Rush, Rush

Day 539
I was up early and packed my bags quickly and put them in storage. On the way to the train station I picked up some breakfast. I got lucky because the line at the station wasn't long. My train took off about 10 minutes late and arrived to Novi Sad about 20 minutes late all together.

I didn't have a map, but luckily wandered the right way and then the first person I asked directed me the rest of the way. I picked up a map from the tourist office and then grabbed some lunch while I planned out my day.

I then headed across the bridge to Petrovaradin Fortess. Before heading up the massive hill I wandered around the cute streets right below the structure. Actually, I couldn't figure out how to get up there. Once I was up in the fortress I just sorta wandered around. None of the museums were very attractive to me. There was a mother dog and a puppy. I don't know if they were stray, she seemed to friendly to be a stray, but too skinny at the same time. She seemed to be begging me for food but I had nothing to give her. I felt really bad, but I don't think that feeding a possible stray is very smart, I think its best to just stay away.

I then went to check out the Lojvodina Museum, it was meant to be really good. The sign on the front said that it would reopen in September. The last time I checked it was September and it was still closed, bummer. Instead I ended up killing some time in an i-cafe before heading to the train station.

For unknown reasons the train I wanted was canceled for the day so I had to wait for another one. This meant that I would have 1.5 hours between arrival and when my night train departed. I spent the extra time working on my journal.

The train arrived a bit late but I didn't worry until it stopped short because someone tried to jump off and kill himself. I then fell asleep. When I woke up I realized that we were very late. Apparently there was some construction on the lines that was slowing everything down. When we got back to Belgrade I had 12 minutes to get my things from the hostel and then get back to the train station. It took 7 minutes each way to walk to the station.

I ran like I haven't run since high school. When I got to the hostel I was so out of breath all I could get out was ˝train late, train soon, bags˝. Luckily I was understood. I then ran with my bags faster than I thought possible. I jumped on the train and when I had walked down the aisle and gotten to my compartment it departed. I had made it by about 30 seconds. One of the women in my compartment told me that that is was the only train in the country that ran on time.

I was drenched from running and hungry as there wasn't a restaurant car and no time for dinner. I was able to find a plug though so I could charge my ipod. The cabin was stifling and I couldn't sleep, it was warmer than India was. I ended up out in the hallway for a long time. When we got to the Serbian boarder and the passport control people turned on the lights the guy on the bed across from me and I played with the air con dials, it turned out that someone had fixed it backwards at some point and even though it said it was on high it was on low. After the Hungarian boarder crossing I was finally able to get a bit of sleep.

Just Desserts

Day 539
I woke up naturally around 6 am, but felt no need to be up at this time and fell back to sleep until I was woken up by the drunken snoring of the annoying Canadian guy. I did manage to miss the train that I had wanted to take.

Instead of my day trip I spent some time online. This was when I found out that the Canadian and a Scot had had a rakia drinking contest at 9 am and had both passed out at the table. It took two of the hostel workers to carry them to their beds. Just as she was finishing up her story the Canadian walked into the room with blood all over his face from falling of of the bed. He then went into the bathroom and fell asleep. The Scot was passed out on another toilet. I think that they both lost the game.

After chatting with an American who was on his 98th country I headed to the fortress. I had been here before and just wanted to see how much it had changed. I considered the Nicola Tessa museum, but never made it. It was beyond hot out and I just couldn't be bothered. I ended up at the internet cafe for a bit before calling it a day.

When I went back to the hotel the Canadian guy was still on the toilet, it had been about 7 hours. When he came to he was proud of his dumb ass behavior.

After dinner I watched movies with a few others including Bruno. It was petty stupid. I think he was just seeing what he could do and still get a laugh, most of it was just dumb.

Hot

Day 538
I was up early and packed quickly. I had an early bus to Belgrade. The ride was uneventful as I slept thru most of it.

This was my second time in Belgrade and I had picked a hostel very close to the train station. At first I thought that I would wander around for a bit and see what had changed, but it was just too hot. I ended up at an internet cafe with super slow internet.

Eventually I ended up back at the hostel to shower and watch movies. After dinner I joined a large group of people for drinks at the hostel.

I was doing the normal backpacker meet and great (aka backpacker hell) explaining my back story and answering the same questions. This time I had a different answer for one of the questions, when would I be going home. I had just booked my ticket home about an hour before and I was finally able to say October 20, and yes, I was very very excited. A jack ass 19 year old Canadian guy who heard that I had been on the road for just about 18 months at this point and that I was happy to see the end actually said "well, travel isn't for everyone." Travel isn't for you, ass hole! Luckily he went out with a group of people while I stayed in and chatted for a bit longer before calling it a night.