Slowly but steadily it’s beginning to feel less surreal. Though I’m actually wondering WTF am I doing (again).
Tomorrow I will be traveling by train to Budapest, Novi Sad (on the serbian side of the border to Hungary, where they just erected the fence) and Belgrade.
Yes, in the opposite direction of all the people looking for safety. I planned my trip weeks ago.. before everything happened. So now, instead of looking forward to hiking in primeval forests and up & down rugged mountains, I wonder if I can face that much human suffering.
My backpack is full of clean & new underwear & socks and sleeping gear for the refugees at the station in Budapest, in camps near the border, and in the parks in Belgrade… (good thing this stuff just was donated to the free shop), but it will still be a very small drop in the ocean. I do wonder if I can manage to close my eyes and travel on to my planned destination and not stay in Budapest or Serbia to help out… And since a lot of people already have expressed their worry because I’m traveling that way (and on my own of course), I will report here regularly if I have an internet connection available.
After Serbia, I plan to travel on to Montenegro and Bosnia, and back over Croatia, doing as many forests, mountains & waterfalls as possible in 3 weeks time :).
I packed my bag. Since I usually travel light, only 1/3 of my backpack is filled with my own stuff. The rest is socks, scarfs, underwear, blankets, (children’s) drinking containers and today, two good self-inflatable camping mattresses arrived in the giveaway shop, so taking those too. Still, I seriously wonder wtf I’m doing, Are they really waiting over there for some (relatively) rich tourist who dumps some random stuff from a giveaway shop in their lap? On the other hand, 30 pair of clean socks… for people traveling for weeks, if not months without a change of clothing.. I think I would be happy with clean socks or underwear…