Dan's friend, Daws, from high school is teaching math in Belgrade, Serbia.
We decided to visit over Labor Day weekend.
Let me start this adventure by telling you about how it almost didn't happen. Twice.
The first attempt to stay home
Last night (September 3rd), Dan had gotten off work a little early, we went home, packed, tidy, and were doing really well by our standards of getting ready to travel - usually we are still packing things in the hours before needing to be at the airport. We are sitting and relaxing when Dan looks down at Ta and says "Honey, what are we doing with the dog this weekend?" I look at my watch and realize that the kennel closed 15 minutes ago. We call the kennel hoping they are on Neapolitan time and are still open. Of course, also being on Neapolitan time, they are not. Neapolitan time is never in your favor. NEVER.
We also have to leave for the airport before the kennel opens the next day. Dan looks to see if we can change flights and go later. We cannot. Our scheduled flights are the only ones that will get us to Belgrade on Friday. Remember this, it is important later. So, now what? Can we leave her outside? Maybe. But she's an escape artist. Can we leave her in the house? Not unless we want big messes to clean up when we get home. Are we just not going to be able to go to Belgrade?
I start trying to see if any of our friends are still around tomorrow (the 4th) and maybe, MAYBE, one of them could get her to the kennel for us. In a late in the game Hail Mary Pass style, our friend Helen says she can take Ta to the kennel for us. She is a saint. We owe her a lot.
THANKS HELEN!
THANKS HELEN!
Dog crisis averted. We go to bed.
The second attempt to stay home
We get up in the morning and go to the airport. We have mobile boarding passes but I like to have physical tickets. I go to the check in and ask about our flight. No, not till 9:45 the check in lady tells me. That can't be right; our flight's at 9:00. So we go off with our mobile passes and go through security. For once, I don't insist we go sit at the gate and instead we sit in the comfy couch chair things not near our gate. The monitor says boarding doesn't start until 8:40.
Around 8:40 we start to gather our stuff and make our way to the gate. We are not in a hurry as the Neapolitans all mob to get on the bus that takes you to your plane. We figured we'd let them settle and then things would be fine.
We get to the gate and it is empty. EMPTY. No mob, no nothing. The gate check person is the same lady who told me I couldn't do anything until 9:45. She is confused, we are confused, everyone is confused. SOME HOW we missed boarding. I am a little panicked at this point. Remember attempt #1 above? This flight is the only one that can get us to Belgrade today. If we missed it, we're SOL.
Gate lady calls someone. Lots of Italian is spoken quickly. We go outside and wait. Finally someone drives up and we load up into a car and get personally driven to the plane. The plane is waiting for us and only us. I felt like an ass. Dan and I couldn't believe how much of a mess we both are. We're so good at travelling! What happened?!
Anyway, we made our flight, barely, and started off toward Belgrade.
This is....somewhere over Switzerland I think. We had a layover in Zurich.
Swiss beer in the air! WOOOOOooooOOOOO!
Quöllfrisch (4.8%) was malty and generally inoffensive. Sweet upfront. Perfectly fine airplane beer. Also pictured - a weird cheese sandwich.
Serbia....possibly.....is very flat.
Belgrade!
Daws picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at his apartment to relax while he went to coach soccer practice. After practice we went out for food and a pub quiz.
Daws took us to a pizza place that was a boat with a floating dock patio. It was really cool.
The boat part of the restaurant.
 | Kabinet Super Nova (6.8%) Lots of yeasty sediment. Hoppy and slightly fruity with subtle plum flavors. No aftertaste. |
 | Heineken 3ajeyapcko (4.5%) No, I can't pronounce that. This beer was very generic tasting. I was fine with food, but not particularly exciting. |
A graffiti interlude:
And back to the beer:
 | Carlsberg Lav (5%) Slightly malty. Again a perfectly drinkable, but generic beer. This beer was enjoyed during a pub quiz. We did not do so well. I blame the teams that harassed the quiz master over every answer. Also the pub quiz started outside but chaotic-ly moved inside when it started to pour rain. We had a good time nonetheless. |
 | Carlsberg Lav Tamno (6.2%) Slightly sweet with a toasted taste. Also a perfectly drinkable, but generic beer. This beer was enjoyed at the Three Carrots Irish pub. |
This concludes our first day adventures in Belgrade.
