A Different Lifetime: Stepping Back in Time in the Former Yugoslavia (12 page)

The River Tisa flood wall

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In 2006, I made a journey
across Europe to spend four months living and working in the former Yugoslavia.
This was my first real experience of travelling alone, not exactly backpacking,
more of a luxury really, travelling by air and road to a predetermined
destination. I had never really understood the concept of being a lone
traveller; it’s something you have to experience for yourself to appreciate the
benefits of it. The great advantage is that, when you are all alone, you are
literally forced to communicate with the local population and integrate
yourself with their culture. This is something that may not necessarily occur
to the traveller who is surrounded by a group of friends or family members, and
whose experiences are focused around that group.

But more than it being
just a physical journey, it was a journey in time seeing how life was lived in
a previous era. I was living in a place where there were few cars, and
deliveries were still often made by horse and cart. There were no large
retailers, just the old style corner shops: grocers’, greengrocers’, bakers’
etc. There were no chain stores or fast food restaurants. People were  friendly
and honest: honest  in  a way I had never experienced before. If you paid for
something you would not expect a receipt; business was conducted on promises
and words of honour.

Despite the problems I
have described to you regarding my getting paid, it’s hard not to remember
Arkom as being anything other than my friend. In fact, making friends and
becoming part of the community were the most rewarding aspects of my time
there. My four months was just sufficient to begin to get to know people and
learn a little of their culture. It was also enough to give me an appetite to
try some similar experiences. I did embark on the journey to Greece in early
January of 2007, and it proved to be an equally rewarding experience.