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Pages from the Journal: Serbia, Macedonia, Albania Wednesday October 19, 1994 Budapest, Hungary Note: Before we get into this, I have to say, reading this again many years later, I seem like an overreacting, whiny wimp, but at the time the area was said to be undeniably hostile, the Hungarians had me freaked out about going, there was a cholera outbreak, I was on my own, I was not in the best health, I was finished with one operation and headed into another, etc. etc. so keep that in mind--or maybe I just am a whiny wimp. Also, this is pretty long because I got tired of editing it down. If you only have the energy to read one section, go for Day 9. I won't blame you; my own writing makes me crazy sometimes. My favorite part of the world isn’t the Balkans--I tend to prefer women without moustaches--but it’s a fascinating area, always in the news these days. 
I am carrying a large amount of dread for this journey, as if the litany of all that’s wrong with the region now makes travel something almost purely to endure: internal strife, combative people, cholera, the cold. I have it in the back of my mind to be prepared for it to be ugly with hostile, hungry, idle people waiting to jump me for my cash. (I’m not even considering traveler’s checks.) I plan to carry my main cash in my shoe if only to have money in two different places if I’m robbed. On the lighter side, at the Albanian embassy in Budapest a little boy told me, “Don’t drink the water! It’s black!” before his embarrassed father shushed him. Sometimes if I am going to an unfamiliar place that is hard to get solid information about, I will meet an incoming train or plane and chat up people who were just there. This served me well in Singapore when I went to Vietnam in 1992. This time I went to Keleti Station in Budapest to meet the train from Belgrade. Few people were on it. One guy said Belgrade was only a place to go if I was “adventurous”. Another said I would have no problems and everything was as normal as could be in a country under sanctions. It gave me encouragement that “adventurous” was the worst I heard.
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