Recovering my "stolen" bag

I totally forgot to keep you up to date about my bag that I lost. As most of you know (who follow my blog) i told a story a week ago about how I got my bag stolen. The story goes like this... with a continuation.

I was traveling in Montenegro and was going from the capital, Podgorica, to a coastal town 3 hours away, Herceg Novi, and I got off the bus (my bag was under the bus in the luggage place, and it wasn't there. After some hand signals with the driver and the attendant (who didn't speak Engish), they told me to go to the bus station an hour away, because apparently there was a "Big Station". Those were the only English words they knew. So... I went there the next day, and was looking for the information place because that's what they said. I went to the ticket office asking for the "informacije". Where is it? I asked. This guy came up and I told him i lost my bag. oh!! he said. Baggazh! Yes yes, he said. Come. 5 Euro. What? I said. What? no no, i thought he didn't understand me. I met another young guy that worked there that actually spoke English. I told him about my bag and told me I needed to pay 5 Euro. Why? I said. Well, we found the bag here. You forgot it. WHAT!! I DID NOT FORGET IT!! I DIDN'T EVEN GET OFF!! How did i forget it! He said... well it was here on the station. I said, But i didn't get off here, i was going to Herceg Novi. He said... Well, it's not OUR fault. Me: Well, it's certainly not MY FAULT! What am I supposed to do, look out the window every stop to make sure my bag didn't fall out? He was perplexed at this. Apparently it was my fault. It wasn't their fault. OF COURSE IT WAS THERE FAULT!! HOW COULD IT NOT BE THEIR FAULT! Gosh, the people here are total idiots. After trying to explain ourselves for about 15 minutes, I was like, fine, you know what, fine, here's your freakin 5 Euro, give me my bag. I had already thought it was stolen and I'd never see my expensive glasses and contacts and bag again. I was happy to pay five to just get my bag back. That's the story and these people are complete idiots. End of story. And my bags are never leaving my sight again. :)

The Wear of Traveling

Stats of Traveling:

Duration (in weeks): 6
Duration (in days): 42
Countries visited: 9
Cities: 17ish
Nights spent on buses, trains, and ferries: 8
Different modes of transport: 6
Number of nights crashing on a couch: 10
Number of different travel partners (must include actual traveling 2+ days): 7
Times been scammed, robbed, or almost jumped: 4
Currencies in my wallet or pocket: 9
Times I've washed my clothes in 6 weeks: 2
Other places I want to see: 0

As you see, I've got a lot of numbers in my trip. Too many. I've become quite weathered in the past 6 weeks and really don't desire to travel anymore. I'm looking forward to relaxing and being with friends and family and being around familiar surroundings. I still find ways to enjoy the time I have though, don't worry. Usually, I just sit and smile and wonder why I'm so happy. Usually I can't ever think of a reason, but I keep smiling anyways. I make conversation with myself almost constantly. I've met so many people and traveled with a lot of them, and many of them I just didn't like talking to or I'd just want to be alone. The good thing about talking to yourself is that you always agree with yourself. I wish I could describe the kinds of conversations I have, but they're pretty good. I find myself intriguing. Most of them time I'm just trying to figure out why I'm happy all the time. I just can't seem to help it though. :) That's really all I want to say right now.

Living like a Hobo

So... after being in Montenegro, I feel that I've been rather lucky because I haven't had to pay for accommodations for at least 5 nights which really has saved me a lot of money, and I've met some really great people who have bent over backwards for me. I've seen a lot of things that I would never have seen otherwise. I've been on the radio, seen the countryside, been in a taxi more than I ever have in my life, due to the fact that taxis here are cheaper than public transit. But... it seems to have all caught up to me.

Today I was started off from the capital, Podgorica, on a 3.5 hour bus ride along the coast to a city in the north, Herceg Novi. I got there and quite easily got on a bus to the coastal city of happiness :D I went to the bus, and as usual, they don't allow me to take both of my bags with me on board. No problem, as I have done a million times, I put my backpack with all my clothes and toiletries underneath the bus in the compartment for luggage with a plethora of other bags. I enjoyed the long ride there, slept a bit, relaxed a bit, listened to a book on tape, and then after a journey, I got off at my destination, being the last person on the bus. I got out and told the guy I had a bag underneath. He opened it, and to my surprise... a black pit of emptiness. Uh... excuse me... where is my bag? The guy looks in... looks at me confused. Of course no one on the bus service speaks English. Where is it? He looks at me, looks back. Asks if it is onboard with me... No, of course not, I'd recognize if I had it with me the entire time idiot. We look again at the black hole of despair. The driver gets out and looks also. And puts his hands up as if he's sayin... well... it's not there, sorry. What am I supposed to do? I asked. He had no answer. Well... we looked at each other. What now? Then they told me to go to the big station at the city an hour away... Uh... ok, thanks...? I had him write down his name and number and there really wasn't much else for me to do. I guess I'll go check out the place tomorrow. Nothing doing now.

