Party in Belgrad and recovering from it

Belgrad has a really amazing nigh life and a really special eating street. You know these very common areas e.g. in Brussels or Prague, where waiters ask you to come in and eat at there place, but Skadarlija, that's the one in Belgrad is really different.

It's pretty cheap and they are offering almost only traditional food there, and, most of the guest I saw there, came from Serbia.

If you are sitting down in one of the restaurants, you should be prepared that some guys will come and play traditional Balkan music - which was not my favorite choice, but anyhow, others liked it.

The Serbian food itself is a bit too fat for me and way too much meat - but I think most man will love it.

As I don't have the camera with me when I am around during the nights, you can click on what Wikipedia tells you about this place: Skadarlija

Afterwards you have like in any big town several options, what to do. I followed Natashas recommendation and went to "shlep", which is basically a boat, where they are playing live music.

For 3 €, three bands were playing nice Rock/Punk music with an experimental Balkan influence.

Check it out:

shlep-the-new-place-on-the-river

The day after I did some sight seeing of buildings I did not see so far, here we go:

Again a conclusion: So far Belgrad is really number one from the cities which have been on the trip.

It's more charming on a very authentic, sympathetic and fresh way - it almost seems the town did not loose it's virginity like Budapest and Vienna did - cause beside their magnificent buildings and culture, which is not made for everyday living, these cities are for me like all other cities over the world.

With Belgrad I had a similar feeling than with Istanbul - these places seem to have conserved their identity in the daily live of the people.

So many pathetic words for nothing => Go and explore this wonderful place!

As I do not have any clips from yesterday's concert, I'll share another clip with you, from Steven Wilson in Mexico with Luminol:

Serbia country of the wild living animals

Starting in Sombor a very rare species of wild living animals, was getting very close to me. I was lucky to survive the horrible attack.

On the way I passed a lot of small towns and villages, most of them had impressive churches, which looked very orthodox.

At a stop having lunch in a very small town, two small Gypsy girls joined me and asked me something - due the language barrier, there was no real conversation coming up.

So far I did not have any bad experience with Gypsies and I am not willed to face them as people of lower category, as many do.

Somewhere in the nowhere, I saw a nice well, which is used with an interesting wooden construct to get the water out of it.

On this nice spot I was watching small fish in the flooded areas and after a while I was lucky, I saw some kingfishers flying around - unfortunately I was not fast enough to take a picture or even a short clip.

But: like the day before I saw a badger, but this time a living one. I was really impressed, how close this animal was coming to me, before it recognized me on the bike.

Approx one hour later, there was a small turtle directly on the cycle path.

Nice flooded areas, by the way: in Serbia and as well in Hungary the floods did not cause any serious damages - maybe of the fact, people have not canalised the Danube like we did in Germany - so maybe even we can learn something from our eastern brothers and sisters.

Arrived in Backa Palanka, I was asked by a over and over tattooed bodybuilder if I do not wanna buy some steroids, I bought some and yes, since that day I am much faster than before... just kidding! So beside bars and places specialized for sport bets, selling steroids seems to be another important business factor of Backa Palanka.

Next day I headed forward to Belgrad, on the way I saw again some nice orthodox churches.

In Novi Sad I made a small break. The city looked really beautiful with its anxious buildings, also I had the impression the people were much more relaxed than in the city before.

Pedestrian Street of Novi Sad:

 The fort of Novi Sad:

After some more kms I reached unfortunately Belgrad, the gate to the Balkan.

Over there you can see people celebrating the victory over turkey in a war, which took place in the 14th century. Natasha from the hostel I stayed, said that the Turkish people claim this victory as well - so if in Ankara people are on the streets as well?

From Budapest via Kalocsa to Sombor

Starting around 9.00 am the weather was not too good in Budapest and the weather forecast predicted the whole day rain. Luckily it was only raining for short periods and during these not too heavy.

With this picture (again the parliament) I would like to say good bye from Budapest.

