01-VII-2018.

We just couldn't sleep, even though we drank a couple of shots from the bottle which was not delivered two days ago. The air was sort of humid, there was a trace of sharp light on the bed (moon full, probably - clouds cleared). So I got up at around three and had a smoke. She got up too and we had breakfast of the leftovers of that roast. Eventually got back to bed. She still couldn't sleep right, but I did - shucked the nasty thick pillow and rolled the blanket from the spare bed instead.

Got packing and called the guy to return the keys. Bought some coffee mugs in the shop downstairs - not branded with Sokobanja (as each spa does), could have those but too small. Got in the car, started the GPS and it just got stupid. The app just wouldn't load or if it did it showed a pattern of almost horizontal lines, as if on a CRT when the refresh rate is above its capability. So we went to the street we knew, where we saw some roadsigns. Ah, to Knjaževac, fine, let's go that way, the road can't be as bad as it is to Aleksinac.

This is when the saxo developed a malfunction in my door, wouldn't close. I clearly hear the lock click, and then it opens again. I tried all the tricks I remembered from the trabant, to hold the door a bit lifted, to push it slightly downwards, to close it with [my] thigh behind [my] back, to slam it... nothing helped. Until I once closed it slowly. Gee, that works. This never got fixed, I simply memorized the procedure, my door is to be closed „as one closes the bedroom door“ (what Jablan used to say about his spaček). Šule from the repair shop said it must have drawn moisture (which it did, three day rain, in a valley), so the dust and other junk swelled, and now the only thing to do would be to take it out, disassemble, clean thoroughly and then hope that it may begin working properly afterwards. Stanley concluded next year that the mechanism was hitting some part which has now become elastic and simply bounces off the part which bumps into it. When closed slowly, there's no bumping. Okay, now I have a special instruction for this one thing to memorize, easier that way.

But it was. Even slightly worse. Not too many holes, but lots and lots of patches over patches over patches, some of them probably decades old. But again, it was a lovely sunny day, everything was green, we were pretty much alone on the road, and we got there. Then to Zaječar - well nothing to see there, we had zaječarsko beer last night, and its sources wouldn't be open on a sunday and I'm driving, so move on to Paraćin. Now that part of the road was really beautiful, good enough to not have to pay attention to potholes all the time, and going through the pictoresque valley of some river. The river zigzags a lot so the road builders found it more efficient to build uncounted bridges than to follow the riverbed. The road has many curves even so, but without bridges it would be longer by half. The drive was relaxing, and I didn't regret driving this way.

In Paraćin we couldn't find an eatery around the big city square, three taverns no cook. So eventually found a quickmunch in a side street, where we ate the incredible combination of a perfect filled pljeskavica (imagine a burger of about 8x15cm, double, with ripe young cheese in between, bbq'd) in a most awful, pure white starch sponge bun. I left out most of the bun and ate the meat, washed it down with a šveps.

And then got back on the road, stepped on it and we were home by 17:00. Talked with Nina, saw Sanda and Linda again.

Later I measured the distance travelled. We made about 750 km. The straight distance to Sokobanja is 305km. The sidetrack to Obrenovac may have cost us perhaps 50 extra km - the rest of it was this trip over Knjaževac, practically one mountain from Bulgaria. We took a big detour east instead of going straight north to Paraćin, only 28km.

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Mentions: 08-VIII-2023., Jablan Arsin, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pljeska, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), saxo, spaček, Stanley Berger, trabant, in serbian

16-X-2021 - 10-IX-2024