Best Western Sumadija Belgrade

... and Danube rivers meet. There is a massive military museum housing a collection of guns, cannons and remnants of a spitfire that was shot down in the Balkans conflict. The city by night/dusk is very pretty - the old buildings that have remained/have been rebuilt were lite up colourfully and gave the city a very western feel to it.... There are a couple of buildings that show the physical damage of the balkans ...

... everything. Good day so far. It was going dowwwwwn. On our way back from cricket, it started to rain. And I don't mean dribbly, soft rain. This baby was coming down and pounding all those cafe umbrellas silly. My saturday night was in jeopardy.
But the rain stopped at a decent hour, and since the drainage system in Belgrade is better than Delhi, there was no flooding (YAY!). I got back to the hostel to find Irena here, so I quickly jumped into the shower, you ...

... tough guy" pounded on a heavy drum that hung from his shoulders, while a girl twirled around him holding a fan, Arabic-style. To each side, guys wearing black sashes and puffy, white shirts danced. They stood erect ansd held their arms at chest level in front of them, in circles, as if they balanced on unicycles on tight-ropes. They swung their forearms powerfully from side-to-side. They jumped and twirled like ribbons. They dropped to one knee and ...

... paid for one night rather than two. But there's not much space so storing my bags for two weeks might be a problem. On the other hand its ideal for bike storage as there's a basement hallway so its out of sight, undercover and locked up. Tricky. Another hostel would be much more social but I need to work it all out. Initially there was myself and a Serbian couple but a group of young bulgarian ballet dancers (basically kids) have arrived so the place is full.

... and if he spoke English. " Deutche" he replied. This could be fun. The limit of my German is "Wombat" and "Look out! ". I showed him a credit card and he pointed to the building I was outside of. Phew. So, on the road again heading south through the drizzle. I'm expecting to drive somewhere in Bulgaria and hopefully if all goes well we shall get to the bottom of Turkey by tomorrow night. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

... a local designer called Marianna who allowed me to stay in her house and fed me constantly. And washed my bike gear. Visiting every bike shop in town to find a new helmet. Everyone being extremely friendly (apart from the internet lady who has banned me from uploading photos!). Getting lost all the time. Getting soaked via a mini tsunami caused by a bus driving at high speed through a monster puddle.

The night train to Belgrade was my first time riding in a night train. I knew that I hate night buses and never sleep on them. Would the night train be the same or would I actually arrive feeling like I had gotten a full night's sleep? I decided to splurge for the sleeper since it cost the same as I would have been paying for a hostel anyway. The sleeper compartment has three beds essentially stacked on top of each ...

... of insurance. I still think it was a scam but we shelled out the 125 Euros, retrieved the passport and were on our way. Except I was prohibited from driving, as Dan forgot to add my name to the insurance. Of all the countries we visited, the Serbians are by far the worst drivers and had the worse roads (until we got into Bulgaria). On a two lane road, they would overtake in the middle, irrespective of oncoming traffic, which is slightly unnerving ...

... go. I spent my first night in Belgrade in a terribly dodgy motel after failing to locate a hostel or other student-oriented housing. In my room barely large enough for a twin bed I spent my night deep in the bottle trying to figure out what drew me to this city deep into the former Yugoslavia. The following day, after finding a wonderful place to spend the remainder of my time, I found my answer ...