Many animals were on the track, but unluckily not all of them, especially the wild living ones were not tied with a rope,  and that's why I was always too slow with the camera. At least you can see an goat, which was next to the track.

Around 1 pm I meet David, with whom I travelled together for the rest of the day and during the night. He is from Budapest and was travelling with his recumbent bike for 3 days in Hungary.

The clouds were magnificent, shortly before Kalocsa, I hope you are able to assume it at least, how beautiful they were on that day.

During the stay in the cheap pension we found out, that we are having the same liking for music, e.g. Faith no more, Phantomas, ... and some Jazz

That's why I want to share with you something in between Metal and Jazz => I hope you will like it.

Leave-taking ceremony ;-)

To give you an impression how much food I am eating during a whole day cycling you find a list for today what I had to eat in the following:

breakfast:

• 100-200g of cold noodles from the day before
• 1 roll with ham and cheese
• something sweet from the bakery
• 2 coffees

during the day on the bike:

• 80g of chocolate
• 2 cereal bars
• 1 paprika
• 3 apples
• ca 50 g of peanuts
• 1 roll with ham and cheese
• 3 plain rolls with 4 Wiener sausages
• 6-7 liters of water

in the evening:

• 1 Twix
• 1 cold plate with salami and cheese and bread
• 1 cucumber salat
• 1 plate with cevapcici and french-fries

I also tried to give you an impression of the beautiful clouds in the following picture, which was taken around 20km before the Serbian border still in Hungary.

That day I was a bit upset due works on the cycle paths (still in Hungary). Over almost 10 km they removed the pavement and filled very fine sand on the track. It was over wide ranges impossible to ride the bike - it felt like cycling in the Sahara. Getting pissed didn't help, so I had to accept it and push the bike part wise there.

Still on the Hungarian side, the places were getting more and more remote and natural as well, it felt sometimes like in the past centuries.

One interesting story I shouldn't miss, Hungarians are using Hallo or Hello for saying Hi and Good by, so basically in Hungary everything is Hello ;-)

The boarder - and this time it was one, not like in the EU, but without any problems and complaints I was able to pass.

On that day I could even watch more animals than the day before, I saw many rabbits, one deer, many storks and even a black one, a golden oriole, one weasel and last but not least an over driven badger. Even it looks quite martial and bestial I see it from a positive point: there was more than on cadaver on the road in Serbia - as these roads are not frequented so much, I assume there are much more wild living animals around than in our western countries.

30km behind the border, I reached Sombor.

Budapest => crazy sh...

Arrived in Tiger Tim's Place in Budapest, I was asked to follow the crowd of people staying in the hostel to the famous Szechenyi pool party taking place every Saturday in Budapest szechenyispabaths.com. In the beginning I was not motivated to join much younger people than me for a pool party, where they would possibly play the usual House crab.

But luckily I did not follow my instinct and I joined the young fellows. And was really amazed by the curiosity of this event. So if you are in Budapest you should definitely visit this party.

I did not have the camera with me, that's why you have to be satisfied with the official video of the event.

The day after I sleeped a bit longer... After having breakfast I took the bike and hat a look at the magnificent sights Budapest has.

I will probably annoy people, who have been to this place with the following pictures, but I was really impressed by the amazing amount of beautiful buildings, which are unique from my point of view.

One of the beautiful theaters, Budapest has.

On the top of the town is the chateau with several churches, and museums located - from my point of view it's even more impressive than the chateau of Prague.

From the top you have as well a beautiful view to the city where the parliament and St. Stephans cathedral are really outstanding.

The synagogue of Budapest, with it's almost intact and quite large Jewish quarter, where a lot of bars and Kosher restaurants invite you to enjoy the Jewish culture.

But beside the popular buildings, there are so many beautiful old buildings around.

St. Stephans cathedral.

And last but not least, some buildings, which are in almost all European capitals present => the so called Heroes Square.

And again a beautiful building, which I can't remember the name.

Conclusion: go for Budapest, the sooner the better!