Well, it has been about a week since my last confession and I figured it was about time for another. Alot has transpired since the Ravioli incident and although the recovery often seems complete, TJ and I remain mere shadows of our former selves when it comes to culinary exploration.
So, upon leaving Romania, we took a night train from Bucharest to Belgrade uneventful except for the battle of intestinal fortitude that was occuring within TJ's already-strained bowels. I on the other hand was having a great time eating whatever I could get my hands on regardless of source or composition. For instance, the mystery meat burger in the Bucharest train station or, perhaps the second mystery meat burger at the Bucharest train station. I may also point out that the bathroom at the Bucharest Train station was so horrible that I actually laughed out loud when I walked into the sub-basement to find it. Imagine the batcave but only stuffed with semi-permanent turkish toilet portajohns. There was utter silence within the walls, except my laughter and the swarms of gadflies. Our train from Bucharest to Belgrade was uneventful, but once we arrived in Serbia, TJ and I found the American embassy and procured a list of english-speaking doctors to treat TJ's stomach. Luckily a hefty dose of Cipro cured him and he's back on the I-choose-to-eat-really-stupid-things bandwagon. I have also taken it upon myself to pet all of the sick or dying animals I have seen during my travels. This morning was a blind kitten, poor little thing had awful conjunctivitis and, due to his lack of sight, loved headbutting my leg. Deserved a good petting in my book. Serbia was great, and both TJ and I had a great time. Clubbing is absolutely nuts there. We left Serbia for Montenegro via the night train, (again) but this time we were unable to reserve a proper sleeping car. So for 12 hours, we sat bolt upright in a seating cabin with a pair of very friendly Serbian twins. We couldn't understand why our cabin was so full of luggage as there were only six of us there and there were well over 8 suitcases in the car, but we accepted this as the discomfort of not having made the correct reservation. That is until the people from the hallway decided to leave the train an hour before our departure and took their enourmous luggage out of our car. TJ and I remained speechless for minutes, we considered starting a fight with said hallway travelers just to stretch the legs that had been so uncomfortably crushed under the weight of their luggage for the last 11 hours. However, better judgement prevailed and the Serbian twins offered us some cookies that promptly took the sting out of our ordeal. Once we were in Montenegro, we took a bus to Dubrovnik, where we stayed 2 days. In Dubrovnik we learned an important concept of advertisement: exaggeration. Pensions are the only readily available method of cheap lodging and the pension owners bum rush the newly arrived busses hunting for the highly prized "american backpacker". Highly recognizable from their bleary eyes and hunched backs, the American backpacker often responds favorably to the phrases, "cheap", "near town", "free breakfast" and "5 minutes from the beach". This is, in fact, what our landlord promised us, but was also, in fact, totally false. The accomodations were cheap, but the free breakfast was instant coffee packets, the beach was half an hour away, and town was about 3 miles away uphill. In any case, that's it for now! I'll leave you with some more of Byron's helpful travel tips.
1. There is no such thing as a free breakfast.
2. "Plazma" brand cookies can be used to avoid international conflicts.
3. "Stool Sample", is a difficult concept to convey to non-english speakers through sign language.
4. If you like to pay for your Dysentery, feel free to tip the attendant at the Bucharest Train Station bathroom (or no TP for you).
5. While everyone knows it's not a good idea to eat things that are of unknown origin, it sure is fun.
6. Handwashing is pivotal if one desires to pet the local wildlife/strays. Particularly when disease in involved.
7. When a large German Shepherd starts humping your friend on the way back home, it is OK to point and laugh at the situation. Particularly when your friend doesn't notice, just thinks the dog wants to get inside the house, and waits until he thinks the dog has backed away from the door.
8. Beware the Gypsies walking newspaper-reading monkeys.
2 comments:
Ha! The cookies and suitcase story is why you go on a backpacking tour. Did you get pictures of the twins? Is Dubrovnik like Corfu? Do you get souvlaki and taramasalata on the beach there? Lots of Germans? Much damage from the war?
In Dubrovnik there is minimal damage from the war. It is very dissimilar to Corfu. The geography is a lot more arid and there don't seem to be many olive trees. The big thing in Dubrovnik, though, is shellfish. Since Croatia, I've had mussels every day... they only cost 5 euros a kilo!!!! Even in Bosnia they are cheap as dirt. The shellfish are frobably not the same quality we are used to in the States, but they are clean and delicious. Unfortunately, thereis no tarama or souvlaki, but there are other dishes that are equally wonderful. Čevapi (I think) is a really good dish that involves a really thick tortilla, and mini sausages. I can't really explain it, but it is really good. In Bosnia there are few tourists, but most that I've met are Irish, Brit or Ozzie. No Americans yet. Croatia seemed to be loaded with French tourists. Mostar is a beautiful city, but the war damage always seeps in through the repaired facades. There are still many buildings that were obviously shelled and fired upon with large caliber weapons. There is an art form here that involves hammering old shells into patterns. The amount of sniper warfare and artillery bombardment that occurred here is astounding. There is still some obvious tension between certain groups, but by and large, the people here are extremely friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, many people have moved away, and the town is still a bit divided along ethnic and religious lines. The Mostar bridge is really cool, and yesterday I went swimming in the river. It was ice cold, but really refreshing. We have all sorts of pictures, so hopefully I will be able to upload them. Although, we have so many now that it is difficult to upload them all!
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