Hostel New Morning Belgrade

... fingers across the green wooden table that showed the various states of being drunk. Evidently drunk doesn't necessarily mean drunk. There are different levels that people achieve based on their prowess and skills obtained over the years. Such life skills this Canadian guy has procured at just 19 years of age. With this imaginary line drawn, battle began. So on your marks, get set, drink!!!

Keep in ...

May 27th - Belgrade
We arrived this morning into Belgrade very tired after getting the night train. Our hostel was a bit of a walk but quite easy to find. On the way we were suprised to see that there were still some bombed out buildings from the NATO offensive in the late 1990's, a couple of the buildings looked ready to go over if a strong gust of wind came along. After waking the reception guy up in the hostel we dumped our bags and took a ...

... I've been here. The owner apparently rang him up and asked him to stop shooting; she said he was drunk. Not sure how you'd word such a conversation. They seem to take the approach that this is serbia and these things happen. I'm no longer keen on this hostel; there are others with different inhabitants. But I need them to look after my stuff while I'm in Istanbul and I'm leaving tomorrow. But they aren ...

... smile; "This is a secure city" Here they were, these were the kind of Serbs that'd made me fall in love with this strange country on my previous visit. Serbs like Alex and Igor and all their mates. There's no doubt these men also felt passionately about Kosovo. You will struggle to find a Serb who doesn't want Kosovo back- they consider it their heartland and birthplace of their church. As such I expected the fascists to have a lot more support than they ...

... fine', and bought some at a spot up the road. Kinda funny really. Other than that the people were pretty personable and helpful. Nobody ever hassles you and you never got attitude. As for sightseeing, you could do it all in a day or two at most. Of note were the bombing sites where they left intact the bombed out ruins of what I think were a couple of military administrative buildings. Another funny thing was walking to the museum of ...

... saturation, and so the city's fairly uninspiring and bleak architecture seemed insignificant in my ov**all assessment. What I had found most intriguing about Belgrade, though, was its vibrancy. Its streets - grey and lifeless at first glance - w**e in fact awash with people of all ages all out enjoying their city. It had had a carnival feel, yet I'd m**ely sampled a mid-wint**'s weekday like any oth**. And th**ein lay the frustration of my ...

... 2 parts vinegar, 3 parts petrol, so approach with care and make sure you have a good map to get home. The wine gave me the same minty menthol sensation you get from some toothpastes, only behind my eyeballs. Belgrade still bears the scars of its 1999 brush with NATO. Around 100m from our hotel stands the remains of what we believe is the Defence Ministry. No real way to find out while we're here though. I look up every day expecting to see them appending a ...

I learned about Wednesday's Red Star v Partisan Belgrade derby game. After last weeks Zagreb/Split game the prospect of seeing one of the biggest matches of the Serbian season between two teams famous for their crazy and violent fans was irresistible. Another day another 8am bus ride. Better than the alternative, Dave and I briefly thought we had been misinformed about bus times and were gonna have to wait on the VERY soviet style bus station till 2pm."Luck" was with us as we got to ...

... pocket. We had arranged to go out again that night but after an all too brief nap that evening I fell into a deep sleep. I finally came round the next morning - 11 hours later. I met Nemanja the following day and he introduced me to his friends Milan and Tikana. We went for drinks, more Rakia, in a bar known by the symbol ?. Nemanja advised me of a route to Sofia he had cycled with a French couple, who are also clearly barking mad; they are now in Tibet, one year into a ...

... and Eastern Bloc that I had grown up with and heard through the media, in combination with actually being there on the ground, alone, and with no one with whom to speak to about it. Our shows here were typical of our whole Yugoslav experience, save for a few exceptions. We never could quite figure out if the audiences were enjoying the shows. They tended to be quite ...