One of my recent trips, in the Balkans, included an overnight train from Belgrade to Bar (in fact, that was the main reason for the trip). Also known as the "Montenegro Express". 476 kilometers of pure engineering brilliance, reaching up to 1 kilometer of elevation, with a maximum slope of 25‰, and including 254 tunnels and over 243 bridges. Built by Yugoslav State Railways in 25 years of construction and first opened in 1976.

Yugoslavs being great engineers is a surprise to pretty much no one that has a basic grasp of history. One of the greatest engineers of all time (the GOAT?) was Serbian. The museum of Nikola Tesla was the second main reason for my trip. The lovely tour guide made it a quite memorable experience. Not only did he lay down all the details of Tesla's life and accomplishments in a beautiful storytell, he also put up a fascinating lightsaber show with Tesla's Coins (I was unable to capture that, as I was holding my own lightsaber, but I found another similar photo online). 

The visit to the museum initated some introspection. Ever since my early 20s, I've always had this complicated, conflicted view with the engineering (after having completed a few semesters of University, and thus gained a grasp of what it is like to be one). Hear me out: 

• Math/code → Boring and only on paper/screen, but with an addictive quality of problem-solving

• Technical/field work → Repetitive and exhausting, but when it all builds up you get to admire your own creation

• Real work/large projects  → Chaotic and unpredictable, If that's not an opportunity to get creative, what is?

So, it's complicated. I snub the engineering work for being boring and unimaginative, and at the same time I snub software engineers for not being real engineers (and note, my title barely qualifies for engineering as well). I take pride in my creativity and my constantly unsettled spirit (cough cough, Map Memoirs), yet my two feet are almost always on the ground and I wear the title of engineer like a badge (cough cough, took me two years to start).  

Anyway, my time in Belgrade was coming to an end, so I had to prepare for my train trip. I packed my things in the hostel (I swore to myself that it would be the last time I stayed in a hostel), and off I was to the train station, holding the ticket that I had booked a day before. Entering the train was like a time travel to the '70s, but hey, that baby was about to cross two countries and climb up to 1km in the process, so I let myself get comfortable in a feeling of respect (damn, that conflict again).

I was asleep for most of the route, in a surprisingly comfortable 6-bed compartment. Thankfully, passport check woke us up just in time for the best part: The mountainous part from Bijelo Polje to Podgorica felt like a fairytale, riding the fog through the mountain ridges and witnessing cute villages as they woke up.

It was an easy choice to make this experience a memoir. 

• Once in a lifetime views? Check. ✓

• A trip of amazing feelings? Check. ✓

• Geographic context being relevant? Check. ✓

• An experience that perfectly encapsulates my love-to-hate relationship with engineering? Check. ✓

You don't get to admire such marvels of human enginuity, without the persistence, frustration and tolerance to repetition that are required to bring them to life. And I'm fairly certain that the creativity I mastered to bring it to life pales in comparison to the creativity that was required to solve some of the problems that arised during its design and construction. 

But hey, a cool outcome nevertheless.