Tim’s Nomad Diaries

After a week plus of traveling through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, its now time to hop on that overnight train to Istanbul.

It really is tough spending just a few days in each one of these wonderful and quite distinct countries, before heading off to the next one en route to Turkey. Its as if each country is a different restaurant; you arrive starving, the waiter brings you over a beautiful looking dish, but you are only able to get one bite before the plate is take away from right under your nose. This is how I feel; I’m left with just a small taste of the flavor of the culture desperate but unable to quench my hefty appetite for more (leave it to me to think up of a food analogy…).

As unquenched as my appetite might be, this Eastern European leg of the trip has nonetheless been a total blast. First I stayed with old Barcelona Roommate Ben for four days in Slovenia, first at his house with his parents in Dramlija, a village of 100 people where every other family has their own viniard, and two days with his brother, Bostyan and his girlfriend, Motza, in capital city Ljubljana (sorry for the spelling!). It was great learning how Ben got that great smile, the same one as Bostyan and his Dad, that one that can light up the darkest of morbid places…

Afterwards, we went off to Zagreb, Croatia, to visit other Barcelona roommate Mladen. Mladen displayed, what seems to be from my perspective, the standard hospitality stemming from this region of the world: doing everything and anything to ensure that ones guest feels welcome and is happy. We had a great time as he showed me Zagreb from an insiders perspective. No doubt o the chagrin of everyone, particularly myself, rainy weather nor time permitted a trip to the storied Croatian sea-side before heading of to Belgrade, Serbia–but this is just a good excuse to return…

UPF friend Ognjen was kind enough to play the role of tour-guide during the day and took me out. I was just in the city for Friday and Saturday night and the scene was definitely thumping. The people that I met, which was a good amount, were among the coolest and laid back since starting this trip. For example, while noticing how the Serbian friends, girls and guys, meet they give each other ‘down’ handshakes. Throughout Europe, whenever a guy sees a girl its always the standard one, two, or three kisses, depending on the region or country; it becomes routine very often. I pointed out to Ognjen at a party how this ‘down’ greeting given to the opposite sex was like watching a set of the 90’s comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel air with Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff. On the real though, I met a ton of really cool cats in Belgrade, and its a very under-rated city well worth spending way more than two nights!

Well dammit, I managed to not finish my entry in time once again. My train to Istanbul is leaving in one hour, and I still have to walk over to my hostel, pick up my bag, and walk 15 min to the station as I have no money left for taxi. Bulgaria pics to come, stay tuned…