Day 139: Heroes' Square and Margaret Island

From the hostel I walked 2 kilometers northeast to see Heroes' Square.

Out on the streets people were celebrating National Children's Day at a large festival with toys, sweets, and music. Behind Heroes' Square is a sprawling park with lakes, castles, cafes, and all sorts of other activities going on.

I came back to the hostel to make myself lunch before walking to Margaret Park.

The park is an aerobic exercisers dream. It's still under renovation, but in addition to dirt walking paths, they have stone walking paths and a softer running path made of the same material you find on tracks -- both of which I presume loop around the entire island. At the southernmost end of the island they have an outdoor exercise park that I did a short workout on while I was there. The entire island is more than two kilometers long and has a zoo that's free to walk around and peer at the animals, a hostel, bars, cafes, monuments, church ruins, a Japanese garden... A LOT of stuff. I only wanted to walk halfway up the island before flopping onto a shady spot of grass to enjoy the smells from a nearby rose garden.

Back at the hostel I met a group composed of a Brit, an Aussie, and a Kiwi. The person working the reception that night I had never seen before, and was hilariously incompetent at his job at points. For some reason he was walking around the hostel without his shirt on. When a taxi called up to alert us that he was waiting outside, the guy had no idea who he was calling for (technically not his fault, whoever requested the taxi should have been waiting outside!). He told us he had a scheduled check-in at 11pm, but at 10:55 told us he would be upstairs drinking vodka with the Italians. When he was checking in the guest later, he had a few golden one-liners like "We have a few rules here at the hostel... *looks at me and the Commonwealthers* ... errr do you guys know what they are?". Overall, a raucous night, but I enjoyed the light entertainment.

Day 138: Recovering

The last few days activities had left me lacking in energy and motivation to explore more of Budapest, so I spent most of the day in the hostel relaxing. I had a month until I flew back to the US, so if I only spent a few days each in Vienna and Prague, and a week in Berlin, then I would need to spend two more weeks in Budapest without an additional destination. Since I had been working on my Spanish, I decided a budget airline flight to Spain was in order. After mulling over whether to fly into Madrid or Barcelona, I decided the beach and culture rich city of Barcelona would do me some good.

The way the flights and accommodation worked out, it was cheapest/most convenient to fly in on a Saturday night and fly out one week later, even though accommodation for Saturday night would cost me 65 euros (dios mío!). Thankfully, Spain isn't typically that expensive, and once the weekend was over I would only have to pay about 20 euros per night. It wasn't until after I had booked everything that I learned that the language of Barcelona is actually Catalan, not Spanish. But since people from many different parts of Spain come to live and work in Barcelona, I would still hear a fair amount of Spanish out on las callas.

Day 137: Turkish Baths

In the afternoon I went with two annoying German girls and one extremely annoying American to one of Budapest's spas.

It took 7.5 kilometers of walking to get there (only 4.5km on the way back, after we decided to actually look at a map). I've never really been to a spa before, besides the sauna or hot bath facilities you occasionally find at gyms, but the place seemed nice and well layed out. There's a Turkish bath in the center and cooler baths in two of the corners. They have a few wet saunas, each with room for about 8 bodies. You feed the hot rocks scented water with a wooden dowel spoon and it adds "wet" heat to the room (whatever that means). We were using the water with moderation, until a group of Hungarians joined us in the sauna and showed us how it's really done. After a few spoonfuls of holy water, the temperature felt like it had shot up 10 degrees Centigrade. But the most affecting part was the sinus annihilating fragrance that had been mixed into the water. One of the German girls and the American twat had to leave because they couldn't stand the heat, literally speaking.

The dimwit American had a crush on one of the German girls, and the first thing that duffer did once we stepped into the Turkish bath was pick her up and give her the good ol' frat boy slam into the pool. Keep in mind this is a spa, where cosmopolitan 30-somethings sit around quietly discussing their pension fund annuity options.

Thirty minutes later we found ourselves in one of the cooler, corner pools. At some point the daft bugger decided that eye contact was sufficient consent to force himself upon the German girl in a steamy, lip-locked embrace -- with her friend and myself as audience.

Trying to be open minded here, you could tell that the German girl was enjoying the attention, but her friend and I had already experienced enough cringe to fuel six seasons worth of Spanish soap operas.

