To Hungary, over Bački Breg. The lack of files datestamped at this time can mean that we finally grabbed one weekend when we did nothing.
For a couple of months we had a fourth roommate. Joška moved to my room, slept on the šezlong (chaise longue), which was otherwise too short but not for him. This guy, another yugoslav Hungarian, invented some kind of stock exchange over fax - he'd collect from various merchants whatever they advertised as goods in stock that they'd like to get rid of, compile lists of that, fax them to each other, including retail. He was coming and going at irregular intervals. He'd sit by my computer, retyping lists into Word and putting them in tight columns, to save as much fax paper as possible, while keeping them readable. This lasted a few months and I guess the guy made some good money on it.
He was another example, and told us of many others, how entrepreneurship was now drilled into us. After surviving all the shit, with 1993 as the bitter cherry on top, we have became able to react in a microjiffy, and now coming here, where they had five years of slow transition and still haven't flushed the „don't make waves, wait for instructions from central“ mindset out of their heads, we had such a headstart, that yugoslav owned small enterprises made a serious percentage of trade here.
Speaking of the mindset, he had a funny encounter in the post office. Someone sent him some important paperwork via post, addressed to his company. He received just a paper from the postman, he had to go to the post office to pick it himself. The clerk there said „are you authorized to receive mail for this company?“. He presented some company paperwork and his ID, to say he is the company, the owner manager and only worker. „You didn't hear me well, I asked are you authorized to receive mail for this company?“. After a couple of back and forths, he understood. Took a blank piece of paper, and, as the CEO, wrote an authorization to himself, as a worker, to represent the company and pick its mail. Had the stamp too. The clerk was saitsfied and gave him the parcel.