Visiting Villages

Lucy and I spent the weekend out in the country, looking for the scenes from the tourist books we have of farmers plowing their fields with horses, traditional houses flanked by vineyards, and sweeping vistas of sheep-dotted hillsides.

Instead, we ended up staying in the suburbs, walking around on a mountain completely shrouded in fog, and hanging out with football hooligans on the train. While it wasn't the weekend we had anticipated, it was good to get away, mostly because we have spent the past three weeks in a very loud, busy city. Even though we were hoping for pastoral scenes, what we needed the most was fresh air, and we got our fair share of that.

We set out from Belgrade on a very cloudy Friday morning, headed south to a city called Valjevo. We sat with five Serbians in our train car, and when we got off the train, Lucy told me that from listening to their conversation, they didn't know each other at all. Watching them without understanding what they were saying made me think that they were two couples: one young and one old, heading out on a trip together, since they all talked non-stop, at top volume, for the entire two hour trip!

When we arrived in Valjevo, we searched for the tourist office (which was not simple to find) and ended up speaking to the two women who worked there for over 45 minutes. We had spoken with someone at a guest house the night before, and we thought that we had arranged to stay with them for one night. All we needed to know from the tourist office was how to get there. We were in for quite the go 'round when the woman from the tourist office called the guest house, who said there was some confusion and they couldn't host us that night, there was going to be a party there the next day and things were just too crazy. So despite Lucy's best efforts at arguing our point, we were set up at a new house, which we assumed from the woman's refusal to offer us any other options, must've belonged to her uncle. Everything worked out fine, as we ended up with a very nice grandmother who took good care of us, including escorting us caringly to the bus stop in the morning when we set off for more exploration.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story, except for the ride back, which was our first real negative experience here. We ended up in a train car that was packed with people, and we ended up sitting on the floor between two cars. We were surrounded by young men who were traveling home from a soccer game. They seemed to be relatively harmless as we chatted with them about where we were from, their soccer team, and what we were doing in Serbia. When their sexist commentary and mocking of some Muslim passengers made Lucy and I uncomfortable so that we stopped talking to them, a few of them became upset and made some really violent anti-American comments, including something about how we had bombed them. Though I knew these guys were not exactly model citizens (nor do they in any way represent the reception we have received here), their words brought up a lot of complicated emotions for me. I felt afraid to speak English, and ashamed that our government had done something so terrible to their people. I also felt angry that they couldn't separate the people from the government- the Serbian government has also done some terrible things, and these young men are no more responsible for those atrocities than I was for America's bombing of Belgrade when I was a junior in high school. The main difference is that our country is incredibly powerful and wealthy, while theirs is not. As a priviledged person in the U.S., I have more opportunities to travel, to work, and to choose my path than the vast majority of the world's people. I do not gain these opportunities without a loss on someone else's part, and I am no more deserving than the next person, American or otherwise. I think about this often- about my responsibilities with this type of priviledge, how we can spread the wealth (yikes! socialism!) and while I haven't come to any great conclusions, there are a couple of things I take away from this interaction. The first is the importance of talking to people wherever you go; we met a really nice girl on the train who spoke English, and we had a great conversation with her about work and traveling. She really wants to go to Mexico, so I got her address to send her a postcard when I get there. I also have to hope that the next presidential administration will work hard to mend fences with the many people of the world who have been frightened and offended by the U.S. over the past 8 years.

So that is my social/political commentary for this part of the trip!

The weekend was also brightened by a hike near the beautiful city of Novi Sad, on a small mountain called Fruska Gora. We hiked in the woods for a few hours, and then returned to have a cup of hot rakija (a Serbian drink made from plums, quince, and pears) in the cool evening. We asked the very kind waiter (first of all, he spoke perfect English, second of all he knew where Maine was and asked us about the lobsters there!) at the cafe about the buses going back to the city. In the open, friendly manner of the vast majority of people we have met here, he told us not to worry, that if no bus came by, he or his mother would give us a ride to the next bus stop. After waiting for half an hour, we climbed out of the chilly evening onto a warm bus and made our way back to Belgrade.

Overall, it was a great weekend and just a tease to be able to go into the Serbian countryside for only a few days- I feel like there is so much more still to see and learn about. Enjoy the photos!