Later, we were de-cringing in the jacuzzi when the non-twitterpated German girl left to swim laps in a different pool. I took the opportunity to spread out, close my eyes, and mind my own business. Miss Fräulein and G.I. Joe didn't share my sense of expansiveness and sat on top of each other. Five minutes later they too left, but within 10 minutes Popeye had come back to pay me a visit and tell me all about how he was going to kill me "later", how if I had left earlier they would have had sex in the jacuzzi, and how blue his balls were. Asshole.

At least the walk back had a nice view?

After arriving back at the hostel I arranged to meet up with the friends I had met yesterday on the walking tour. I told them I'd be by the pool above the bar we were at yesterday at 10, with a bottle of white wine for sharing. Twenty minutes past ten I asked a nearby group to watch my wine for me while I go down into "the hole" to get the wifi password and hopefully figure what was going on.

When I came back ten minutes later I asked the group if they still had my wine and they told me they had no idea what I was talking about. We talked for a bit (they were Hungarian, but at least one of them, the sole guy of the group, spoke English). He kept asking me how drunk I was, though I was practically sober. After five minutes of chit chat they bid me adieu, leaving me confused and alone. To add to the mixed emotions, five minutes later I received a message from one of my friends asking me to meet her at a bar. As a matter of principle, I should have been angry that those Hungarians stole my wine after I had asked them to watch it, but it had only cost me 2.5 USD, none of my friends had shown up to help me drink it, and I would have had to ditch it anyways now that I was going to a bar (so it might as well have been stolen).

My friend and I were meeting at a bar to connect with a pub crawl that was currently ongoing. While waiting for her to arrive, I met and chatted with some lovely British blokes (most positive experience I'd had all day). Almost as soon as my friend showed up we were on to the next bar. The place was packed, and it took me 45 minutes just to order a beer for myself and my friend. Naturally, we moved on to a club 15 minutes after that, giving me ample time to leave two half finished beers on the table. I'd had enough of buying alcohol for one day, so I spent the next hour fraternizing with my friend's friends and busting lame dance moves. At some point I realized I wasn't having fun and today was just an all-around shitty day, so I walked back towards the hostel. One of my friend's friends, a New Yorker I had met at the club, joined me and we chatted in Franz Liszt Square before I walked her back to her hostel and I retired for the night back to my own -- thankfully relatively early at 2:30 in the morning.

Day 136: Budapest Walking Tour

In nearly five months of traveling, I had not once done a walking tour. Perhaps that is forgivable given that a lot of cities I've visited in Asia are not places you can see much of just by foot.

At 2:30pm I found a group of people waiting in Vorosmarty Square for a free Budapest "general" walking tour. They also offer communism and Jewish District walks, for more targeted interests.

The tour lasts two and a half hours and eventually ends at Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side of Budapest. It hits many of the main touristy sites, but others like Hero's Square or the Parliamentary Building are too far out of the way to be economical to visit.

I made a few friends while on the tour. Becky from the U.K., Patrick from Canada, Mia from New Jersey, and Deeksha from India.

Patrick, myself, Deeksha, Becky

After the tour was over we had cakes at a nearby pastry cafe recommended to us by the tour guide, then walked to Gellért Hill (minus Mia) to share a bottle of wine and watch the sunset.

Above the Chain Bridge, on our way to Gellért Hill

Atop Gellért Hill

Some randos in the foreground

Olé!

After the sun set we made our way back down to earth. Deeksha had to move her stuff to a new hostel and Patrick went with her. Becky and I sat down at a bar in a park in the center of the city center, where 3 of the 4 major metro lines meet.

Patrick later joined us. Deeksha went with others from her hostel to a boat party. After Fröccsterasz we walked a few steps to Akvárium Klub, also known as "the hole" because it had originally been planned as the location of a new national theatre, but after a different political party took office, the architect was layed off and the location moved elsewhere -- leaving a massive hole in the middle of the city. Eventually that hole was turned into a park with a water feature in the center. They even put a bar underneath the pool where you can watch the water slosh above you.

