hello again, dunav

Okay, so i tried to post yesterday with some pictures too but yet again the blogger application ate my entry. Yesterday was tough, but rewarding enough to keep me going. There were a lot of big long hills once i finally navigated out of Belgrade. Belgrade is made out of mountains, by the way. Seriously its some treacherous terrain. With the long hills out of the city came some beautiful views of the Danube from afar, as well as views of the countyside with some fall foliage. The downhills were amazing, up to 53km/hour. Too bad they were precluded by uphills of 6km/hr :( All in all it worked out okay, but was definitely challenging. The drivers and passersby were very friendly too, one old guy who amazingly spoke english offered me coffee or tea after finding me overheated and perched on the cement 112km road marker in his front yard. Beats me how i can overheat when its 55f outside. One driver that waved quite enthusiastically really reminded me of Misi, too bad it wasnt Misi! Today! was a whole different can of beans. I somehow pushed myself stupidly against the wind for five hours to travel only 35km. The wind was worse than the Rosedale ride that one year when we had to forcibly pedal even the downhills. Maybe only worse because of the baggage, dunno. The weather would have been amazing and perfect except for the wind. Flat terrain, maybe only one climb, but still I could only move about 6km/hr, i got excited to reach 9km/hr, only.even for a few seconds. I was yelling at the wind to stop please for maybe an hour or at least slow down but the wind didnt care. I had to walk for a bit because the wind was throwing me around too much for me to be comfortable traveling anywhere.near cars, then i had to rest in a ditch because walking was too difficult too. Had to.give up on waiting the wind out, and ride again. Finally i reached.Veliko Gradište. Not much to report there...met up with the Danube again briefly. The wind was managable about 8km before Veliko Gradište as i started descending into the valley. The decent was 7% and seemed to last forever, but i did have a sinking feeling that i would have to.climb up that steeply again. Not yet though. Im staying just past Golubac for the night, just around the bend from the fortress. Once the walls of the valley started getting steeper, i was really glad that i had been tortured so much for a large part of the day. The views are amazing, so much so.that my bike had to reward me by getting a flat, then the wind started up again, ha. Either way, the fortress is amazing and the cliffs are amazing and the truck driver that stopped in the restaurant under the place i am staying is amazing too. One truck driver there knew english and helped me arrange my nightly accommodations; I finally got in trouble for not having the paper card that tells the police everywhere I have stayed in Serbia. Hopefully things will work out at the border on my way out, ha. Anyway, hot shower, hot soup, hot coffee, mostly cured. Hopefully tomorrow my broken ass knee will have decided to stop whining and carrying on. It should figure out by now it's not getting a break! Now to fix my flat...

The embassy sucks

So does nato..

Belgrade!

Att cut my data plan off; yay!

Trip to Belgrade

Quality repairs

Serbia, continued!

Im still in Vrsac, now scoping out dance groups in Belgrade with my host's help. My cycling partner, Tamara, and I parted ways and she is now in Croatia, enjoying the coast and warm weather. Victor has shown me that the Danube follows the border of Serbia and Romania, and turns into a beautiful canyon, so I hope to check that out soon on my way to Sofia.

serbia

Okay, I haven't posted in a while. I'm in Vrsac, Serbia, right now. My new bike partner, Tamara, and I just biked here from Timisoara, Romania. Our host in Romania was Razvan; he had a party last night and we got to try some sour cherry homemade alcohol, and lots of amazing food. The alcohol was sweet and good. In Serbia, our host is Victor, and he's really cool, a cinematographer. He's crazy hospitable too, and this town is so cute, right on the edge of a mountain. The house we are staying in is pretty awesome too. Tonight we had some almond alcohol that Victor's mom made. Bitter, but good. All in all, everything is going great, just very busy lately with little time to update. Hopefully I can find some wifi soon and post some pictures!

Arad

Okay, on Friday morning I left Szeged and biked to Arad, Romania. The border crossing was super easy! Im really happy to not be a truck driver though. They only have one lane to wait in, and they were backed up at least a mile. I definitely got some strange looks from them as I biked through the car lane. Now I have three stamps in my passport; very exciting for me! There isnt very much to report about my journey, although I did arrive in a not so nice looking part of the city on my way in and was a little hesitant at first, but was quickly reassured.
My host, Daniel, is pretty amazing. He had to go out of town for the weekend, and he was very welcoming and we had a chance to talk for a couple of hours before he left, which is fortunate. Yesterday I explored some, and went to the grocery and cooked myself a big dinner and stuffed myself. I really need to buying cookies though! Today I got rained on when I left the house, so I stopped riding and im at the mall using the wifi and drying out. Its chilly here, high of 60F, hopefully it warms up again..

Hedgehog

Possibly the highlight of yesterday was seeing a hedgehog. I didnt get any pictures of it, but it was super cute! I went to a tanchaz last night. It was fun, reviewed some dances and learned some mens footwork in detail that I had been faking my way through. The city was quite beautiful on my way home...
I spent a lot of yesterday reading Adrian Mole: the cappuccino years, by Sue Townsend. It was very good, and I got caught up in it.

Langos

Today I ate langos which put me out for a while. Fried pastry with cheese, sour cream, and garlic. I had already eaten half in the picture. Also tracked down some jack and the beanstalk tower, and people-watched a lot today.

Szeged continues

Burek is amazing, heres a picture. Its a pastry with ham and maybe cheese in the middle. Ive been sightseeing and hanging out with the family and playing polo and more. And bike riding. And eating italian ice cream. Good stuff.