Pazichka - A little angel in doggy form - Finally leaving Nish on the train

fter I left from the Gazprom petrol station to go to Vrtishte train station, this sweet
little dog started following me. I can't quite tell if someone owns her, she has no collar, and I guess because she is young, she hasn't yet learned to be wary of humans, I think she is a stray.

She wasn't even just following me though. She was scouting ahead, and spied out some really tasty looking mushrooms, and she has that pointing instinct, her body goes straight and one leg lifts up and points at things, she did this with the mushrooms. I could smell them from about 3 metres away and they smelt like they would have made a delicious soup.

Here's the sign for the village of Vrtishte:

We walked on down the slip-road towards the underpass and down to where the train station was, where I found this building:

I'm not sure what the strange stripes are across the image. No other photo has them. Also, I didn't notice the bright blue paint on parts of the interior, but I didn't look that closely. No, actually, that is from colour correction, there was a fairly strong sodium lamp shining at it.

It is obviously no longer in use, and the left hand side was the ticket kasa, and inside, some people had obviously made this into their home, a rather nice couch, and several duvets, and lots of clothes scattered around. This room would have once been a 'chakalnya', from the root 'chaki' which means to wait.

I just want to explain why I decided to call her Pazichka, in Bulgarian and also in Serbian, I think, Pazi is the third person singular verb for 'to protect, to keep' and the -ich ending, although uncommon in Bulgarian, is very common in Yugoslavia as an ending to indicate someone who does something. The -ka ending indicates the feminine, she is female, obviously.

So, according to the train timetable, there was supposed to be a train coming past. I think possibly it already did. I just realised that we are in a different time zone, and a passenger train did come past at what would have been 3:20, if my nokia dumbphone had the correct time. As I write this, I can see my computer's clock, which automatically picks the time zone, says it's 3:42. Actually, as I found later, on the train, the time zone is one hour behind Sofia, so it was approximately 3:30 when the train came.

Well, anyway, just after I got to this train station, someone wandered past and I asked them if a train was coming. I think he said that about 4am there would be one, which is in about 20 minutes, so I am going to shod my feet in preparation shortly and be ready to jump up and alight on the platform outside so it stops, if it isn't normally stopping unless someone is there at this hour. If not, I will just wait until there is one that stops. I have no idea how the trains work here yet.

Pazichka plopped herself down across the other side of the room, and sat there, and every so often when something was happening outside, she would sit at the doorway, guarding, at one point she was softly growling towards something out there.

I am not a dog person, not at all, but this little girl has really charmed me and if I wasn't heading to Amsterdam, I would adopt her. She's the perfect little scout and guard, and she's very quiet, she has not yet barked once since she has been hanging out with me.

Interestingly, as a kind of foreshadow, there was a black and mostly white cat, somewhat similar markings to Pazichka, who I saw near where I ended up sleeping, and later she appeared down on the road on the south side of the underpass, and checked me out, then off she scooted.

Almost like she was meaning me to follow her also - as it happens that underpass road goes also to this train station.

And this little dog, I don't think I've ever met such an awesome little dog in my life. So far, Serbia is giving me very strongly the impression that this is the place I should return to after I have settled my business in the Netherlands. I had a friend when I was in highschool who had a similar look to a lot of the guys I have seen around here, quite a long face, big nose, and a good nature but intolerant of nonsense.

Anyway, I better get ready in case there is a train coming soon, just a little while ago a passenger train went past in the other direction.

***

So, at just before 4:30 (3:30), a train came past. It has electricity, which is handy, but sadly there seems to be no wifi. The train is very fancy, not at all the run down ancient junkers in Bulgaria, and they were much the same in Slovenia as well.

It looks like the train only goes to Belgrade, and then I will be stopping. I haven't seen a conductor yet, but I'm pretty sure I have the correct fare, which should be about 780 Serbian Dinars. I am really looking forward to making this post, I was hoping I could do it on the train.

That little dog melted my heart, and I hope someday I can have a little companion like her to go hunting with and to guard me. I never felt this way about a dog before, and I find it incredible that what was almost certainly a stray dog, was so well behaved.

Of all the places I have been in Europe so far, until now, Slovenia was my favourite. But the cost of living there is expensive and they are much further into EU integration, and Serbia has never requested to join. I would rather not live in the EU, though it's handy to be right next to it - even in the middle of it, actually, since my Dutch passport 'gives' me the freedom to travel everywhere in the EU.

Just like the little dog, this little country has charmed me so much, I am may be a bit lovestruck, in fact. I definitely have to come back and look more into it, and I will be for sure posting some more photos of Belgrade when I get there, and after I get to Novi Sad I will also do more pictures.

I did mean to be more prompt in making my way to Amsterdam, but I have 3 weeks to get there anyway, and so far I think I might manage to not have to scrounge for food anywhere along the way, thanks to all my wonderful fans. If I'm gonna dally somewhere, I think this is a good place to do it. There is only one country further on that vaguely interests me, well, two, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

I probably will make my route from Belgrade, to Budapest, then to Vienna, and then Bratislava, and maybe I will see Prague, and then from there, I will just try to get on the most direct route along the autobahns up to the Netherlands.

***

The ticket conductor just came by, and I was able to buy the ticket, I had made sure I should have enough to be able to then change to the next train to Novi Sad if I wanted to, without having to go to an ATM, though I think I might take a bit of a walk and get something to eat in Belgrade near the station.

If you happen to be wanting to travel in Serbia, I cannot recommend strongly enough the trains. Aside from not having wifi, they are smooth and quiet, and the staff speak good english. I have noticed there seems to be a lot of high speed mobile internet access too, and they all have this label 5G in their names so I guess it's probably pretty damned fast, 4G is pretty sweet as it is.

***

So, finally, about 9:30am I arrived in Belgrade. It seems like it would be much too big for me to really see much walking around, and I'd rather just keep on moving. I finally got in touch with my friend from Novi Sad, and perhaps I will get myself that shower I've been needing, and maybe my laundry done, I don't know, but my clothes all need it quite badly.

Yes, I will definitely be doing a selfie with my friend from Novi Sad, possibly that will be tonight or tomorrow.

Nish was a very pretty town, but Belgrade feels like something lost in time even further back than Sofia, at least, in the part you land in near the central train station. But I have seen it from the main highway that goes through, and obviously this is the older parts, because the stuff I've seen looked a lot more modern and tidy.

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We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Europe again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist. Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.

I'm a thoughtocaster, a conundrummer in a band called Life Puzzler. I've flipped more lids than a monkey in a soup kitchen, of the mind. - Xavier, Renegade Angel

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I am on a hitch-hiking-hobo-journey from Sofia to Amsterdam for SteemFEST at the moment, and I will be mainly posting about my journey until I finally get there.

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