The Final Fling

So my trip started off well. I went straight from class to the bus station and caught the train to Belgrade. I decided to get a sleeper car because it was heated and I didn't want to run into the troubles we had to Athens. The train left on time and arrived on time, apparently an incredible event, the train is usually at least 3-4 hrs late. I arrived in Belgrade around 6:45am and walked around and took some pictures. After figuring out that I was in a different time zone, I went to the bus station to see when I could go to Sarajevo. There were a few buses, but for me it was either 10am or 10pm. I decided to take the 10am bus, which left in 10 min. I had to withdraw money because I forgot to change me leva into euros. I caught the bus, satisfied with my 3hrs in Belgrade. The scenery on the way to Sarajevo was amazing. I made it to Sarajevo around 5:30pm and tried to make my way to the center of town. First i had to struggle with my lack of exchangable currency again, and eventually found an ATM. Then i tried to find my way to the center. There are 2 bus stations in Sarajevo, one very close to the center, and one about 12km from the city. I unknowingly was at the far one. After asking people for directions i finally gave in and took a taxi that was parked on the sidewalk. I made it into the center and found a hostile for 10 euro. Then I sat around and talked to a Finnish and a French guy, who I ended up going to the clubs with. We had our fun and came back around 3am. The craziest thing happened. There was a japanese guys in our hostile who looked strangely familiar. I didn't want to be racist and just assume that they all look that same (which i don't), so i asked him whether he had been to Ohrid. Turns out that he's the same guy that I met on the bus to Ohrid. What a small world. The next day I walked around the city and took pictures and bought a souvenir for Henk. Then I went to the bus station to wait for the bus to Podgorica so that I could go to Kotor. I was sitting down and reading my book when a couple asked me where I was going. I said Podgorica and they said that they were driving there and that i could go with them for the same price as the bus. I decided to go with them. The ride was fine, but the road to the border was absolutely terrifying. It randomly went from paved to unpaved, teetering on the edge of a cliff, barely wide enough for 2 cars. It went on forever and I was convinced that these people were going to kick me out and leave me for dead. Eventually we made it to the border and went through a national park in Montenegro. Even though it was dark, I was awestruck. It was like driving through solid limestone. We must have gone through at least 25 tunnels of varying length. The silhouette of the mountains were amazing. One the way down the weather turned terrible. The fog was so thick that we could barely see the white line in the middle of the road. I thought we were going to have to pull over and wait. We made it through the fog and rain and more fog and eventually made it to podgorica around 10pm. I decided to take the 10:45 bus to kotor and got there around 1am. I had no intention of sleeping anywhere, so I decided to stay awake all night and walk around the city until day broke and then head off somewhere else. Kotor is truly beautiful. A small walled city made almost entirely out of limestone. The whole city is paved in it and the buildings range from the 6-19th century. I really liked it there and after day broke I went up the mountain to get a good view and some exercise. I then headed back to Podgorica to make my way back home. I left Kotor around 9am and got to podgorica around 11. I went to pay for a ticket too nis, serbia, only to find that I had lost my ATM card. needless to say i was thrown into a flat panic. I was freaking out because i only had leva and they didn't exchange it here. I told one taxi driver who really helped me out by trying to find someone on the "black market" who exchanged leva. He ended up exchanging euro with me and i exchanged 120 leva for 50 euro. A 10 euro loss for me, but better than any other option. he also arranged for me to take a direct bus to sofia through a private company that left at midnight from a hotel parking lot. I was grateful, but suspicious of how shady it was. Now I had to wait around and I had almost 12 hrs before the bus left. I sat in the hotel and finished my 400 pg book i had received on thursday afternoon. If this bus didn't show up in its shady circumstances, i would be screwed, so i decided to take the indirect bus to nis at 8:15pm. I slept the entire 10hr trip. Strangely enough, there was no border check b/w montenegro and serbia. I made it to nis around 8am and the next bus to sofia left at 5pm. I found the train station and there was a train leaving at 1:10, so i did that. I walked around the city to kill time and finally caught the train, which was almost 2 hrs late. The train back was insane. Everyone was smuggling something. The train was packed full at the border, even the hallway was stuffed full. I saw at least 3000 packs of cigarettes being smuggled in different ways. People hiding them in panels, around their waists, legs, everywhere. It was a good weekend and I probably left some stuff out, but i've written this entry with many distractions, the biggest one being the almost certain cancellation of my flight next week due to fog. It makes it worse that there is only one flight to philly from frankfurt each day, so it's going to be tons of fun getting back. so a warning to those picking me up, I might not be able to get home at the appropriate time, or even day. I might even have to fly to somewhere else, i don't know. I'm hoping for the best right now, and we'll just have to wait and see.