Maps inadequate for the territory...

Not only is travel information about the FYR difficult to come by, but a number of "authoratative" sources outdated or just downright incorrect.

Lonely Planet's website still lists Kosovo as Serbia, and has a grand total of two paragraphs about the entire country (or, in their opinion, region of another country).

Wikitravel has rapidly become the most current source of info on the area, with some singular reports from individuals via CouchSurfing.  It seems that travel by bus is quicker than train in a number of locales.

Thanks to the British Airways strike, my flight plans are pushed back from 20 May to 24 May.  This effectively eliminates Budapest from a multi-day exploration, but it looks like I'll get into that chain-bridged city at noon on one day and I can take the nighttrain to Beograd the next day, so I'll have about 34 hours to soak in a Turkish bath, eat copious amounts of goulash whilst downing an inordinate amount of Tokaji, and watch the sunset (and the lights of the bridge blink on) from Gellért Hill, and, I suppose, sleeping for a bit.

In Beograd, I'll stay for a few days and, depending on the schedule of others, stay through the weekend or visit Bela Crkva and a friendly CouchSurfing host there.  The return to Beograd will conclude meetings with folks there or head on immediately, again, depnding on schedule of others.  Ideally, I'd have my meeting with Kusturica following this—which means train/bus down to Mokra Gora and his entho-village near there.

I'll reach Sarajevo once before Vidovdan, but I'll certainly walk the former Appel Quay that morning, something I've had a morbid fascination of doing for more than twenty years.

Destinations without specific timeline:
Sarajevo (first visit)
Mostar
Srebrenica
Višegrad
Jajce
Dubrovnik
Krk
Bar
Prishtina

Like to, but unlikely at this point:
Zagreb
Vukovar


· • ·

Opening Thoughts

87 days until the Balkan travelogue begins. Starting to get excited about things. Tickets are purchased, for the most part, and I'm making a list of things I'd like to take and such ilk as that. Travel light this time. Last time over, I had just a bit too much and carrying two bags was cumbersome and inconvenient. This time I'm taking a backpack with an empty daypack inside. And no laptop. I'll take the camera and some flash drives, and then use internet cafés to upload photos and transfer copies and post updates. Be a lot easier on the awareness energy and concern with delicacy in carrying the backpack if there's no computer involved.

The trek will begin in Budapest where I hope to score another sweet deal on Tokaji like I had and didn't take advantage of last time, and will ship a case home. Then down to Beograd where I will cross paths with C. Slough and Natasha D. Slough offered to show me around Beograd and Natasha is asking Zoran Živković if I can sit in on a class with them and maybe talk about the wars, if he's willing.

Beyond that there only the most general of plans. Republika Srpska and the museums of atrocity. Sarajevo, where I hope to cross paths with Danis Tanović and Zlatko Dizdarević. Through Mostar to the Hravatska coast. Dubrovnik for as long as I can stand... ;) A place I've often dreamed about.

After ferrys up the coast, meandering to Rijeka, then train to Ljubljana and a flight to Paris. I'll have about 18 hours in the City of Lights, enough time to drink some coffee and pay a vist to Uncle Charles in Montparnasse. The next morning, a Eurostar to London and then the flights back home.

That's when the organization of the collected notes and experience produces a Fellowship essay, a poster project, which is likely to include, on my part, a multimedia production. This trip is also going to furnish me with an English Honors project. I already have an idea as to what I want to that be and accomplish.

87 days. A lot to do before then.

Staying up until 5 am this morning isn't helping to get any of that done... but it is providing the foundations for this chronicle.

Ah. Laku noć.


· • ·