We turned in relatively early for the night at 12am. I then went out with some others from the hostel to a ruin pub called Szimpla. Ruin pubs are pubs situated in old residential buildings that eventually became too dilapidated for people to live in them any longer. So entrepreneurial spirits would buy the buildings, do the minimum necessary renovations, and turn them into massive pubs. The interior decorations are usually really quirky and creative. We were out somewhat late, and I didn't get back to the hostel until 4 the next morning.

Day 135: To Budapest

My flight left at 11:50am. There is an airport shuttle from a nearby hotel, but it leaves very infrequently. By 9am I had already missed the next shuttle until 11am, so I had to take a taxi to the airport (700 MKD). That day was a national holiday (Saints Cyril and Methodius Day), so traffic was light and we arrived quickly. The airport is modern and spacious, but almost completely empty. There is only one terminal with approximately five gates. In contrast to the 8 hour bus ride from Belgrade to Skopje, the flight from Skopje, over Belgrade, and to Budapest took less than an hour and a half.

When I arrived in Budapest I was able to change my leftover lei and dinar for Hungarian forint. I had spent my last denar at the airport on a 90 MKD small bottle of water. I had pre-booked a shuttle to the center of the Pest side of Budapest. After finally hunting down Unity Hostel (same name as the place I had stayed in Skopje), I went out in search of food.

My search didn't last long because I only walked one door over for a burger. After lunch I wandered around old town before returning to the hostel for the evening.

Day 134: Leaving Ohrid, Back to Skopje

I was scheduled to leave Ohrid at 5 in the afternoon, so I made the best of my day by buying a 15 MKD (0.25 USD) ice cream cone on my way through the town center before turning towards the Ancient Theatre. 

The streets of Ohrid

There's a restaurant that overlooks the theatre and provides great views of the surrounding area. I ordered a coffee there, and later lunch. Very therapeutic.

 

At five I caught the shuttle bus back to Skopje. I'd already reserved a room at the hostel I had stayed at my first few nights there. The internet had been out for hours by the time I arrived because of a lightning storm earlier that day. Some others from the hostel showed me the non-touristy food venues of Skopje and I got a hearty pastry with cheese and chicken on top for only 35 MKD. I slept around 12.

Day 133: To Ohrid

I would have had a really difficult time finding things to do for two full days in Skopje before my flight left on the third day for Budapest, so in the morning I took a shuttle bus three hours south to Ohrid.

Ohrid sits on the shores of Lake Ohrid, a UNESO World Heritage Site since 1979. There's a self-guided walking tour that one can do of the city. It begins by ascending an ungodly amount of stairs.

After walking through the "Upper Gate" (Tzar Samoil's Fortress sits atop the hill), you first see the Ancient Theatre.

From the Ancient Theatre you climb up an even steeper grade to Tzar Samoil's Fortress. The entry fee is 60 MKD. It is easily worth the climb and the small fee, as the views are amazing.

From Tzar Samoil's Fortress you descend past Plaosnik, the under renovation, first ever Slavic university in the world (originally constructed in 893 C.E.) to the Church of St. John the Theologian, right above the waters of Lake Ohrid.

From there you move east along the shoreline into Kaneo Settlement. There's a few cafe bars there and I stopped at one to have a glass of wine and enjoy the views.

I wasn't the only one there enjoying the sun and water

Continuing along the streets near the water, you end up in the town square. There's a pedestrian street with shops, cafes and pubs galore. My hostel was a 5 minute walk from there.

The only swan I saw while I was there. What is that coming out of its backside???

Day 132: A Tour of Skopje

I met Mec the next morning at 10:30 at the massive Alexander the Great statue in the city center.

We sat down for breakfast at one of the cafes in the square and Mec talked to me about the city, how everything "historic" you see in the city center was actually built within the past two years, the recent political drama and government corruption, and all kinds of juicy governmental gossip that makes a breakfast enjoyable.

After breakfast we strolled between culturally important buildings and sat down in the old bazaar for some Turkish coffee.

Afterwards we visited the Kale Fortress, one of Skopje's actually historic structures.

There's a not bad view of Skopje from inside.

From the fortress we walked to the Bohemian Quarter and ate delicious Macedonian cuisine. We walked off our meal in Skopje City Park.

On the way back to the hostel we stopped to see the inside of the Macedonian Orthodox Church.

