Two turnstiles and a telephone (a post about very little)

It's a funny thing, this bar scene, so many people gathering around a single liquid - a single chemical. Imagine groups of people getting together for the sole purpose of drinking orange juice or milk. And yet, alcohol has a wonderful way of bringing together people that would usually not congregate (unless, maybe, they tried orange juice:)
Last night i went to a bar with most of the people in my hostel. Not drinking anything at a bar gives one a different perspective of what is actually going on. As i sat by a table listening to Dylan sing about highway 61 I watched people all night long. While the noise level gradually increased, the distance between people consistently decreased. There seems to be a mutual understanding that if you go to a bar you must either dance to the music or stand around and talk to people. Sitting down and enjoying the music makes people ask, "are you ok?" "are you having fun?" Of course I am. I decided that everyone was attempting to talk at once, so the bar could definitely use someone to listen. One guy was telling me about how he didn't dare to talk to a group of serbian girls so he needed another drink. I told him i'd help by starting the conversation, but he declined. The idea of going to a bar, for the guys and girls i was with, seemed to be the typical: to "pick up" someone. watching everyone's eyes, i could tell who they were scanning and which one was their final choice. Then i got tired and left (sorry, no segway but here's the climax)...
On the way home three of us got into a taxi. We were headed to a light to make a left turn. The light was turning yellow and the driver began to turn obviously not seeing the car coming straight toward us. At the last second (or maybe even millisecond) the other driver swerved out of the way narrowly missing the passenger side of the car where i was sitting. I didn't say anything. Another passenger, and australian man, was not very happy. The driver claimed it was the other driver's fault because of a red light. i guess he failed to realize that the other driver had the same light as us because he was coming straight for us from the opposite direction. O well. The interesting part was that the people i was with, while unhappy about the pseudo incident, tried to shake it off by saying, "i guess it wasn't our time, i should have stayed at the bar and could have died there." This amazed me because he seemed to have no hope in life besides money and yet when he almost died he could superficially shake it off.
[i never felt unsafe in all of the crazy taxi rides of cairo, but one ride in a modern (for lack of a better term) country with modern roads and cars and i almost get creamed]

so anyway, serbia is great. Today i made trail mix but this city has no m&m's so cocopuff-ish cereal must suffice. I've been in belgrade for a few days now and the people here are fantastic. They have a slightly tough/stern aura to them (kind of like an uncle that scared you to death when you were a kid because his jokes were of the rough, stern type but now that you're older you realize he's a genuine, caring man) but are very warm and friendly people. The city and this area of the world is hardly ten years out of war and the signs of it are still visible in some areas. Belgrade has a few buildings that are still in rubble from bombs and tonight i'm heading to sarajevo where i'm sure there will be the same. The one downside to this area is that hitchhiking (especially in bosnia) is probably not the best idea. I hope to pick this up again when i get to croatia or hungary depending on where i head next.