Village near Belgrade where dad was born. On the river. Granddad's house was bordering the lot of the big chemical (read: ammo) factory, and was on the main road (which roughly follows the river). I say was, because the other side of the road is a hill, which periodically acts as a landslide. Last pictures of the house I saw, the soil was against the lower frontside window frame. The usual ad to sell houses there states "good condition, low mileage", because the houses which still have a hope of selling haven't gone more than few meters. Any further, and you're selling bricks.
The part of the road on the Belgrade side, the nearest couple of kilometers, is never stable. The joke I heard from auntie Janja today is that most politicians driving that way suddenly find religion. There's one special curve which needs to be rebuilt every dozen years.
I went there several times as a kid, always with dad, sometimes mom too, but I don't remeber if I nighted there more than ten times then. The trip there, unless čiča Rada would fetch us, meant taking a bus, then the narrow track train. With walks and waits, it took half a day, so returning the same day was impossible. That changed when dad bought the fića, then it was three hours one way.
Then we went a bit more often since 1976 until about 1983, when dad inherited some land and we planted an accacia forest to avoid taxes... which was in a way a replacement for a weekend cottage. Then we mostly ceased going there, I remember just once, when auntie Janja's son went to vojska, and how the room where we slept was not heated at all, in winter... Then we resumed visiting around 2012, initially to fetch dad when he'd stay at uncle Staja's or have a lunch at auntie Janja. When dad died, we visited a couple more times, when we booked the inherited land with the cadaster to my name as an heir, and then when auntie Janja's husband died in 2021... And then we realized that we won't hear any news from there, as apart the two there are only two other relatives still alive, dad's brothers by maternal uncle, one of them a really good and square guy, and the other a staunch... Once in ten years he remembers to make a phone call, and that's to express support for the change of name from Zrenjanin back to Petrovgrad, the name which was official for just some seven years. Well thanks but I like it as it is. And of those four I don't know if any of them are on speaking terms with each other, so when they begin dying, nobody will be there to let us know.
Of their children we know nothing, not any contact in a decade. auntie Janja's daughter did visit a couple of times while dad was alive, but never called. uncle Staja's daughters actively avoid us ever since our wedding, and we're kept in the dark as to their whereabouts, lives... Of others we know even less.
The only thing that could drag me there is if someone appeared with cash to buy some of that land. Some pieces of it are already surrounded by houses, but let it remain to children, I don't need it.
5-X-2018 - 15-IV-2026