Tejka came, trying to get someone to go out with her in the evening. Had lab work to do, pics for one of the local actors.f
Did the 2nd wall in the garage. Actually much better, chose pictures by beauty, not importance.
On 2nd I was chasing the guy to deliver the pictures and get paid, but DC-99 didn't convene so I got him in the evening. Busy all day otherwise, getting ready for the vacation. Was with Gavra but he was dead tired so we failed to divide two sweet little girls... And I was distracted by Tejka and another guy from IV4 (she is still sore, and he promised revenge, I do owe him one for when I did him last time). He got shorchanged this time, said "and so what" and got the standard "they play on tuesday" (yes, the other band is "Pa šta onda" - "and so what").
Did another negative, this time for a friend of Pop (his mother's funeral, which nobody really shoots, but when one does, it's a priority in the lab), also the test tape from regula - it's fixed well, works just fine. uncle Staja and family came, last discussion before the trip. Some sewing was done - a dress and a hat for mom, more for aunt, my orange trousers (elementary prom outfit) are shortened to bermudas. The hat is loosely modeled after the one Višnja had on the ekskurzija. And, among other things, I did meet her in Dom - she came with her sister (so I did see the sister, but it registered nowhere, I completely forgot she had one). Her actor is somewhere on the shooting. Her dad is in the parliament, they may have to move to Belgrade.
On 4th had some misunderstanding with the actor about the amount or whatever, took some time to smooth it out but he'll pay all the same, and wants some portraits in august, to have a giveaway to sign for the young girls. Eh, actors.
The plan for 5th is to stay awake as long as possible, sleep as little as possible on 6th, so to fall dead early in the evening and then have no problem waking up on 7th at 2:00. We take off at 3, meet at fountain in Novi Beograd (uncle Staja lives nearby).
I didn't carry the diary, had a little notebook where I'd just jot the notes, so no big secrets to reveal by accidental finder. Besides, it's cyrillic, over there very few people know how to read that, apart from the travel companions.
The sleeping plan came out like this: got to sleep at 3 on 5th and was woken up at 7; went to sleep at 20:30 and woke up at 2:00 sharp on friday. It worked. Upon return, sat on 7th of august and went through my notes.
The trip took us through rain all the way to Novi Beograd, stopped during our break, then resumed all the way to Mostar, then stopped there. Dad knows the place, the mediterranean weather reaches sometimes to the southern edge of the city; the camp on Buna is sure to be in the sun. Veca and Sneca were jerking the tape recorder and of course the batteries didn't last the trip.
On 8th, got lost from each other somewhere around Metković, waited whole hour, dropped by somewhere along the coast (Šibenik, perhaps) just to have a coffee. At the nearest kiosk I bought the newspaper and casually asked the clerk about the terrorist group, have they all been caught? He got shit scared, started looking left and right, told me to shut up... Wow, it's been anounced as a great victory of the local territorial defence unit, no big deal... But then, this was probably less than 50km from the place, they were possibly still hunting for any aides these may have been counting on. The group was financed and trained in Germany. With all the speech against terrorism (specially considering the massacre which will happen in two months in München during the olympics), financing and hosting a fascist team is okay, as long as the guys fight against communism.
Found good places for tents in Borik. Thaeus is there with Regina, nice girl. Few other guys from last year, including gang from Pančevo, same austerity regime. Tejka is with some guy Miki. In the evening, on the dock, same as last year, even better, Regina keeps smiling at me. Traditional show of hospitality by the same old crazyman, so we continue outside, on an unbuilt lot on the other side of intersection.
Sunday, 9th, taking care of suntan, a bit fast, because I was under the impression that I'm here for weeks already... wrong. Only feels that way. Thaeus and Regina went to a tanze schule, so they demonstrated some in the evening, so they opted for a dance in one of the hotels, see you at the disco. Though we passed each other unseen so we didn't meet. Managed to explain to Tejka that I don't hate her personally, it's just that I'm hunting here, and if she's seen to close to me, I classify as taken. She finally got it and didn't have problems with her thereafter.
Monday, 10th. Sat a few hours with Regina on the beach. She drew an Asterix, seems professionally done. Showed me photos, asked a lot about how was Thaeus last year, faithful ur not. Just while we talked, an age old Mercedes, with a peace sign on the front grille, approaches. Recognized Rudolf right away. And there's Bruno too, his best pal, blonde thin and even crazier.
Sat even more with Regina in the afternoon (what were we doing all day, really?). There was some guy Max, a dutch guy, curly blonde hair, orange sunglasses, would either hum "they call me mellow yellow" or "all together now", the latter became his nickname.
