#Countryside selecta

[rayjuss]

Back on the ones 'n twos. 22nd April I'll be playing some of the finest mp3s and drinking as much as possible. (practice hours)

[gsmatthews95]

Thumbs up for serbia

Yo yo yo yo yo. What is up?? I am here in flesh but in writing on the blog as I forever immortalize my thoughts and conceptualise my memories in literature form for future generations and future me to revisit. So I left y'all on my butterz night bus to Belgrade last week. I finished writing mid journey, may I say the journey got all the more eventful. I couldn't sleep until the last two hours, great. 1 coffee at 6pm screwed me sadly, very bloody annoying. But yes after I left you we got to the border. Coincidentally I'd actually forgotten about this journey till I just revisited the last blog, so lucky I looked back. The border was long. A long night time border crossing in a bus? Shock. Never had one of those before. Probably some of my least pleasant experiences holidaying. They are always crap and stressful. This was no change. Firstly we waited on the Hungarian side for maybe 1.5-2 hours. I was wired the whole time cause of the coffee. Lucky I had an audiobook to help my sanity. Then the actual border. The Hungarians are apparently really strict on their borders I've been told. Something that was definitely not the case coming from Poland as I didn't even need my passport. This was the issue. My passport was in my big bag as I'd assumed (rationally given pur previous border crossings) I wouldn't need it and I didn't want the FAFF of having it on me. Mistake number 1. Someone said "use your drivers licence that'll work". It didn't work. I was sent back to the bus. I clambered into the hold to find my passport and had a border guard shouting at me in Hungarian. Cheers that'll help. The bus driver telling me I was holding the whole process up made me laugh given people were still getting their passports checked when I got there. Then an aggy look from the official as he begrudgingly let me thru. The next step of the farce. Getting back on the bus and giving the conductor pur passports. She, then having had them checked AGAIN brought them back, gave them back to people randomly. She couldn't say half the names and was left with like 5 at the end of unclaimed passports hmmmm. It was a fiasco. After that the journey was smooth to Belgrade where we continue our journey. Belgrade. A city steeped in history. A people so affected by war and strife. A culture so intertwined with that of its neighbours. Belgrade was a funny city. So parts were very grand, some were grey and grim from the communist era while others were of a more modern style. This was all testament to the rocky, turbulent history of Serbia. All of which we learnt on the free walking tour. Something I havent done in some time and our first in eastern Europe. I the guide was knowledgeable. He also like to talk. A lot. Lots of Information. May I pose a question of you? How much info is too much? Can there be too much? I think this may have been that occasion. It was a lot to take in but on our first day it was perfect to set the scene for this highly individual country. We enjoyed it greatly. But in the immortal words of Craig David re ee wind. When the crowd say no selecta. So I reverse. Our day began with the checking in at 6:30am urgh. Lucky we could do so but we had no bed so we slept on the sofas for 3 hours. Nice. To wake up in our new hostel. It was an odd one. Some very friendly nice people. But many... Different people. A few crazies and a few odd ones. The hostel was like a big apartment so it was cosy and sociable but like I say... Weird and a bit dirty. The day began though with a wander to the market where we saw people selling bits and bobs and some things you can only imagine they found in their attic or in a skip... No deal thank you. The greatest excitement from this journey however came as I found out how much the old Serbian men enjoy a game of chess. They love it. They'd all be crowded around a pair of players. Excitement in the air. Cursing. Cries of cheating. And jubilant smug grims when one had made a power move. With my recent redound love of chess I was engrossed. Safe to say Alina was not. I wanted to stay, to challenge these goliaths of the game to a match. It was intimidating and Alina may have killed me so I shrank away. Content with merely spectating this spectacle. To our surprise and joy this became commonly found throughout belgrade as these testosterone fuelled beasts fed their egos through brain straining sport. Immense viewing. Another little tit bit. You can buy 2 litre plastic beer bottles in Serbia. A beautiful creation up there with sliced bread, the wheel, sky plus and tiki taka football. They were a staple of our time in Belgrade and being so large you had to drink them fast before they got flat and warm. Fine mum I'll neck my beer. Our second day was buff. The sun was shining and we went to the beach. Huh? The beach? But Serbia land trapped? Some of our keen geographers may have been asking these questions. Very well done if you did, you get a cookie. However, being on two