Today I was able to sleep in a bit since Nis doesn’t have all that much to see.  This means I am up by 8:00 anyway.

First thing I do is Google to see where the train station is, since I had forgotten to do that before I left.  Oh fuck.  It is a 21 minute walk, which is fine.  But there are a lot of turns and stuff on Cyrillic written streets.  There is no way in HELL I am going to be able to find it in the dark at 2:30 am.  FUCK.  This was my whole reason for staying an extra night in my hotel.  I don’t want to trust that I can get a cab.  So I decide that I will just take the bus to Sofia tomorrow.  Good bye dreams of finally taking an overnight sleeper train.  UGH.

Since I am going to the Fortress today, I make that my first stop since it is pretty much at the bus station.  This way I can buy a bus ticket to Sofia for tomorrow. It was an easy walk, passing over the Nišava River.

Buying a bus ticket was not as hard as I anticipated it would be.  I manage to convey that I want to take the 4:30 am bus tomorrow morning.  The woman working the window manages to convey that it will be 1350 dinar (around $17 USD).  We worked very well together for two people who did not understand a word the other was saying.

After this, I realize I am starving.  I go to a restaurant in the bus station parking lot.  That did not go as well as the bus ticket did.   I asked the waitress if she spoke English.  She did not. I start off by pointing to the huge poster advertising iced coffee.  She brings me a cherry milkshake.  I am not kidding.  She also brought the check so I guess I wasn’t going to get my chance to order food.

I went to the Fortress.  It was so nice.

Obligatory Nis dog picture:

I will admit I wanted to take the tourist train, even though it was clearly for kids.  It had a smiley face on the front and played ice cream truck music.  There were adults on it though.  I just could not figure out where to board so I let it go.

I meander around a bit, being a tourist and taking pictures.  It took forever to get a picture of these fountains because they just KNEW I was waiting with my camera and they were being camera shy. But I got you!

Next stop:  Skull Tower.  I am so excited for this.   I walk to where it is on my map.  I cannot find it.  Flash forward literally two hours of walking around, I do not find it.  I finally give up and decide to go back to the Fortress entrance, where there is a tourist information booth.  It was open when I was here earlier.  It is closed now.

I find a big map of Nis, including all the tourist sites.  On it, they show a picture of the Skull Tower.  But it is not on the actual map.  Are you freaking kidding me?

By now, I am just about done.  I agree to do the following:  go back to my hotel, go online, re-Google the stupid skull tower, consider taking a cab.

I get to my hotel and my key won’t work.  Will not work.  Cannot open the entrance to the door on the third floor.  I know the woman who checked me in yesterday mentions she is one floor above.  I go up one more floor.  There are three doors, none are marked.  I try again and again and again.  I try kicking the door.  I am now freaking out and breaking down and sweating and about to burst into tears.

I go back down  and outside to ring the bell to get her to come out.  She meets me at the door.  “Oh Jennifer” she says.  Then she takes my keys and tries to unlock the door and she can’t.  See?  It is not just me.  Oh but it is because she tries again and on the second time, she gets the stupid freaking door open.

Okay.  Problem solved.  I get to my room and the wifi is not working.  Oh fuck no I am not going back down two flights of stairs again to ring the bell to have her meet me.  I Google the Serbia country code on my flip phone – which will probably cost me a million dollars since my data service isn’t covered in Serbia.  I call the number, and someone appears and fixes my wifi.  I am now supposed to re-Google map the Skull Tower, but instead I opt to just burst into frustrated tears.  I tend to have one meltdown on every trip I take; this was this trip’s meltdown.

I thought I might stay here for a bit and relax and build up the mental strength to go back out and see the ONE THING I AM DYING TO SEE HERE.  But it did not happen.

So now I am in Nis to see one thing I did not see.  I am taking a bus that leaves at 4:30 am, instead of one that left at 6:30 pm, which was the better option all around.  You know, so I could be here later to take the overnight train I am now no longer taking.  Everything from the moment I entered Serbia on my layover two (was it two?) days ago has gone horribly wrong.  Serbia hates me.  I still don’t hate Serbia though.  It is not Serbia’s fault I lost my magic trip planning skills.