30-IX-2023.
Sokobanja, third time.
On thursday I completed what calls I needed to make, called even I.Z. She was very surprised to hear me, commended my hungarian (in which, though, I said only „ez volt bolond és elfelejtethetlen“, just to remind her), thanked me three times for remembering her after 45 years, but she will not be coming. Then reported to V.G. and Borko and passed the duty to them.
We went off on friday morning, on 29th. At ease, had a coffee etc. To avoid another rambling through Zemun, as we did last two times, I took for Ugrinovačka street, which leads almost straight to Pupin's boulevard. Since this is the first time I'm taking this route (not quite, the Agricultural [college] is there, I did drive dad, but that was almost fifty years ago), I prepared the path in Gugao's navigation, but it wouldn't because tablet didn't cache it, despite me clicking on it to do so. I went by dead reckoning and passed exactly the way I meant to, but it was still even worse. No roadworks, no congestions, just slow. We got there, I easily found a place to park, and then couldn't find which building belonged to Lena. And the telephone got stupid, it just won't boot, no way to call her. We picked the wrong building, got to 14th floor, nope, not it, try next. They didn't put their names on the bell button nor on the mailbox, so can't use interphone either. Did find her somehow, in second building, and handed over the eggs, took the empty cartons, kissed goodbye and hit the road. To leave the parking [lot] I took the left turn, to complete the circle around the buildings („six corporals“ is the official name of the block), but that circle includes one more block, took quite a while to get out.
In Paraćin at the tool booth, the guy in front of us, austrian plates, shoved two levs instead of euros. The ramp guy launched a tirade, of course lowered the ramp immediately and sent his colleague to fuck the Bulgarian's mother. He kept on and on, „...his scum mother, had I shoved one like that to him he'd have come down on me as if I killed someone of his“. The accent properly half-southern, not full Niš mode, but not far either.
The road to Boljevac is really pretty, pictoresque and good, light pleasant drive. There's, of course, not a trace of a roadsign to Rtanj, but there's a string of those for Balašević restaurant, which is said to be on Rtanj. Fuck it is, found it 2km before Boljevac, full 7km before Rtanj, the Rtanjans should charge him for use of the name. That was the first red flag; the second was how he encroached the crossing, to divert to Rtanj and Sokobanja one has to make a sharp turn around the tavern. Third was the fence wall with which he parted the plateau into unused part of the road and his parking [lot], which was overgrown with weeds, looking abandoned, unfinished. But V.G. praised it highly.
It turned out on the bill, sorry, bil, tat we had lunc at one Balasevic, not Balašević... The inside of the tavern isn't bad, neither here nor there, slight afterthought, as if the stone and wood clash with each other, the food mediocre. Coffee proper domestic, čorba good, salad good, the prebranac [beans] just as it was at domaćin last time, seems to be reheated thrice. Her ćevapčići had a funny taste, she ate about half of them and complained about wobbly belly later... But it cost 3000, as if we were somewhere on a splav.
That's when I got the phone to boot, so I announced our arrival to our roomrenter.
The rest of the road got so pictoresque that I had no idea of the surrounding landscape, had to keep my eyes peeled to the asphalt, as it was curvy both sideways and up and down.
By the entrance to the banja* they were working the road on the bridge, luckily I remembered the way around, we passed it on foot last time. The guy didn't come but sent some Ana instead. The room this time is in the attic, third floor (am. 4th), but it seemed like 5th (...6th) the first time. We got used to it quickly. This is one meter and one partition less than the old garsonjera (garçoniere, a bachelor's pad), which is just a larger hotel room, 7x4 altogether, half the lightbulbs missing, and we brought the area heater for nothing, and all in all we like this one better than the old room. And it there's no clock on the wall, of which Ana said was so annoying that she took it to the dumpster. Well we wanted to do that too, but you never know if it's someones dear souvenir, so we only took the battery out.
Walked to the park again, took few shots with the phone, then under the old walnut for a beer. I asked about the yellow tomcat (v. 27-IX-2021.), said his offspring is in the house. After the second beer a wiener schnitzel each, with fries. The dish is modest, but turned out to be exactly the needed size. And it was ridiculously cheap, 530 dinars a plate, which with four beers should have rounded the tab to close to 2000, but the guy charged us less than 1400. Something wrong there, but to our advantage for once. The local radio kept playing the eighties music, Dire Straits and the „sultans of swing“...
Dropped by the Chineses to buy a backpack - all our stuff was in bags and totes - and then loaded everything from the car into it and took it to the room. One more walk, to visit my serekeš. It changed surname, belongs to a different bank now, but then I spotted my bank right across the street. The serekeš is in the lobby, but the door was locked. Made a few shots of the full moon, turned out not too bad.
