15-II-2013.
Packing. We decided to take a nap at Lena's, because, as usual, any flight to the US from Surčin has to leave around 6, and then the passengers are in for a long layover, because we always get the worst slots. There are dozens of ways how the west makes you understand your position in the(ir) general order of things, and this is one of them. The citizens there don't have to get up so early, their flights leave around 11, and local flights from, say, Finland or Greece don't need to be so many hours early.
So we visited dad first, had one of those shots with four generations in the frame (around 14:30) and got to Lena around 16. Ender was driving and I made a bunch of shots of the ugly access road in the ča-ča-ča area (Borča, Ovča, Krnjača), which looks the same in any country. Seen those in the US (any strip mall street, like 29 in A-burg, or Broad street in Richmond), around Budapest (say, the one leading north in parallel to the right bank of Danube), and Belgrade sure has several, this one is just the longest. And it has, as it goes, at least one light which is out of sync with others, paid by the owner of some prominent shop that the stalled can observe at will while waiting for the green, just like there was such one by the „Bankruptcy clinic“ on Broad in Richmond. All just minimally spruced up, traces of mud everywhere but not quite dirty, drainage canals full of plastic bottles, jury rigged shop logos, junk yards, repair shops with just pressed gravel or cinder with puddles (instead of pavement), about 5km of that. The dull, almost dark weather wasn't helping either, on the shots it all looks just as ugly as it did in rl.
Lena at least has a nice view to the Pančevački bridge and this ča-ča-ča area beyond, looks much better from afar. The view to the right is just as varied but not lively, it's the New cemetery (probably at least 80 years old). We just sat with her, had coffee, Raja was entertaining us all. Then around 20 we went to _pahuljica again. So they'd have the last real dinner before takeoff.
After so many dinners with barbecue, gulaš or such bacchanalia, I had a wild guess and asked whether they had sarma in greenery leaves. It's some climbing plant, usually growing on fences, that has leaves about two palms large; alternately, the grape leaves can be used. These are about quarter of the size of the real sour cabbage sarma, but go nicely with sour cream or sour milk. I thought they wouldn't have it, there's too much work and they're a busy place, but they did, and it was excellent. Ender had roast ribs... and loved it so much, that he ordered a second plate. Now with someone ordering a second, and speaking english, we attracted attention of the local gypsy band. This was probably my most notable shot for the whole year. Actually, I was looking for this date, and wrote this, only as a pretext to have this shot somewhere.
The band wrongly estimated that we'd be in the mood to waste some money on them. They can be assertive that way, come to your table and keep playing. They usually walk off when they see we aren't biting, and that they won't see any money from us. We didn't invite them.
Ender even took one extra shot, with his phone, of the last bone and leftover potatoes on his plate.
I must notice that _pahuljica was somehow extra fitted to look even better, what with extra gartered curtains, clothing over the seats, even backrests, embroidered pieces on the tables, burgundy-purple serviettes... and then having a typical, hotel issue karafindl of chrome plated steel was a bit of a let down.
Then we went back to the apartment and somehow managed to have five people and a kid sleep on one cot and one large bed, and that's at least four hours of solid sleep, until about 3:30. Had one more coffee and then hit the streets and got to the airport on time.
At 14:30 we two were in Čankovo, checking up on things. The visibaba (hanging granny literally, snowdrop) was in blossom... weird, still in blossom? This should have happened three weeks ago.
On 19th sat with the gang in DC-99, selecting the photos for the exhibition. Feels weird - all the same, mostly the same guys looking at the photos the same way, making suggestions... yet it's completely different, we're sitting in the dark, there's a projector and we're looking at the projected picture on the wall. I've also had an almost easy choice of my shots, mostly from the last year or two, didn't want to bring much history. Joška was there, and Miško.
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), Čankovo, DC-99, Ender Aquila (Ender), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joška Apro, karafindl, Miško Lenđel, _pahuljica, Ryu (Raja), sarma, in serbian