Travel is Fatal

Todo : Travel Catchup

It’s time to admit I’ll never write about these…

Montenegro

• Meeting Mira & Boris
• Having an apartment of my own.
• Day to Day Life
  • Pastries
  • Sandwiches
  • They use the Euro
  • Odd man out, stand out but always treated nice.
  • Walkable town
  • Cafes everywhere
• Hiking up to Kotor Ruins
• The Serbian cross, brotherhood of Serbia
• Monastery
  • “Schlafen” around!
  • “He has uses.”
• Niksiche
  • The commerical advertising the beer
  • Climbing on the statue
• Hiking in the wilderness
• Traditional food!
• The coast (Budva, Bar)
  • “Negotiating” for a beachhome
  • Jazz in Budva
  • For pay beaches, pros and cons.
• Watching “Two Lovers” as the only English speaker
• Serbian Folklore: “There’s no better bird than pork.”
  • Rhymes in their language
• Leaving Montenegro
  • A sad evening, waving goodbye, parting text messages, a smoky train

Belgrade

• Rewandering around town
• falling asleep on the castle ruins.
• Questionable national statuary
• Scoping out places to sleep for the night
• Turkish Millennium Tower
• Putting the CouchSurfing call out
• Getting ripped off on the train to Budapest by Serbian police

Budapest

• Depressed
• Coffeehouses
• Some “famous” restaurants
• Neat Communist bar
• CouchSurfing meetups
  • American girl hating me
• The Opera
  • Hungarian State Opera
  • Midsummer’s Night Dream, the Ballet
  • Hadn’t slept for over a day, wasn’t up to dress code, and hate that play.

Vienna

• “Before Sunrise”
• How I met Barbara (Ethiopia)
• Addidas Party
  • Waking up the next morning, looked over by a child. “Why is he still sleeping?”
• Fighting in the park
• Busted up my right hand.
• Hiking in the forest
• Museums - royal jewels
  • “Every period was once modern.”
• Biking around Vienna
• Zentralfiedhof
• 1 euro sandwiches
• National library!
• Kunsthauswein
• Gunter quote:
  • “You gotta give her something in the Austrian accent.” Kiss the hand, Miss?
• The progression of train quality

Munich

• Oktoberfest 1 and 2
  • Italian Weekend
• Clubbing
  • #s for “crushes”
• Swimming at the waterpark
• The high ropes course
• The autobahn

Flying off

• Jeff Plumer, ADCC
• DJ on the flight

Welcome Home

• 7 months
• Even Compton feels rich
• Weinerschnitzel
• Remembering complex English
• Forgetting other languages
• Not talking about the stories

Playlist of the trip

I needn’t have packed food for my train to Montenegro.

My cabin-mates were a group of four Grandmothers and one surly looking young man. I sat in the line of fire of a social interaction that transcends cultures: a gossip circle. But, as my position became more awkward, I “relented” and offered to swap spots with adjacent lady in the window seat.

I’m so gracious.

Of course, now I was a legitimate conversation topic and target. My Serbian was non-existent at this point, but one of the women spoke a few words of English. Between hand signs, small words, and my woeful but rapidly expanding phrasebook, we exchanged stories. The ladies were all returning from visiting their respective families. And, the woman who spoke some English had learned it to teach her son, who was now living abroad and doing well for himself— in part— thanks to her early tutoring.

Eventually, I stopped being interesting, and we resumed our former activities. The Grandmothers chatting over their knitwork. The surly young man and I watching the countryside descend into breathtaking mountain passes.

I alternated between dozing and counting tunnels. On their walls were white Charlie Brown zig-zag patterns. The base of the waves were inset cubbies I decided were for emergencies.

The Grandmothers were clearly veteran riders. Every couple hours, they would reach into their bags or stowed luggage to produce sandwiches. The first time, I took this as a reminder to munch on my own dwindling leftovers. But, I was surprised in short order by a proffered meal!

For the remainder of the trip, I was forcibly stuffed like a piñata. My adopted family had decided I was too helpless to be left to fend for myself. And, after bidding farewell to each woman at her stop, the last and I disembarked and hugged partings at Podgorica.