Getting Sick

I wished I could have another night on the boats but the next day I got fever. Damn! But I nevertheless rented a bike to cycle a bit around. Belgrade has enough parks to rest when it will be necessary. I switched to a real hotel and that way talked to locals and learned a bit how they think and feel. The guide at the free city tour already explained a bit and many of his informations turned out to be true. Serbia is currently a quite poor country and the unemployment rate is high. People are suffering from that but the most important point for them is not to improve the situation but to mourn that Serbia is not "united". I also often heard sentences like "25% of the Serbians are unemployed, but 100% know how to party." This is definitely true because I have never seen a town like Belgrade with so many locations to eat, drink, listen to music of all kinds and to dance. Besides the boats there are very nice locations inside the castle, in Dorcol and in Zemun.
People are very polite but what made me "sick" are their often strange view onto politics. The captain on the boat tour recommended me to go to Albania because this country would be so incredibly beautiful. (Later on I got the impression that I met the only Serb who have ever been in Albania.) So I went to book stores to by a travel guide for Albania. They had travel guides for almost every country in the world but not for Albania. When I asked for this, the facial expression of the salesperson changed suddenly and I was complimented out of the book store. This happened in different book stores. I asked the young lady at the reception of my hotel for the reason but she didn't want to explain me that. After begging she whispered that this is a taboo and that Albanians are all criminals. As as girl she would be raped there and there is absolutely no infrastructure in Albania. Uuhh that was strong stuff! She was never in Albania but knew that fur sure and she was not the only the only one I met thinking so. Before that discussion I was not sure if I should go to Macedonia or to Albania but then it was clear that I had to go to Albania! Childish as I sometimes are, this song came into my mind.

My infection got worse and I needed antibacterial but in the pharmacies they told me that strangers need to go to a doctor first or that I could bribe the pharmacy personal to sell me some. Yes, Serbia has the same problems with corruption than the other Balkan states (see my corresponding blog posts from last year). But I hate bribing and going to a doctor would cost me much time and money and so I went to another pharmacy and explained them that I am a tourist traveling through the Balkans. I will later on also go to Albania and I have now heard that this country is extremely poor and there is no medical infrastructure. So for the case I get sick in Albania people recommended to have medication with me and therefore I need an antibacterial. The woman at the pharmacy nodded sympathetically and I got an excellent consultation when to take what medication. Eventually I bought a package with Erythromycin for only 4,50 €. (Important advice: don't use antibacterial containing tetracycline antibiotics in sunny countries unless a doctor said you should use it. These substances are phototoxic and you don't want to see how your skin then looks - trust me!)

Talking about politics always lead to troubles. I learned for example that Serbia has problems with vipers because the birds of prey normally hunting them, are almost died out. And this is only because of the bombardment of Belgrade in 1999. Makes sense, isn't it? Furthermore there is a big intrigue of the countries of Europe against the Serbian nation etc.. I defended my opinion that the NATO bombardment was the right decision. (I have been in the army that time and know more than I wanted about this.) People don't expect such a clear statement from a stranger and this was the start of very interesting discussions where I learned a lot about the feelings of the people and also think I could convince some to reflect the reasons of the economic situation. Finally I could not resist to give some my corresponding blog post.

Party Boats

As I wrote in my last post, Belgrade is often called the party town in Europe. OK, some say it's Budapest, some say it's Amsterdam, but ranking cities is stupid. What makes Belgrade unique are dozens of party boats on the Sava river. This river is a calm one compared to the Danube and it is therefore possible to use rafts. And there are hundreds of rafts along the Sava. Many of them are used as weekend house, some are restaurants, bars, pubs and some are discos. The disco rafts usually have more then one deck and some have even swimming pools inside. Besides the rafts there are also real boats run as discos or restaurants. The amazing thing is that the different party boats play different music and most of them don't have entrance fees so you can walk kilometers along both riversides of the Sava and hear what music they play. If you like some just go on board and leave whenever you like. And the diversity of kinds of music is incredible! We were out on the party boats during the week when not all boats were open but there were boats with

