I was really tired being up from 430am for my 7am train to Romania. After exploring some of the town I went back to the hotel. My room is on the top floor so 4 flights of stairs. I asked if I needed a code for the wifi and went upstairs

When I kept trying the code it wouldn't connect. Eventually I had to go down. When I came back up again same problem. This time when I went down and compared to the code on her sheet she hadn't made the letter 'Y' very clear and I thought it was the number 1 the way it was written.

So I tried again but still no luck. I was supposed to Skype with my family sat nite as we only chat on weekends. I'm sure I must have gone down the four flight of stairs one more time and eventually I gave up having no internet connection

I'd also asked about the private shuttle to Belgrade who were supposed to call back by 7pm to confirm arrival time. The lady said they called and said they will come 7pm. That seemed odd as on the phone they told me about 3pm. I asked the lady who said that's what they said and she kept asking 7am or pm but they said pm.

We tried to call again as that was wasting a whole day when I have to check out at 12pm. There was no answer so I decided to try again tomorrow

The room tv had lots of English channels but a found a Serbian music channel and was enjoying my favourite turbo folk music

At night temperatures keep going into single digits and I'm developing a small cold. in the morning I wanted a long hot shower. The water pressure was so low the water kept shutting off to a trickle. I wasn't able to have a long hot shower and went down for breakfast.

With the time difference its dark in the morning but longer evenings. At reception we tried to call Belgrade again and they confirmed 7pm. I said I have to check out of my hotel but they said that's what time they will come today. There are no direct trains or buses to Belgrade and I didnt want to do it via changing with all this luggage so these guys were the best option as they go door to door.

The hotel said I can stay in my room for an extra 5 euros till 5pm. Since I was discounted 5 euros when I checked in it balanced out. They also said I can use the dining room for internet where the signal was much stronger then up on the 4th floor

Today its raining quite heavy and tomorrow, my birthday, is expected to be even worse. I did all my work on the internet killing time to 6pm as today was not a day to venture outside, plus I had no local currency not planning to stay this long.

I was starting to worry if these guys dont show up am I going to spend tomorrow, my birthday, dragging my stuff to the bus station and taking two buses trying to get to Belgrade? I left the room after 5 and brought my luggage downstairs hoping they would call or arrive early.

After 630 still nothing. Eventually after 7 they called and said they were 10 mins away. I thought I might be the only person but there was one other lady in the van. A smartly dressed guy put my luggage in the back where there was still plenty of room. Two more smelly passengers joined and we were on our way.

We were driving in the dark, on country roads, which are dimly lit, in a rainstorm. Not ideal conidtions I would drive in but I had no choice as a passsnger and was glad to be on the way. At the border they took my passport and dissapered for a long time but came back with it. Once in Serbia I couldnt read anything in Cyrillic script and there were more traditional churches.

As we hit Belgrade the rain began to hit hard, timing itself to co-incide with me as usual. I made it up the two flights of stairs with my luggage to the hostel and figuring out how to spend my birthday tomorrow while the rain will still be coming down hard.