Holiday Inn Belgrade

The capital of Serbia .. must admit that it was not too impressive but interesting to see these post-communist countries. Spent the afternoon and the entire next day on the river. Floating through the Iron Gate gorge and viewed some of the best scenery on the river with dramatic cliffs and stone carvings. Beautiful sunny day so a great day and the only day we sailed all day.

... Bosnia the next night (Sunday). Overnight train takes 8 hours, its better so I don't waste daytime for traveling. Thats another story. I haven't had enough of this city, but my visa expires in two days. This place has no ugly people. Half the women of the this country can be supermodels faster than they can say "Yes". The other half will just have to do with local and regional modelling assignments. I mean it. Zero ugly people.

Next stop, Sunday.

... had been one. Someone said they thought all Canadians and Americans had traceable microchips inside them, from the government. A girl named Biljana worried that all the new diseases that had been popping up lately were being made by a power that might one day want to eliminate whole populations. Biljana and her roommate let me take a shower in their dorm room, one evening. Biljana wore a black skirt and sleeve-less, orange blouse. Her skin wasn't light ...

... and gardens which provide a good escape from the city. We spent time in the gardens and headed to the Military museum. It was my (Leonie) idea to go and well frankly it was boring. It went way too far back and whilst the more recent history of the former Yugoslavia, is a little more what I was looking for this was dedicated to one small room at the end. Oh well, say la vi! It wasted an ...

32 Vokova to Sremska Mitrovica Best bit: rolling hills Worst: leaving Vukova before the final concert of that German orchestra Distance 84km So far Serbia wins on friendliness and draws equal number one for stupid drivers. As I left the haunting Vukovar I was chilled by the words from the lovely friendly in the tourist information, who told me how most of her family had been murdered during the war, and appropriately I passed the mass cemetary for ...

... buildings that they haven't even attempted to rebuild that are still standing as remnants of the war. Unfortunately I couldn't find them. I later found out that they're somewhat hidden behind other buildings, but didn't have a chance to go back and look again. The main tourist attraction in Belgrade is the fortress, Kalamegdan. The fortress includes inside and is surrounded by large parks. Luckily the weather was ...

... my calls of "Hello". So I went to the next window and asked again only to be told that there was only one train per day that took bicycles, and it had already left! I stood aside and thought about this as the man behind (a local) me enquired and failed to get satisfaction, wandering off muttering "democracia!" under his breath.. I thought about taking a taxi, then realised that the coach station was next door, so bought a ticket OK there and took ...

... didn't want to rip us off. Almost 48 hours had passed since each of us had lain down in a bed, but shortly before 5am we got that opportunity in the small hostel we had found in the centre of the city. After a few hours sleep and some lunch the four of us made our way up Belgrade's pedestrian thoroughfare, Kneza Mihailova, to the city's premier site, the Kalemegdan citadel. Fortifications were started here during Celtic times, and over the centuries some 115 ...