Voila, Voila, je suis arrive...

So at long last, after almost a year of daydreaming and planning and saving and preparing and learning and working and okyougetheidea, I am FINALLY in Belgrade. It was a long time coming…

The actual traveling portion of it all went off without a hitch, thankfully. My flights were more or less on time and my luggage didn’t get lost. The 1h20minflight from Zurich to Belgrade was when things started to get interesting. I knew I was finally getting close to my destination, and so was more alert to the people around me and what was going on. After battling my way through the, um, “line” to get onto the plane (and I use that term *very* loosely), I boarded and found my seat, strapped myself in, and noted that the entire plane, people, clothes, seats, bags… everything smelled like smoke. Shoulda seen that one coming… I had a window seat and a nice, gentle-looking old man sat down in the isle seat next to me. After settling in, the nice old man then proceeded to pull out a big’ol porno mag that he then read with great attention and focus for the rest of the flight. Mmmmmmkay then.

The landing in Belgrade took us over fields as far as the eye can see, with just a small glimpse of Belgrade in the distance, hazy and grey and bright looking. The Swiss pilots executed what was easily the softest, cleanest landing I have ever experienced in a passenger plane… Followed immediately by the fastest STOOOOP I have ever seen a passenger plane make. Seriously, we went from like 160 to 0 in about 2 seconds flat. I had no idea passenger planes could even do that. Then they actually turned the plane around completely, right there on the runway, and taxied back to the head of the strip. I then realized this peculiar landing was a necessity born of “special” airport design. Oh well…

After working my way through the arrival gauntlet (including walking past a small airport café where I actually had to *squint* through a cloud of smoke to spot the diners inside… I thought clouds of smoke like that only existed in the movies), I grabbed my luggage with no hassles and made my way out to the arrival hall, where my new roommate and I found each other with no problems, called a cab and hopped in to head to the city.

The drive into the city was nothing special, although it was a gorgeous day to be arriving in the city. This was a stark contrast to the day I left DC, easily one of the grimmest and grayest afternoons I had experienced there in a long time. Fitting, I suppose. We got to the apartment, settled in for a bit, and then went walking all around the city.

I’ll write about my impressions when I’ve had time to absorb things a bit more.
Adieu
(This was written the day after I arrived in Belgrade, although for practical purposes I’ve only been able to update it into the blog now, hence the goofy entry dates)