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Well...what a nice little start to the next phase of my adventure...hint ofsarcasm...coincidently I have maintained my 'travelling blind' attitude...this just may have to be rectified shortly. After realising two days ago that my global interail train pass doesn't allow me to just jump on any train when and wherever I want. Apparently booking in advance is the way to go. And silly me assuming escaping from London would be included in the ticket also...proven so wrong!!! The last day I spent in Brighton (hung-over mind you) and still green, sporting a new hair doo. Compliments of the resident hairdresser (thanks Jess)...anyway the last day I was in contact with my travel agent, panicking slightly, a little drunk still so wasn't understanding the entire situation. Buts it's really not that bad. I managed to get on a train this morning from London...the euro star...straight from London to Paris in 3 hours...I shouted myself a beer and was out like a light.
Upon my arrival in Paris I had to get my ticket to Belgrade...however there are no direct services, which makes sense really, the distance between Paris and Belgrade is quite significant (for Europeans anyway), so 2 hours in Paris and I'm boarded to Zurich, and fingers crossed I will have enough time to buy my ticket for the night train to Vienna...
SO LUCKY!!! Just as the train was pulling into Zurich, a Swiss gentlemen who was an engineer for Hilti (designs expensive tools) asked where I was off to and I blurted out my situation and he was on the same train. He said I would have NO time at all to buy a ticket, it turns out it was one of the few trains you do not have to make a reservation for. Whoop whoop!!!
So after chatting with this Swiss chap for a good hr before he jumped off and went home, a Colombian woman and I managed to exchange a few words, my newly acquired Spanish and her broken English, we just giggled a lot, which was nice. She just got off in Salzburg and another 4 hrs for me, 3 new faces, but they aren't piping up so I'm just going to chill on my own and listen to my exit festival playlist. Not long now.
The houses are so beautiful and quaint...
Now on the train from Wien (Vienna-Austria) to Budapest...met up with some fellow festival goers, some cute little English girls who I think my little brother would adore. Mainly because of their accents J we had boarded on the very last carriage and were waiting to start rolling; however we noticed the train we should be attached to had been pulled away. Were we stranded??? It was funny I suppose, however making the train from Budapest to Belgrade is now on the backburner, it seems like the further we go east the quality of the trains diminish. One thing I noticed about the cafes during my short stay in Wien was its still legal to smoke...and there are 2 sections in each carriage...not even sectioned off by a door...so the woff of smoke passes by anyway...everyone is buzzing and talking about the festival and who they want to see, playing music like no tomorrow...it's unfortunate that I don't know who's singing what, considering the festival is tomorrow...again travelling 'blindly' I had no idea that the bands don't begin to perform till 10pm...Each night a performance will begin at 6am in the morning...what the??? So no sleep for sally and her friends...
I have heaps of books on me that are weighing me down significantly....providing incentive to read more so I can drop them off...I think I will give one of them to a pal I will be meeting in Serbia...Paulo Coelho- The pilgrimage, the walk I want to complete in august..Santiago De Compostella is the name of the pilgrimage. A lot of people hike because of their faith. I will participate as one of the 'common people'. The book is heavily religious, but the messages can be applied to my life. It's the first book of his that I have read. I would recommend it...I have also heard a lot about the alchemist...will get through what I have now and keep my eye out.
The past few days seem like a blur...I can't even remember which day I left and where I was on those days...after arriving in Belgrade yesterday morning I caught a taxi to where I met Thea...a few of her Aussie pals own an apartment in the middle of the city pretty much, I slept for a good 4 hours and then we explored what the city had to offer. I had an amazing drink called a plazma...it's so obvious as to how I would of pronounced it. It had blended shortbread mixed through it...for me; drinks are all about texture and trust me when I say it was unbelievable!!!! We strolled back and packed our stuff in time for our taxi to take us to NOVI SAD. FESTIVAL TIME!!!!
Before I touch on that I want to give you an idea as to what I experienced during my journey to Belgrade yesterday...after leaving Vienna on a delayed train, there was no hope we would make the connecting train to Belgrade on that day. A group of us had migrated together...there were a few big groups of people, they were all accommodating, so it was a nice little journey to Budapest (Hungary)...upon arrival we had definitely missed our connecting train so it was off to the city via the metro...we had 6 hours to kill. We went and had some goulash at a restaurant called frici papa. Ha. And then wandered through this lovely road full of bars and alfresco restaurants, we ended up grabbing some beer from the supermarket and sitting in the park playing games, immature but it made us all laugh.
Arriving back at the train station it was obvious that everyone was waiting for the train to Novi Sad with their camping equipment. We were all loitering around the screen waiting for the platform number to appear. It was a stampede!!!! People running, rolling their ankles, all for the sake of making that overnight train to Novi Sad. I was one of the lucky few in my 'group' who got a seat; the funny thing is I wasn't running at all...just really lucky. There were people lying all over the aisles. If you scroll through my pics you will get an idea.
Back to Belgrade...7 of us caught cabs to novi sad...only took one hour, a little bit more expensive than a bus or train, but so direct and I think we all just wanted to get there and begin our festivalling J
shalom, mizpah, namaste
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