Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast then walked back to the green market to buy a plant for our next host, Zorica. Like many (most) people here she has a lovely garden and we trusted we couldn’t go wrong by getting her a plant. We left Kruševac at about 11:45 and arrived in Zajačar in south east Serbia near the Bulgarian border at 1:30. Dragan was at work but Zorica was here and greeted us warmly and immediately invited us to their covered terrace for rakija and coffee. She speaks no English but we could understand much of what she said and used Google to translate the rest. She has been on disability for almost three years due to an accident that messed up her back. She has had 4 surgeries but still is in pain but tolerates it due to pain meds of some kind. She is in the process of getting permission to have another surgery.
Zorica is another chain smoker but once again for some reason her smoke did not bother me. We chatted a while, commenting on their new covering over the terrace which is much better than what was there before because it opens upon the garden rather than being closed in on that side the way it was before. I asked whose idea it was to change it and as I expected it was hers. She told us Dragan would get home at 7 and we would walk then have dinner. We weren’t sure what either of those would entail but we appreciated her hospitality and said ok.
We went up to our 2-bedroom spacious apartment where we stayed on our last trip. Because we like the place (quiet, on the edge of town) and because we made a good connection with Zorica and Dragan we were looking forward to being here again. They wrote in advance to say they had plans to show us around (which they did last time). Turns out Dragan rearranged his work schedule to have 4 days off to spend with us! And as you will see once I finish writing about our first few days here they literally drove us two or three hundred miles in the region over the course of a few days. And of course they refused to let us pay for gas. Sigh. They also fed us breakfasts and lunch/dinner which is not part of the usual rental arrangement! They told us that they usually give their guests a little something and sometimes show them something in town, but they like hanging out with us so wanted to do more with us.
At 7 Dragan got home from his job as a dispatcher with the railroad and they invited us down for more coffee and rakija, then took us on a long walk through the city where we stopped at an Irish-named bar for a drink. On the way home we stopped for pre-dinner ice cream! Dinner included home cured meat made by Zorica’s family whose farm we visited on our last visit, salad, cheeses, roasted peppers, and a delicious cheeses cornbread which we were told was ‘porridge’ not bread. I am eager to get the recipe and try it. By the time we got home and started eating dinner downstairs in their small apartment it was 9:30, late for us (we usually eat at 5 or 6) but we try to be gracious guests and accept whatever hospitality is offered. They told us to come for coffee at 7:30 the next morning because we would be leaving at 8 to go to Sokobanja but gave no more explanation. When I looked at the map once back upstairs I saw Sokobanja was an hour away, and knowing our hosts suspected we might be gone most of the day because they would likely be making various stops and indeed that was the case.
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