Our Locomotive
The overseer of our sleeping car from Vienna to Sofia was a jaded Bulgarian who complained about the Serbs most of the time. With Marina's native Serbo-Croatian and her working knowledge of Russian, she is able to understand a chunk of what Bulgarians say and also communicate with them in a sort of pidgin Slavic.
Most of the train ride was through rural Serbia, though we also passed through Belgrade and Niš. The hiller parts of rural Serbia remind me of some of West Virginia and similar places in my native Appalachia. I mean that not only topographically, but in the visual aspect of rural underdevelopment. Small-town Serbian houses are tidily-kept, though the towns in general are neglected and public buildings look run down. This despite the fact that Serbia -- apart from Kosovo of course -- was untouched by the Yugoslav wars. The sanctions must have hit hard here.
Several of the more picturesque rural settings were marred by what looked to be very crude extractive operations -- I think quarrying, not mining -- that have demolished entire hills. Once again reminiscent of Appalachia -- though I doubt Serbia has many local green movements.
Did see one poster protesting the war crimes trial of Vojislav Šešelj, the fascist paramilitary leader and politician.
Extractive operations in rural Serbia