In all honesty though.... it sucks that I don't have my bag, but again, I have the irreplaceable stuff with me still. All the expensive stuff. I just had my clothes and toiletries in it, and the bag also was important. But everything is replaceable. I still hold out hope that I'll find it tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure someone just took it off and stole it. It adds more adventure to my trip, in my thoughts, than anything. It's quite interesting now to see how the final few weeks of traveling will work out now that I don't have clothes or toiletries... so we'll just see how it works out. Long live the adventure. Adventure is what I longed for, and that's exactly what I've gotten. Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

A 23 Hour Excursion

It's funny logging into the blog in different countries, cuz whatever country I'm in, it switches to that language. And although I wasn't able to make it to Ukraine, I'm quite glad that I'm in Serbia because I really like trying to read Cyrillic. It's quite fun and cool. Anyways, that's not what this is about.

I got on the train in Istanbul to head to Beograd (Belgrade). I got on the train and was in a 3 person sleeper car since it was a long night's journey. I got on the train and soon after met my roommate which just so happens was an American. I hardly met any Americans at all in my two weeks in Turkey and now I'm in an overnight train with one. Basically just there were Japanese and British people. So I was quite excited and happy to hear some normal English once again. And he happened to be going to Beograd as well. We talked a lot and we became friends pretty quickly. The trip went quickly due to the fact that we were sleeping most of the time. We had to switch trains in Sofia, but we'd have about an hour and a half break, so I wasn't so worried about not having a ticket for the rest of the way there. It'd be cheaper this way anyways. Problem number one, though. The train was about an hour and a half late.

Here's where the story gets interesting. I wake my friend up telling him we're there. I gather my things and tell him that I'll go and check the ticket situation and he could just get all his stuff together and I'd see him in the station. I get off the train and there are these guys there asking if I'm going to Beograd. Yes, of course I am. HURRY HURRY HURRY. The train is about to leave. Five minutes. Hurry. Ok, I start to run with them. Wait! I don't have a ticket. I need to buy one. Wait, I have my friend in the train, I need to tell him. No time NO TIME. HURRY. We go buy a ticket, come with me. So we ran down into the station at breakneck speeds to the counter. I thought, well, my friend won't have time to get a ticket, so I'll just buy his ticket for him as well and he can get me back later. But wait! I don't have any Bulgarian money! And so they say, HURRY HURRY HURRY!! let's get money. I run to the machine and get the money out. The guy actually takes the money and we run back. I try to get the money, but this is a lost cause. We pay and get the tickets and then run run run to the train. Wait! Kolega, (my colleague), I tell them, I don't know where he is! NO TIME NO TIME!! GO GO GO GO. We run to the train. And I get on. They ask for money, but I've spent all that I got out. I think they probably got some money from my ticket anyways. And I got on the train.

Wait a second, I'm thinking. This had to be a scam somehow. What just happened. Am I even on the right train? I ask people, they say yes, this train goes to Beograd. I look confused and dazed a bit and just kinda try and figure out what I'm supposed to do. I'm looking for my friend, of whom I just bought a ticket for and he's no where in sight. No way he made the train (he didn't). And so I'm kicking myself for buying two tickets! Why did I buy a ticket for a guy I don't know and I knew wouldn't make the train. This was stupid. I was thinking more. Ok, I have my wallet, my passport. I wonder if these tickets are actually valid. Somehow I must have been scammed. In the end, yes, the tickets were valid, it was the right train. I did actually pay twice as much as I was supposed to pay I think, but to catch the only train out of Sofia to Belgrade that day, I was pleased to pay the extra. I was waiting on the train less than a minute when it started going. I decided, oh well, I just bought two tickets. I'm stupid. I'll just go sit down and enjoy my 10 hour train to Beograd.

I find a compartment and start reading. I guy comes in offering me pot and I decline. I can just picture this guy planting it on me and at the Serbian border me spending the rest of my days in a Serbian jail. It was funny though, I walked down the train a few minutes later, and he really was rolling it in his compartment. Nice guy, but I just went back to my compartment. Here's where the story gets interesting.... We're going for about an hour or moreso, and we get to the Serbian border. The police are knocking on my door every 10 seconds and stamping my passport. I'm sitting there in Dmitrovgrad, still reading and reading and then another cop knocks on my door. Great, awesome. I look up from my book and there's my friend, my roommate from the train from Istanbul!! What the hell? I look at him totally shocked and confused. He gets his stuff and joins me. I ask him what the hell happened. I thought he'd just get on the train the next day and hang out in Sofia.

