The statistics

I am back in Serbia for a few days as I pass through on my journey.

Days Travelled: 57

Lowest Temperature: -5 Celsius (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Injuries:

•  Bruised foot from tripping on uneven stairs

Countries Visited: 8

Cities Visited: 22

Postcards Written: 4

Time Spent in Transit: 91 hours

Variety of Beer Tasted: 21

Border Crossings: 14

Current Location: Belgrade, Serbia 

Number of Times I have Paid to do Laundry: 2

Hard Core Traveller Story: Someone cutting their hair off with a hunting knife in Spain. 

Help Ex Jobs: 2

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I need to start working again, my supplies are running low. Most of my clothes are destroyed and I don't really have the money to restock at the moment. I decided to travel light this trip so I only have a small back pack and my laptop bag. (A hardcore traveller, I am not)

The contents of my bag include:

• Seven pairs of underwear
• Two bras
• Three pairs of socks
• Two long sleeved undershirts
• Two singlets
• Skinny leg jeans
• One pair of black tights
• Two t-shirts
• A high waisted skirt
• Four dresses 
• A cardigan
• Versatile Scarf. 

This may seem like a lot of clothes, but everything I own is silly and Australian - meaning it is very thin and offers little to no warmth. I am often wearing a third of my bag's contents at any given time.

What is damaged:

• The jeans have a hole in the crotch and the in seam is starting to split
• Both the bras and the skirt are too big (a fun side effect of constant travel)
• One dress has a whole in it
• The seam has come down on a dress
• My tight have lost their most crucial element, their tightness. The elastic is going.
• I got my scarf hooked on some barb wire climbing a fence. It as a manageable hole
• The seam on my back pack has split.

I just don't know what to do with myself. I am waiting in a coffee shop in Uzice, Serbia to do an interview with a woman in Poland. Fingers Crossed. 

Border Faux Pas

I am at the border crossing between Serbia and Macedonia, we have been stopped here for about half an hour. The police are intently checking the bus, dragging people off the bus and forcing them to unlock their luggage so it can be searched. I have my bags with me on the bus, so they seem to think they don't need to be checked.


I think I may have committed a border faux pas a few minutes ago.

A police officer came on to the bus to check everyone who hadn't gotten off to unlock their luggage  This happened to correspond with  American Pie coming on the radio, it's a great song, it needs to be sung. I couldn't help myself, I started quietly, but once I felt the rhythm I just couldn't stop singing. It was never overly loud, but I didn't stop when the officer got me, he did not look impressed. He looked at me as if my singing was actually a code that would point him in the direction of any illegal activity.

I don't remember the sun setting, ever, and especially not when I'm on buses. I don't know what I am so engrossed in that I don't notice a giant orb dipping into the ocean or sneaking away behind the mountains. I hope on and then the next time I think about it darkness has fallen.

Which brings me to my main point.

I don't think is possible or me to catch a long distance bus ride without their being an insane person somewhere along the journey. What brought me to this conclusion was today on what should have been a three hour (it was six) ride into Macedonia there was an older woman who was yelled at my chair companion. I'm normally the first person to hate the person I'm sitting next to. Something about being confined in such a small place with a person you have never met before and have no desire to talk to (there is exceptions leads me to blind hatred for no explainable reason. I think the reason I like this one is because she didn't make me take assigned seat 41, the window seat; the worst seat. But this older woman in the coat that made her  look like she had skinned a Labrador had the same seat number as one of us, there was 30 empty seats though so it made no sense for to be yelling and screaming about it. The conductor told her the what I'm sure is the Serbian equivalent of "sit down and shut up."

But the award for craziest bus passenger goes to a woman on the overnight from Ankara to Sarpi. Her "friend" (pretty sure this woman was just another crazy) had trouble getting her on to the bus to begin with, I personally think this was the sign that we should have just left her behind. Every time the bus would stop she would scream and fight her way off and refuse to get back on. Eventually her friend would coax her back on and she would, settled and when the bus was moving she was silent.

I don't know where she went to from Sarpi... nor do I care to know.

Niš Fortress, Niš, Serbia

The Statistics.....

Days Travelled: 24

Lowest Temperature: -5 Celsius (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Injuries:

•  Bruised behind from falling down a flight of stairs. 
• Incredibly sore lower back (I think it may also be from the fall)
• Bruises along my shoulders from carry my backpack long distances

Countries Visited: Four

Cities Visited: Nine

Modes of Transport: 5 (plane, bus, train, taxi and fiat (caught a lift with a Canadian driving though Croatia)

Border Crossings: Eight

Number of Beds Slept in: 10

Current Location: Niš, Serbia 

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Next Destination: Podgorica, Montenegro or Pristine, Kosovo.