Despite no geographical landmarks (mountains), Serbia did feel greener. Not saying green but more alive than Hungary ever did. For lively green the drought is just to much right now.
But before I talk further, this might be the first message you receive about a new post of me in 2 years and it’s already the 3rd on this trip. I didn’t maintain my blog the last 2 years and some things didn’t work anymore. One of them being the newsletter. But you receiving this, is proof that things can be mended.
I had more encounters with Serbs than with Slovaks and Hungarians combined. One made me contemplative. It was in Zrenjanin, which, by the way, has some beautiful buildings. I was having breakfast (a quite good one) and about to pay. The waiter told me that it’s already paid. That in fact, a lady paid everything in the Café. I was surprised and being raised right, I went there to express my thanks. She spoke some German and told me a bit about her life. Repeatedly, she said “yesterday I died, today I live, tomorrow I’ll be buried”. Don’t know what she meant with that but she carried something around that we all (or most of us) carry around: Regret
Regret, separating her husband. Regret, having lost her father. Regret, nobody likes her. Regret, never have been in Paris etc.
Tears were shared and it left a profound impression on me…at least for a while. I, as well, regret many things in my life. And where I am in life right now feels like I have taken many wrong turns. But as I have seen before, regret is a useless emotion. There is nothing one can change about the past. Life is understood backwards, but lived forwards. If you remember one thing of my writings may it be this: No life is perfect, however it looks from the outside. Don’t dwell on your seemingly bad decisions. Make the best out of them (and I have to reread that for myself 😉).
I crossed the border into Serbia on the 18th of August and let left 10 days later.
An overview of the route, pictures and text can be found on Polarsteps
The heat still had and has me in its grip. It puts pressure on me to start early as it gets hot by midday. I don’t like it. And some days I just cannot be bothered getting out at 6 am.
While Serbia was greener, the same carelessness about nature was obvious or even worse than in the previous countries. Trash littering the side curbs. You would expect fishermen to take care about their sides but no. Who wants to fish while plastic and other trash litters the shore? The garbage system doesn’t seem to work as I saw overflowing bins and dump sides everywhere.
In general, I miss beauty. There isn’t much around in terms of nature and the cities are often ramshackled. And the ones that have some history, don’t have a lot. Maybe due to the war(s).
What is apparent is the merriment of the Serbians. There’s always a group of people around or if they talk to you it’s not just “Hi, how are you?”. The social ties seem to be in better order than in much of the western world. Downside is that you could get blasted by music in a 5k radius until 3am the next morning 🤦
What I haven’t missed since we banned it in 2010 and is still disgusting to me: smoking inside. In bars, cafes or restaurants. As I said about the Hungarian is also true here. Many smoke, indifferent of the sex. And the smell lingers everywhere.
In Nis I left the EuroVelo 11 behind and went west towards Kosovo. That was actually a beautiful stretch I enjoyed. A rare occasion.
Love,
Matthias