30-VII-1976.
Packing and going home. Neither Dragica and Vasa nor we had much in the way of luggage - what we had has still fit in two knapsacks, plus tent, and they didn't have much either. His škodilak fit us all easily. Packing the tent was easy, pulled all the spikes went out by just fingers, no yanking. And that's what held it in place during those two storms? Incredible. It's low profiled, airodynamic...
We decided not to go straight home, but rather to swing by Postojnska jama, the most famous cave in Slovenia. Did so, and I had the presence of mind to bring the praktika and flash. While flashing arround is prohibited during the train ride (and it would be sort of dangerous too, the stalactites are chopped minimally and in some cases whizz by bare inches from your head), the end of railway is in a big cave hall, where they actually do concerts. We even saw several speaker bearing poles. Allegedly, the accoustics is incredible. Well, I guess it's a weird effect, but then if you fill the floor with warm bodies, the echo may be sufficiently dampened.
As it were, it did look magnificent. Too bad I had only monochrome material in the camera, but then it was my favorite Ilford HP4, which I dragged up to 30 or 33 DIN, which was quite sufficient to extend the range of the flash to catch this much of the scene. Not the edges of it, though, this was the wide angle lens. We took turns - there's pictures of the two of them, then me with the girls, then Vasa with the girls, and finally us two.
I think he drove all the way, didn't ask me to take over, not even for the boring stretches of the road through Slavonia. We got home some time around midnight, and everything was fine.
Along the way, two of his tales, of one I know he told it some other time, we were downtown at the time, but regardless, let them stay here, it was a long trip and at least one we heard today.
Some gastarbajter from here returns to work, on a train to France. In the compartment there's an experienced smuggler lady, who got it into her head that she learned italian, after so many encounters with their border service, customs, clerks. And when the italian customs officer boarded on our side, on that last station before the border, she began giving free advice to everyone how to pass. As if anyone needed that, the Italians are the most relaxed officers on our borders. But nope, she stubbornly plays the smartest [one]. And when the frogger came to this gastos, seeing the french visa in his passport, asks „parle vu franse“, which she translates as „imate li prase“ (do you have a piglet). Carrying a roast piglet from home was not uncommon, it's always someone's parting gift. The guy, half woken up, panics and what piglet no piglet I got just these five liters of šljivovica. The Italian rolls his eyes, and goes in pidgin serbian „porka madona why show me disa racchia, now musta pay la customa, mi gotta rite la forma, ke porkaria“... Nobody spoke with the lady further on, and the other passengers eventually gave up on beating her up.
The other story happens on Gradnulica, which is a peasant's end of town, many have land on Mihajlovo side, tractors, haystacks, cattle, the works. A pal of his went to a party there and was a bit late so couldn't park his red fića there, so went across the street, by a peasant's fence. And he recounts how as soon as he parked close to the picket, a bull came rushing through it straight at him. „Just sitting inside watching him poke holes in the car from like everywhere“. They counted eighteen holes on the fića.
This smacks of an urban legend, though, a bull just doesn't go berserk for just seeing anything red, that's hollywood claptrap. What's possible is that this was wholly invented or at least exaggerated, maybe the bull was already excited and running around the yard, maybe there werent exactly eighteen holes, and it was just as unlikely to have a red fića, everyone saw one once but can't remember when. Well, there's the story as I remember it, sold at cost.
Mentions: Dragica, fića, gastarbajter, praktika, rakija, škodilak, Vasa Šančev, in serbian
22-V-2023 - 15-I-2026