On Down the Danube

Serbian take pride in their nation's folk traditions. The next generation seems ready to take up the tradition.

To follow up on Budapest's woes:
The unrest was greatly exaggerated in Western media, as was the issue with the president's comments. His remark was taken out of context. When addressing his party we was reminding them that all of the parties lied last term and to get reelected and that there needed to be a better job done this time around. The media emphasized only the "we lied" aspect. It took a couple days of inquiries to reach straighten this out with locals. I worry that our news are too bored with the story to correct their errors.

Belgrade, Serbia - I wankered out on a commitment to not leave Budapest until I had some more work done on a project for Widjiwagan. I do have more work done, but it's not finished. Budapest is too swinging of a place. While the Hostel's free WiFi would be ideal for officish busy embodiment, almost $20/night and many fun people here and there are less conducive toward hard work and sound fiscal planning.

So Mr. Kris Weum, if you read this... I am going to do the rest of the stuff in small boring towns.

I got sick from staying up too late and being unaccustomed to Euro-flu. It's a lot like the flu back home but instead of my test feeling tight and sweating a lot, I felt tight in the pants and my hair got all greasy. That was another reason to skip Budapest, If I was going to sleep all day and all night, it might as well be on a train and then in a hostel.

My plan worked perfectly.

Belgrade, or beo-grad, as it is actually called (I know, who knew, right?) is a good city to visit. So Serbia is the country that whaled on Kosovo and then got whaled on my NATO. Before that it did much to precipitate the violence of the Balkanization of the 1990s with its nationalist policies and ambitions of yore.

Belgrade thus is a really crazy mix. It's young. It's old. It has beautiful old buildings like Prague and Budapest in the city center. These are mixed willy nilly with GROSS/UGLY/STUPID socialist blocks. It is an odd sight.

The first thing I saw getting off the train was an even more remarkable paradox or enigma or super-tough-mystery-problem. There before me, in the middle of down town, stood a HUGE Yugoslavia-era UGLY building with holes in it and a distorting bulge in the side. It looked structurally unsound. All of the buildings around it were barococo. Nice. Fancy. Not TOO fancy. This was a dangerous pile of ugliness. Upon closer looks of gaping mouthed tourist perfection, it appeared bombed. Holes extended from the ground to the top story, 13 stories or so up. It had broken windows in a blast radius. Nearby Barococo pillars were missing chunks. Another part had a section that looked blasted from the side. Maybe a missle, maybe a huge piece of destroyed other part of building... I would guess that this came from a NATO bombing run. The building could have been a government building or a Chinese embassy. Too soon?

The US embassy was about a two blocks away. How times do change. Serbia is on the rise in its capital. It looked like either of the EU capitals I have seen.

There are a lot of old people in the parks here. It's good to see places where 'old' is not synonymous with 'inactive.' People here apparently really love their rural folk heritage almost as much as the latest Italian fashions. Large-glassed tight pantsed youngsters, smiled clapped and chatted in a semi-circle around traditionally dressed dancers and their band. Older people in the park spontaneously joined in a dance that would have been seen only in a sketch comedy show in the states.

Knowing the Cyrillic alphabet (or rooski-glyphics as my British friends calls them) has been a good thing here. Pigeon Russian is likewise back in vogue (with myself). The best Slavic-tongued interaction I have had so far was at a pastry shop. I asked if a pastry had meat in it. The worker said, "of course," intoning "you idiot" without needing to verbalize it. My friend bought it. Of course the croissant has a cold hot dog in it you fool. How else could you enjoy the flaky goodness of the pastry?

Late last night we ran into a young serb. A self-describe "hip hop artist" he aspires to see Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog in Compton before visiting Detroit to scope the haunts of Eminem. He told us of how Serbia was poorly represented in the media, which seemed valid. And of how what happened in Kosovo "was nothing," which didn't. I don't think he denied any problems but rather blamed it on meddlesome Albania. After telling us that young people everywhere want the same thing, to hang out, be friends and live in peace (great) regardless of race, creed or religion, he told us to avoid Albania because Albanians are crazy. The conversation turned towards relations in the Balkans when at the beginning of the conversation my companions from the hostel told him that they were working in Croatia. He had just finished recording an album in Zagred (capitol of Croatia) and felt that by-gones should be by-gones... I guess the amnesty only extended to those involved in the Bosnian War.

Speaking of which, I have a bus to Sarajevo to catch in a couple hours.

I am getting eager to travel away from big cities, but its hard to pass up Sarajevo. The coasts of Montenegro and Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria should all be largely town-oriented.