Tim and Taylor get adopted by Serbians

Every now and then you meet people that are so completely selfless and kind that their presence in your life completely restores your faith in humanity. Taylor and I were lucky enough to have such an experience on the way to, and in, Belgrade, Serbia.

When you spend a long time on a train, it has been our experience that you get to talking to the folks that you share a cabin with. Lucky for us, we were teamed up with Leijla and Miljana Milivojevic, an incredibly friendly and talkative mother and daughter duo heading from Montregro back to their home in Belgrade, which is roughly an 8 hour train ride. Miljana, only 11, spoke excellent English, and translated for her mother. After about 20 minutes of conversation, it was decided that we would be spending the night at the family home in Belgrade with Lielja, her husband Zaran, her husband's mother (known as Babu), and their three kids, Bozo (not a famous clown in Serbia, as it turns out), Krsto, and Miljana, who we already know. These were not people of means, and they definitely didn't have enough room for the 5 of them, nevermind two guests, but that was not a problem for them. They fed us, entertained us, gave us a ride from the bus station, and were overall incredibly gracious hosts. When it came time to leave, the whole family gave us gifts including a DVD, various stuffed animals, some crackers, and other presents. Taylor and I could barely keep the tears back as we left their house.

We didn't want to offend them by saying no to their gifts, but the children were talking excitedly about how they just bought the "Night at the Museum" DVD in Montenegro. We told them that we had not yet watched the movie, and finding it in our gift bag was a heart-warming experience.

The Milivojevic family as seen on the train:



The Milovojevic family as seen in their home...significantly larger:



Taylor and I have been playing a ridiculous amount of "Yaniv," an Israeli card game that Taylor learned in Mexico. We taught the family how to play, and Bozo (pronounced Boy-zcho) won by a pretty large margin.



After we left the family, we spent the afternoon walking around Belgrade, and after we got too hot, we saw "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" at a local theater. Luckily, it was in English with Serbian sub-titles. We've been wanting to see a movie since about Texas, so it was nice to finally sit back and enjoy one.

After the movie, we meandered back to the train station to catch our overnight train to Budapest, Hungary. Right in the middle of downtown, we saw a few bombed out buildings, which were grisly reminders of how awesome American/UN foreign policy is. This was a civilian target looks like, folks. Don't hear much about that on the news. As it turns out, most countries can't afford to demolish and rebuild, so reminders like this just sit around like headstones in an urban cemetery.



Literally, full circle. Sorry Bosnia! Next time, for sure.



Next Stop: Budapest, Hungary.