Once again my procrastinating has left this blog neglected for too long. With great apologies to my many fans :P I’m happy to report that I’m back from almost a month of traveling adventures (or misadventures, depending on your perspective I suppose) through Europe, which makes for a whole lot of updating that I will do in a few parts.
So in more or less chronological order, here’s the summarized update since my last post...
After a short but enjoyable Christmas visit from my dad to Belgrade, I packed my bags and hopped onto a bus to Amsterdam to spend New Year’s there. The trip was organized by a hip young (as in, run by a bunch of young peeps) Serbian travel company, and accordingly the whole trip was fun, chaotic, messy, crazy, enthusiastic, and just generally one heck of an experience. Traveling with Serbs in general was an interesting endeavor that I will write more about later.
The bus ride up was great fun, albeit excruciatingly long, about 42 hours total. We left Belgrade with two double-decker buses on the afternoon of the 28th of January, and drove through the night. Crossing the border into Hungary ate up a good 5 or 6 hours, and there was some sort of chaotic stop in the middle of the night because of some mess involving lost passports... The original plan called for an 8 hour stop in Munich so the bus drivers could rest, but once in Austria the second bus broke down (didn’t see THAT one coming, didja!), so we ended up in nearby Salzburg, Austria instead. Despite the complications and the change of destination the stop in Salzburg was a terrific little break, providing a chance for a very nice scenic afternoon walk around the city, a great dinner with fantastic German beer, some drunken ice skating and in general just a nice release from the stifling confines of the bus.
The second leg of the trip, from Salzburg to Amsterdam, was considerably rougher. We drove through the night again and this time I just couldn’t get comfortable, my ipod was out of batteries, people were smelly, cranky and tired and arguing, and the hours just dragged on interminably. By the time we finally arrived in Amsterdam the next day, early in the afternoon, it felt like being on some African refugee bus or something.
Nevertheless the trip was quickly forgotten upon arrival in the Dam. I wrote up another blog of my impressions there shortly after I left the place, so I will upload that later and leave this short in the interest of space. After 7 completely crazy fear and loathing-themed days in Amsterdam, I left the place barely intact and hopped onto a plane to Prague, to take a 10 day journalism course there.
I have never arrived in any city in the world so utterly unprepared or uninformed as I did in Prague, but I just didn’t have time to brush up on the place while I was in Amsterdam. I arrived without a clue about what even the currency was, didn’t know a single thing about the place, what to do out of the airport, where to go, nothing. To my great pleasure I was able to just wing it like a pro upon arrival, and was able to get my baggage, find my way downtown on the public transportation and check into my well-hidden hotel without a hitch, which was a nice little confidence builder.
The journalism course and the next 10 days in Prague were utterly fantastic. The course was excellent, with outstanding experienced instructors giving us great advice, the networking was great and tons of great contacts were made, the whole group of students taking the course was terrific, we all got along great and had an utter blast exploring Prague, yadda yadda yadda. Basically 10 totally splendid days, and I was very sorry to reach the conclusion of the course. It was a great way to kickstart 2007.Nonetheless, it was time to head back home to BG...
That was 3 days ago. Now I’m back in good ol’ Serbia, right on the eve of the elections here, and the mood is electric. It is very good to be back, despite having had a great trip.
That’s the short update... I will write more about my impressions of Amsterdam, the journalism course/Prague, and my dad’s visit as soon as I have time, so all my faithful readers will have their patience rewarded soon :)
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