While staying 2 days in Derry, I befriended a Serbian, Edo. Edo and I stayed in touch via Facebook over the past year, and when I told him I was likely to be spending a week in the Balkans, he invited me down to his hometown, Prijepolje. So after flying into Belgrade on Friday, I caught an bus Saturday morning to Prijepolje. Or two buses, as it turned out. I watched some nice rolling farmland and immediately conked out the entire ride and woke up in Užice in the mountains and everyone got off the bus. I quickly discovered that 1. southern Serbia is very mountainous, 2. It was really cold. The helpful driver had me switch buses (it was 1 ticket, but here we switched to a smaller bus as most of the crowd, including my pretty seatmate, departed). Another sleeping bus ride, and then the few of us all got off at this rather small busride. The locals quickly scattered, and I politely declined a taxi driver and waited for Edo's friends to come, as promised. As every car came to the station, I looked expectantly, but everyone was coming for the bus. After around 30 minutes, the bus departed. There were a few people milling about, but noone paid me any attention.
I wandered into the bathroom. It was in rough shape, but no worse than a really bad gas station restroom in the States. I stepped up to the urinal to do my business, and promptly felt 'water' splashing against my ankle. Quickly stopping, I look under the urinal - no pipe. Just a piece of ceramic attached to the wall with a hole in the middle. Huh. Check the urinal next over. Yep, it has proper plumbing. So I slide over and finish my business, having learned my lesson to check to make sure that all my toilets are, well, fully assembled.
I continue waiting. My instructions from Edo read as follows
I will let know someone to wait for you.
In the worst communication case, my father s name is Mirsad Sadikovic, known as ZEC with afro hair ;) and whole town knows him, so just ask.
And my address is Stadion 9/7 in the building of supermarket which is called Samoposluga.
Any way I will let know my friends to wait you, Hacker and Kali.Enjoy Prijepolje,
Edo
OK, I'm looking for 2 guys named Hacker and Kali. Otherwise, look for the afro. Can't go wrong, right?
Eventually a Serbian lady tries to ask me a question, in Serbian. My response in English attracts the attention of 2 college-age guys who had recently arrived. They walk up and say, 'AJ?' These guys were great hosts, but with my Nike* running shirt and bright red backpack I kind of stand out. Or maybe I blend in better than I think. I was walking through the hills above Saravejo today by myself, and someone in a car tried to ask me for directions
*In the States, we butcher the pronunciation of adidas. In Serbia, Nike is 'neek'
Zed, Edo's father (the one with the afro) arrived soon after, and we walked on foot to the Sadikovic's apartment. Prijepolje is a small city, around 15,000 in the city proper, but it is a very pretty city situated in a valley at the merging of two rivers. From what I understood, Zed is the town 'horticulturist' which means he is responsible for maintaining all the public spaces, and as we walked to his apartment we kept stopping and talking to people, and Admir explained that they were giving Zed work requests, as they had a tree that needed trimmed, or a rock that needed moved, and so forth. Apparently this is what keeps Zed busy.
At the apartment we met Mama Sadikovic and Armina*, and the men sat and had lunch while the women stood and waited. I had eaten while waiting for Edo (ordered 'hamburger' off the menu), but felt obliged to eat all the delilcious food they put in front of me. And delicious it was! Baked rice with lamb, pastries with cheese, sliced vegetables, and some cookie like desert. Nom nom nom nom.
*Who was always referred to as Edo's sister, but is actually Edo's cousin. I think.
After stuffing myself silly Zed, Admir, the other guy (whose name escapes me) and I headed out of the city on a little tractory that you see at the state fair. It runs from city center up to a monastery above the city, maybe 10 minutes away. We headed back to the city, Zed went home, and I went to the city cultural center (basically the town hall / city-county building), where we went up to Admir's office to wait as Admir had to prepare for a meeting.
Meeting at cultural center. Brits Oliver and Sarah
Drinks.
Dinner. Trip planning with Armina and google translate.
Drinks.
I'll finish the rest of this post later, I need to go catch my bus.
rb
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