The Balkans: My First Trip

Getting lost in the outskirts of Belgrade, eating meat while traveling, and bribing our way into a concert

Bridge in Sarajevo on a Sunday morning

In 2006 I went to the Balkans to meet up with my friend Anil who was in the middle of a 2 year long worldwide journey. Anil is my childhood friend who convinced me to become a vegetarian and to become a traveler. I wish I still had my notebooks from this trip. I bet they’re in a box somewhere in my parent’s garage. (Luckily, here at home I do have my old notebooks from coaching improv with entries like “WHY doesn’t your vegan pet shop acknowledge Chadbucks?”) Now all I have are the memories and the feelings I gained from the trip that stuck with me. Some details will be wrong, but the emotions will be right.

Included throughout this will be old photos I took that I can only find now in low resolution, and music that I fell in love with on my trip. Music is one of my main motivators for travel - going to see concerts or just hanging out in places where the music in the cafes is different than what I’m used to helps to ground me in a place outside of my home.