On the road to… Serbia!!!

As "classic" Dr Pako, i arrive at the railway station at 16:05 and run to catch the train that leaves at 16:15. Fortunately, i get in, i find a seat, actually a comfortable one, and everything is fine! So, i wish we have a nice journey!!!

After almost an hour and a half, we get out of Greece and enter Skopje. I get down from the train; i go to the police and pay 3,5 Euros as life insurance (something that Skopjans invented in order to take our money, legally). Fortunately or not, a couple of my friends had caused me some stress about this process, but luckily Skopjans proved them wrong. They were incredibly helpful, while there was no chance that… the train leaves and abandon me there (i had heard even this, mercy).

While i was waiting for the departure from the borders, i hear two women speak intensely, fierce and bothered by certain passengers! What luck, they try to get in my coupé. What could i do? I help them and i think that… we will have a niiice time, the 3 of us!!!
I am sure that you think that i hoped we have an orgy on the train! This time, no! On one side, just because the two women were… 72 years the first one and 67 years old the other! On the other side, this was the reason that i chose to travel by train: i wanted to meet simple people, to speak with them, to exchange opinions… something that i did and while i was studying! I am also one of those who believe that you "open" your self much more easily to an unknown person that you know that probably will never meet again, than to someone known; therefore i was "accommodated" fine with the "young ladies".

We begin to speak, not with the usual way "where are you travelling to?", but with a line by one of the grannies : "ach, "my son"... you will find very hard a woman to marry, in our times" (as they told me afterwards, the reason that they were shouting earlier, was that they tried to get on the train with their things and 3-4 girls were looking at them, smoking and did not make a single move to help them…). From that moment and later on, we become a team, we speak a lot, we comment everything, at some point we laugh at a passenger that sat for 20 minutes in our coupé and told us his whooole tragic life, we laugh a lot and of course, we mention the NAME (Macedonia). I quote a few of their opinions (with which i agree):
-"You see, "my son", we are all people… and we all love and support the place that we were born in… simply, it is nice that we hear our neighbours and love them..."
-"We have the impression that Alexander the Great did not have a passport… neither knew where Macedonia ends and where Greece begins! That man would get up on Bucephala and go…"…
-"These are politicians’ games and tricks! We, common people, should be loved and able to live all together, peacefully".
-"Perhaps it would be better if we formed a Balkan Union and left Europe, NATO and the whole world "outside". So we would have Macedonia, without borders, without hate and contrasts"….

The last one that i heard and left me speechless was the following: "In any case… what we say, is probably wrong… besides, we are ILLITERATE" (and they burst into laughter). Simple thought: perhaps the best truths and ideas can be told by simple brains and common people… without degrees and titles!!!

Just before we get out from Skopje, i go to the toilet. I turn, while the train has stopped in a hamlet, where the ladies get off! They greet me with the best wishes, while one of them whispers in my ear "go to the coupé, we left something for you, don’t let someone else take it". The incredible grannies, left me as a gift… candy!!!

The rest of the journey was a little bit tedious, because some damage delayed the train for almost 2 hours! Finally, i arrived in my beloved Nis around 2:30, met with my best friend Darko and went to his house. The first impression of the city… enormous emotion! So, welcome (back)!!!

To be continued …