Beograd, Serbia

This is Brandle, hailing from Belgrad, Serbia. I apologize for not posting in a while, it is not very easy to find time to type on a computer out here. Well, to give you a small breakdown of my latest journey, I've spent the last month travelling through the Czech Republik, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and soon to be Croatia. I've written everyday down in my journal and I'm waiting for the moment when I can type it all up for everyone to read. For now I'll tell you about Romania. Mike and I headed to the Transylvania area...Sighisoara and Brasov. Sighisoara is just plain beautiful. It is exactly the place where you would find a vampire wandering the streets at night. The old city sits on a hill top covered in trees. The rooftops are red and very triangular, with sharp points rising high above. The buildings are all crooked and craggy, with a large church and citadel at the top. I found myself in awe as I wandered alone through these streets. There were no tourists anywhere, I got that feeling agian that I am in a special place 100 percent different from anything familiar to me. I found myself strolling along the exterior city wall along the cliffside. I sat down and eventually two things happened to me. First, a little crippled blind old lady wandered out of a tunnel and over to me. She wanted money. Instead, I wanted to give her a conversation. I only knew how to speak a few sentances in Romanian, but it worked just fine. She showed me her blind card which had her disfigured face in a small photograph inside. I expect she used this to show people what a horrible position she is in. She explained to me that there is no money to get help for her. She can not be fixed, so she just wears an eye patch to cover up her eyeball. I asked if I could photograph her and she said yes. I told her that I literally had no Romanian money. But I pulled out some Hungarian coins and she was satisfied with those. I said good bye and she was so happy, she kissed my hand as she walked away down the steep concrete steps leading to the modern city below. In the same place, a few minutes later, a boy, 9 years old named Noah came up to me like I was his best friend. He said "hey! and said follow me," motioning along the wall into some covered bushes. I walked back there with him, being cautious of course, and found a trash pit by the wall. He sat down and pulled out a soggy carton of old cigarettes he probably found in the trash. He asked if I wanted one and I said no. He asked for a light but I didn't have one. So he took the cigarette that he was currently smoking and lit the end of the soggy one he pulled from the box. He asked where I was from and I told him America. His eyes widened and he suddenly became very interested. He asked me all kinds of stuff. I asked if I could take his photo in return and he let me....A nine year old smoking a cigarette in a trash pit...it pretty much speaks for itself. He was a very friendly little boy. He wanted to take my photo as well. I trusted him and gave him my camera (ready to grab him of course if he tried to run off with it) but he took my photo and laughed because he could see it on the digital screen. Anyway, he also wanted money of course and he didn't complain when I gave him Hungarian coins. I said goodbye and he held out his hand so I shook it, and left.

Brasov is not quite as nice in my opinion. It is more of a city with more tourists. Mike and I went hiking in the mountains and ran into a local hiking by himself. When I asked if there was anything to be worried about here, he said "watch out for the bears!" So I guess there are bears here. I explained to Mike what to do in case we ran into a bear. Fortunately, I have extensive knowledge on what to do in the case of a bear attack thanks to my Mother. She would read bear attack stories to my brother and I when we were kids road tripping around the national parks of the west and Canada. If there we were to ever run into a bear, my mother had preped us to know exactly what to do. So, Mike was safe for the time being. Brasov has very steep mountains rising up right at the edge of the city with a "hollywood-esque" BRASOV sign at the top of the peak. It is beautiful but it is "city beautiful" if you know what I mean.

Now we are in Serbia. On the train ride here, I couldn't help to notice the concrete buildings of the towns we passed. Some were riddin with bullet holes and scars of war. I don't quite know the history of the past 15 years here, but I know they weren't very happy years. I'll tell you more when I find out about it.

I'll let everyone know how the sunny, crystal clear water beaches of Croatia are. Mike and I are about to take our first vacation from travelling. I know that sounds weird to some of you, but travelling is almost like a job. You have to be responsible and on top of things to survive. Well now is our time to not worry about anything and just chill for a few days. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Later,

Brandle