El Mundo de Tuula (travels, thoughts, feelings...): Trying to Get to Know Serbia in a Few Days

After the crazy CouchSurfing Boat Party and making one more friend it was time to leave Istanbul. I will never forget the hospitality and friendliness of the people and I really hope to meet my CS host Ipek again. When I was leaving, her father asked if I needed money. Of course I didn't, neither couldn't have taken any. In my opinion I should have paid them for all the food I ate. But this example shows how amazing the Turkish hospitality and caring for other people is.

The 22-hour train trip to Belgrade started at 10 pm. It wasn't the Orient Express, but Balkan Express, I understood. I had a bed in a 6-bed compartment. And guess what: there was a Canadian girl, Sophie, in the same compartment and she had the same CouchSurfing host in Belgrade. What a coincidence! As you can see, even though I travel alone, I'm seldom alone or feel lonely.

The wake-up at 3:30 am at the Turkish border and the heat in the daytime were the uncomfortable sides of the train ride. But otherwise I enjoyed it. The sunflower fields in Bulgaria, a gorge, cornfields and green countryside landscapes in Serbia, chatting with Sophie...

The train arrived three hours late, at 11 pm. Even after working for the whole weekend and going to the famous EXIT festival in Novi Sad, our host Chris was happy to welcome us in his beautiful and tidy home. He was nice and easy-going, providing us with everything: sheets, washing machine, computer with internet connection, guidebooks & maps etc.

Walking in the streets of Belgrade in the heat of July was exhausting. After visiting Kalemegdan Citadel, Sophie and I decided to rent bicycles and head for the beach for a refreshing swim in the lake. This morning we visited a local market, which is always interesting. The variety of items ranged from fruit and vegetables to second-hand clothes and mobile phones. Then we went on our own ways; not that we wouldn't have gotten along, but sometimes it's just nicer to wander around at your own pace. As Paul Theroux puts it "Travel is at its best a solitary enterprise: to see, to examine, to assess, you have to be alone and unencumbered."

Our host, Chris from the UK, is a Political Officer and an Election Observer. It's been interesting to talk with him and one of his friends doing her PhD here as well as read a book called 'How to Understand Serbs'. I've been told that a decent life here is all about having a job and the right connections and that there is a lot of corruption. A quote from the book: "People look nostalgically back on this time [Communism] as a golden era, a period of unity and security, when people had enough money and the free time to enjoy it. Standards were high and life was simple. You had a job for life and adequate holidays, and all that was asked of you in return was unquestioning loyalty to those in power - be they your boss, or comrade Tito himself. --- Serbs hoped that capitalism would heal the old wounds and fulfill their aspirations for the future, but the system has left many disappointed."

Photo 1: So happy to finally have some refreshing drinks in the heat of the train. (Sophie ran to buy them at a station, nothing was sold in the train.)