French.in.Serbia?

Well I took a weekend trip to Serbia, and lived to tell the tale. Started out with a 2hr train ride down to the Hungarian town of Szeged. A really nice small town- very clean and ya- cheap. We hung there and had a coffee in the plaza and saw this white rasta guy play Neil Young like only Neil young could.

Then a 2hr bus ride through the Serbian-Hungarian border to Szenta, where Miklos is originally from. Also cheap-80cent beers, lovely. After a solid interrogation with a gun to our heads, us Canadian sweet-talked the serbs into letting us in. nah, Surprisingly we weren't even asked a question which was nice. But we did get stopped by the cops in the middle of the streets of Szenta. We still think it's because were with our good Chinese friend Carmen. It was pretty funny, she had everyone in that little town of 200 turning heads and slowing down as they passed on car or bike, like they'd seen a ghost. She was the only one in town. We stayed with Miklos' Grandparents and his 'Sweet Mama' (what he calls her in hungarian, although his grampa proudly uses Sugar-Mama) stuffed us with food, and then so did his other grandparents and then so did his sweet-mama again for supper. I don't think I've ever eaten so much, or been stuffed 3 times in the same day. I got to try pickled watermelon- different, but really good.

Down to Belgrade.
They've got a huge fortress/citadel from 1800 that we walked around and took advantage of the great view. We found a good hostel for only 12EU a night and met a couple guys from Belgium and Austria. Although the city's really cleaned up and has incredible Crepes, the nightlife is damn poor. Definately a summer city. Supper was a serbian version of a burger- Pjeskavica, ya- i know- but trust me, it's awesome, and huge, and costs a dollar, and for breakfast good old Burak- Serbian pastry stuffed with either cottage cheese or ground meet. mmmmmmm.

Oh I forgot to mention the definate language barrier. I mean croatia was ok- a lot of ppl spoke english. But Serbians... only the waiters. Not to mention all the syrillic letters. But good thing I have french. Yeah, believe it or not there was a french cultural center, so when we couldn't find the info center or our hostel or a good map, I went in there and used french to find our way. French in Serbia? ca existe? apparently more than english.

Serbia's full of little 5-10 year old Gypsie-kid beggars who come up to your table with runny noses and hands out. And Belgrade has the worst traffic jams i've seen in a long time- all day horns honking. The most incredible site was by far the 1999 US-bombed buildings that haven't been touched since, and a couple buildings with bullet holes in the sides.

Otherwise not much new here in Budapest. The weather's cooling down- sitting here with a sweater and fleece, it's going down to -2 tonight. hmmm starting to feel like home.

I've now added a list of some of the good brews that are over here... dedicated to Great Auntie Betty who specially requested it. I'll update as I go.

Until next time- enjoy the free public washrooms not run by Gypsies asking for 100 Forints to take a piss.