After nearly three weeks of travelling, I finally have regular access to the internet. I think that’s probably the longest its ever taken me. I’ll try and be quick about everything I’ve done so far and everything I am doing.
Officially I’m in Belgrade to study Serbian for six weeks, complete the second year intensive language course so that I torture myself with third year next year. Why Serbian (officially its Bosnia/Croatian/Serbian)? Well that’s a complicated question I’ll answer later. For now my short answer is that I have to. And I want to.
I got here on the 16th, although my luggage didn’t, and went directly to Vis once my luggage finally arrived. The family of a friend lives on the Croatian island of Vis and I enjoyed 4 days of sun filled swimming, eating and reading. It was a nice recovery to what has been a very packed year. It’s pretty idyllic: wake up, eat, walk to the sea, swim in sea, lie in the sun by the sea, lunch, nap, swim in the sea, lie by the sea, eat dinner, swim in the sea, sleep. I could get used to that. Since I came out about 10 days before my program started I had some time to kill and after 4 days I took off for the Bosnian city of Mostar, where previously I had only spent an afternoon wandering in between waiting for buses from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo. I stayed 4 days, had my ritual infestation of bedbugs which added to the collection of scars on my right arm, and spent a very pleasant time with a very interesting German who grew up in East Germany (and thus had very good stories). I’ll write more about Mostar later, as I want to get this somewhat caught up to what I’m doing now.
My class started on July 28th and I’ve spent the last week trying to figure out where to live in Belgrade. I arrived on the 27th, and stayed at a hostel for a week while I tried to follow every lead I had for housing. This ranged from a friend who is interning in Belgrade for the summer, to an rental agency, to a friend of a friend of a friend of two people who work at the hostel I stayed at. Believe or not, the one to actually come through (both of them) were actually the friend of a friend of a friend. So now I am moved into the swanky area of Vracar, renting a room in the home of a very sweet Serbian woman, along with a Ducthman from Rotterdam. It’s about a 10min bus ride to the center, or a 25 min walk. I have class in the morning until 1pm and then am completely free, which actually makes it a little dull in the afternoons. If it weren’t so hot, I would be happy to spend my afternoons wandering but with the heat, I’ll turn into a puddle. So I think I may begin volunteering with the American Corner, where people can go to practice their English and have a conversation partner. I’ll head over tomorrow to take a look. Hopefully it will cool down soon and I can spend more time outside. Last night it was so warm I couldn’t even sleep it was so warm and humid.
I’ve rented the room for two months, though I’m leaving Sept 5ish to travel in the area and will fly to Paris on the 24th. That way I can leave some things here. Hopefully a friend will be joining me, he was with me here in 2005. I plan to head back to Bulgaria, and then on to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. On the weekends I’ll be going to Budapest, Vienna and Ljubljana. Maybe I’ll go to Greece, who knows. My passport is full and I have to go to the embassy to get new pages as I still have 4 years left on it.
Now that I have internet access (I’m borrowing Peter’s computer, he’s the Dutchman) I’ll be able to update more regularly. I’ll update again soon.
