We really do have too much stuff! The morning was spent repacking the bike, accompanied by curious peckings from peacocks and peahens. The notes in my tiny blackbook say “lose some stuff”. It was obviously so irrelevant that we cannot even remember what we turfed into the bin.  This just goes to show how little we can survive on. With our bike now a bit lighter, more balanced and a bright blue sky overhead, we venture into Scary Serbia. We’ve read the news, watched TV and heard the stories.  We’ve been warned off venturing south towards Kosovo *as there is still trouble there.

Serbia is an official candidate to join the European Union and has its own currency, the Serbian Dinar. The exchange rate means we need to divide any charges by 122 to work out the cost in euros. But they take Euros anyway.

This is a very lazy day, a bit of repacking, followed by chucking stuff away, then a sprint along the highway North towards Nis. We are in Serbia because we didn’t want to pay the 55euros demanded at the Macedonian border as our ‘white’ green paper was unacceptable. We are re-routing ourselves by cutting across the east corner of Serbia to get to Romania. Highways are useful for gaining distance, but ever so boring after a while.  After 100kms from Leskovac to Aleksinac we are beckoned by the mountain range to the right. A quick glance at our tiny mapshows us there is a border post over  the Danube River at Drobeta-Turnu-Severin which will be perfect access to the Transalpina Way* (http://www.dangerousroads.org/eastern-europe/romania/862-transalpina-road-romania.html. ) Big roads and wide curves in a stunning mountain pass add to that lazy day carefree feeling. Our late start meant we had only left the campsite just before noon, and now mid-afternoon tummies are rumbling for that lunchtime jar of cold left over spaghetti supper.  We spot a simple block building with a pepsi-cola flag  waving in the breeze and thinking it may be a café of sorts, pull in for some coffee to have with our left-overs. There’s a lovely grassy bank overlooking the bluest of lakes, with boats and fisherman way down in the valley. It’s not a restaurant, just a group of men and a young lad sitting around a table socialising with a grill and fire nearby.  We park up, dismount and stroll over, but after a bit of smiling and handwaving and recognising ‘privat, privat’, we conclude it is a private party. Never mind. We unpack our camp chairs on the grassy bank to enjoy the view even more and sit and relax in the sun. The warm sun and beautiful view helped the cold left-over spaghetti and bread rolls go down, accompanied by the delicious BBQ smells from our neighbours’  fire wafting over us.

The sociable chef of the BBQ strolled over to us bearing some of the delicious smelling sausage look-alikes, all crispy and crunchy and a bit like porkcrackling. They are ‘vet derms’ ( pronounced fet derrems in Afrikaans), which are the cleaned and edible large intestine of sheep or goat. We enjoyed the crispy, hot crunchy texture and juicy taste, even though they were rather fatty.  We thanked our new friend and showed our appreciation for his generous offering by guzzling the lot. He was clearly enjoying this interaction with foreigners and strolled over again with a green bottle of clear liquid. “Rakija, Rakija, drink, drink.” We thrust our tumblers forward and he splashed a generous amount in. With an alcohol percentage of 45%-60% we graciously declined seconds.  It was good!  Mellowed even more by the hot sun, hot throats and very warm glow inside, we reluctantly packed up and set off on the bike to find a campsite. The combination of sun and ‘witblitz’ had done its best to lower our already lazy energy levels and concentration, so when we saw the Grand Hotel in Sokobanja we decided to call it a day.

The duty manager spoke excellent English and was really keen to have us stay in his hotel. Ever mindful that our bike is the most precious thing we have, before we agreed to stay, we asked about off-street parking. “No problem, you can park the bike in the lounge. And you can have a special price tonight, with Dinner, Bed and Breakfast for 34 euros”.  Our budget is 50 Euros per day so we reckoned that this was an OK price. A room on the top floor with fabulous mountain views helped our pre-dinner snooze.  How can a mere 220 kms be so exhausting?

It’s so nice to get out of bike gear, put on make-up and wear pretty clothes. B even got smarted up. We’re going on a dinner date in Serbia. How exciting.

The large foyer was empty, except for our bike, and the large banquet hall was empty, save for a few tables. We eventually find the dining room on the second floor, which is filled with long, long tables laid with tin plates and tin mugs. We are guided past these to a vast outside terrace, equally sparsely decorated with five tables and some geraniums potplants, with a backdrop of pine trees, mountain peaks and more than 300 children organised into groups, singing and dancing. Had we gate-crashed a children’s camp?  The children duly filed in to their places alongside the tin plates and mugs, the terrace doors were closed and we heard not-a-peep. Alone on the terrace, we waited for something to happen. A waiter, perhaps? And then the friendly manager arrived. He is the waiter. “We’ll have two beers, and make it three if you come and join us, please”

He did.

We asked him about the children?  city kids on a compulsory country camp for one week.

We asked him about the changes since the war? very difficult,  business , trading , marketing and service industry a new concept.

We asked him about his grown-up children? living in the cities, all  leaving the country to find jobs and go to university.

We asked him about the European Union?  to join would be good.

We asked him about life in Serbia in general? hard and poor.

It was an insightful conversation, adding to our knowledge and our curiosity about Eastern Europe, and in the light of Brexit, the purpose of our trip. Hopefully it costs less to pay for peace than war and with peace comes development and growth.

Our dinner date was enhanced by a single plate of hot spaghetti, topped with tomato sauce and a bread roll.

*Various excerpts from Wikipaedia

The Kosovo War lasted just over one year in 1998-1999, aided by NATO (air support) and the Albanian army on the ground. The Yugoslav and Serb forces caused the displacement of more than one million Kosovo Albanians. In 2008, the republic of Kosovo declared their independence from Serbia, a move which Serbia rejects. International intermediaries dealt with any communications between Serbia and Kosovo and since 2011, an EU team have encouraged meetings of the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia. Agreements and deals on various areas such as freedom of movement, regional representation and so forth have been reached culminating in the two presidents sitting at the same table at an historic meeting in 2013. More agreements were reached in 2015, ensuring representation for ethnic-Serbs in Kosovo, but not necessarily recognising the independence of Kosovo and the chance to join UN agencies. In 2017, both Serbia and Kosovo mobilized their military forces along the K-S border.