I arrived in Belgrade a few hours after my friend Sitara, who had waited for me at the airport. We hopped in a cab together after a little haggling and made our way to the hostel where the rest of the group had already checked in. We stayed at ArkaBarka, which is a floating hostel on the river Danube. The hostel ended up overbooking so they sent me and Sitara to a boat-turned-hostel called "Remember Me" a little ways down the river, just for that night. Following the river is a nice bike path that can take you all over the city. Naturally, the first thing we all did was rent bikes and check out the area.
Our bike gang rolling through Belgrade
View from the Millennium Tower
We found out later that the floating hostel was hosting a happy hour party. We spent a few hours out on the terrace over the river talking to some local Serbs. It was going well until we mentioned we were all going to Kosovo in the next few days; then it turned into them giving their arguments against the legitimacy of Kosovo's independence, bashing Albanians, referring to Kosovo as the "heart of Serbia", and questioning our motives for wanting to go to such a place. It seems best to avoid mentioning our travel plans from now on...
Arguing on the terrace with some locals
Oh, and I should mention, before I arrived in Belgrade I had a layover in London Heathrow. There I ended up chatting with Reuben Droughns, an ex New York Giants player and Superbowl winner (2008 against the Patriots...I googled him later). Anyway, he was on his way to Belgrade too because he is now assistant coach of the Serbian National Team Vukovi Beograd. He invited me to party with him and his football team the following night; I told him I'd get some friends together and see him there.
Me and Reuben at Freestyler
That night three of us borrowed bikes from the hostel and met Reuben at a club called Freestyler, which was also floating on the Danube river. It was pretty amazing, in a weird Balkans kind of way. We got to be VIP with Reuben and his team, which meant having a birds eye view of the club from the reserved balcony and free bottles all night. There were live performances by locals rappers and lots of dancers. Oh, and when we left we found out our bikes had been stolen, so we had to walk home.. Overall pretty hilarious night.
After a semester of studying the history, language and current events of Kosova, our group was finally ready to take off. We all made individual flight arrangements and agreed to meet first in Belgrade for a few days. The reason for the first stop in Serbia is so we can have a Serbia entry stamp in our passports; without this it could be very difficult to re-enter Serbia once we've spent time in Kosovo due to the lack of recognition of Kosovo as a country.
In an attempt to extend the length of this trip from both sides, I opted to meet my friend Shannon in Ireland a week before I had to report to Belgrade. I flew into Shannon (the airport) and met Shannon (the friend) a day or
so later. I had been to Ireland before but spent my time in Dublin. This
time I got to see much more of the pretty green country-side.
Inside the entrance to Killarney National Park
A sheep-herding dog.
During one of our breaks on a tour of the Rings of Kerry, we met a happy man who was letting people pet his "baby deer" (aka lambs..?) for a euro or two. He also, for some reason, had a bored chihuahua tied to his truck.
Chihuahua getting no attention.
Me petting the baby deer...
Then things got weird... After a nice week in Ireland it was time for me to begin my Balkans tour. I took a bus to the Shannon Airport at night, with a plan to sleep at the airport due to an early morning flight. I couldn't get past security because I was too early, so I slept on some chairs near check-in.
I woke up a few hours later, only to find everyone was gone, the lights were off and all the doors had been locked!
It was pretty bizarre to be completely alone in a closed airport, not to mention a security risk if I was some sort of bad-guy. Luckily there was free Wi-Fi and I was able to talk to some friends online and send them this video of my ridiculous predicament.
