Paco´s Life: Madrid

Eastern Europe Tour II: La crisis de Katerini vs hospitalidad serbia / Katerini crisis vs serbian hospitality

Katerini, northern Greece city, full of russian families spending their holidays, beach bars and not much more. The road heading there is nice though, Greece is a hilly country surrounded by the very blue Egean sea. Moreover, the food there is excellent…and this is basically all good I can say about the first stop of my particular Eastern Europe tour. Katerine was a fucking mess, one of this drunken nights I sometimes have in which everything goes out of control. Katerini was the end of my friendship with Giordos and a very drastic change in the trip plan. I am not gonna say here what happened nor to give my opinion about the reaction of my supposed greek friend. This is not anyone´s else business, the important fact concerning the trip story I am trying to tell in this blog is that he took the decision of travelling alone after Budapest. As you can imagine this result in a sort of nasty situation. We still had 2 days of driving and a night in Serbia to be together. Unfriendly faces and tense silence within the few square meters of the car. Nothing went further cause we are reasonable people after all but it wasnt pleasant and put in serious danger a trip which had just been borned.

So, after Katerini, we went all the way up to Nis, in South Serbia where a serbian girl from hospitalityclub was gonna host us. We left Greece and crossed all over Macedona as fast as we could. The dessertic macedonian landscape gave way to a much nicer one. Serbia, at least in its southern part, is a nice country, green, full of small villages with reed-roofed houses, valleys and hills. Moreover, the weather was pretty good so, at least concerning the outside of the car, the trip happened to be nice. Dragana was waitting for us in a swimming pool so we just arrived and went straight to the water. After that we headed to her place where the real HC experience started. I am realizing I keep going over and over this topic and may be repetitive but what a great thing hospitality club is! We spent the afternoon at Dragana´s place, drinking home - made alcohol with all her family, from the grandmother to the one year old nephew. From my point of view it is not only the nightlife in a trip like this, I am starting to enjoy more and more moments like the ones we had with this serbian family. It is in this moments when I really feel I am getting to know a country and achieving the goal of the trip. The hospitality we got from Dragana and her family was simply perfect and helped to improve the complicated situation the trip was turned into.We were watching the Spanish victory in the Eurocup final surrounded by serbians, a pity I hadnt brought with me a Spanish shirt of something, I could have become the king of the party. It was curious to see how all serbians were supporting Spain rather than the germans. After that we went partying, more calmed and less alcoholic this time but still quite intense. We stayed till quite late with she and her friends. Nice bars with live music and cheap drinks. Not bad for a Sunday, thanks Dragana

Next day we walked through the city in which, in fact, there wasnt too much to see. A few curious things like parkings they pay with text messages or the fact that serbian people probably dont work too much cause all the tables were full all the day. In conclussion, a very interesting taste of Serbia, a great host and a European championship. Quite a good remedy for the greek disaster..