50 years ago today we were in a country once called Yugoslavia. Now when we think of Ukraine we must not forget the fighting that split it and the people that died. In 1972, I found it to be a pleasant country with friendly people..
In our little van we headed from Sentilj through Zagreb in Croatia, to Belgrade (Beograd) in Serbia and Skopje in Macedonia.
According to my passport, we entered at Sentilj on March 1st and exited the country at Eyzonon, the border with Greece, on March 23rd, although I don't remember being in Yugoslavia for as long as 3 weeks..
We slept inside or close to our van in the countryside, without problem apart from that first night in some woods when we were awoken and shouted at by what was maybe a gamekeeper who threatened us with his rifle.
At one time we stopped at a roadside cafe, quite a large place but with only two other customers, a young couple who left soon after we arrived. Keith (pictured below) got up from our table and went outside. I saw him speaking to the couple near their car. He came back and told us he had scored a small piece of nice hash.
Whilst we were in and around Belgrade, we visited a local park. As we sat on the grass, we were approached by two young guys who said they were students at the University. They sold us some hash. We saw police walking nearby, but the students said t was OK to smoke, so we did, without problem.
At another roadside cafe, I was approached by an elderly man who spoke no English. He started offering me food. I somehow got the impression he was trying to buy me. Obviously I went hungry!
My story will stop
here for a few weeks until we reached Thessaloniki, where I was given
My Hat by a local barber, That was March 23rd.
