Banja! And Tina the babysitter.

Hello everyone! We've been out of touch for a while due to lack of internet, but it's been an exciting and fun time. As mentioned, our luggage decided to spend an extra day or two in Rome. Andy and I made good use of the handful of dirty clothes I put in my backpack and managed to avoid having to wear Tina's nightgowns (although it was strongly considered).

The first morning in Serbia we went to the fortress on the river: Kalemegdan. It was fun, we got to wander about. History here in Belgrade is much more alive than anywhere else. The fortress is still being used as a park and every once in a while we see a building with a giant hole in it from the last war. Here we've seen 20th century tanks instead of 12th century armor.

On a very happy note, we got our luggage back. After 3 hours of busy signals, dropped calls, and impatient people on the other end hanging up before checking on our bags, we finally learned they had our bags so we jetted down, and Tina talked to the people behind the counter (who seemed grouchy). She turned to me and said "You have to go back because your name is on the baggage". I was thinking "ok, fine, whatever" until I realized I had to go behind the airport security with a special badge, and that I'd be going back alone (a.k.a without Serbian-speaking Tina, also known as Serbian Fearless Leader). I followed the 2 people who had similar badges and eventually got to a window. The lady started speaking to me in Serbian, I shrugged and pointed to my name. She was nice and pointed where I needed to go. I wandered in that direction until I saw our bags, got really excited, and then had to convey, using grunts and gestures, that Tina, outside, had the paperwork I was supposed to have with me. Eventually, with the help of a nearby english speaker, I got our bags back through security and we all cheered at the thought of our travel mates having deodorant in the sweltering heat. We would no longer be forced to split up on the buses.

Then we immediately went to the bus station to catch a bus to Banja (pronounced Banya, where Tina was raised). Notwithstanding the killer heat and the lack of AC, the trip was pleasant, with several enthusiastic Serbs chatting with us for the majority of the 4 hour trip. Banja seems like a Serbian Ashland. 20,000 people, we can walk across it easily, it has a giant park, lives on tourism, and has mineral springs which taste really bad. We stayed in Tina's house and had a wonderful time cruising the city, getting fruit and picnic food at the markets, and eating that food in the park. We embarrassed Tina constantly, she made the mistake of teaching us a few words, so we'd repeat those words in public around her constantly. Once we learned to read Cyrillic, we started reading every sign we passed, which was really fun for us, but resulted in a misunderstanding where a local tried to sell us his apartment. Tina has been incredibly patient with us.

People are very friendly and helpful, and all of us have enjoyed this part of the trip immensely. It even made us glad we went through all the hassle of getting to Serbia. We occupied time between dinner and an evening stroll by watching "300" with Serbian subtitles for $2.50 at the local theater (only one screen, only one movie).

At night we'd have "story-time with Tina" where we'd try reading Russian fairy tales in Cyrillic Serbian. We enjoyed a plethora of cheap produce. Peaches, blackberries, plums, grapes, bananas, tomatoes and cucumbers all fresh from the farmers market in the morning. The "meat" was a little bit sketchier, the ground turkey has a consistency "somewhere between marshmallow and toothpaste" according to Andy. We've been living life Serbian style and loving it.

We got back to Belgrade today, taking care of a few late obligations and money things. Massimo has continued to be amazing by supplying us with more details for the blog (check the posts from Rome, I will add a few more names of gelato places).

Tonight is our last night in Serbia, and we will be sorry to see it go.