reisefieber

when you’re about to hit the road murphy (the one from murphy’s law) meets a devil to prepare a smooth plan against the one you have already made. they start with adding you some unexpected, but necessarily urgent obligations. then they make time move faster. and if this is not enough to make you feel like screaming ‘noooo! I won’t make it! again!’, the devil meets russian specialists of sudden weather changes – the same who make clear skies over moscow during a cloudy may day: they can reverse the process and all of a sudden you find yourself late, soaking wet, with too many stuff undone to feel comfortable about getting back to the mess you leave. but what the hell, you leave and after 5 minutes forget about all that. yup, a journey erases everything that is not a journey!

this time the murphy&devil combo did a really good job – tomorrow we should be packed and ready to go north though we’re still in the middle of making ’costumes’ – caps and a’la blacksmith aprons for the proba choir, collecting some materials, making patches, preparing buttons, zippers, ribbons etc. that we shall need in gdansk and try to plan the journey (hitch-hiking? train+hitch-hiking? bus+hitch-hiking? train+train+hitch-hiking? etc.?).
tomorrow is not in an hour. tomorrow never happens! ;)

cheers!
-savez

ps. michu! happy happy birthday! juhuuuuu!

1600 km away from the last post

oh, oh, oh, I am a very bad mummy for the little baby-blog. instead of feeding it with cristal glass of fat milk and silver spoon of golden honey each day, I left it all alone hungry and deserted…

it's because the chaotic part of me took its toll and quite unexpectedly - even for myself - I finally came to poland. a day after I published the last post, I packed a few things and rushed to zmaj gas station to catch a bus.
poland welcomed me with rain-wind-snow combo which was very rude of her (defenitelly, poland is a woman), but seeing all of those beloved (though pale:)) faces made up for the shity journey, ugly weather, a bit of homeless longing, even for banned smoking in public places. exchanging stories, completing plots, being all ears and/or all tongue. gosh, life gets so simple sometimes!

now I’m sitting comfortably at my parents place surrounded by the finest wi-fi and have at least ten different ideas of what I should and want to write about, but business and announcements come first!

1. for all of those who keep on asking me what bags did I bring, click HERE and check. give me a sign if there is anything you want to reserve!!! pictures are pretty lousy, but with this light I really cannot make it any better. spring, where are you?!

2. a few days after I’ll be back in belgrade, bombone will show off on the second edition of H.ARTeFAkT prepared by Alt Gallery (Kulturni centar Rex, 27/02, 2.00-10.00 pm, Jevrejska Str. 16). this will be our debut, so keep your fingers crossed and feel invited! I will keep you updated anyway:)

I know, I know - this post feels more like skinny milk and artificial honey, but silence got beaten up and let's just stick to it.

cheers!
-oh

kościuszki bench cafe - the only one where smoking wasn't banned (yet). buuuuuuu...

up and down and move it all around (in central europe) # part 2

going from serbia to poland, heading from poland to serbia? via budapest? with a stop in bratislava? however you decide... for anyone who'd ever need some checked hints & links!
(for some more advice check here)

3. mixed transport – best if you’re looking for the cheapest one
take a night train going from belgrade to budapest. from budapest you go by one of the orangeways buses to cracow and here you are – poland! it will cost you around 40-50 euro. from cracow you can go to any other polish city by train.
notice: train belgrade-budapest goes on daily basis and arrives to its destination in the early morning (ca 5 am), but there is only one orangeways bus during the week that goes at 2 pm – others depart at 6 am - this gives you only an hour to get to the other side of the city from train to bus station. if you're desperate to catch the morning bus, check all the metro lines and stations before you leave as you will have to hurry-hurry!
can switch orangeways into eurolines, but it won’t help you much – the price and timetable is more or less the same.

when it comes to mixing, you may also be interested in a fudeks/orangeways bus going from bg to bp and back (it’s relativelly a new connection) and lasta buses going from bg to bratislava and further to prague. both could be cheaper as for that distance...

4. hitch-hiking
well, we never managed to get the whole way hitch-hiking. there is no problem with it in poland, shouldn’t be a problem in hungary and serbia, but crossing slovakia is simply a nightmare. at least this is our experience. the smallest of all the countries on the way and the hardest to go through. honestly, slovakia is my fuckin’ worst hitch-hiking experience.

