I was actually surprised it took this long into our journey to come across one of these uncomfortable, yet inevitable situations. In Cambodia, we were pulled over on our motor scooter and when we could not produce an International Driver’s License, were told to pay a $50 USD fine. However, this was Cambodia, where corruption is an integral part of daily life and it’s as easy as telling the cop that you need to go to the ATM to retrieve your money to pay him off (which we of course did not do). Fast forward to a few months and we are chugging away on a train from Belgrade to Budapest. Not more than an hour into out ride we were greeted by some version of an enforcement agent and asked to provide our police issued registration card that we were supposed to have acquired within 24 hours of entering Serbia. The officer showed us an example on one from a Polish guy sitting behind us. When we explained that we had no such card, we were told to stay in our seats and the officer hurried away. At this point it occurred to us that if we had stayed in a hotel, we surely would have had this service completed for us by the hotel staff. However, we spent our days in Belgrade renting a private apartment, where it was apparently up to us to obtain this credential. As the officer walked away, I had a minor memory of a blurb in Lonely Planet about a rarely enforced but possibly expensive fine for such an infraction. Under the assumption that some sort of money transfer would inevitably occur, I tucked the Hungarian equivalent of $20 USD into my passport pouch and left our remaining funds in my wallet. The officer returned a bit later and told me (Andy) to come with him, while leaving Adena behind. I begrudgingly followed the officer to a private, smoke filled cabin a few cars up, passing by a young woman holding a very similar passport pouch with a dissatisfied look on her face. The cabin was occupied by an older chain smoking gentleman with a packet of papers in front of him and the initial inspection officer. They explained that what we had done was a minor offense, but an offense nonetheless that needed to be rectified. They offered me the same police registration card for the equivalent of $75 USD. Of course there was no printed pricing for this card (after all it was free if we had obtained it ourselves) and they more than likely made up a number favorable to their wallets. I first tried the usual tactic of ignorance, pleaded that I had no idea about the law and that I entered the country by private bus and no one at the border had informed me of this rule. No good. I then trumped the “I love Serbia” card, exclaiming how I was so comfortable here in this beautiful country and noted that my home town was also very close to the mountains. I also mentioned I was here on a honeymoon, a tactic that seems to soften up anyone with a conscious. Minor traction there. I was also asked how the American police would act if the roles were reversed and a Serbian visitor was in my country illegally. I certainly didn’t tell him that you’d be tossed in jail and eventually deported but I also failed to mention that we don’t have dumb laws like this either. So when I emptied out the money in my passport pouch, about $20 USD in Hungarian currency, three $1 bills and a handful of colorful, but non-convertible Macedonian currency, the deal was on the table. The two officers conversed for about two minutes, probably talking about the latest soccer match and not my more than reasonable offer. Eventually, the younger officer explained that because I was on a honeymoon, if I were to leave the stack of bills with him, I was free to go. After confirming that Adena would not be called back, I bolted and was out the door in a New York minute. While this is all part of the game, it’s the principal of it that really gets me fuming. Regardless, knowing that I got away relatively unscathed and visualizing those two heading to the nearest currency exchange office and realizing that they too are unable to exchange that fluffy, colorful monopoly money, I felt a little better.

On to our regular entry:

After spending a few weeks educating ourselves on the fairly recent Yugoslav wars propagated by Serbia against its neighbors, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, we had mixed feelings about visiting Serbia. However, we felt it was important for us to experience the other side of the former battle lines and we were glad we did. We ended up spending four great days in Belgrade and finding the Serbians to be a truly fun loving people. They enjoy drinking copious amounts of coffee, brandy shots, chain smoking, fanny packs, track suits and exercise, but not necessarily in that order. While there has been a massive rebuilding effort after the ‘99 NATO bombings (due to the Kosovo conflict), the wreckage is still ever present. Walking one block away from the main train terminal there are two very large and heavily damaged buildings, a shell of their former selves with no sign of restoration in the near future. A  blight to this continually growing city.

Our four days in Belgrade consisted of a four hour intense bike tour (although its listed as #1 on Tripadvisor, I would not recommend it) around the city and its surroundings, two walking tours and lots of eating and drinking. There is also a surprisingly vast amount of green space in Belgrade, contributing to a somewhat active lifestyle for its inhabitants. There are quite a few bikes lanes, tennis courts, volleyball pits and gyms. There aren’t too many tourist sites, so we spent most of our time walking the various pedestrian streets and enjoying the (mostly) free and educational tours. While not the prettiest city you’ll visit, it is an entertaining and interesting stop for a few days.

After adjusting our initial itinerary around, we found ourselves in route to Budapest to meet cousins Alan and Rachel who happened to be starting a little vacation of their own. We had an amazing time with them, plenty of eating, drinking, sightseeing and abusing the Marriott happy hour privileges. We were immediately impressed with Budapest’s wide roads and vast amount of pedestrian only streets. We also fell quickly in love with the Austro-Hungarian architecture. We have previously visited several towns (Sarajevo and Belgrade) that were at one time occupied by the Austro Hungarian empire and today contain a somewhat run down and drab version of the real thing, so seeing an entire city full of this architecture was beautiful! We here Vienna may be even better, too. In Budapest we took full advantage of the free walking tours. We attended a city tour, communist tour and Jewish quarter tour. All tours educated us in great lengths about the political history, religions and present day economics of Hungary. The most fascinating to us was the communist tour and learning how a country is slowly growing into a viable democratic state, but that old communist habits die hard.

In addition, we treated ourselves to an amazing food and wine tour to fully indulge ourselves into the Hungarian culture. The tour was through Taste Hungary and consisted of a market introduction with a traditional breakfast dish followed by a meat and cheese tasting (even cow tongue and horse sausage!). We then headed to a specialty chocolate shop, butcher shop for lunch, cake/cafe for dessert and ended with a local wine tasting! It was amazing, very educational and highly recommended to anyone visiting Budapest. Budapest was Andy’s favorite big city he visited during his semester abroad and still is today. The atmosphere is relaxed, the city is beautiful and quite clean and everyone seems to enjoy a drink or two at the park for sunset. Overall, Budapest wins the award so far for most livable city.

* A few months back we asked our blogging hemisphere if anyone knew why there were so many Russians vacationing on the beaches of Vietnam. Our question has been answered and it dates back to the communist times when most citizens of the Soviet Bloc were only allowed to visit/vacation other communist countries. The beaches of Vietnam were apparently a coveted destination and still are today.