I was only in Serbia for a week because I was stuck there. I was told I'd get a Russian visa there in one day and had to wait until the following Friday. I had wanted to spend that time in Budapest (which I'd never seen, and only ended up visiting for 35 minutes) and Lviv (which I've spent weeks in and is probably my favorite city in Eastern Europe). I was actually afraid to talk to anyone. We bombed them in 1999, for basically no other reason than that President Clinton wanted to play down the heat he was getting for having gotten a blowjob from a fattie. Notice that Italy is across the Adriatic Sea from Serbia, their President has sex parties every month, and THEY don't feel the need to take out a few prominent refineries and bridges in the Balkans. Nonetheless, I will grant you that Serbians love fighting, as well as smoking cigarettes and eating pastries. I read a traveler's review that claimed that he knew two US marines that attempted to chat up a girl in Belgrade only to get the beating of their lives. The Park Hotel in Belgrade, which my friend claimed was a dive, had a great breakfast and free WiFi, and was cheap at $50/night.
I decided to visit Sremska Mitrovice for the Roman ruins, which ended up resembling a large, buried sub-basement stretching under the entire 1780's era Austrian-built city of 40,000 people and about 5 pizza places featuring outdoor seating and inexpensive Italian-style ice cream (I guess there's some Roman connection there). The hotel was a crumbling communist eyesore. They overcharged me (38 euros a night vs the promised 28) but returned my money when I called them on it. No A/C, no WiFi. Ice cream was about 60 cents though, and it was the good kind - glace - rather than your average McDonald's soft serve.
I returned to Budapest, spent another day at the Park Inn, and then headed out to a small resort spa called Banja Vrujci and stayed at http://www.villajelena.co.rs/ for 25 euros per night. Aside from having no water in the bathroom one morning (low water pressure!, the staffer with the broken teeth said), it was nice, the included dinner was good, and it had a nice pool. I chatted up a Serbian girl there that was a nurse in Belgrade - she also had some broken teeth. My friend and I surmised that it must be because they are extremely violent people there and like to punch each other in the face. How else would you break three of your teeth, all next to each other? When I finally did spend 15 minutes in the Lviv railway station, I literally kissed the ground because I missed the city so much. With the money I'm making from home now, I could certainly maintain a higher lifestyle there. I'll consider it when I sell my car.
I decided to visit Sremska Mitrovice for the Roman ruins, which ended up resembling a large, buried sub-basement stretching under the entire 1780's era Austrian-built city of 40,000 people and about 5 pizza places featuring outdoor seating and inexpensive Italian-style ice cream (I guess there's some Roman connection there). The hotel was a crumbling communist eyesore. They overcharged me (38 euros a night vs the promised 28) but returned my money when I called them on it. No A/C, no WiFi. Ice cream was about 60 cents though, and it was the good kind - glace - rather than your average McDonald's soft serve.
I returned to Budapest, spent another day at the Park Inn, and then headed out to a small resort spa called Banja Vrujci and stayed at http://www.villajelena.co.rs/ for 25 euros per night. Aside from having no water in the bathroom one morning (low water pressure!, the staffer with the broken teeth said), it was nice, the included dinner was good, and it had a nice pool. I chatted up a Serbian girl there that was a nurse in Belgrade - she also had some broken teeth. My friend and I surmised that it must be because they are extremely violent people there and like to punch each other in the face. How else would you break three of your teeth, all next to each other? When I finally did spend 15 minutes in the Lviv railway station, I literally kissed the ground because I missed the city so much. With the money I'm making from home now, I could certainly maintain a higher lifestyle there. I'll consider it when I sell my car.
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