5. low cost flights
recently wizz air entered belgrade and this is a really good information for people going to italy, germany or london, but not really that fortunate for those wanting to get through central europe in a fast and pretty much comfortable way…
a bit too pricy for me, but still worth recommendation are warsaw-belgrade flights of lot (polish airlines). if you’re lucky and find a special cheap ticket for a flight that interests you, you’ll pay ca 75 euro one way.

tips!
sometimes it is a good idea not to buy a train ticket from one country to another as international connections are hell expensive. instead you buy a ticket to the last station in the country you are in and when the train crosses the border and the ticket inspectors change (there is another, local crew coming) you buy a ticket on the train from them to the station you’re heading to. the difference in price can be really amazing. I always do it taking cheaper trains from poland to slovakia and czech republic – never had problems, it goes smooth and is fully legal (I guess:)). just remember to have the right currency with you!
the best website having all (?) the train connections in europe is of course deutsche bahn. don’t be affraid if you don’t know german - it has a lot of different language options to choose. oh, oh germans!

ps. all of the mentioned connections are working during the whole year. during the season, you may find some more trains and buses, so it's always worth checking... and if you have some more hints or know some good connections free to share them in a comment :)

bon voyage!
-savez

up and down and move it all around (in central europe) # part 1

oh, oh, oh… travelling is so cool, until you have to take a trip of the same route for the xxx time...

belgrade-gdansk, gdansk-belgrade. the first time I came to serbia, about 7 years ago ,was such a fun. the second and third and fourth also. later, being here was fun, but coming got simply boring – same cities on the way, same stations, same trains falling into pieces. you feel the movement and that’s cool, but there is no spark in all that any more: hey, budapest! surprise me, switch with paris! hey, slovakia! change mountains into a land of lakes! cracow, cracow, why are you cracow?
and now, I have to get to poland soon and I would so much like to send myself via an e-mail with a few siutcases attached…

now finding connections doesn’t make any troubles – there are low cost flights (unthinkable some years ago!). you don’t have to cross the border zu fuss to make it cheaper (as we used to do), you don’t have to call other countries to book a ticket – the great god of internet and credit card wizzard took a good care of it. but in case anyone ever searched the net for listed and checked not too expensive connections serbia-poland: here there are!
just beware - this is the old-style backpackers' sistem :)

1. buses

as far as I know there is only one direct bus from belgrade to warsaw (and katowice, if you’re interested) that goes every week, during the whole year. it goes all the way from poland to athens and stops in novi sad, belgrade and nis. and in skoplje if you’re heading down to macedonia. the price doesn’t kill – neither because it’s so hight nor low. you can book and check the details on adamis tours website.
it’s ok when you have a lot of luggage to carry with. in general, worth recommendation.
notice: in krosno (poland) you’ll be asked to move to a mini-bus, as all the passangers are divided in two – some go to warsaw, other go to katowice. no fuss with it.
the bus comes to serbia pretty much on time, but it came late any time I was heading from belgrade. take warm clothes if it’s winter – it’s very probable that you shall wait 1-3 hours on a parking place…

during the season you can find some other buses – many travel agencies have some spare seats in their package tour buses. all you have to do is find a travel agency that offers trips to the balkans, go and ask if there are some places left. sometimes you can find a really cheap ticket this way!
notice: it’s a package tour. if you’re lucky, the guid will tell you what you see outside the window:)

2. trains

if you want to make all the way by train, you won’t have much problem with it.
the easiest way: train warsaw-budapest and budapest-belgrade. fits great if you want to make a little stop in hungary. costs more than the opptions above. they are both of medium price, and medium comfort - you can pay extra and get a berth, but it’s not really a burgain any more...

you can also take a train going from belgrade to bratislava and from there catch a train to katowice (or cracow). the morning train to bratislava costs pretty much, it’s signed as the IC train, but it gives you a very bad feeling of being pushed into a lausy local train that stops in all villages on the way. wouldn’t recommend it… and as far as a train to katowice (or cracow) is concerned - there are some direct, but pretty expensive ones. I used to go through zilina (slovakia), but this connection doesn't exist any more:( well, you can always take an eurolines bus to cracow- it will cost you around 20 euro.

and remember - the majority of international trains of central europe are a bit of a disaster. I don't say that it is a rule - you can be lucky and get something nicer. this is just what I experienced with polish, czech, seriban, romanian, hungarian trains heading to other central europen countries. the difference appears when the final station is a western city... sad but true.

next part: mixed means of transport (cheapest way), flights, hitch-hiking and general tips ;)

cheers!
-savez