Short Visit to Belgrade And On To Montenegro

Pedestrian Street and Fountain in Central Belgrade








Belgrade Castle Gate







Open Square and Column Overlooking the Danube from Belgrade Castle






So after only one night in Belgrade we decided to move on quickly to Montenegro hoping to soak up some of the atmosphere following the "YES" result for the separation referendum. What happened is that after an interesting and surprisingly comfortable overnight train ride we ended up at a cozy little resort town on the Adriatic coast - no noise, no rallies, no protests, no parties , no signs or graffiti or anything. The hostel owners told us the day of the referendum was nuts as people broke out their kalishnikovs (they;re more common than colour tvs here --- joking) and fired into the air while driving around like madmen and waving flags. Tensions are still present though - we've spoken to Montenegran Serbs that seem to not really acknowledge and are frustrated by what seems to be a political reality. Moving on, we decided to chill out regroup and organize here in Budva. One consequence is that Chris and I have decided to separate for the next couple of weeks. He wants to head south into Albania and Kosovo and experience these risky and lawless (from what we know) recent warzones and I feel like stumbling towards Ukraine via Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia (again), Bulgaria and Romania. In the meantime sand and surf, nintendo, hollywood movies, clean laundry and a little sightseeing are what we're up to.