Thanks for the great day, Mec!

Day 131: To Skopje

After finding the bus station 10 minutes before my 11am bus was slated to leave, I bought a ticket for 2600 dinar and found a seat next to an extremely fat but otherwise not malodorous or sweaty man. The Serbian countryside is very green, but not impressive. It wasn't until we had crossed the Macedonian/Serbian border that the outside began to pretty up as the sun set.

Eight hours after leaving Belgrade, we arrived in Skopje. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I bought some snacks from the convenience store situated within the station before taking a taxi to the hostel. The hostel was easy enough to find on the 3rd floor of a residential building close to the city center. A Japanese girl was checking in at the same time as myself and we made friends before going out to the old bazaar area for dinner. After a tasty meal of kebabs, we got lost on the way back until we found ourselves in the city center.

Something you quickly notice by walking through Skopje city center is the unorthodox number of statues and monuments erected there. You would be hard pressed to find a statue much more than 50 meters away from another. Some of the monuments are comically ostentatious, and so close together that you feel like you're walking down the strip in Las Vegas.

Returning to the hostel that night, I coordinated with Mec, my friend who lives here in Skopje, to meet the next morning.

Day 130: Last Night in Belgrade

I had expected my final night in Belgrade to be spent relaxing and resting at the hostel for my 11am bus to Skopje the next day. That all changed when someone casually asked if I wanted to join their group going out that night. Our first stop was at a jazz bar in an old, 19th century mansion with larger than life murals painted all over the walls. Cover was 200 dinar, unusual for a bar, but dirt cheap for just about any other jazz bar in the world.

After a few beers, we walked to the bar/parking lot area near the hostel, we got there just before one in the morning, which, surprisingly, was when all the bars in that area were closing for the night. At that point I was about to retire for the night, but somebody said something and convinced me to go with the group to a club called The Drug Store in the industrial district.

The Drug Store is situated on the second floor of a building that used to be a slaughterhouse. When we got there I was shocked to find the cover was 800 dinar, but having already spent 20 minutes walking there I wasn't about to return to the hostel so soon. The club itself is dark so everyone can appreciate the laser show going on behind the stage. The DJ that night was playing their own flavor of house music incredibly loudly. There is a lot of floor area, and when we first arrived it seemed a bit sparse on people, but by the time I left an hour later it had maybe doubled in population. It's a rare club that I have a good time at. This was not one of them.

The walk back to the hostel was tedious, but easy -- and I crashed back onto my bed around 3am.

Days 129-130: Reflection on My Time in Belgrade

Belgrade has been one of my favorite destinations thus far, something that I did not expect to be able to say before coming here. Paramount to my experience has been the friends I've made and all the fun we had. Isabel from Spain and Anke from Belgium, as well as the hostel owners Dragan, Ivan, and Nikoli all made my stay here unforgettable, along with the other hostel guests that passed through Belgrade while I was here (including a relatively famous YouTuber, FreddyFairhair).

The cultural scene in Belgrade is flourishing at a pace you would not believe for a city that was being bombed by NATO a mere 18 years ago. I feel like I barely scratched the surface while I was here, but if you are interested in music, art, design, or food, I'm confident you will find your fair share of things to love about this city.

The city is very walkable. I never bothered to buy a public transportation pass while I was here, but the public transportation network does seem relatively extensive and modern.

I found a great cafe called Jazzayoga, with large windows that look out onto Tasmajdan Park across the street. Jazzayoga not only has amazingly cheap and delicious coffee -- espresso with milk (macchiato) and a cookie for 130 dinars, about $1.20 -- but also a fantastic atmosphere for both socializing and working (I did a lot of work on my laptop here). The owner was also very nice and spoke English with me.

Jazzayoga upstairs seating area

Although I had originally only booked through the weekend, I decided to extend my stay at El Diablo Hostel to cover the duration of my 9 days here in Belgrade. Besides being very clean, cozy, and sociable (but with good sound obstruction between rooms), the location is near impeccable. A 5-minute walk from old town, on the same block as two convenience markets and a gelato cafe, a nearby 80 dinar pizza by the slice hole in the wall open for all but 5 hours of the day, and the coziest rooftop terrace you could possibly find in Eastern Europe.

