Winging it South

G’day all,

Well my past week has been great fun as I finally had some really cool guys to travel with and we have been having a ball. I only ended up spending a night in Bratislava as I’ve already been there before and was just using it as a base to head to Budapest in Hungary. I was feeling a bit sick and lonely and for the first time this trip and I went through a bit of a rough patch for a couple of days. Once I arrived in Budapest and settled into my hostel things started to turn around for me as I met these two great English guys Alex and Tom and we had a great laugh together. My crook stomach wasn’t letting me drink for the first few nights but Alex and Tom became my Doctor and Mother and fed me medication and cooked me dinner and I was back on track again in no time. We had a pretty eventful week together and although we felt slightly hung over most days we still managed to do and see loads. Our first outing was to the Turkish Baths which almost turned into a full day event. The baths were great fun although all it’s only really a bunch of heated swimming pools, spas, and saunas, surrounded by some really nice old buildings. We just relaxed all day watching the old men play chess in the hottest bath, testing out limits in the saunas and cold pools, and trying to fight the world pool by swimming against it. By the end of our bath experience we were so zonked we could hardly open our eyes so we went back to the hostel for a snooze and an easy night in. The following day we all went to the holocaust museum which again brought back all the Auschwitz memories then the guys convinced me to go caving. They did the caving trip the day before I arrived in Budapest but when they said it was extreme I wasn’t prepared for what was ahead of me. I caught a couple of buses out to the caves and got all dressed up in hardhat and overalls and was lucky to be grouped with a bunch of extremists like me who wanted to do the hardest caves. The start wasn’t too bad as tight as it was but then came the big squeeze where for the first time in my life I felt like a fatso. This was basically a crack under a rock where I had to try and get through and it was as tight as a fishes…ankle. I lay on my tummy with my arms out front and wiggled my way through until I was stuck and could not move forwards, backwards, left, right, up, or down. All I could do was feel my lungs be wrapped around by solid rock. I was only stuck for about 40 seconds before I sucked my guts in and was pushed through by the instructor but that was enough for me to start panicking. It was a bit embarrassing being stuck when everyone else made it but I also embarrassed myself about 20 minutes later when I couldn’t twist around and fell down out of this hole onto my hands (as in picture) Budapest seemed like a pretty nice place but after 3 nights I was ready to move on and see somewhere new. Alex and Tom were heading to Serbia next too so I decided to let the good times roll and tag along with them. We partied the night away on our last night in Budapest then amazingly got up for midday to catch our train to Belgrade in Serbia. Once we got on the train the adrenalin kicked in and we were on a natural high and were yelling stupid things out to any farmer, cow, or chicken for half the ride to Serbia. Serbia and Belgrade had a whole different feel to it compared to Hungary and arriving in on the first night was almost a bit eerie. As the train was pulling in to Belgrade we could see yards of slums and squatters sheds lining the train track and angry looking graffiti on every wall. Belgrade soon grew on us the next day as we walked around and went from war ravaged filthy buildings to a very nice cosmopolitan shopping and restaurant district. The city is very much alive and well and thriving with young people indulging in fancy outdoor restaurants and bars. The nightlife is great in Belgrade too with many cool club and pub ideas. In our two nights partying we went to a club in a 9 story building, various ones floating on barges in a river, one that was set out like a theatre, one that looked like a cave underground, and a pub that I swear is just someone’s house. There is not a great deal to do tourist wise in Belgrade apart from look at the fort and the military museum so we spent most of our time just indulging at the restaurants. Yesterday we went to a local football (soccer) match to fill in a bit of time and had a very interesting time watching the crowd light flares and chant their songs in Serbian. There was only a small crowd at the game but they were all crammed into the one section and boy was it loud. It was very well guarded by policemen with bats and shields galore but it did make you wonder how rough the crowd could potentially get. Today my fun times with Alex and Tom ended as they went to Montenegro and I’m off to Bulgaria. The weather has been great here the past few days and I can proudly say I’m walking around in shorts and a t-shirt finally. Today there was some kind of festival on in Belgrade and many people gathered in the parklands at the fort and were dancing to folk music which was a good laugh (please check the video it’s a classic and look at the short ladies enthusiasm compared to the lady on her left)

Update ya in a week,

Woodsy