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PHOTOS - VIDEOBLOG (coming soon)
After a short trip home to take care of some business I am back on the road. I used my return ticket New York – Cape Town via Amsterdam and got off the plain in Amsterdam. My childhood friend Almir was waiting for me at the Rotterdam central station.
Almir now lives in the suburbs of Rotterdam with his wife Alisa and son Alen. More than a decade ago, wore broke out in our homeland and both Almir and I have found our peace elsewhere. We grew up as best friends, sharing beer and vine during countless nights by the river beach in our little home town of Teslic, now in the Republika Srpska, a province of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
PHOTOS - VIDEOBLOG (coming soon)
The night of my arrival, we had a nice dinner, went out to a local bar from some drinks. The following few days I’ve spent with Almir and his family. Frankly, the times spent with close friends from childhood feel like some sort of spiritual rehabilitation. Obviously, my generation in the former Yugoslavia did not grow up like most other “normal” kids. To me, these rare times with people who knew me before the war are very important and I am grateful for it. These times add another level of existence and awareness of my life and my well being. We were struck by the lightning of war during our teenage years and grew up instantly thinking how to save our families and survive. Well, that’s another story, which I plan to write in detail next year.
Anyway, this is not my first time in the Netherlands. I lived in Amsterdam for few months in the early nineties during the war in the former Yugoslavia as a refugee. The people here are very friendly and welcoming. I always thought that I would live here one day. The Netherlands is very populated, multicultural and unique for its "low-lands", flower industry and windmills. One of my favorite things to do in the Netherlands is to take trains to the country side.
PHOTOS - VIDEOBLOG (coming soon)
On my last day in the Netherlands I went back to Amsterdam to take few photos for the blog and book a ticket for Belgrade, Serbia. Actually, this is not true. Almir and I were partying all night long and he decided, as a true friend to drive me all the way back to the airport.
Never fly Jat Airways from Amsterdam to Belgrade unless you have to. The Jat representative at the Amsterdam Schripol airport was very unprofessional, rude and an absolute “seljacina”. To make a long and unpleasant story short, I ended up staying one extra night in Amsterdam due to the fact that my seat was sold for a better price, I was put on a stand-by list, standing there for hours, trying to send some sort of invisible signals to the Jat freak that my boarding pass had a seat assigned to me and that I was suppose to be on the flight!
PHOTOS - VIDEOBLOG (coming soon)
Believe it or not, I overheard the conversation between the Jat rep. and the pilot discussing the last stand-by person waiting in front of the airplane door. The last passenger was put in the cockpit with the pilots. Unbelievable!
That night I went to couple of Cuban clubs, smoked some fine cigars and had a great Turkish kebab for dinner. I've always thought that the best Turkish food was in the western Europe. Anyway, the next day I came back to the airport and this time around I successfully boarded the plane and took off into the unknown, the land of Guca, Serbia...
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