Thoughts and Impressions on Our Way to Belgrade

We traveled to Belgrade from Sofia by bus. Our group was composed mostly of youngsters, with only four others in my age bracket.

My first thought was whether it would be challenging to travel with Millennials and Gen Zs (I am a Gen Xer, along with another traveler. The three other “older” people are Boomers). My past group travels were typically with an older folks, hence, I had no idea how this trip would turn out.

On the morning of our departure, we were all on the bus at seven o’clock on the dot, having loaded our luggage with the help of our driver. Our Tour Director commended us for our punctuality. We were off to a good start. After checking attendance and introducing our driver who is a Montenegrin guy, we hit the road.

He said that since we are all “big boys and girls,” he would not impose a set seating arrangement, as typical of land tours. We could sit anywhere we wanted. However, we were expected to be considerate by not picking the “best seats” all the time and by giving priority to those who might be experiencing motion sickness on the bus. He also reiterated the importance of being on time.

On this multi-country tour, mainly out of the European Union zone (among the countries we were visiting, only Bulgaria and Croatia are part of the EU), there would be several border crossings, which means long lines and wait times. A fifteen-minute delay to our morning departure could make a big difference and could result in an additional hour or two at the border.

For this, he would be imposing some consequences to tardiness. A ten-minute delay would equate to a fine of five euros per person, and subsequent minutes would be one euro each. We all thought it sounded fair. He then told us about this incident when two guys from a previous tour partied too hard and overslept the following day. They each had to pay twenty euros. He used the money to buy snacks and drinks for the whole bus.

And in his own words, “We got 40 euRRRos from them and we made a big paRRRteee on the bus!”  I just loved his accent with the rolling Rs! It made him sound more commanding.

We were off to a good start though because when we reached the Serbian border, there were only three buses ahead of us (there was a dedicated line for tour buses), but the lines for private vehicles and commuter buses were packed. It took us only twenty minutes, from the time our driver parked the bus by the booth, where we lined up to get our passports individually stamped, to the time we were waved off. Easy-peasy. No issues. No delays. Our Tour Director simply spoke with the border staff in Serbian and told them about our tour group. No questions were asked. They just ordered us to line up for passport stamps and off we went on our merry way.

While we were lining up, I noticed that my youngster travel mates were comparing stamps on their already heavily “decorated” passports. And as I chatted with some of them, I learned that majority were repeat customers of this tour company, which offers budget-friendly packages geared towards young adult travelers. They confirmed the company’s high level of service despite the connotation that it’s a low-cost tour. They said that the expertise and competence of the tour guides are top quality and way above the “budget” expectations. And they collect points that equate to discounts. This way, they were able to travel more with their limited funds…and their passports are a testament to that. I was quite impressed. They were half my age but have been to twice or three times as many countries as I had been.

I wondered if this is a generational thing or if this is because I grew up in a different continent with a different culture and a different mindset about travel.

These Millennials and Gen Zs, as per my initial impression, are “live-for-the-moment” and “seize-the-day” kind of people. One of them even shared with me that because she got so excited about the big promotion that this tour company recently launched, she ended up booking three tours in a row that summer. After our Balkans trip, she was doing the Egypt one, and then the Jordan one right after.

Then she said, “And after that, I would be broke, and I’d need a miracle to pay my rent for the next two months.” But she brushed that thought aside and continued with, “Never mind. I am just super excited about this summer, and it will be fun. I’ll worry about my rent money when I get back home. I’m sure I’ll figure something out and everything will be fine.”

While I admired her positive outlook, I was also a bit mortified. The thought of having no idea or plan for paying the rent while spending money on weeks of traveling would give me serious heart palpitations.

When I was her age, this was something I would have never dared to do. I would never have compromised the money intended to pay for necessities for funding something that is “exciting and fun.” That would stress me out. In fact, I meticulously saved for a once-a-year trip, and even then, it was not a priority. I focused first on purchasing my first car and then investing in a condominium apartment (in my early 20s). Globe-trotting was something that would go up my list only after I had finished paying off the car and making a significant payment on my home. At that age, I had managed to go on only two trips that I had paid with my own savings, and one that I got for free. A couple of earlier ones were paid for by my parents when I was still a university student.

But there she was, without a care in the world for the time being. She was living for the day, with the hope that her rent situation would solve itself when the time came near. I admired that courage and boldness in a way. Wow! Being with these youngsters allowed me to look at “life in the twenties” from a different perspective, an entirely different perspective.

We took our first comfort break as soon as we were on the Serbian side. We stopped at a gas station with a restaurant-café-convenience store beside it. I bought a cup of coffee (coffee in this part of the world is excellent, even at gas stations) and a traditional pastry roughly translated to “bougatsa cheese pie,” which I thought was similar to the Greek bougatsa, only that the latter’s filling is usually a creamy custard. The Serbian version has a saltier kind of cheese and a different blend of spices. I liked it though.

