Today we met our landlord, Simon, moved in to our home for the next six weeks, and unpacked. It felt so good I'm going to to say it again. We unpacked. Every single thing we own is out of our (many) suitcases and hanging in a closet, folded in a drawer, or in a pile waiting for the washing machine. Yes that's right -- a washing machine!! We are living, as Brenna's grandmother would say: "High on the hog"
Yesterday we dragged our luggage to the LOT Airlines counter in Belgrade and threw ourselves on the mercy of the ticket agent. We're more than 60 kilos over our 20 kilo per person limit, or about four bags over the one bag per ticket limit -- you pick the infraction. We had contingencies in mind: throw away random suitcases, ship a couple of them as cargo, pay a fine of 10 Euros per kilogram, or bribe the agent with a couple of the bottles of Rakija given to us by friends (which would have cut down considerably on the weight too!) In the end compassion (or pity) must have been the word of the day, and he let us go without the financial spanking that we were expecting. So, after three weeks in Serbia we've landed in Krakow, Poland. As our Serbian friend, Bojana, loaded up her car to take us to the Belgrade airport she said, "You have listened to Serbian music and drank Rakija and danced on the tables. Now you go to Europe, where it's civilized." I have to admit, so far in Krakow I feel less likely to be hit by a car running up onto the sidewalk than I did in Belgrade.
Now that we've got internet on demand instead of the beg/borrow/steal method we've been using, we've got some catching up to do. There are things to say about Serbia that we haven't said, and music we haven't edited to post. But tonight the repair man has finally finished fixing the dishwasher (a dishwasher!!), and we're heading out to find a market to get dinner supplies. Tomorrrow we explore the neighborhood. Stay tuned.
Our bedroom windows look out over the courtyard.