I met up with the Russian (Alex) and British guy (Tom) this morning (Alex keeps inviting him places) and we got the bus to the Yugoslavia museum. An old guy grabbed my shoulder and yelled at me for having my feet on the edge of the seat across; it was filthy already and it's not like I was making it any worse. He kept yelling in Serbian even after I moved even though we obviously didn't speak any Serbian. The Yugoslavia Museum is pretty interesting, as it walks through the history of the country up until the 50s or so. I learned a lot and filled in some holes in my knowledge of the old Yugoslav state. Unfortunately, it doesn't try to cover the later eras or the more recent wars - I would've been interested in seeing their take. The whole thing is in Josip Tito's old estate and features most of his enormous collection of gifts and memorabilia from decades of being head of state. His tomb is nearby and can be visited. It's a nice area, but seems pretty quiet these days. The impression I got from speaking with staff there is that only old people regard him fondly. Serbia's zenith of influence was as the heart of Yugoslavia, and I don't think young people have any nostalgia for the idea of Serbia as the core of a greater empire.

We split up and I got some great Indian food. It was nice to try something actually spicy for the first time in a while, since it's been a minute since any of the local cuisines have had a flavor more exotic than paprika. I spent a while trying to find an ATM that would accept all 8 digits of my PIN so I could actually withdraw money to pay for my hostel stay. While Belgrade has been much better than Bosnia about accepting cards, the hostel still demanded only cash. Eventually I returned to the hostel and killed time playing cards with people. There were a bunch of new arrivals that seemed really cool, and while I did like a few of the people I met here I would've liked spending a little more time with these new folks. We played cards, including Uno and two hilarious knockoffs I found in the mix: QXUNO and UMC (stylized to look as much like the original as possible). They were completely identical to Uno in every other way.

Eventually, Tom called a taxi and we went to the station. We stocked up on a few snacks for the train ride ahead and I felt pretty well prepared for the ride ahead. I was a little concerned when I realized that Tom and I are in the same compartment, but he's not really in a position to talk my ear off (as I know he'd otherwise be doing) even though we're in a tight space. It's really an incredibly confined space no larger than the compartment I was in on my trip from Zagreb to Split, but this time it has 6 beds. There are 3 levels on either side and a ladder in the middle; doing anything in here is incredibly awkward. It's a full house and I can hardly move without knocking my few personal effects over; my bag is stowed in an incredibly inconvenient location above someone's head so I had to take out everything I might need for the whole 11 hour trip, but now there's nowhere for me to put any of it. Usually I wouldn't publish one of these blog entries before resolving the days activities, but since the day's activities aren't really going to resolve until tomorrow, I figure I'll just put this out now while I'm still on the train. I managed to get an hour or so of sleep already, so I think things are going to be ok. As long as I don't have to move much, it's actually rather cozy in here.

So Serbia... Didn't think much of it. Not super exciting and the rampant genocide denial and general hostility of the people definitely put me off. I'm still glad I saw it though, since I think it's been valuable to see the other side of the coin after visiting B&H. Really looking forward to visiting Kosovo now since I expect them to more or less have the inverse attitude toward Americans that Serbians do. But that's getting ahead of myself since this train goes to Montenegro - Podgorica, specifically - and then I have a bus in the morning that goes to Kotor. I'll probably spend two nights there and then on to a stop in northern Albania - going all the way down to Tirana doesn't sound worthwhile - then Kosovo, then North Macedonia, then maybe Thessaloniki. Again, going all the way down Greece just to see Athens doesn't really seem worth the time or expense.