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May 22 page 78 |
2005 BALKANS TOURBen Oostdam |
by train from |
| My main worry that morning was that taking the 13:35 train to Belgrade I would certainly miss the connection to Budapest for which I had paid reservation. Moreover, the train would only go as far as Vreoce, (ETA 20:20), from where a bus would take us the remaining 50km to Beograd (ETA 22:00).Yet I decided to risk it rather than take the next day's early train. Anyhow, it was a relief to leave after the interesting platform scene of an old lady taking off her underwear and stockings and washing it under the public fountain before putting it all back on without any display of immodesty or discomfort. |
| The train left on time and slowly puttered along the coast and past several small stops, then headed inland an soon reached the fascinating marshes along Lake Skadars(ko)[Scutari] - which I had first seen in Albania. I took numerous pictures of "drowned" trees, old fortresses and picturesque houses and farms and wished I had more time to visit this lake and compare it with, say, Tonle Sap in Cambodja and several other lakes I had once used in a special course named "Islands and Lakes". |
| We next passed along some braided river or rivers, where gravel was "mined" and where we had a first glimpse of the mountains further inland, the Dinarian Alps. I think it took less than 2 hours to reach the station of the capital, Podgorica. A young man joined me here an lit a cigarette, but soon the conductor arrived and told him to go to "his" second class compartment. A while later, a middle aged man asked if he could join me for conversation. He was an atomic waste scientist and expressed admiration that someone the same age as his father would undertake this journey. He stayed with me and tried to keep others out of our cabin, but without too much success. Later on, we were joined by a lady ecomomist, a couple of students of which the female initiated a loud conversation in English about her recent trip to Sweden and Spain as coop., and a H.S. student who resembled Elvis, ridiculed my socks and volunteered when I asked a girl standing near the window what the meaning was of the number "33" on her shirt: "that it was the size of her breasts." Nevertheless, the scientist thought that Elvis was nice enough to come and meet his daughter sometime. |
