Beograd to Perstoka

Beograd to Perstoka
Sunday, August 16, 2009
4:03 AM

As the weekend had been action packed Sunday ended up being a day of recovery. After getting some laundry done thanks to Marko's beyond hospitable Aunt Tetka, we headed out to her and Marko's Mom's hometown. Although Western Europe runs on trains I definitely got the feeling that Eastern Europe is far more Bus friendly. While the trains almost always depart late, and arrive late, the busses tend to just run a little late on arrivals and run very frequently.

The busses themselves are normal charter busses although I've yet to be on one that has a bathroom. I actually consider this to be an advantage as I've had some nauseating rides due to having toilets on board. The bus to Perstoka was a two hour trip from Belgrade and somehow it ran a few times a day even though there were only 12 people on our bus. Once we got there we were greeted by Marko's Aunt and Uncle and nine year old 5'8" cousin. They tend to be a bit worrisome and had called eight times to make sure we were alright as there was a crash in Bulgaria earlier in the week.

We walked from the bus station to their house and upon arriving I was asked if I was hungry to which I, like almost always replied that "I'm fine". Six courses later, I was excellent. Easily one of my favorite things I've eaten on this trip was the stuffed peppers with rice and ground beef. Something about how it all melded together was just magic. After dinner we played some Pro Evolution Soccer and I continued the losing streak that I started in Italy when I was playing Carlo at FIFA.

I also realized that I needed to get in touch with the family and having not spoken with them in a little over a month and as I was feeling a little homesick I went on a mission to make a call with Skype. At a bit past midnight local time I started roaming around the square looking for a WiFi signal. Just as I was about to give up (whatever I could find was locked, or useless) and chalk the failure up to the fact that I was in a small town, a single bar signal came up. I tracked down the signal to a little photo shop outside of the main square and posted up on the curb and called the 'rents who both said I sounded great. Marko had gotten worried as I had been gone for awhile and after a search considered calling the cops, but settled with bitching me out for being gone for so long at such a late hour.