Hands down the #1 place to chill with your friends in Belgrade

But I'm still not done describing how awesome this hostel is. While I was there I was treated to multiple free meals and a couple free beers and cocktails. When I extended my stay, Dragan rounded down the total cost of 5 more nights from 6800 dinar to 6000 dinar. Sheets and towels were refreshed every few days. The willingness of the hostel staff to go way, way, way above and beyond the usual obligations made an already great experience amazing. I'm glowing just thinking about it.

Day 128: Happy Birthday El Diablo!

Today was El Diablo Hostel's 4th birthday. To kick off the celebrations, a large group from the hostel went on a boat tour up and down the Sava and Danube rivers. It started to rain on our way to the boat, but the boat itself was covered so we stayed dry. From the boat, we walked up Belgrade Fortress and ordered drinks at one of the pubs built into the side of the hill. After drinks we went back to the hostel for a home cooked meal, which was delicious. After dinner we went out to the bars near old town. One of the bars, 0.5, had a ballet studio built into its side and there were still dancers inside practicing at 10:30 at night. The bar and cafe scene in this city continues to amaze me.

A mist rests above the river after the rain earlier

Around 3am I made my way back to the hostel to pass out on my bed.

Day 127: Zemun and a Film for Foreigners

I took a bus from the old town area of Belgrade to Zemun.

Zemun has distinction among the districts of Belgrade for being, at various points in history, under Austrian-Hungarian, German, and finally Serbian ownership. The only part of Zemun of interest to tourists is the easternmost area, just west of Great War Island. I had heard that Zemun is a must-see if you spend more than a few days in Belgrade, but I wasn't particularly impressed. The area is pleasant, but to me its old town area looked like a smaller, less spirited version of Belgrade's old town. It is noticeably more suburban than Belgrade proper. Being only a 15-minute bus ride from the center of Belgrade, it's nice to have such easy access to a quieter part of town.

Looking towards Belgrade

Feeding of albino geese

After going back to the hostel I helped with preparations for the hostel's 4th birthday party. I went with a friend to a "film for foreigners" viewing at a bar. The film's English title is Next to Me and was subtitled in English. The film focuses mostly on the narrative drama that ensues after a classroom of students is locked in the school overnight by their teacher. The film originated from an acting exercise designed for students of a local film school. I was a bit shocked after the credits rolled and the film's director and one of the main protagonists got up on stage for a post-film Q&A.

The film was rather controversial for its homosexual thematic elements, including a scene where two men kiss. I'm not sure I've ever given much thought to how not only the US, but many other countries are struggling with accepting homosexuality as normal behavior.

Day 126: Belgrade Cultural Center?

In the evening I went to the Belgrade Cultural Center to see some sort of strings performance.

At least that's where I thought I went. On the outside of the 7 or 8-story building is large text that very clearly says "Cultural Centre of Belgrad". There's no obvious ground floor entrance, but when I entered the ground floor through a bookstore and went upstairs there was a gallery and a side room containing chairs, a grand piano, and a few audience members -- so I took a seat.

The first hour-long recital was given by a kid that looked to be in his early teens. He was good for his age, but not a great pianist overall. The next hour-long recital was by an older man in his late 20s, early 30s. "Here must be the main act," I thought. 

Halfway through the man's recital, it was clear that his skill level was even lower than the semi-prodigy before him. I had to listen to Philip Glass's entire Metamorphosis suite and some other equally mild minimalist contemporary pieces before the recital concluded at 10pm.

Looking back now, I may have been in a completely different venue within the same building as the cultural center. I just happened to stumble upon a classical music performance in this separate venue. It was nice to hear a live piano performance, though. I really miss playing the instrument.

 

Day 125: Beldocs

In the evening I went to the Belgrade Youth Center for one of the final days of screening for the Beldocs documentary film festival.

The film I saw was Shooting Ourselves by filmmaker Christine Cynn. The film follows the making of a show called Situation Rooms wherein 13 individuals from around the world who have had their lives affected in some way by weapons film reenactments of those moments within a conglomeration of stage sets. It was a decent film. It gave a sense of the peculiar ways that non-enrolled citizens can be caught up in wars that they otherwise have no stake in.