• Latin music like e.g. Ronald Mesquita - Balança Pema
• Funk like Bootsy Collins - Play with Bootsy
• Nu-Metal like e.g. Slipknot - Spit it out
• Reggae like e.g. Max Romeo - Chase the devil
• Dubstep like e.g. Chase & Status - Let You Go
• all kinds of local music
• and of course pop like e.g. Daft punk - Get Lucky (although I liked that song I cannot hear it anymore because it was played one almost every location I was - even in Albania where they don't listen to western pop music)

I did not plan anything in this vacation and just followed advices of local people. And in a supermarket I got the tip to do a tour with a boat along the Sava to have an overview of the city and the boats. This tour was indeed a tour mostly for local people. Fortunately the captain was a very curious man and also spoke English so that I came in contact wit many interesting people like the wife of the Norwegian ambassador. The rain just stopped when the tour began, the sun came back and nice talks surrounded a journey towards the sunset:

The water sport center in Dorcol where the tour began. (There is also a bike rental station and they have saunas, swimming pools etc. - a nice place to relax after a hard exploration day.)

The boat tour (red line).

 

The castle of Belgrade.

View at the old town

View over the Sava with the old town at the left side.

The Ada Bridge

Party boats

Typical (weekend) house boats.

Party boats and riverside restaurants

Endless row of party boats

At this point it was clear that I need a bike to explore more of the city. But before I went to the party boats with a nice lady I met on the boat tour. As this was not planned I was totally underdressed but that's the price of being obsessively spontaneous ;-).

My Club Mate from Germany.

Inside of a party boat. On weekends there are water ballet shows in the pool.

On deck of an old freighter where they played Electro-RnB.

I was very tired that evening but the fantastic view from the boats, the warm wind on the river, the cheap drinks, the different decorations on the boats kept me dancing for hours. I enjoyed it so much!

Walulis sieht fern

ist endlich wieder da!

Anti-pub crawling

I arrived Belgrade "early" in the morning at 7:30 and tried to find a hostel to get some sleep. But the hostels were booked out or there was even no personal to ask for accommodation. I knew that Belgrade is one of the party towns in the world but did not expect that the hostels are that specialized on party people. For example one cannot check in before 2 PM because it would be a shame to go to sleep before the sun rises. I finally got a bed in a dorm full of sleeping people exhaling a mixture of cold cigarette smoke and alcohol. I was therefore suddenly fully awake and wanted to go somewhere else but the lady at the reception of the hostel tried to hold me back. I got a Rakija for free and some gift coupons for bars and pubs and an offer to join at 2 PM the hostel's anti-hangover city tour to some restaurants to become fit for the happy hour in the hostel's own bar starting at 5 PM. Later on there was a pub crawl at 7 PM followed by a disco tour at 11 PM before one usually goes to a party boat around midnight. I met some people from the Nederlands who only came here to spend 1 or even 2 weeks to go to the party boats every night. What the hell!
Instead of joining them I joined a free city tour. This "standard tour" lasts about 3 hours and a student showed us almost everything one needs to know about Belgrade:
We started at the central Republic Square in front of the

National Theatre

and were a huge group because the Exit festival ended a few days before and the Guča trumpet festival festival was starting a few days later. So there were lots of tourists in town to see Belgrade in between.

Belgrade was often an important border town and therefore more often damaged than any other place in Europe. Therefore the architecture in the city is often brutal. There are no larger historic places, often there is only a street or a few houses surrounded by concrete monster buildings. The most famous street with a few houses from the 19th century is the

Skadarska street

The guide was amazing but we had to drink honey Rakia with him (the one in the bottle in his hand).

where many pubs and restaurants are located. There you can drink all sorts of Rakia and listen to Balkan music. The Dorćol district of the city there is an interesting mixture of everything. There are streets with the most expensive bars in town where the (mafia) bosses show their poser cars and their girlfriends with plastic tits. It is funny to watch that in the evening!

One of the newer houses in Dorćol.
The flats there are astonishingly one of the most expensive ones in Belgrade.

An older house in Dorćol.

In the inner city (around the National Bank) one can find a few streets like this one:

(This area is one of the few where the city is not that loud as it is everywhere else.)

