Thursday, 3rd of September, 2020.
First thing I do in Nis is deciding to let to buy some food in the next town so I do not have to carry too much weight for now.
Getting out of town it is not trouble but it is hard. I stop in a not very good spot but I just cannot keep walking. I need to get to Kosovo.
A very unlike person stops for me. A nice old man driving an even older one. They are going to the same town written down in my sign: Prokuplje. It is the next big town before the border. They do not speak English but German yes. They drop me in the biggest supermarket in the centre of town, showing their kindness because I kind of asked to be dropped there. I buy food for sandwiches, a juice and fruits and yogurt for next morning. Just outside of the supermarket, in a park, I eat and after resting a bit, I go to my next hitchhike spot, crossing the tourist centre street of Prokuplje.
It is interest to think how I planned to go from on town to another, expecting for that to happen, since I had hitchhike spots for both of them and did not acquire food in the first one.
Now my sign it says Medare, the name of the border between Serbia and Kosovo. It is a curious spot, at a gas station but just before a curve. Soon enough a car with an young man stops. I just look at him and point to my sign to which he agreed. I do not feel anything bad coming from him so I get in. Wrong!
He start to use the translation on his phone. At the beginning the questions are simple and he tells me he is a police officer. But then the most tricky question which a man can always ask you: can ask you something personal? But you cannot be mad… Laugh. So he start with jerk questions, about touching me or kissing and this type of disgusting stuff. I remain calm and just say that is not my style and as a police officer he should protect and help people and do not ask for such a thing. Laugh. He says that this is Serbia and that is how things work. If it was not for a gas station in the middle of a nice road (not highway) I had seen and made him stop the car, I would write back that this is not what Serbia is about but his dirty mind. So he stops, I get my stuff and start again.
The next guy who stop seems very helpful, as he step outside to help me with the bag. He is very young and very polite. He asks me to sit in the back though, because of Covid-19. It is OK for me, I say.
Soon enough I realize he has some level of Autism. For the way as he talks and about what he talks. He is going to Mitrovica (but he will pas through Podgorica to get in there) to meet, as he call her, his “darling”. It is her birthday and get bought some presents for her. He also gives me a present: two bottles of a very nice lemon flavoured water.
When we stop at the border though, a little problem. Because of his condition, he gets too nervous easily. So when the police officer ask him simple questions, he over react and answer the officer back. I try to calm him down but I am also concern that his behaviour can jeopardize my entrance in the country. We have trouble in both borders, Serbia and Kosovo. He insist to the officers to talk with him in English or German because even though he was born in Kosovo, he lived his whole life in Germany, so he is German, as he reaffirm himself many times. Luckily, as I believe, the police officers realized that he has some issues so they let us go. He drops me at the bus station. I use the wi-fi to get some directions. It is late to start to hitchhike so I just go to make my camping somewhere around and come back to hitchhike tomorrow morning.
I walk quiet a lot. More than I want. There are a lot of families and kids walking around. So I do not know if I feel safe or not. It certainly does not feel like dangerous though. In a small street, I ask for a lady in a pharmacy what she thinks of me making my camping in one of these open fields. She said I would be fine because it is a very safe area and people know each other. I decide to take a shot but first I need to eat.
I sit outside a small restaurant and start to prepare my sandwich. A young man comes out and say I can do it inside (for which I am glad since it is getting pretty cold outside). Inside we talk, he offers me a drink and tells me the place belongs to his father but he is looking after by himself. He also offers me to spend the night inside the building attached to the restaurant instead of camping outside. It is a house but there is no facilities or anything, is just empty and he has a mattress where he sleeps. I just have to wait until the football match (which will start soon and attract some clients) is finish and we can go. Everything it seems fine and I accept.
When I sit to wait for the game I realize something terrible: my wallet is gone. With all the money I have in this world. Yeah, I did it again. So I remember I asked to use the toilet in a fancy hotel just after the bus station. I tell the guy I lost something and have to walk back. I do not even know if I remember the way but I keep walking, as fast as I can. Without the bags is much easier. The man who had allowed me to use the bathroom was very nice before and it is also now when he sees me back. He comes down to the bathroom with me but he says nobody found or brought anything up to the reception. I am shivering. When I open the door for the toilet, there it is. Still where I left it. I get so relief. Him too. Tears come to my eyes and I thank him immensely. Walking back is much easier. It is darker now. Again I do not feel in danger at all walking on these streets.
The young man brings me to the house before the game is over. I settle my things down, change and lie down on my mattress, covering myself with my sleeping bag. It is warm inside so I know I will be fine. Beside me it is his mattress and a blanket. When he comes after closing the restaurant he insist in talking. I refuse and repeat I am super tired and we both need to wake up at 6 a.m.: him to open the restaurant and me to not be seen. He keeps talking. He plays music. Then he keeps insisting for me to lie down beside him, at his mattress. He start to use some stupid excuses but I am 100 % sure that nothing in this planet will make me lie down beside him. So he finally says, in a little more strict way, that I have to lie down beside him because there is a window in the back and someone might pass and see me. I do not know if he just took me as a fool and naive girl or he thinks about every woman, but I just say very direct that I am not moving does not matter what he say it. We both get to sleep.
I eat quickly in the morning and after drink the coffee he offers me I leave. No bad feelings, you know, just a simple goodbye and that is it.
The hitchhike spot sucks! It is a busy road, not a chance someone will stop. I decide to go back to the bus station and check how much for a bus to Kukes, the first town after the border and my first destination in Albania. I still have some of the 20€ Yusuf gave me so why not to use? The bus it costs 5€. I take it. We arrive in Kukes before noon.