It’s midnight, I’m in bed in my Bucharest hostel, and my body feels like it’s going to fall apart at any second and honestly, writing is the last thing I feel like doing right now. But I made a promise. A promise, Mr. Frodo. And dammit, I’m going to keep up with this blog if it kills me.
Today was a hardcore travel day, which I did not expect to be so intense because it was only an hour and a half long flight from Belgrade to Bucharest. Nbd, right? WELL. When you’ve barely slept for several nights, are hungover, and still sick, everything is just hard. But to understand all of these dilemmas, we have to go back in time to Belgrade a couple nights ago.
After my day of exploring, I hung out at the hostel and started drinking with my friends. Rakia is dangerous stuff, guys. A group of us went to a bar in a square with lots and lots of bars. We weren’t there long, just stayed for a drink, but this group of Aussie kids we were with were pretty drunk. And here the drama begins.
The bar was located about a meter and a half up on a ledge above a parking lot, and there was only one of those retractable red ropes that they use in like movie theaters to stop you from falling off. Anyway, as we were leaving, some of them bumped this giant sign thing that was precariously balanced on a thin edge of wood. It fell off of the ledge, directly onto a the rear window of a car. It shattered.
The kids ran, and I honestly don’t blame them. In a foreign country where you have no idea what the legal system will do to you, sometimes you panic. Unfortunately, the hostel employee that was out with us, my Aussie friend, and myself, didn’t think that was the cool thing to do. Plus, we knew there were cameras so technically we couldn’t get in trouble because we were nowhere near any of this when it happened. Basically, the security guys came running out, realized that we only knew English, found someone inside to translate everything, and they ended up talking to the staff member, watching security footage, while me and my friend waited around for a bit. The whole situation was so sketchy though: they were like, you can either pay us 200 euros, or we can call the police and that will probably take a few hours. But he told them this almost true story that we just met those guys and had nothing to do with them (almost true- most of them weren’t staying at the hostel, just friends with someone) and that we had no idea who they were or anything. Anyway, by the end of it all they decided there was nothing to do about the guys that ran, and they were grateful for our help and weren’t trying to blame us for anything.
The thing is, the kids didn’t really do anything wrong. That sign was completely unsecured; I don’t think they were even leaning on it, just bumped it a bit. It could have been any of us, and it’s crazy to me that they would even think to demand cash on the spot. I wonder what insurance is like in Serbia, because in the States that would NEVER fly. There would be no way to blame someone for that.
Anyway, all this took quite awhile, but we finally finished and decided we all desperately needed a drink. We ended up meeting more of our friends at this bar with a bit more of a dance floor, a bit more energy. And super, super, SUPER smoky.
The thing about the Balkans- well, at least Serbia – is that you can smoke inside EVERYWHERE. Even though I don’t smoke (save for a drag here or there on someone else’s cigarette when I’m drunk whoops), I’ve gotten pretty used to being around smoke because a lot more people do it in Europe than in the States. Still, when every single bar/club/restaurant is filled with smoke and is underground with zero ventilation and you are already having issues with coughing…you can guess how I’m feeling right about now. Also my coat smells like smoke. Also sometimes I blow my nose and it’s black. Hopefully these few weeks won’t give me lung cancer.
At the bar people bought me tons of drinks – I don’t think I got myself a single one, and I met some older Serbian guys and a DOG. I spent 3/4 of the time in this bar on the most likely filthy floor, playing with the dog (who eventually started humping me). I also did some dancing, so it was okay. At some point, the staff member started kissing me and for some reason I was like eh whatever so we did that for awhile. Was not exactly what I had in mind, though, and I don’t know how I ended up in bed with him but I did. In the morning I ran away quickly.
I felt terrible that next day. Between the smoke aggravating both my coughing and my stomach, all the alcohol and just weird situations I found myself in, I was not feeling great. I literally showered and laid on the couch and napped in the common area for hours, only eating a pita until about 5pm. I eventually started feeling better, so I went on a walk, had an adventure trying to change my Hungarian forints for Serbian dinar (I literally stopped at about ten exchange places, and NONE of them accepted forints), grabbed some shit food, and came back to the hostel just to chill out with people for the rest of the night. I knew there was no way I was going out: it was my last day, but I had been doing stuff every night and felt decent about what I had seen and done.
A group of guys tried to get me to go out with them, but I didn’t really know them and preferred staying and hanging out with my Aussie, Canadian, French, and Chilean friends I had been with for the past few days. As it got later though, my Aussie friend REALLY REALLY wanted to go to a club. Belgrade is known for its nightlife, and it was his last night there, and none of us had really been to one. Everyone else started jumping on the bandwagon, so I eventually caved. ALSO my Canadian friend from Budapest had just gotten into Belgrade and was on a pub crawl, and as soon as I found that out I was like GOING TO GO MEET UP WITH HER.
Soon, a small group of us left the hostel: the Aussie and Chilean guys, and then a cool Kiwi guy and Indian girl that we had also been hanging with. I lead the way to the bar my friend said she was at, in the same plaza as the car-window-smashing incident. We noticed that there was no giant sign balanced on the ledge anymore, and they had added another row of rope beneath the red one. Anyway. We got to the bar, had a round of beers, and met my friend and everyone else on the pub crawl. It was a cute place, but we didn’t stay long; we wanted to get to the club.
And it was awesome. The band was great, there were people dancing everywhere, it was just so much FUN. We hung out there for quite a long time, dancing, drinking, talking, being silly, and enjoying the music. They played like, Serbian-style covers of popular songs, so we were listening to music we knew but with a twist. Plus, there was a sick clarinet player. Eventually we decided to leave and go to a club “on the water” (not my idea, but apparently there are good clubs there?)
On the way, we ran into a couple of Serbian girls who we ended up following because we didn’t really know where was good. Apparently you need to make reservations at a lot of places, so we had trouble finding somewhere. We may or may not have asked the Serbian girls some popular Serbian names to try to pretend we were on the list. It did not work.
We did eventually find ourselves somewhere. Was it a bar? A club? Who knows?! All I know is there was music, a big bar in the middle, and it was fun!
A couple beers and a jager bomb later, I found myself somehow dancing with my Kiwi friend, and then kissing him and yadda yadda yadda. After a bit we tried to walk home, decided a cab would be better because we were far AF and had no idea where we were. We made it home in one piece (well, I guess two pieces, technically) and went to his room where we definitely did not kick out our Indian friend when she came home. Important thing that happened: I totally thought I lost my phone, went to my room to get my iPad to “find my iPhone,” made it beep super loud literally where I put it down in the room. These are things that happen when you are drunk at 5am.
Anyway, I had to leave at 10 something in the morning, and I again felt like death. I got to the airport stupidly early, flew to Romania, took a LONG ASS BUS RIDE to the Bucharest city center, and pretty much passed out for a couple hours right when I got to the hostel at about 6. When I woke up I took myself on an approximately one minute walk down the street to get some food at an Italian place, which was SO GOOD HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS. And I have leftovers for tomorrow. But yeah. I’ve just been resting- finished The Two Towers movie, showered, hung out with the two cats that live in this sweet hostel. I hope I have some energy tomorrow, because I really want to explore this city!