Belgrade, Second Impressions

Walking around town, Belgrade seems like a strange mixture of Lima and Roma, with a bunch of blown up buildings added into the mix, and all set in the hills of Pittsburgh. It is really phenomenal to see the destroyed buidlings - and i should probably (carefully) verify with someone that those are from NATO bombings and not some other disaster (6 years seems a long time to not recover from such things, but it has taken Managua even longer to clean up their last big earthquake). I wonder how much of my taxes went towards destroying the city i am now visiting?

An interesting quote from the current wikipedia Belgrade entry:

Belgrade was under some form of attack some 54 times since AD 1, or every 37 years on average. This means that, statistically, every citizen of Belgrade has seen two attacks on the city in his/her life.

The cars here are also very different - after my time in Rome i am used to seeing small European cars, but i do not recall seeing these small Eastern European cars. The most phenomenal one is the Lada Niva 4x4, which is like a miniaturized version of the Ford Bronco. It is awesome and might even fit nicely into the back of my (future) Toyota Tacoma. There are of course all models of Yugo and plenty of them, and some nice looking Skodas as well. Yugo is by far predominant, which isn't at all surprising.

Before i forget to mention it, local beer (pivo) in these parts is very good, though the Zagreb beer i had was a little better than the Serbian beer i've had so far.

I think i may have also forgotten to mention my amazement that the airplane food was vegan (i ordered vegetarian), even providing margarine and a vegan dressing - quite impressive. Since then i've had to eat bread and water if i wanted to have close to a guarantee of vegan food, though there was a restaurant close to the Cathedral in Zagreb that had a good selection of vegetarian dishes and was open late.

Belgrade First Impressions

Arrived safely in Belgrade, was an uneventful trip. The city is a little
strange, but i haven't had a chance to fully explore. Right next to the
Hotel Rex (place i'm staying) is an area that is barricaded off, surrounded by guards, and has signs showing "no photographing". I think they are keeping a pen of undead back there, will try to investigate later.

The barricaded section reminds me of El Salvador when it was really bad,
which is to say when we lived there, which is to say it's a little scary.

I don't think the whole town is really bad, i think that it's more a holdover from the past few years, and hopefully that thought will be a reality when i return home safely.

Only one way to find out - i have to go explore a little more.

Day one, or is it Two, or Three?

Munich, the gate next to mine, the plane was heading to Belgrade. Figured that was a Good Omen. The plane to Berne was a small propeller deal, reminded me of the plane i took to Ratanakiri, though the AC vented air wasn't visible and mildew- smelling. Berne airport reminded me even more of that distant Cambodian outpost - sure, the runway was paved here, and the building made out of cement, and airconditioned at that, but the size and feel was similar, and it was out in the middle of nowhere. A taxi from the airport to the city centre was a nice affair, through farmlands and around rollerbladers, and expensive too.

I waited 5 hours in Berne so i could catch the 7pm train to Zurich and save some time on my tickets (7pm is next day travel, if you're travelling overnight). During that wait i explored the city, and among other things found a nice place where drug deals go down - i think that's what all parks are for.

Zurich, 1.5 hour wait, enough time to buy some beer for the train ride and eat some pasta. I got on the wrong train car, though the right train. Apparently the car i was in only went somewhere in Austria, i had to move 5 cars ahead to go to Zagreb - no problem. The seats were quite uncomfortable, but cheap, as in i spent no extra money (sleeping cars cost up to €50 more). Long ride, empty car, constantly being woken up by ticket checker dude or passport stamping man.

Crossing the border into Croatia (or Hrvatska, as the natives spell it, hence the .hr internet address), the train stops for quite some time, not sure why, but then at the last possible minute a woman says (not so much in spoken word as in hand gestures and facial expression) that this train isn't heading to Zagreb any more, we need to change train. No problem, i changed train, though the one i left was heading to Belgrade - Good Omen part II.

I've spent my time in Zagreb mostly sleeping, have slept more in the past 2 days than i have all year, i think.

One question: who do i contact about adding some new fields to the CIA world factbook? I think every country needs a BPPT (Beautiful People Per Thousand) category, possibly one for various age groups and sex. Hrvatska would rank quite high in the 20-30 y.o. woman BPPT.

It's pouring outside and the cat in me doesn't want to get wet, guess i'll spend some time reading through misc@ mail.

And 36 hours later...

36 hours after leaving Ann Arbor, MI, USA, i find myself in Zagreb, Croatia. I'd write more but i'm quite hungry.

Our glorious hero waits triumphantly for his next flight.

PHL airport - view of control towers from terminal A.

Old DTW terminal (yes im on my way to Europe).

Cost

Bought a ticket to Berne for under $900. It cuts my trip back by 4 days but saves me $500, enough to buy the Palm i want, or to afford a hotel while i'm traveling, or the train ticket that will get me to Belgrade. And the best part? Maybe i'll actually take this trip.

I've still little clue how to get from Switzerland to Serbia - it's just a train, isn't it? I can walk, i can bike, i can swim, i can make it? I remember this Dutch couple i met in Peru - they rented a motorcycle and drove through some nasty roads and said they'd been doing that for their vacations for some time. I've been meaning to get motorcycle endorsement (particularly after moped'ing through Northern Cambodia), and the corresponding international license, but haven't made the time.

I'll be gone from June 26 - July 24 (again assuming i make the flight this time) but still in touch. If past experience is any indication, i may still put in a good 20+ hours of work a week. But i love it nonetheless, and i'm not just saying that because today i ate only equal quantities of granola bars, rice, and chocolate.

Dead Windshields

Paid $185 for my new windshield - a nice pair of Oakley's (no, not the mp3-playing type). They're not perfect, but still worth the cost. I'd like them to be perfect, and wish the world was such that we could order our personal modifications for all things manufactured. Suits are tailored, braces custom fit, but my windshield is generic, even though it'll be touching my face. Maybe in 10, 20 years we'll be living in that technologically advanced world where our pets and our offspring can be custom made to order. Either that or we'll be living in a typical post-apocalyptic world.

And speaking of post-apocalyptic situations, is there any better than the undead future?

Which leads to the follow-up (trick) question: "Night", "Dawn", "Day", what word comes next?

If you answered "Dusk", "Afternoon", or "Teatime", well, you're wrong, but i'll give you partial credit since it makes sense and could logically be the correct answer. Instead Master Romero has decided that "Land" follows "Night", "Dawn", and "Day".

How long can 23 days be? Some might say 1987200 seconds, or 552 hours. Some might say 200 dead in Iraq, or $3168 net. The correct answer is 23 days is most properly measured as 99.16 consecutive viewings of the trilogy, all before the 4th installment comes out. Yes, June 24, 2005 is the release date for Land of the Dead, the first Romero Zombie flick in 20 years. I'd say line up now for your tickets, but the preview makes the movie look like a cross between Damnation Alley and Demolotion Man (or possibly Fortress; the preview was a little short), and, more importantly, my local theatre doesn't even have a pre-midnight showing, let alone tickets on sale now. Not to worry, i'll be calling them every day until the 24th in the hopes of convincing them for one.

But for now i'm off for 23 days of undead movie watching, practice bat-swinging, and listening to appropriate tunes, like The Doors. So until they make Happy Hour of the Dead, make mine Land.