29.03.09

See that manky throat?

Posted in People, Travel at 5:17 pm by alby

That’s yours that is.

Back from Belgrade after a visit with D to see Ana again.

Was ill last weekend hence my lack of Ballring attendance (proper grumpy about that) and things haven’t got much better.

Tonsillitis just got worse and worse over the week to the extent that I was proper ill on Wednesday.  If I’d been that bad the day before the trip I seriously doubt I’d have gone.

But no matter.  I went and fun was had despite struggling to talk at times.

Sunday was an early start so I was proper drowsy and managed to forget a bottle of water in my bag which got pulled as I went through security.  This was fun as I was asked if I wanted to drink it.  If so then I would have had to go out again and drink it there.  Apparently water is unsafe to drink in the security area.

A further note re packing:  My bag weighed a total of 6kg.  D’s was 18kg.  This was remarked on repeatedly throughout the week by an amused Ana.

In fact we did well with security.  My bag was rescanned at Brum, both my coats were rescanned at Zurich.  D was pulled aside at Zurich on the way back and was also asked “Is that a coconut?” when his bag was scanned.  The answer btw was “no”.

Oh yes and I managed to completely forget that my penknife was in my hand baggage on my return.  Luckily I remembered whilst dozing in the terminal before we’d said bye to Ana and tried to go through security.  Belgrade airport has a marvellously handy post office tho so I got it posted to me.  Phew.  I’ve had that for years and it would have been a proper loss.  Thanks to Ana for stumping for the postage too.

Back to the travel.

Bumpy flights both ways.  Not scarily bumpy (nowhere near as bad I’ve had in the past) but uncomfortable at times.

Once met with Ana we were off for food and a walk in Belgrade.  Got my first mushroomy burek as well as a hammy one too.  Very nice indeed.

Serbia still has the ludicrous rule that foreigners have to go and get “signed in” at the police station so we tried that but our first attempt was stymied when the owner of the place we were staying at wasn’t handy.  So we ended up having to go to Ana’s parents’ village and get signed in there a day or so later.

After that we visited the folks.  Only odd thing there was being offered juice and getting Fanta in return.  Not that I’m complaining.

Ana waved a coffee frother at D at this point and he was asked “Do you want it or not?”  He said no.  D’oh!

The second day was spent doing little before heading out for a walk and then to Ana’s dance class.  It started with a long and quite scary warm-up which had me scribbling notes for a future “how not to do exercises” feature one day.  Lots of bouncing on stretches, not holding stretches at all long enough to be worth bothering with, double leg lifts, spine twisting whilst flexed and many more examples.  Not to mention the pointlessness of the warm-up in the first place.

But the folks there can dance.  Was most impressed.  Specially with the singing (totally unexpected) and the guy who managed to high kick his outstretched hand.  And the woman who led the warm-up didn’t half move well – I do like to see someone move well.

Third day we headed to somewhere that was oddly familiar.  Place is called Sremski Karlovi.  I’d been before (about 8 years ago) and I didn’t have a clue we were heading there until we pulled into a town square that I immediately recognised.  Odd feeling.

At one of the local caffs we had the experience of a waitress bringing us an ashtray as we sat down.  An awfy long time since that happened to me.

Sadly the local sights were pretty much all shut so we didn’t hang around long before heading to Novi Sad.

Again I’ve been here before, it was raining that time too.

After a while of tourist sites we hit the city centre for dinner at somewhere called “Foody”.  The only caff I’ve been at which was sponsored by a shoe shop.  Lots of food though for not a lot of cash.

Day 4′s notes are started by “Sitting in an illegally parked car listening to Lisa Stansfield ffs!”  No more information will be forthcoming.

We’d met one of Ana’s pals (Tamara – that’s Tam-a-ra, not Tam-ARRuh) and the 4 of us went to some town or other to meet a couple of mutual friends Ivana and Dragan.  A nice afternoon spent with very nice people.

Food later was at a renowned Italian place in town – nice too.  Followed by sitting in a smoky coffee bar with a crap waiter and loud music.

This was the day my tonsillitis hit its peak so conversation wasn’t an option either here nor on the drive home.

Next day was quieter with a walk round the local park (photos taken at last) and then to pick up Ana’s older niece from school.  The next hour or so was spent playing with the kids and having a grand old time.  And I finally got to meet Milijana (Ana’s sister) again after 8 years.  Totally lovely woman.  Top to see her so well and happy what with 2 kids n’all.

Friday was Ana’s birthday so pressies given and then back to the village to get “signed out” and to meet mum and dad again.

In the evening we headed to a “club”.  It turned out to be a restaurant/bar by day and they had a live band on at night.  Band was doing decent enough covers of modern dance and pop staples, D was even singing along.  Not my bag though and was so loud that I could neither hear anyone at all nor speak loudly enough to make myself heard.  But never mind that, the girl they had singing was extremely sexy.

So off to the next door place where the house band was doing ska numbers.  Much better.  Sadly they they went on to doing serbian faves which weren’t quite so fun for me.  The locals seemed to love it though.  Including the unfeasibly sexy girl at the next table – this seems to be a theme.

Occasionally both of these bands did some english language songs which did lead to some Ken Lee moments.  Most entertaining.  Except the butchered version of “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Love is in the Air” which were both a disgrace to music (the former for it’s wreckage by the band and the latter just because).

After this rather pleasing end to the trip I could no longer speak and to be frank breathing was quite awkward too.

Saturday was basically home trip day.  House untouched, hurrah!

And photos here.

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