Eastern Wanderings

Last month, I celebrated my 30th birthday in Eastern Europe. This is what it looked like.

Baltic Sea, Sopot, Poland. Photo by Pixdaus.

There were beaches and a subsequent sunburn. Yes, in Poland.

Borscht with dumplings. Jewish Quarter, Krakow, Poland.

There was some family history. And lots of food made from potatoes, cabbage and beets.

East German Trablant, produced circa 1975.

I drove one of these. I only stalled once.

Open'er Festival, held on NATO air base, Gdansk, Poland.

There was music, and occasionally a backstage view.

Polish fare: pig's knuckle, pickles, potato.

And there was pork. Everywhere, nothing but pork.

Széchenyi Thermal Bath, Budapest, Hungary.

There was public bathing and paprika in Budapest.

Sunflowers fields. Hungary-Serbia border.

Followed by a really, really long train ride. All the views looked like this.

Street corner, Belgrade. I don't read Cyrillic.

In Serbia, the street signs started to look all funny.

Novi Sad, Serbia.

There was a music festival called EXIT. It started in 2000 to protest a dictator.

Thanks for the photo, Charlie F. !

It was held in a giant fortress.

Bottle top. Serbia's national beer.

One more thing about Serbia. Its beer mascots are all really aggressive.