As I was eating my snack, the American flight attendant from Los Angeles, the other Gen Xer in the group, joined me. She told me how relieved she was to see that there were five “mature” people on this tour. You see, the tour company’s website indicates that their packages are intended for the 18-35 age group, but I took my chance and called them to ask if they’d accommodate someone beyond 35.

They told me they normally make exceptions, provided that it’s not more than five people per tour, and provided that the “oldies” could keep up with the “youngsters” as their tours are significantly more active (i.e., lots of walking as opposed to being driven around, dropped off, and picked up) than the usual tours geared towards the older generations. As well, they don’t include porter service where your luggage is picked up and dropped off outside right outside your hotel room. Theirs is a “carry your own luggage” type of travel. I told them I actually prefer walking and that I could live with all those missing amenities and services.

And they said, “If you’re young at heart and willing to walk in step with young ones, you’re in!” Yay for me!

I guess my American tour mate did the same, not that it matters, because she is used to travelling by herself a lot. But we confirmed that aside from the enticing price tag, the other reason why we joined the tour group was the convenience, especially in this part of Europe. She told me that she had initially looked at doing this Balkan tour on her own, but as per her calculations, it would cost significantly more, plus there would be the additional hassle of dealing with border crossings that she would have to arrange herself, the security worries, and the language barrier. I told her I had the same thoughts.

“Well, just consider the long line of private cars and commuter buses that we passed by at the border crossing earlier,” I reminded her.

We agreed that this was the most economical and efficient way to go around the Balkans. But unlike me, she booked a room to herself. She told me that the other American lady did the same. She thought I was brave for opening myself up to a roommate, because you never know who you’d get. I told her that I was too cheap to pay for single occupancy and that I didn’t mind having a roommate on this trip. It would be fun to get to know a new person, and so far, my Czech roommate and I were getting along well.

In any case, she said she was really glad to have our little cluster of “seniors.”  We could hang out to do the “more subdued version of chilling out” (i.e., a round of drinks at the hotel bar after dinner or dessert and decaf coffee at a quaint café  versus clubbing at night or getting wasted at the pub, as she had already overheard the plans that some of our young travel mates were planning to do)

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When we reboarded the bus, she introduced me to the older American lady. She was friendly but looked a little bit stressed, constantly checking her phone for work emails and messages. The younger lady told her to forget about it…she was supposed to be on vacation. And that’s when she rattled on about the “emergency” at her office that she had to deal with immediately and then proceeded to complain about her frustrating assistant. From what I understood, she worked for a big pharmaceutical company in the Midwest.

Our Tour Director walked by and rolled his eyes. In a satirically funny manner, he knocked his head on the window, faked a pained expression, and said, “Oh, now I have another one of those…the typical American who can’t stop working even on holidays! No wonder they are always stressed and on the edge.”

Our Tour Director was not wrong. Based on past travels, I had noticed that some Americans (with an emphasis on “some”), especially those that have not yet retired, find it challenging to disengage from work during their holiday. If I hear someone talking about anything work-related or asking fellow travelers about any work-related questions, I was 90% sure that person is from the U.S. And by the way, I am not generalizing. I am just speaking from my own experience.

In Canada, if you are not in any kind of work environment, you’d hardly meet anyone expressing interest on your profession or what you do for a living. It’s the same with Europeans, Aussies, and Kiwis. They are more focused on getting to know you as a person and questions would be about your travel plans, what activities you like to do, your interests, etc. Maybe a few Asians would discuss jobs and such, but not at length, and most Asians are more reserved.

Back on the bus, while waiting for the others to get in, I chatted with the older couple. They are Vietnamese Canadian from Edmonton. They told me they were retired, just sold their business (a liquor store) and that they had been travelling non-stop for a year and a half now. The wife said that according to her count, Serbia would be Country #86 for them. Her husband was carrying a professional-looking camera around his neck and throughout the trip, I’d notice him taking pictures of everything, but mostly, pictures of his wife posing against different backgrounds. They may be older, but certainly young-at-heart and so cute together.

This is what I like about solo travel. You don’t just meet people (on a hi-hello basis) but you get to know them, learn from them, and see things from various perspectives. If you travel with family or friends, you normally stick together and don’t really get that much opportunity to have deeper interactions with your fellow travelers.

On this trip, these thoughts and impressions were planted in my head – how people view and prioritize travel, attitudes during travel, travel style preferences and what we get out of it, generational values, forging connections with people we stay with for just a few days, and understanding where other people are coming from and what shapes their characters.

Throughout our Balkans tour, I pondered on these and by the end of the trip, had so many takeaways from the trip itself, and from the personal stories of my travel mates.