Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

Today was a fairly straightforward travel day. We grabbed some more banitsa from the nameless shop for breakfast, and then went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch, and then took two cabs from the hotel to the airport.

Bulgaria was kind enough to stamp their exit stamp right next to their entry stamp. I like it when it's nice and tidy like that, rather than a lone stamp in the middle of an otherwise blank page (ahem, MEXICO) or stamping over another country's stamp (looking at you SPAIN). Serbia stamped my entry next to one of my old Russian entrances, which is at least organized, but there's nowhere for the corresponding exit to go unless they overstamp their own, like Indonesia does. I guess we'll find out.

The Serbian ATM was only giving out 1000 dinar ($12) notes and smaller, so my wallet is ridiculously thick right now. I tried to get a SIM card for my phone in the airport (T-Mobile's free international data plan doesn't cover Serbia or Croatia, sadly), but couldn't find the one I was looking for.

We're staying in a surprisingly fancy hotel. The lobby is full of marble and antiques. Well out of our usual level of style, but I recall it not being terribly expensive when we booked it.

We had dinner in a cafe styled as a library. I had to try several places to get my cell phone fully sorted, but it seems like I'm all set, if the machine translations of the text messages I've received is to be believed.