Aljmas sits on the banks of the Danube ( which as i write has overflown and 50 houses are under water)facing Serbia. The town has 500/600 inhabitants and a super-modern church which attracts many pilgrims. It’s really ugly and from far i believed it was a swimming pool or a shopping mall. The old church was destroyed in the war.

I  left Vukovar very early in the morning, got lost, found a lift from a guy who kept yelling words in Serbian which made a funny conversation full of misunderstandings.

in Aljmas the only guesthouse was shut so i sat on a bench not sure of what to do…being Aljmas such a small town my presence was noticed and locals came around trying to speak to me in german till they found an english speaker. A family offered me to stay with them till the guesthouse owner was found, so i spent few hours with them with a much needed breakfast ( i could not thank them enough!). Between them was Zvonimir, who at 16 has learnt an incredibly good english by playing online video games. He was an incredible good source of information, and being born just after the war he perhaps was more open to talk about it.

Primo Levi wrote that “borders are where wars start” which is very much true about this area. Zvominir talks openly about feeling uneasy about the idea that Serbia may also join the EU one day, and says “it would be again like being in Jugoslavia”. He has very doubts about the necessity of the EU existence and says that NATO protected Croatia, not the EU. He also tells me stories of how his mother had to hide along the Danube, as Serbians in nearby villages had blocked the road . His war stories remind me of the stories my grandmother had from WWI and WWII and it is so strange to hear a 16 years old talk about the war.