not produce). He then asked to see the money we had, both euros and Macedonian money.

Dan opened his wallet, and took out a few notes (not all of them), and it came to about €20 total in both the currencies. We saw his eyes fall in disappointment, and he said "well, if you can change it in Serbia, then you can keep it." And walked away.

After the fact, when I had wifi again, I looked up whether Macedonian money is illegal to take out of the country.  It is not. It is true that we are actually unable to exchange this currency (thankfully we only have about €14 worth), but it is not illegal. I still believe he was just a scammer trying to get our money, but probably didn't think we had enough to be worth it.

We breathed a sigh of relief, and wondered what the Serbian border crossing was going to be like. Much simpler, thankfully, a simple "Do you have anything to declare?", the answer being no, and we were through.

Time to try to go to sleep. By now it was well after 1am - we were supposed to be arriving in Belgrade at 8.11am but the train was between half an hour and an hour late, so we had a little bit of extra time to try to sleep in the morning. I tucked myself in best I could and, alternating between overheating and freezing, I tried to sleep.

The rest can be for the next post.

Til next time,
xx