Taxi ride of DEATH!!!

Yesterday Dan and I had the opportunity to go to an Embassy-sponsored jazz concert in Belgrade. It was a great excuse to go to the city, take in some culture, and catch up with some of our Embassy friends, so Dan moved his classes around a little and we went.

We had some errands to take care of before we left for the city, and we were running a little late to catch the 1:00 bus. We grabbed the first taxi we could find to get to the bus station. Dan was telling the driver where to go as I was getting in the car. I grabbed the door, pulled it shut, and... it bounced open. I tried again, same thing. The driver said to pull the handle as I slammed the door. Nope. He got out and started really smashing it from the outside and playing with the latch. Under ordinary circumstances I would have gotten out of the cab and found another one. But we had a bus to catch. So, at the driver's suggestion, I held the door shut for the two minute ride to the station. I do not recommend this at any sort of high speed. I had images of myself being flung from the car into some ditch on the side of the highway. Fortunately, we were only traveling at moderate speeds on city roads (not that being flung onto the sidewalk would be any less painful than a highway ditch), and it was really no problem except when we made right-hand turns and I could feel the door pulling away from me.

When we got to the bus station, we found out there wasn't a 1:00 bus after all, and we had to wait until 1:30. Dan was a little grumpy because we had a few appointments in the city and we were going to be late. I was positively giddy, having just had the best taxi ride of my life. That cab was the absolute epitome of some Serbian something; I'm just not sure what.