Spendthrift Shoestring

Balkan Graffiti

Here are some images I meant to put up after returning from the Balkans last month. I'm particularly curious about the first one.

Belgrade.

Sarajevo.

Belgrade.

Belgrade for Eurovision!

I'm taking a break from London posts—a tough decision, especially after my amazing discoveries on Tuesday afternoon—because I'm in Belgrade, writing about Eurovision for the New York Post. Check it out.

I'll return to observations on London and escapades there and elsewhere next week.

London, Soon

Preparing for a longish period away from home, as I pointed out on Monday, really does take an enormous amount of time and energy. I've been truly walloped by everything that's had to get done.

A few days after I arrive in London I'll depart for Belgrade, where I'll be attending this year's Eurovision Song Festival. Starting Wednesday, May 21, I'll be blogging about Eurovision for the New York Post's travel blog. Be sure to click over to read my reports.

More soon, I swear.

Three Telephones, of which Two Presumably Work

Card-operated telephone. Belgrade, Serbia. July 2007.

Out of order telephone. Pointe-du-Bout, Martinique. February 2008.

Hotel telephone. Stockholm, Sweden. August 2005.

A Summer Morning in Belgrade

I took this photo in Belgrade last summer very early in the morning outside of Hotel Royal. It had been extremely hot, both in Belgrade and even more so in Skopje, where I'd been a few days previously, and the cool morning felt like a luxury. While I was waiting for my cab to the airport there was no one on the street and the light looked amazing. I reached for my camera.

I'm thinking about Belgrade a lot these days; there's the independence of Kosovo on the horizon, for one, with any number of unpredictable repercussions to come; there's also next year's Eurovision contest, which will be held in Belgrade. About the former I have some half-baked thoughts. About the latter I'm fully enthusiastic, already eagerly anticipating the debuts of Azerbaijan and San Marino.

Incidentally, Hotel Royal is a great budget option. Rooms are kind of institutional and worn, and the lobby is done in an uncategorizable Yugostyle. Receptionists are stern, though not quite terrifying. I paid right around €30 per night for my room.