Day 11- An apartment in Belgrade

 Hi all from a baking Belgrade where the temperatures are well into their 30s. And talking about 30s, here's a bit about my experience in country 22 of my "30 countries before 30" quest. 

As mentioned in my last post, I needed a "white card" to officially stay in Serbia. My host kindly offered to come over to assist me in filling in the form, but, inconveniently for the both of us, her car broke down, so she had to wait for the breakdown service. Given that I'd planned to have the morning off, this didn't affect my plans too much. We both came to the conclusion to do the process virtually, therefore, in theory, allowing me to be a tourist for the afternoon. 

One of the main things you have to prepare for when travelling to the Balkans, is to bring local currency with you. After lunch, I wandered over to the Western Union exchange office to get some "dinar". But! They didn't have enough dinar to compensate me. I still took about half, though, just so I didn't get caught out. 

However, caught out I was. Whilst making my way to the bus to visit the Nikola Tesla Museum, I got continuously lost, and neither Google, nor the Belgrade public transport system were of much use. Upon arriving at the Museum, I was told that they had exceeded capacity, and to come back in 30 minutes. The museum is located in a neighbourhood with not a great deal to do, so I decided to schlep over to the Belgrade fortress to see what it had to offer. But! Lightning struck twice- I got lost, and decided I did not have enough time to make the most of the fortress. 

So, plan C was to go to Belgrade train station to book my sleeper train ticket to Montenegro for tomorrow evening. When I arrived there (admittedly whilst trying to keep my emotions in check), I was told that tickets had sold out. Yikes! 

From Montenegro I'll bus it to Sarajevo (which I've pre-booked already). Now you might accuse me of being a bit last minute with this train ticket, but you have to book it at the station itself- perhaps Serbs are technophobes?, I don't know! The kind lady at the station told me to come back at 11 a.m. tomorrow to see if there has been any cancellations. So keep fingers crossed folks. This really is like a full circle "Race Across The World" moment where there is no guarantee of going the way you want to go! 

That was all a bit too much for my levels of frustration so I returned to my apartment (where, you've guessed it! I got lost along the way) so I could do that thing that neurodivergent people have to do so often- re-regulate! 

But despite the fact that my camera reel has mainly consisted of three things today- a building, a poser of a cat, and my lunch- there was one good thing that came from today- namely, the lunch (and the cat's modelling skills). Genuinely one of the best meals I've ever had. Zucchini (yes I did have to Google what it was in British English to remind myself!), vegan feta, purple olives, with basil on gluten-free bread in a tomato sauce. Yes it was so good that I even went properly " old man", and passed on my compliments to the chef!

I'm determined to get a bit from Belgrade today so I'll find a sarnie, and go on a pootle to see a bit more of the area I'm staying in. 

Til next time (which may well be Monday) and with thanks to Saily for providing me with an e-sim (no, the blog has not gone so big that I am doing promotions now!! :)),

Tom :)

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