This is the famous "?" (oldest restaurant):

The ?.

Typical contrast in the old town.
The old building is the Princess Ljubica's Residence.

The large Fortress of Belgrade allows magnificent views. This one it at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube towards Novi Beograd:

This is the city's landmark, the Pobednik:

The road to the heat

The last months I was very lazy to write something in the blog although there would be many things to tell.
But as I promised to several gentle people I met the last month I start with my small trip through the southern Balkans.

For the first relaxed stage Adriana Evans - Suddenly fits perfectly.

After last years magnificent short trip to the Herzegovina and Sarajevo I wanted to see more of the Balkans and as my plans never fit in the past I decided to plan absolutely nothing! So a few days before the start I simply went to a travel agency specialized to train travels and said they should find a cheap train to Serbia. It took almost an hour but then I got a ticket for only 78 € to Belgrade (including high speed trains and a bed in a night train). I started in Munich with the Railjet to Budapest. (I can absolutely recommend this train.)

The Lenbachhaus in Munich.

The Budapest Keleti railway station is one of my favorite station buildings. Another favorite is Milano Centrale and maybe... schhh.

Despite the train arrived there at 10 PM it was incredibly hot - 35 °C and one could smell the arriving lightning. In the train we had more than 40 °C but as one could open every window it was in fact no problem and the lightning followed the train for a while but never reached it - until Belgrade. But the rain stopped soon and the temperature was then only 30 °C. This was the "coldest" day of the whole trip.

Welcome to Београд. The first look of the city might be a bit disappointing but I never judge a book by the cover.

Po! Po! Po!

Po!

My legs are still hurting a lot but this climb was worth it! From the Maja e Rosit you can look over a large part of the Balkan mountains. The peak is by the way also the border between Albania and Montenegro. We needed 11 hours for the more this 3000 m altitude trip starting from the magnificent Valbonë valley. This way many, many thanks to Fulvio for his motivation despite he had to suffer more with his blisters!

---------------------------
The whole journey started in Београд, then I went to Podgorica, Cetinje, Kotor, Herceg Novi, Shkodër, from there via the most marvelous boat trip I have ever made along the Komani lake to Valbonë then to Gjakovë and now to Tiranë. I will report more when I am back home because it is hard to find an Internet store and I need the time there to find the information I need for traveling.

Kassettenfunde

Nach all den ernsten Posts gibts mal wieder was auf die Ohren. Beim Digitalisieren meiner Kassettensammlung sind wieder Schätze aufgetaucht, die ich dank Shazam endlich auch zuordnen konnte.

Elektronisch:

• Yennek - Dancing Tides (der passende Sound für fast alles - Sonnenaufgang, Warten auf den verspäteten Zug, Gartenarbeit u.Ä.)
• Dubtribe Sound System - Rideline (Das Dubtribe Sound System ist eine der Entdeckungen der letzten Zeit für mich, denn die haben auch tolle Remixe rausgebracht.)
• Jestofunk - Special Love (Von Jestofunks musikalischer Bandbreite bin ich sehr angetan und das würde ich wieder sagen.)
• Mateo & Matos - Rainbow 95
• Felix Da Housecat - Music is my lif
• Three Drives - Greece 2000

 Guter alter Techno:

• Westbam - Celebration Generation (Wahnsinn wie wir dazu im Strobo-Licht ausgerastet sind)
• DJ Hooligan - Sueño futuro
• Humate - Spacetribe
• Dave Davis - Transfiguration
• BBE - Desire

Jamaikanisches:

• Sister Nancy - Bam Bam (HipHop Remix) (es gibt kaum einen Song von dem es so viele Remixe gibt; zudem ist der Refrain oft gecovert worden, z.B. in Groove Armada - Fogma (nebenbei bemerkt ist die Groove Armada live ein MUSS))
• Pablo Gad - Gun Fever (Von Pablo Gad gibt es viele dieser spannenden, dubigen Aufnahmen)
• Bush Chemists - Dub The Bongo (ich liebe diese reinen Dubsongs)
• Jacob Miller - Baby I love you so (Jacob Miller gehört einfach mal wieder in die Playlist!)