Officially an Expat

You know you are no longer a tourist when the highlight of a trip to a neighboring country is a night of margaritas at the Mexican restaurant. Yes, it's true. Bob and I spent a very romantic Valentine's Day tossing back pitchers of Hungarian margaritas with 4 of our closest friends and I have to say, it might be one of my favorite V-days yet (sorry, honey). Iguana is a well-known destination for expats looking for food and drink resembling tex-mex. We've heard rumor that some will make the four hour drive from Belgrade just for a meal and head back down. I remain skeptical that this feat would be possible given the temptation to accompany the meal with several margaritas which, I believe, are required to make the food taste more tex-mexican.

Speaking of the drive, the trip between Belgrade and Budapest is a surprisingly easy 4-hour drive up a 2 lane highway (passing skills are required). It's a much nicer road once you cross the border into Hungary but, considering the locale, it's really quite an uneventful trip. The landscape and road reminded me of driving through Pennsylvania. Lots of fields dotted with trees. You even get a nice crossing over the Danube that reminds me of driving over the Susquehanna.

Being entirely unprepared for this trip, we did not have a plan for what to see or where to go in Budapest. Luckily, our companions had a book -- and we can easily return. Compared to Belgrade, Budapest is a nice respite with lots of pretty things to look at and cleaner air to breathe. We did manage to take in a few churches and a museum or two. More importantly, we made it to "Our Personal Labyrinth" under the Buda Castle district. Surely, one of the more bizarre sights I've seen. Having heard that it was a series of caves used for various things over the years from shelters for prehistorical hunters to Cold War military installations, we were in museum mode. Once you adjust your expectations, it's sort of fun.

It's a nice feeling to have gotten our feet under us. Even better, our car was delivered yesterday. Once the snow finishes melting we can begin to explore the Serbian countryside and see what treasures it holds. I'm not expecting margaritas.

Home Sweet Home

At the end of June all of our belongings were wrapped up, boxed up, and crated. It was hot. It was muggy. And it took a very long time. Everything was bound for Bolivia. Little did we know how long it would be until we saw it all again.

Last week we finally got the green light for moving into our new place in Belgrade. Our stuff had completed its trek from La Paz, to the Pacific, through the Panama canal, across the Atlantic, and over Europe to the warehouse here and was ready to be delivered Thursday morning. 

We spent our first night in the new, mostly-furnished-yet-empty-of-belongings apartment, on Wednesday. Without curtains we needed to close the "blast shields" (technically, I believe these are external shutters) in the bedroom which created a cave-like effect. The movers weren't due to arrive until 10 so when the alarm went off in the morning we hit the snooze button a few times and didn't rush to get up. After a while I hit the shower and eventually wandered into the hallway where I could see out a window and noticed that it was a little brighter than normal. It turns out we had had a little snow. 

A moment of panic ensued. I had a feeling this would not bode well for our moving schedule. Sure enough, we got a phone call 30 minutes later from the warehouse asking if it was alright if they didn't drive the car over today. Yep. That was fine. Surprisingly though, everything else was going to go as planned. The movers were due to arrive between 10 and 10:30.

We live on the 6th floor. Ideally, one would take the elevator to our apartment. Especially if one were moving boxes and boxes of stuff to that apartment. Around 10:30 we heard a knock at the door leading to the stairwell. A breathless mover informed us that our elevator was broken. They wanted us to "call someone". Errr. Ok. I began to wonder what else the day had in store for us.

After about 30 minutes of confusion our doorman surfaced. As did an elevator repairman. By about 11 or 11:30 we had the elevator back in service and all was right with the world. 

It's been a long week and a half now of unpacking, sorting, and organizing but we're getting there. It's amazing what a difference it makes seeing your own things in your apartment.   Suddenly, everything feels much more familiar. It may have taken almost 8 months to get here but we're so happy to be home now.