I don't know if you know what it's like to live in Budapest, but being in the very heart of Europe is almost unbearable when you know that you can access so much in such little time. I mean, except for the Balkans are so inaccessible. You can't fly into them, no trains run there, and the entire region is almost unmappable.* So quite obviously this is the most alluring thing when you're in Budapest is the prospect of a trip into the depths of the Balkans, specifically Albania. While I could not convince anyone else to go to Albania with me, I was blessed with the opportunity to take a long weekend due to an "SAP outage" at work (don't even ask me what that means) so I decided to hope on a train to Belgrade, because I hadn't done that in a long time and it's such a great deal. So on Thursday night I hoped aboard the train with a bunch of Borsodi Búza Sör (you have no idea how amazing the Hungarian beer scene is) and settled in for a surprisingly comfortable sleep.
As usual it was fantastic to arrive in Belgrade on a summer morning at 5am. I live for this. I walked up to Ruski Tsar and got a slice of pizza, then over to the main square on the crest of the hill where the cafes were starting to open. I ordered a coffee with mineral water, and watched with contempt as I saw so many backpackers invade the city. I tried my best to conceal my own backpack, of course, but at least I was a local. I decided that Albania was literally impossible to get to in a three day weekend, so instead my plan was to go to Užice, a nice little town on the Bosnian border in the south, then cross to Sarajevo, and catch the direct train back to BP. The train to Užice left at around 11am, which is terrible because I feel like I was wasting so much time, but as the old adage goes, time's never wasted when you're trapped in the Balkans and can't do a single thing about it.
The train to Užice was actually the train to Bar, on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro, which meant it was packed to the brim with sun seeking Belgraders looking for a good time. I got into a cabin and was seated opposite a rather regal looking woman who kindly offered me exotic cookies and homemade cherry liqueur, then proceeded to tell me that this train was the "best of the best" of Montengrin trains and that her friend designed it. Then a woman with like 7 kids burst in and started screaming in Serbian and we all had to leave because she had reserved it, and then join the rest of the common folk in the corridors and dining car. Everything about the preceding events makes me love the Balkans even more.
By the time we made it to Užice it was about 3pm and I was ready to get some walking in. Užice is a great city that I had woken up in during my trip to Albania the previous December, and I looked at the town by night and vowed to return one day. Today was that day. Here I was, poised at my destiny. It was a tiny but bustling city, with all low buildings except for one enormous concrete tower shaped like a rocket, and I could not wait to find out what awaited me. I marched right to the centre and found the tourism office, where the receptionist told me that there were no hostels and only one hotel, which he promised was cheap."
"It's about 26 euros. It's the tallest building in town. You can't miss it. It looks like a rocket. In fact, we call it 'The Rocket.'"
"Oh, you mean The Rocket?"
"Yes! You've heard of it?"
You should seriously go to Užice and see this thing.
Anyway, as soon as I got into the Rocket and settled into my amazing room, it started pouring rain so I settled into bed and watched some American TV dubbed into Serbian and planned my next move, which I'll admit had several constraints at this point.
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