Roamin' The World: Europe And Beyond...

 Following the suggestion of my friend, Mukti, and because I had 16 days to "kill" in Serbia before my exodus from Europe, I decided to explore a bit more of Serbia... hence, the trip out of Belgrade to Novi Sad.  It was a good choice. The town's historical center was quite charming, as is typical; I  enjoyed a music festival at the famed fortress on the other side of the Danube river over the weekend; I ventured out on one very hot--but great-- excursion to the monasteries in the Fruska Gorda National Park; and finally, indulged in numerous swims in the river itself (it was BLAZING hot there in that town!!!) I finally got lucky in terms of an Airbnb stay, thank God! Which is also why I decided to spend an entire week in Novi Sad. I procured a room in the apartment of Vladislava, a woman about my age. Her place was gorgeous--nicely furnished, spacious and comfortable, with a well-equipped kitchen. She was home a lot, but was respectful of my space, while at the same time ...

 After my week in Novi Sad, I returned to Belgrade for 3 nights, as my impending flight to Mexico departs September 1st. Unbelievably, as soon as I arrived, I was faced with more travails dealing with Airbnbs: I first arrived at "airbnb number one", aka (in the listing) the "Comfy Oasis", which turned out to be the misnomer of the millenia!!! True, it WAS, as listed, in the center of Belgrade (the historical--and most desireable--part to stay in), but an "oasis"?!?! Heck, no !! The supposed "one bedroom" was little more than a closet! I mean, truly claustrophobic! But, far worse than that, the run-down apartment building was adjacent to a mammoth structure where VERY loud construction was going on! I am talking about jack hammerimg sounds.... clanging, banging, buzzing... throw in whatever other construction adjectives you can imagine... and that was the noise that residents of this apartment building were being subjected to!!! Needless to say, I...