Waiting...

14 hours until my first flight.

I'm packed, re-packed, checked, re-checked, and re-checked again.

To quote an old song from an illustrious unknown band, I feel right now like I'm being eaten by butterflies... and I know my nerves are walking...

Might stare at a Kusturica movie until bedtime, see if I can pay attention to anything.

This is the cusp of all I've been working towards for the past year.  New journeys, new writings, new people to meet, new stage to perform upon, new chapter to begin.  This is my analepsis from the illness of the previous few years.  I am ready.  Last May I said to the Universe at large, alright I've had enough, what else can you show me? and this is what has been presented:
A (now only) 44-day excursion through a land that has produced far more history than it could consume and I've been hungry for quite some time.  I'm more than willing to clean up a few table scraps.

In the next five days I'll be in or pass through four countries, including the first stop in a sequence of namesakes: Bela Crkva.  A soon-to-be-met-in-person acquaintance in Serbia has already nicknamed me to his friends: Crkva [that is, Sirk-wha, in simplest form].

These butterflies will settle down once I'm on the plane to Heathrow.  And I'll have all but forgotten them when I grab my backpack in the Budapest airport and begin the ground campaign.

I suspect I'll post here again on Wednesday or Thursday.




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Not only is travel information about the FYR difficult to come by, but a number of "authoratative" sources outdated or just downright incorrect.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


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