major rivers has allowed Belgrade to create an artificial stone beach. And being a stones throw from the city it is a perfect little get await. Ill be honest, it was busy. Still space to bathe tho and have a wee dip in the water. There were restaurants, bars, shops etc. We made do with our bread and dips tho. A good little day out and a chance to top up the tans, ideal. Our third day was uneventful as we took in the city and city and just vibed. Dont know what that means? Neither do I. I made it up. It was chill so we were all ready for our trip to nova varos and the countryside the next day. So you may have realised as keen readers that we have spent much time in big cities. We have. And we wanted to get out so we sent to brdo in nova varos in west Serbia. Off the beaten track so as to speak. This consequentially, is where I have been writing from although we are now in the bus to Bosnia woohoo. Edin dzeko here we come. Nova varos is tiny. A skiing town in winter and a chilled hiking town in summer kind of. We have been in the wilderness staying in a cheap home stay with a lovely woman who didn't have a word of English. It was very enjoyable. We wandered around towns and to a monestry In the mountains. It was very atmospheric and like I say, nice to get out of the cities. Yesterday was the day we saw a river. The uvac river. The home to the 3m griffin vulture. Ooooo. Wow. Big bird. There were also tonnes of eagles gliding around. They were all sick. The tour had us two and a polish couple and consisted of floating down the river as it meandered through the high up mountains. To describe this river it looked like your cliché geography GCSE meandering river as it swerved back and forth through these mountains. Buff. A very picturesque area that can only really be appreciated from up heigh. So we climbed. There was a platform maybe 200-300 metres up (it was hard to work out through the guides very disjointed english.). It was a hot climb as the temperature rose and the sun came out. 20-30 mins later we were there. Wow. What a view. AND we have the pictures to prove it ahahah. It was lush. We had a beer (a homebrew we think) at the top and then wandered down for the rip to the cave. It was a big cave. Very big. It was also very cold. Nicknamed the ice cave. Why? Two reasons we think. Maybe cause it was so cold. Or maybe cause of the vast numbers of stalagmites and stalactites all over the cave. They were very impressive even if we still can't work out which is which. This brought the end of the cruise as we sauntered home in the boat, a good little day out only marred by the scenes that morning. God that was a FAFF. We had decided to go the day before. Were told the time and price. Perfect. The man came the next morning and shock, the price had changed. There were taxi charges, entrance fees, another price because other people had pulled our of coming. Hmmm. I dont believe you. This whole encounter was made all the more tricky by his speaking no English. He spoke to a lady in Serbian. She translated to alina in German and she translated to me in English. Like a giant game of Chinese whispers. Long and stressful. After deliberation we went for it. Annoyed but it still wasn't expensive. Just like having a slight sour taste in your mouth. So you may be questioning the title. Bit weird. Is it relevant or has this kid just lost his imagination. It was actually alinas first contribution to this beautiful blog something she has been craving since the blogs glorious rebirth. So yes the last few days in nova varos have marked our reignited love for hitchhiking. Having only done it sporadically when I was 18 to 20 its something I'm glad to be doing again. Everyone here is very friendly and usually more than willing to pick us up. Since we've started there's only been one journey we had to walk having done it 6 times in the last few days with the most recent coming from a taxi driver as he said no. Stopped 10 metres up the road and reversed to let us in. Good lad. Like I say its been fin, saved us time and money even if we cannot communicate with anyone as none of them speak any English. Just lots of waving hands forwards and repeating the destination we need. A successful start in our eyes. The funniest was as we were stood on the side of the road hailing down anyone we could and a big Porsche zoomed towards us. We saw. Stuck our thumbs up. Hoped. Prayed. He speeds at us. We have little confidence with his speed. No signs of slowing down. He's past us. F off mate we think. I fume "of course he didn't stop, no one in a Porsche will ever stop". We look over. He's stopped. What's happened? Has he hit a child? No he'd found his conscience. He reversed and let us in. What a man. What a car. It was really comfy and spacious. We enjoyed it. But yes this is now a new chapter in our lives. The chapter of free lifts and hitching. Yay. Enjoyable. Here's to lots more. Anyhow I've rambled for ages and my fingers hurt. Writing this on my tiny crap phone is long. But for you guys I'd do anything. Love y'all. I'll be back in like four days. We won't be in Bosnia too long. Ciao (Thats bye in Serbian). G