He tells me that he got off the train and the same guys who got me, got him and told him the train had already left. He rushes with them to the street and they put him in a taxi. The taxi's job is to cut off the train. He drives him about an hour as fast as possible to the Bulgarian border to Dmitrovgrad where I am and pays a large taxi fee and gets off. But he doesn't have enough money for a ticket! What's he supposed to do now? He doesn't have a ticket. He gets on the train, is confused and dazed like I was and then he runs into me! What are the chances? Weird point of the day is here... he doesn't have a ticket, I BOUGHT HIM A TICKET ALREADY. He's floored I did it, yet happy. Now, we have two people and two tickets. And a ten hour trip without any food. What do you think would happen next? Well, we had to wait about five hours, but a guy joined us and he was a Serb and later we started talking and then he got out his bag which was FULL of all his mom's cooking. We had an absolutely amazing Baklava and the trip was definitely one for the books. That's all I got for now. Hope you enjoyed it.

Turkish Delight... not so much...

I met up with my friend Ben in Istanbul for a 6 day tour of Turkey. Our first stop was Cappadocia, but by a dirty smelly night bus with lots of ugly Turkish people. Coming into this bus, i literally hadn't slept for the last two nights, and this night would be one to remember. I was hoping i'd be so tired that i'd just fall right to sleep, and it was somewhat so at the beginning.

We sat down in our seats in the middle of the bus with no room in front of us, cuz the middle door was there, so, where to put our feet, or our stuff. My satchel was a bit bigger, so I thought, no problem, I'll just put it under my seat, there's no one sitting behind me anyways. After sleeping for an hour, I woke up because I was thirsty, I grabbed for my bag to get my water. I pulled it up only to realize that my worst fear had just become reality. My computer was GONE! Oh no, where was it? Maybe it just fell out. I scrambled to the floor to look under but to no avail. I looked inside my bag, and after some searching, I realized that all my power cords were missing also. Ok, someone definitely stole it, but who? Had anyone gotten off yet? I don't think so. The only person sitting behind me at all was the bus attendant. But he couldn't have possibly done it, could he have? Yea, he coulda. I told him, though he spoke no english and he started searching. He wanted me to sit down and do nothing while he did it. I said no, I look too. I used a lot of signals with him. He then said that we would look in a few hours at our first stop. I told him NO, we look now. So... after about ten more minutes of searching, he motioned to me and I came to him and he pointed on the floor half way up the bus under one of the seats layed my computer. I was so shocked and happy I gave the little thief a huge hug. He seemed perplexed but i didn't care.

Next order of business was the cables for my computer, 2 mp3 players, phone, and battery charger. But he refused and resisted adamently and I looked for a few more hours but again to no avail and in the end, there was nothing I could do. What I DID have still were things such as: computer, both mp3 players, phone, camera, everything of real importance. I am still a bit bummed, but I know that it coulda been a lot worse, and I'm just thankful that I have some of my most irreplaceable things. Now that's a story I'll remember, and never again will I leave my bag from my sight.

Traveling in Style

I arrived into Istanbul after a twenty hour train ride with my new Argentine friend Juan with whom I had met in Brasov when i was there for the second time. We got onto the train and realized that there was no dining car, and we were in the second class couchettes, so we were really excited about the next twenty hours and the possibilities they could bring. And no outlets in second class to watch movies on my computer. I went looking at the cost of an upgrade to first class only to find it was 39 euros. Something that we both really didn't want to spend money on. So we waited and after a few hours, I went back to ask the man something, but i forget as to what it pertained, but he was trying to sell me again on it, and I asked him if there'd be a group discount. He gave me a piece of paper to write it down on and I wrote 50 euros for the both of us, and he wrote 60. Ok, not bad, that's 9 Euro less. But it was still quite a bit for us. An hour later i went to try to use the outlet in the hall of the first class but he wouldn't allow me and asked me to write a new number. I was gettin the hang of this, so I wrote 20 euro for both of us, he wrote 30, I wrote 25, and he said no, 30. I left and talked to Juan and we still decided not to, that we could get lower. After another half hour, we went back and said only 20 euros. he took it, and what was normally 39 euro, we got for 10 euro. A 20 hour upgrade into nice bedrooms for an extra ten bucks or so. it made the rest of the way much more pleasant. We slept, watched movied, and had a good time.