The sun sets after the film

Day 124: Temple of Saint Sava Hram Svetog Save

I decided to see the southern part of Belgrade by foot, so I made my way to the waterfront and walked along the pedestrian path there. At one point the pedestrian walkway ends and only the bike path continues. I thought it would swiftly cut back into the city, but I was wrong. Instead, it snakes its way through a large construction zone. I didn't want to turn back and return the same way I had come, so I had to cut through a business park until I found a cafe I could sit with a drink and use the wifi to figure out how to get out of here, and where to go after that. I decided to go see the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.

I didn't go inside because I had heard that it was rather dilapidated and not worth seeing.

Thoroughly exhausted by this point, I walked the remaining few kilometers back to the hostel.

Day 123: Belgrade Fortress and a Taste of New Belgrade

To start the day I went back to the previous night's cafe before walking to the northern tip of Belgrade Fortress.

There's a number of informative signs scattered across the park that you pass as you go south, climbing the stairs and passing some chapels on the way to the fortress. Being Friday, the area was flooded with schoolchildren on field trips, but the area is so expansive it didn't feel excessively busy.

From the top of the fortress you can see the Danube wrap around Great War Island, and the very edge of the Danube/Sava confluence.

Hi

The day was warm and sunny, so I decided to cross Branko's Bridge into New Belgrade. I only saw the easternmost area, north of the bridge, but there wasn't much to see other than a large grassy area belonging to a park, a monument, and a shopping center.

I rested my feet at a cafe in the shopping center before making the trek back to the hostel for the night.

Day 122: To Belgrade

I woke up at six the next morning to catch the 7:48am train to Vrsac, Serbia, where I would transfer to Belgrade. After bumming another ride off the tram, I arrived at the station with 20 minutes to spare to buy a ticket. The train to Vrsac consisted of only two passenger cars but it wasn't so crowded that I couldn't find a seating area to myself.

When we reached the border station for exiting Romania, most of the passengers left the train, perhaps to continue into Serbia via car or bus. Romanian officials board the train, collect the passports of everyone who stayed aboard, and return them 10 minutes later with stamps. From the exit station, the train continues half an hour more to Vrsac, where Serbian officials come aboard and collect passports, before returning them some time later with stamps allowing you to leave the train.

The super cool train that got us to Vrsac

I then waited 30 minutes in the station for the train to Belgrade to arrive. While waiting, I met a man who had grown up in San Francisco, but had been a full-time professor at a university in Brno, in the Czech Republic, for the past 8 years. We sat together on the train to Belgrade and chatted all the way to Beograd Dunav Station. From Beograd Dunav, it was a 15-minute walk to El Diablo Hostel.

Belgrade is one hour behind Romania, so by the time I arrived around 12 I still had most of the day ahead of me. Although I was tired from not enough sleep the night before, I saw a bit of the area south of the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers before looping back through Old Town to the hostel. I unsuccessfully tried napping before heading out to a cafe to sip tea and catch up on my blogging until a more reasonable sleeping hour.

Days 120-121: In Timișoara

Timișoara is a quaint town with a population of appx. 300,000 persons. It has a number of pleasant squares, parks, and innumerous cafes. The Bega River flows around the city center.

My first full day in Timisoara gave me plenty of time to grab PBJ sandwich materials from the open air market near the hostel and to see all of the city center by foot. They were setting up for a concert in Timișoara's Piata Unirii.

Piața Unirii

Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint George

My favorite part of town is the "rectangle" (as opposed to a square) that contains Catedrala Mitropolitana at one end and the town's opera house on the other.

I spent the afternoon at a cafe there on my first day.

On my second day I hunted down a really cool cafe/coworking space called Ambasada, located on the opposite side of town from my hostel.

The coffee and tea there is surprisingly cheap for the environment the cafe provides (on par with what you would expect from any cafe located outside the city center). They have big windows that look out onto a garden, big tables, plenty of seating, wi-fi, electrical outlets... everything you need to get some work done! They didn't even seem to mind me snacking on all the food I had brought with me from the supermarket. There was one guy that was testing his autonomous robot that looked like either a box on wheels or a minimalist space rover by letting it roam between the tables. A super cool environment that I had not at all expected to find in a town like Timișoara.