17-IV-2015.: Second day
Burt's second day here. She washed some of his things, we had breakfast and then took off, all three of us, to Carska bara, to satisfy his bird watching passion, he even brought his book and binoculars. We hiked the 3km there, along the route that the ship usually takes, but it being a not-saturday, the ship wasn't operating. At the end of the trail, there's the little pier where he had to take of his shoes and soak his feet in the cold water of the old bed of the river, around which this nature reserve lies. I had my Kompako shoes, and had no problem walking that far, nor the way back.
Having learned that the nearby hotel's cook is mostly not up to the task, we went to kaštel, knowing that these guys should do much better. We first took another long walk through the park there, and then had a lunch of hefty game goulash and sausages, preceded by a good čorba, of course.
In the afternoon we went to Klincaid just to show him where all that rakija is made. The foil in the greenhouse-to-be was rolled up by the wind, didn't look quite representative at the time. Sour cherries were in full blossom. On the shots I didn't get the color of whild hyacinth right; sometimes I do but this time it was dismal. Consoling is the fact that his were even worse. The old cherry tipped over and lay at an angle of just about 30 degrees - the rains soaked the soil so much that its side roots just slid and didn't hold. It's propped by its own branches now, and is also in full blossom.
The book he brought, "Black lamb, gray falcon" by Rebecca West lay on my desk. I tried to read the excerpts he was retyping into his emails, and while it's an interesting ethnic material, with many details that I didn't know and thought I should have, the overall impression is of colonial meddling and asking politically pointed questions. While I wasn't surprised seeing that approach many times when directed against SFRY, it came as a nasty surprise to see it aimed at the old kingdom. The book didn't stay on the shelf too long, and frankly I don't remember where is it now.
In the afternoon he wrote some emails (carries his laptop along) and generally got ready for the next leg of the trip; then we walked to Springfield and had a pizza there, beer optional (he didn't). Just to round up the image, you don't know where you were until you tried the local pizza.
He left the next morning, and in parting, at the bus station, said "I just realized I haven't pulled out my wallet for two days in a row. I didn't expect that.". Yeah right, and we'll forever remember that lunch you served us on 21-III-2010..
Mentions: 21-III-2010., čorba, kaštel, Klincaid, rakija, Reginald Burton Cape (Burt), Springfield, in serbian
30-IX-2020 - 17-IV-2026