14th august 2007 - upstream km 1255

"Strangers, who are you? What land did you sail from, over the watery paths? Are you bound on some trading errand, or are you random adventurers, roving the seas as pirates do?"
the odyssey; book ix

how refreshingly uncomplicated these impromptu concerts turn out to be. since our travel times are not just dependent on the water level, but also on the clearance of locks and border formalities, we have included buffer days. and when things, as in the recent days, go according to plan, there is – in the truest sense of the expression – room to play. in the case of velico gradiste we let the local spot know a day before our arrival. we dock at about 5pm and start the concert a good 3 hours later. about 1000 people turn up, dance, celebrate a party with us and then invite us to a quayside pub, where we sit and drink beer into the wee hours with many of them. we are all delighted by serbia and the people we have met here and in donji milanovac. but perhaps it has something to do with the spontaneity too. I am tempted to think that we should have simply set sail and played wherever they let us dock. but that is a thought that only imposes itself on you after such events.