was fully intending to go to the Narodni Muzei (national museum) in town, because it was presumed to have free hours on sunday—but, alas, the non-temporary (what's the word?) exhibit was closed. this did not sound detrimental to me, until i discovered that, in reality, it meant that only the lobby was open, with a few articles and tools from ancient times arbitrarily chosen and dragged down from the other floors and placed in a room adjacent to the lobby, where some pop radio station was providing the ambience. having three guards breathe down my neck was enough to clip my visit; apparently the renovations should be finished in january, so it's my hope to assess the museum then.

walked around for a while, then spent some time searching for a specific tramvaj that i wanted to take. i should have been warned that this is always the wrong tactic and results in frustration until one surrenders to The Way These Things are Done. caught the next bus i saw and was rewarded superlatively. that is to say: this was the loudest, most jarring bus i have ever taken in my life. that fact alone was enough to prompt me to stay on it until the end of the line. from there, experimented with various others (in the manner of yesterday and TWTTaD) until i found myself in Sremcica, south of Beograd. the town/suburb was fairly uninspiring—but the climb to and from it was astounding. have i mentioned the fact that being able to see my apartment from anywhere (and doing just that; fear not, i've quelled the urge to create a new genre of photograph, namely: shots of Genex (its official name; commentary suspended until a later date) from every notable point in the city)) never fails to bring me joy? it's useful, though, because i'm not yet familiar with which buildings in Stari Beograd are which. if i can locate apartment, i can connect the dots and derive the horizon's contents from there. Sremcica was far enough from the city, and sufficiently elevated, so that i decided that Beograd is a great place to live—solely because i can see a large amount of it, all at once. we all have our reasons....

had somewhat forgotten the meaning of "nedelja" (and all its variations, one of which being: Sunday) in this part of the world. i was going to buy groceries when coming home, but i checked in the morning and the stores are only open until 15:00, so i did it earlier. in addition to a tolerable substitute for Tesco-brand beans (such the staple in CR that i now think of them *as* czech food. behold, though, this was confirmed when i checked the label here and they are imported through CR, albeit from the UK originally), i found a place where i can buy seitan, tofu, and soy pasteta (the meat spread that is used a lot here)! i bought a whole bag of red peppers (papriki). the options are red or these pale yellowish/greenish/reddish ones. everyone eats them like there's no tomorrow. so, i admit, i was somewhat under the influence of everyone in the crowded store, filling bag upon plastic bag with the red ones that were, unusually, cheaper than the other ones.

we've been having some key-related dramas for the past few days. various doors refusing to open and the like. ever since vesna got locked *inside* her apartment on wednesday, i've been a little bit leery of the situation. if all goes well, some guy is supposed to come tomorrow afternoon and look at (which i hope also means: fix) all of the things that are malfunctioning in the apartment. as daniela put it: he'll probably stay for hours.

wait...about that smoke smell—it appears that the borrowed iron has just imploded and is billowing smoke. fear not: there have not been any reported casualties.