Day 2, Split.... Part 1

Had dinner with Jelena at her mess, moussakka which was quite good. Had an interesting and enlightening conversation with her regarding the war. Then boarded the train to Split. The train was supposed to leave at 10.55 but finally decided to start rolling only at 11.55 or so.When I was saying good bye to Jelena at the station I thought I would impress her with all the European etiquette I had picked and say good bye in 'their' way. It's a dizzying process, touch your cheeks on th either side of theirs three times, all the while making kissing noises. At the end of it your brain is doing cartwheels. When I had finished the 2nd round of these exchanges and, dizzy and faint, proceeded for the third and final one I saw the look of murder in her eye. She looked like she wanted to take a traditional Croatian knife, stick it into my stomach and go to town exploring my insides. Apparently, and sensibly so, Croatians exchange 'fake kisses' only twice when saying good bye, and their 'not so friendly neighbours' Serbia, follow the rest of Europe (or Switzerland atleast) and do it thrice. Hence the look.

In the train, I was joined by a busybody grandad who seemed bent on giving his wife and grandkids the hardest time, lugging them and his million piece of luggage from one compartment to the next. He was soon replaced by a group of three students, part of a larger group, from the UK I think, judging from their language, one of which was a not bad-looking girl. I was soon half asleep, and was playing with my seat cushion (why, I have no idea, just those random things you do when you are half asleep I suppose). It was only when i woke up for some water later in the night that I realized that the 'cushion' was actually the girl's foot. Luckily, she was fast asleep and hadn't noticed that I had been giving her an unsolicited foot massage. I went back to sleep making sure my hands were nowhere near her or her feet, and prayed that we reach Split before I did something worse.