By Milošev konak yet another beer, not a zaječarac this time but a budvar, which somehow didn't sit right. Had no beers for a year, fuckit, we're out of shape. Some kid was abusing his accordeon, forcing the bellows and sort of simulating some rhythm, but it seems nobody told him not to keep a dozen buttons on the left side pressed all at once. The people pay him, it seems, to stop. At least he's far enough, other side of the promenade, so we hear Alisa with „Sanja“, which then someone behind our backs begins to sing when the song stops. It's a bit chilly already, we left the jackets in the room, we abandon the last third of our beers. Upstairs we have 0,3dl shot glasses, we'll have to buy proper 0,5, may just leave them after. We brought our best tutifruti, the 21.3. Had our 0,9 each and hit the hay. The pillows are too tall, but we managed to neatly sink into sleep. The cimet was on the table, flipped into tent shape, as the tiny speakers are on its bottom, and it played for us. Not bad, makes for somewhat confused sleep, which has its good sides, a song runs into yer head and you dream some delyric bits.
In the morning, news on Telegram. They took Api for a wash, so he first looked like a heap of wool (nope, that's what they combed out of him), and then smaller than before. Go found and relayed an add, wool on sale, 540$. Sanda lost her first molar. Nina made pizza. Raja and Violet ate it all. She made american pancakes, just right that I wasn't there when the smell of baking powder flooded the house [though it's probably not the baking powder, which is a simple chemical, it's probably the coconut oil that smells like that].
On second day I put the long pipe on eos70 and went for a bit of a photo safari. West end first, to visit my bank, eh, doesn't open on saturdays. An old guy passing by said I can open the door with a card. Well, look at that, I didn't even notice. I raised some money from the serekeš and then we walked more. Then she again visited the Chineses' department store, to buy some metal files and modeler's pliers, to shape he wire and beads she brought along into more jewelry. Bought proper brandy shots too, and two coffee mugs, the ones in the room are too small, we had to have two each to properly wake up. Visited a few sekendica, got myself a shirt, there's a souvenir.
We quickly gave up on the rešo (even though it's a new model, glass plates, though it says induction on the box, but it may not be its box) and switched to bojleruša (v. house dictionary), faster and easier.
We meant to go to the Pećina (cave), but saw they dismantled the little suspension bridge and took it away, the path just got a lot longer. Maybe on monday when we go home, take the road up the left bank. Went for lunch to „Merak avlija“ (been there last time), a good lamb čorbica and a kilo of roast lamb, this time we knew in advance at what time to come, it was just fresh off the spit and there weren't too many guests yer so we got the best parts. The local radio played the eighties music. Dire Straits and „money for nothing“...
Took a nap after lunch, about half an hour, while she was making jewelry on the terrace. I guess it's that air. Then a walk again. We wanted to do a larger arc by the north side, but what seemed like a next street behind the one turned out to actually be not a street at all, it was just a parking [lot] for some fresh novogradnja, can't pass beyond that. We returned to the path we knew, the concrete hoist/pump moved away in the meantime so it was passable. Almost had some rain, met all six drops of it.
On the boardwalk some girlies, all of the same shape, in banana yellow tights and white t-shirts with an unclear logo below their tits, discretely hit the walkers. One holds a largish tablet, I'd say about ten inch, and the other can speak. She asks me „do you consume tobacco products?“. „No, I do no such thing, I smoke!“. This is where I completely devastated her script, that kind of response was not predicted at all, so she turned away and went for the next guy.
Before dinner we were kind of thirsty, but weren't in mood for a beer, enough of that, the third one yesterday didn't sit right. In a tavern we don't drink stiff, you never know what they'll try to shove on you, wine in glass just equally suspect, and... let's find a kokta. Does anyone have that, this is all fenseraj (fancy, with german suffix -erei, to mean wannabe posh), but okay, let's try that, at some guy who has just six tables, „whoever has coke's ad, guaranteed doesn't have kokta“. „Who says?“ - and he served us with perfectly chilled, likes of which we didn't have in quite a while.
We dined on the leftover roast lamb, we routinely had ordered a whole kilo. Then we tried the new 0,5 shot glasses. Slept like babies, woke up several times to visit the bathroom, what with the clanky capricious vukašin (v. house dictionary), which almost had a personality. The terrace door we left discretely ajar, to dispell the smoke. Mountain air, pleasant sleep.
To differ from the bathroom in the other room, where one pane of the shower cabin door wouldn't move, got stuck often, this one didn't have that problem. The pane was completely gone. Would have done better with a simple curtain.
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* banja comes from italian bagno, a bath; spa is not a common noun, it's a place in Belgium. Why is it used to mean a medicinal bath is beyond me.
Mentions: 27-IX-2021., Sokobanja, Api, cimet, čorba, ćevapčići, domaćin, eos70, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gugao, house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), kokta, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), novogradnja, rešo, Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sekendica, serekeš, splav, Violet, in serbian