Went to Milan's in the evening, but first stopped at Niko's, because it's below the road, so we lined up the low wall (actually quite high on the tavern side) and sang at least ten stanzas of the german shit song. Then seeing as Rudolf, Bruno and I wear hats, we went down and walked among the tables with upturned hats. Believe it or not, we did get a lot. Ah, no, that was next evening. We sat at Milan's until 1:30. We had two tables pulled together, four or five liters of still white wine and we almost got Milan himself under the table. Regina sang Melanie's "Nickel song" softly to my ear. (That was weird, now that I think of it, they both looked a few years older, and she was checking on his fidelity... and now she's getting quite close to me, ahem, well, I made no moves) On the way back there were a few silent demonstrations of tanze schule arts, on the road. Rudolf demonstrated how large a spark a spent disposable lighter (first time that I saw one) makes if thrown, wheel first, on the pavement.
On 11th bad weather, went downtown, visited a cakeshop, climbed a mast (probably a flagpole, or a port light, don't remember being on any ship). Rudolf had his bottle of toscanello on the dock, with woven reed wrapper on it, but inside was a rosehip tea. Fooled everyone who tried. He and Bruno thought this would be a good day to wash their (red) jeans, starting with soaking them in the sea, while wearing them (and socks). Having discovered last night that all three of us have hats, we founded the Hat club.
I almost had some success with Ingrid (another new girl... seems we're the epicentre of some gravity, girls just keep coming), but in the end she skipped and didn't go to Niko's.
In the evening, more of the same, this time had enough money from singing the shit song at Niko's for a few liters of wine at Milan's. I forgot to bring my hat, and didn't quite feel like making the round, so I gave Bruno's hat to some brunette (Ilse or something) and that did it, she had much more success than we did last night. We put all the money (1300 in one hat, much more in the other) into one hat, which I wore on my head all the way to Milan's. There were too many of us, so we didn't even have enough chairs, just sat on the ground in front of his "Fisher's hut", and kept getting bottles of still white. We were joined by a group of Austrians, then some Đ. from Zagreb, though a bunch of italian guys kept making passes at her, if not successfully or originally, then at least persistently.
Max got drunk. The songs of the evening were "all we need is wine" and "what do we do with drunken maxie"... the "Doesn't matter band" was formed. We shared the fourth bottle, on the way back, with some of these Italians, then some Swiss, then some other Italians.
On 12th Regina and Thaeus were leaving. I just had to kiss her once, so I told him to just close his eyes a bit, to which someone said "and keep them closed for some fifteen minutes". Max had also vanished, around four in the morning. It was cloudy again. Around lunch Rudolf sold Milivoje some 100 DEM at a slightly higher rate. In the afternoon the three of us, with Veca, Sneca and two of their friends (nice girls, again, actually on vacation in a nearby village, just dropped by yesterday) went to town, just for fun. Taught Bruno the art of haggling on the market, where he was buying an ethnic tote. The secret was that we don't let on that any of us speak local, so we have that advantage. He cooled off the first two sellers and then squeezed the third one. Asked for impossible add-ons, vertical stripes (traditionally not done, though technically possible, fringes 20mm longer, but then the seam would be on the bottom, strain on the weak spot). Skipped the fourth, equally massaged the fifth and then went back to the first, bringing the price down from 3000 to 2000.
In the evening, in the disko, danced a kolo - which is our folk dance, in a circle. Then tried to dance normal, but it didn't work, the two were too crazy. New girls, Ines and Rene, got drunk already. I got to hold the smaller one on the way back, ouch, heavy when drunk. Then back at the disko we sat in a circle on the dance floor, unshod ourselves and piled the footwear in the middle. Two local girls joined us, noticed them with the staff a on sunday. And so danced sitting... Took a break, came back. Most of the rest were just watching us. We noticed that and at some point stopped and started watching them (analogously to what Rudolf said how "hippies come to Dam to sit and watch crazy tourists"), which they didn't like. Some even threatened to cut Bruno's hair.
Tried with Đ. (from Zagreb) but she was reluctant. Just couldn't decide. Then she went to the bar and joined some other company, as reported by a dutch guy, who just thought I was supposed to do something about it, and wouldn't leave it at that. Then those Italians appeared and I already saw some guy rubbing hands, honing for a fight. Went to warn her, and to warn the guy to make no fuss, we want peace etc. He got scared of me. Of me! Never had that... experience. The guy literally squirmed, convincing me he's the angel of peace. He became boring. I just extended a hand and said "Alright, no fight then. Everything's fine.". Then I danced with Đ. and she told me this guy just got scared of me, he wouldn't step on an ant.
On the way back we attempted a sixteen thumb hitchhike. For some reason it didn't work (and didn't matter, it's just about one kilometer).