My house in Serbia is small, but we do not spend much time inside.  In our house we don’t have central heat or air, so we heat our house with a fire burning stove, an electric heater, and this gas burner that looks like a satellite.

 It can get scorching hot sometimes, and other times when the fire goes out and the gas tank runs out, it’s a cool 20 degrees. Fortunately, it only takes a few minutes to warm up again.

When we aren’t home, we have a chance to wander around town, when we aren’t at the gym or practice.  I have mentioned before how inexpensive everything here is and the cars are no exception.

 

Time Magazine describes the Yugo as “one of the worst cars ever built” so it’s no wonder it costs about $200. These cars are ALL over the town and are typically they are made in red; I don’t know why this is such a popular color for the Serbs. If you see a red car in my town of Bor, nine times out of ten it will be a Yugo. One of my teammates is getting his license at 20 years old. His parents are making him practice with the Yugo until he becomes comfortable enough to drive a more expensive car. He drove Oscar and me home from practice one night and getting into that car was a different experience. First of all, you can see how small the car is. Fitting my 6’2” self into the backseat was a task of its own.  My knees were so far in the driver side seat that the driver was sitting straight up trying to drive. The car has heat and air, but it was so poorly manufactured that it was colder in the car than it was outside. My teammate had to constantly use an ice scraper because the windshield kept fogging up, making it difficult for him to see the road and shift gears. Don’t get me wrong; I am not complaining and I am more than thankful for the free ride, I just have never ridden in a car so small.

Another thing I see on the streets every single day is a different kind of dog.  My town does not have animal control, so we just have random dogs all over the town . All of the dogs are shy and act scared when I take a picture of them.  One night, we actually saw a bobcat at the bus stop; it was walking right up to us and unlike the other strays, there was no fear in its eyes.  

My next post will be a Q&A about my life and Serbia and whatever else people decide to ask me. Thanks for sharing and commenting on the blog! I am now over a thousand views!

Fishstrong!

Trever