Soon to leave Hungary.
Partly rainy night in Eger.
Heading towards the 100th day of the journey — let’s say nominally one-third of the trip.
And even with several glasses of semi-sweet wine I prove to be (finally!) unusually productive. I just “cleaned up” my Balkan itinerary and tried to squeeze in 9 days for Bulgaria. I don’t know if this is wise, especially since I really don’t know how transportation is going to work from Pristina (or Peja/Pec), Kosovo to Sofia or anywhere else in Bulgaria. And I also don’t know about from Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria to Skopja (or anywhere in Macedonia).
Many have criticized/critiqued about my keenness to plan. Well, I’m about to leave Hungary, but I
- only decided very late last night to give one Debrecen day to Szeged (both in Hungary);
- haven’t had any accommodation arrangement after my first three Serbian stops, namely Subotica, Novi Sad, and Belgrade; and
- even freaking can’t make up my mind about the itinerary after Belgrade!
And if anyone is unlucky enough to have been with me all this time, s/he would probably have some recollections about how I thought I “Jumped!”, or how much I agonized before buying the combo flight tickets (“按確定！“). Yeah, even for which camera or blog interface I could waste a lot of time being all indecisive. And I also couldn’t make up my mind about re-routing Slovakia and Hungary almost until the last moment. So, over-planned am I? I’m not sure.
Some lightnings lit the sky for some fleeting seconds without any thunders sounded. The air smells like rain.
So, three more days in Hungary: one in Debrecen, and two in Szeged. Hopefully I can soon make my mind, even if I am to move to a later date my flight from Dubrovnik to Bogota. (And does that mean I should move ALL other flights to a later date..)
Oh, and today is the 84th day of the journey. The 100th is coming soon — I guess I’ll be in Macedonia or Bulgaria. (And now it’s really raining.) I have an idea about a virtual party for that, but we’ll see…
Luckily this Ruslan and Lyudmila I’m playing now is fine enough, even though Glinka is so old-fashioned, you know. At least I’m ridding my brain of the gilded whole-tone phrases from Puccini’s La rondine — I know Puccini doesn’t mean it that way, and others certainly don’t feel it like me, but somehow they always make me feel either nostalgic (to what?) or sad.
As for that revised and more-than-tentative iti, it looks like this:
2012/7/28 Subotica, Serbia
2012/7/29 Novi Sad
2012/7/30 Novi Sad + daytrip to Fruska Gora
2012/7/31 Novi Sad + daytrip to Sremski Karlovci
2012/8/1 to Belgrade, Serbia
2012/8/2 Belgrade
2012/8/3 Belgrade+ daytrip to Despotovac
and to Monastery Manasija,
2012/8/4 to Novi Pazar
2012/8/5 Novi Pazar + daytrip to Studenica Monastery
2012/8/6 to Pristina
2012/8/7 Pristina daytrip to Dečani Monastery
or Gracanica Monastery
2012/8/8 to Prizren; then to Pec/Peja
2012/8/9 Pec/ Peja
2012/8/10 to Sofia
2012/8/11 Sofia+Rila Monastery
2012/8/12 Sofia+Koprivshtitsa
2012/8/13 Plovdiv
2012/8/14 Plovdiv+ Bchkovo Monastery
2012/8/15 Sozopol
2012/8/16 Sozopol
2012/8/17 Veliko Tarnovo
2012/8/18 Veliko Tarnovo
2012/8/19 Skopje
2012/8/20 Skopje (+ Matka Canyon)
2012/8/21 to Prilep
2012/8/22 Prilpe + Treskavec Monastery + Zrze Monastery
2012/8/23 Bitola + Krusevo
2012/8/24 Bitola
2012/8/25 Ohrid
2012/8/26 Ohrid
2012/8/27 to Tirana or Berat?, Albania
2012/8/28 Berat
2012/8/29 Berat
2012/8/30 Drymades for Llogaraja Pass National Park? sleep in Drymades?
2012/8/31 Sanranda
2012/9/1 Sanranda for Butrint National Park
2012/9/2 Saranda for tour to Blue Eye Spring?
2012/9/3 Tirana
2012/9/4 Tirana + daytrip to Shkodra for Rozafa Fortress
2012/9/5 Tirana + daytrip to Kruja
2012/9/6 Podgorica + daytrip/tour (e.g. Lake Skadar?)
2012/9/7 Podgorica + daytrip to Ostrog Monastery
2012/9/8 Podgorica + daytrip to Stari Bar
2012/9/9 Cetinje + daytrip to Lovcen National Park
2012/9/10 Herceg-Novi, Montenegro
2012/9/11 to Budva + daytrip to Sveti Stefan
2012/9/12 Kotor, Montenegro
2012/9/13 Kotor, Montenegro
2012/9/14 Dubrovnik
2012/9/15 Split
2012/9/16 Dubrovnik
2012/9/17 Dubrovnik flight at noon
As I said, I’m really not sure exactly how much sense it makes..
Herumreisende 