29-VIII-2014.: The friday off

And so the day before I announced at Firriver that I'm taking a friday off, and we packed the eos40, two liters of best rakija (apricot and I think plum), plugged the GPS in (still works, even though it's sticky with that anti-mosquito spray we put in the glove compartment two years ago and never used it). The idea was to wander around the country more or less at random, taking side roads, taking in the views, and visit Bukovička Banja in Aranđelovac, then continue to Kragujevac to meet Boća. The interesting part started when we took a left turn at Ada Ciganlija to head down Ibarska magistrala - we went that part before, but it was at night; now it looked quite different. The Ibarska looks pretty much as it did in the late sixties - is it possible that I didn't go that way for more than 40 years? - and so I missed my turn to Barajevo. Had to drive back almost a kilometer, not too bad compared to some other places where it would be at least five.

Barajevo is the place I should remember, dad's older sister (Jara's mom) lived in a nearby village, but I didn't recognize anything. Interesting layout, teetering on the steepest slope around, following the road (about 20m of one lane missing in the middle of the place, landslide caused by this year's excessive rains). The rest of the trip to Aranđelovac was interesting, pictoresque and I did take a wrong turn - should have taken a right to Albuqu... Nemenikuće, but I sat in the middle of the crossing when I was checking GPS, and it already recalculated the trip for the new itinerary. So we ended up in Sopot, also kind of interesting to see, and came to Aranđelovac from east instead of west, which confused me so I continued west to... Kragujevac. IOW, skipped the visit, which I promised for the return trip, to make up for this fuckup.

We arrived in downtown KG just after the noon, hungry and not tired at all. Found a place to park, which looked like a minor miracle, found which 8xxx number to send the SMS to to pay for the parking (every city now has this, you can't pay parking unless you have a cell phone). Found a place to eat, not too bad, kind of typical for the area but then the same kind of everything-in-raw-wood is fashionable here as well, just like everywhere else. Food, good and aplenty but nothing to remember; bread standard industrial crap. Tomatoes in the salad, same plastic as everywhere.

Typed Boća's address in the GPS and, well, followed the instructions. While we probably weren't too far, it seemed like we switched from noon to late afternoon during the ride. In the end we found his street, but couldn't figure out the house numbers. The two houses nearest to the number weren't marked, and then the next in one direction had numbers too high, and in the other direction there were houses missing and some novogradnja placed there. So I called him (well this is what cell phones are for), and the conversation was like this:

- Hi, man

- Hi, what's up?

- Where are you?

- Here I am.

- Here where?

- Here at home.

- Well then get out on the street so I can see where to park.

Turned out he does live in that building, ground floor. He was surprised and sort of bewildered, the effect that I wanted to achieve. Plan B, in case we don't find him or he's not at home, was to find a b&b, sightsee, spend the night, try again in the morning or just travel elsewhere. But plan A worked.

So we sat with him and the kids (son, the Piton, freshly graduated high school, and daughter who is a bit older and can find only temporary jobs), applied due diligence to the apricot rakija, which he later, in his article on suština (where he mentioned „the sexy saxo and music without english - how come I never thought of that?!“), he described as „we concentrated first on what was a must“. Quoted straight from that KAZ slogan (v. may 1988.).

Then in the evening he took us to a place where they have guts-on-coals. Which were just one ladleful at the end of a tray of other grilled meat, but it should count as an experience. Some good regional beer, not any of the big players (who churn fodder).

He's in bad shape, actually, for months. His car was stolen and the police pretty much told him they know where it is but they don't dare go there, he's welcome to try. He's got about 10.000€ in uncollected debts with very low chance of ever seeing that money. And he joined his brother's wholesale company which his brother recently drove into bankruptcy. And this was lasting several months already.

During the dinner he extensively talked about his spiritual trip (or trips) to Sveta Gora on Atos, in Greece (exteritorial, actually) and the weird and kind of miraculous things he saw or experienced there. Nice story, good storytelling, but it's good that he's mature enough (just a couple of years younger than me) not to try to convert us into anything.

OTOH, this religious approach worked well later - I went to take a leak after second beer, and on my way back stopped by the bar and paid our tab. When I was back at the table, the waiter appeared to pick up the empty dishes. Boća tried to ask for the bill, I said I paid already, he started into the classic stance of making a scene (i.e. we count as his guests, he's expected to pay), and I calmed him down with "look, if there's anything I believe in it's that the universe should be balanced - I've been treated by people many times when I couldn't afford it myself; I believe it is my turn now to treat others when I can". That worked.

We went into the nearest b&b (that his kids have googled out before we left for the dinner), which was spanking new, not too expensive, all white and metallic gray and generally ugly as if it was made for Walmart, and above all there was no smoking inside, and the nearest outside was downstairs.

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Mentions: may 1988., 22-IX-2016., Božidar Sokolović (Boća), eos40, Firriver Fertility (Firriver), Jara, novogradnja, Piton, rakija, saxo, suština, in serbian

23-VIII-2015 - 12-XI-2025