The day after my birthday, Dragan needed to go into town and do some things but said we would meet later in the morning to go to a spa. It was unclear where the spa was and if we were going to go in or not. But when the times approached Zorica brought us big towels and said to put on our suits. She said we were going to the place we went last time we were here. But we had been to two places. One was a rehab hospital with and indoor pool. The other was a concrete hotspring-fed pool outdoors in the middle of nowhere, originally developed by the Romans. Turns out the latter is where they took us. When we were there before we did not go in the water, just looked around. Nobody else was there. But this time there were 4 older and overweight men soaking in the warm water, talking loudly. One was drinking beer. I was reluctant to get in the water despite being assured it was clean. All around the pool the concrete was slippery from the algae slime, and the bottom of the pool was slime too. Zorica only stayed in briefly because she thought the water was not as good as she had expected. She went to a spigot next to the pool and washed her hair while the three of us stayed in and soaked a while. Aside from being unsure of the water quality, the temperature was perfect and I half enjoyed my soak. Zorica had planned to make coffee for us but bothered she and Dragan did not like the ambiance the loud men created so we drove home and had coffee there.
After a brief rest we drove to the huge forested park south of town (where there are walking trails, exercise equipment, a large monument to WW II fighters, and the city’s soccer stadium is at the park as well.
Dark clouds were rapidly approaching and Zorica was afraid we could get stuck in a bad thunder and hail storm if we walked very far. Soon after we began our walk we did start hearing thunder. We also hear what sounded like cannons being fired nearby. Indeed the city was shooting at the clouds to try to prevent hail from falling. Zorica insistent we go home, so Dragan set off to get the car and pick us up. He arrived about 15 minutes later exactly when the rain and giant hail began falling.
I’ve never seen such huge hail, literally almost as big as golfballs. The sound of hail landing on the roof of the car sounded like we were being bombarded with rocks. Dragan was looking for a place to shelter the car to prevent damage but it took about ten minutes to find a place.
When we got home the rain and hail had stopped but the landscape was littered with little iceballs. Our rental car had been parked unprotected outside their house and was covered with dents. Luckily we had purchased the most expensive full coverage insurance, but to be sure hail damage was included we wrote Enterprise and they replied promptly saying not to worry, we are covered. We were relieved.
Meanwhile, the hail,storm did damage to cars, crops and structures in other parts of Serbia where the storm had been even worse.
We were invited again into their apartment for more coffee, rakija and ‘lunch’ served at around 4. Their eating schedule is rough for me. People here tend to have a fairly large meal between 3-5, then have a light dinner between 8-10. We ran into this at Milesa’s also. In any case, we ate lunch and then they taught us the card game, Skyjo which we played for a couple hours after ‘lunch’. I won.
Since the rain had passed we went for a walk in the evening and then had a late dinner of bread, cheese and meat toasted in their air fryer. It was good but not enough for me.
When bedtime came I was hungry, not having had the sort of dinner I would normally have. I scrounged around in the frig and our food bag and made do.
Leave a Reply