Haha okay maybe it’s not that strange compared to last time (Strangest Travel Day), but it was still pretty out of the normal.
Alright, we start off with waking up at 5AM, we start to clean the Airbnb where we were staying at in Belgrade. Last minute packing, and heading out the door by 6:30AM. All of us chill for a bit at a restaurant around the corner from our apartment. And before we know it, half of our team is leaving to head for the bus station. We had to split into 2 groups to get us to where we were headed. So the first group headed out at about 8/8:30AM and the other half of us stayed at the restaurant for a few hours. Mind you, Belgrade’s stores and shops don’t open until 8AM. So we waited for an hour and a half, in the cold (11 degree Celsius weather), watching movies and tv shows. We order food and ate. And we decide to leave and head to the bus station a bit earlier. We call for a taxi to come pick us up, but we had to get another because we couldn’t fit ourselves and the big packs all in. While all this is happening, vans and cars are backing up and moving around us trying to squeeze out of this little street. (We were constantly in the way.)
Shelby and I hop in the one taxi, Sarah and Mantha in the other. Our taxi driver liked to talk a lot, and would stop non-stop about how good Serbia is at basketball and compared it to the states basketball. It was a conversation he was having with himself, because Shelby and I didn’t really say anything. We couldn’t because we were too focused on the road. He swerved all over the road trying to not hit any pedestrians and cars.
Alright, we arrived at the bus station. We take our packs and other belongings to sit at a table outside a coffee shop, order some “espresso with milk” and start playing some monopoly deal, 7s, and egyptian rat screw. After about 2 hours of playing card games we got up to find out bus platform. Waited about another 40 minutes for our bus to arrive, and loaded up and headed off. The bus ride was pretty normal, just 1.5x longer than what we were expecting.
We arrive in Zlatibor! It’s beautiful, all the pine trees and hills you can see, plus ski resort looking buildings… and that’s Zlatibor.
Anyways, we arrive at the bus station and wait for Mantha to gather some treasurer money. Our other half of the team suggested a taxi guy to call, but Shelby had to repeat herself 50x on the phone to still get no understanding that all we wanted was a taxi. So we get a taxi guy from across the street to take all of our stuff and ourselves.
We start heading off. And we’re on a dirt road, swerving over potholes and going up and down hills. Ended up in a pine forest and driving by a stream. We come up to a steel bridge. Our taxi guy tells us to get out before he drives across, and we’re like “okay…”, and he drives across. We hop back in and are back on our way. (I honestly think he just wanted to watch us cross the bridge. Haha.)
We drive up a hill, and we’re at our farm!
We’re greeted by 2 adorable dogs and a sweet older lady. We take our stuff into the house. Amy shows us the puppies in the shed/barn and we head back inside for supper. We have a great family talk around the table and eventually end up playing another couple rounds of monopoly deal and then dance to some “Cotten eyed joe”.
Off to bed we go.
Oh, and turns out the “Gran” (the great grandma) lives with us in a separate room!
Hope you enjoyed this unusual travel day adventure!
