Day 9 - Zagreb do Beograd - 10 Rujnu 2019

Day 9 - Zagreb to Belgrade - 10 September 2019

#Провод #Београд #Србија #тришешира #скардалија #serbia #croatia #Traintravel

Life size teddies

I woke up with less pain that the previous day. I asked up my things and went to the post office and stood in line to buy stamps to send my traditional postcards before heading onwards to the station. I bought a couple of cheese pastries and had a cappuccino in the company of two life size teddy bears, sorry Italy makes better cappuccinos! I then slowly made my way to the platform. An Irish guy approached me to ask if this was the correct train for Belgrade, so I said yes. When we got on the train it was awfully quiet. The woman announced "ne ide! ne ide!" which meant NOT GOING! We promptly jumped off the train bags and all and ran to the front of the train to find a seat only to be told that it was "taken" actually al four seats were taken by one little old lady.

Jelen pivo

It turns out that the guy is from Howth and was a radiologist and quit his job after 15 years in the business on great salaries. We bought some beers and started chatting. He was know on month 14 of a world tour. His plan was to start a botox salon somewhere, and then perhaps become a barrister specialising in medical cases. This train was a theatre! Let us call him "beer guy" who had a constant supply of beer and kept walking up and down the carriage. In the end he started playing Serbian music very loudly. I eventually had to visit the loo which was overflowing and yellow and stinky and full of tissues.

The long journey

We stopped at the Serbian border for ages. First the Croatian guards got on then the Serbs who stamped our passports. The border patrol told beer guy to turn off his music! The train then suddenly reduced in size, and became very small. The back end had a very nice view of the tracks which made for nice films and pictures in what was otherwise a flat basically landscape of endless maize fields. Finally as we pulled into Belgrade, his female date dumped him so we ended up getting a taxi and agreeing to meet in Skardalia for dinner.

The theatrical cocktail bar

I got scrubbed up and he called around to the hostel where we first had a raikija, then choosing Tri Šešira restaurant ordering sirnica, the salmon with extra potatoes covered in kajmak! The grilled vegetables were divine! An Emir Kusurica like band were playing music at our table and wee finished our "Tri Morave" white wine. Next we headed to Riddle Bar where we were entertained by theatrical cocktail making. Finally time for home again!

In a word: #Провод