Dobar Dan (Good Day)!
Ah, Belgrade at last...well not exactly. The story began with a 7 hour train ride from Athens to Thessaloniki. The plan was simple: spend the night in Thessaloniki, get up at 7AM to catch a direct train to Belgrade which would arrive around 10:30PM. Long train ride, but at least it was the earliest and fastest train. Little did we know that this decision would lead us straight into the hands of the Macedonian police. As it turns out Canadians require a visa to enter the country of Macedonia, something we did not posses. Before we were aware of what was happening, the boarder police had us pulled off the train and dragged to the nearby police station. We ended up spending close to 10 hours contained in a courtyard where we enjoyed the beautiful Balkan weather while playing cards on a rickety wooden bench. Who needs the Greek Islands when Macedonia has so much to offer!?
The only train that we were allowed to take to leave the country left at 7PM and took us back to the dreadful town of Thessaloniki. In order to get to Belgrade we would either have to purchase visas to pass back through Macedonia or take a 20+ hour train ride through Bulgaria. We decided to go with the Bulgaria option with a 5 hour lay-over in delightful capital city Sofia. Travel Tip: When in Sofia hold on to all of your possessions as tightly as possible, watch out for guys with knives and personnel who pretend to work at the train station and offer to "watch your bags". In fact, it is probably better to avoid the city at all costs.
When we finally arrived in Belgrade the warm and kind welcome that we received from Marko's grandparents made all of the troubles of the past week fade into nothing. We were given a delicious feast of traditional Serbian food, which was not to be matched by any restaurant. Marko had Emily prepared to expect the worst from Belgrade due to the economic struggles and the recent bombings of military and government buildings. While there is evidence of struggle in certain areas of Belgrade, the city seems to be slowly healing itself. Tito's grave, Kalemegdan and Skadarlia were a few of the traditional Yugoslavian attractions which we enjoyed very much. The internet here is extremly slow so pictures are taking a lot longer to post than we though. Please stay tuned.
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