Food poisoning and deportation. In one week.

Last week was spent travelling between Sarajevo (Bosnia), Belgrade (Serbia) and Skopje (Macedonia).... and back again. Every day another flight, or more than one on some days.



Belgrade was a regular european big city, nothing to really write home about by other standards.



I didn't really see much of Skopje - as on arrival at 10pm, we spent the next 5 hours in the airport Immigration area, trying to get an emergency entry visa for Jane - the girl from our Ad agency who travels on a Canadian passport. Who knew she'd need one?! Maybe she should have checked. Anyway, she didn't get it and they deported her back to Serbia on the first flight out the next morning.
So most of Macedonia I saw out of a car travelling 180km/hr down the highway. Looked beautiful though and reminded me of Scotland.
















My final night (Thursday) in Sarajevo was spent without sleep, and rolling round in agony on my bed - interspersed with runs to the bathroom. I'd decided to have a nightcap from the minibar - a bottle of orange juice (!) - which did taste a little thick to be honest. Twenty minutes later my stomach reacted in offence and I spent the entire night being violently ill. Needless to say the 8 hour journey home was loooong.

Next time I'll have the bottle of Stella from the minibar instead.

Scorching in Sarajevo

I flew into Sarajevo last night - and after what seems like 2 months of constant rain in Denmark, I greeted this mornings clear skies and warm morning sun with a huge smile.
Its now just before 4pm in the afternoon, and its 35C outside... which is just getting a bit silly.
Tomorrow I'm off to Belgrade in Serbia for a couple of days, where they are forecasting 45C.
From the frying pan.......

I'm here for work, and staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, which is a bit of a waste really as its a lovely little place - scarred by the worst of the war a decade ago, but still a beautiful city situated in a stunning location, surrounded by low mountains. (much to its detriment when the serbs decided to camp out up there for 5 years and bombard them on a daily basis!).

One of the interesting things round here are the graveyards. Most of the headstones have carvings of the person who died on them. They're really intricate and beautiful. And one some of the graves, they're engraved the still living wife/husband onto the headstone alongside their dead spouse - with an open date to be filled in later! Very spooky, but very cool.