(First and Last shades of Green on the Istanbul Journey)
1. Tuesday October 24th. The train departed from Belgrade at 8.40 in the morning, heading south along the valley of the river Moravia as far as the town of Nis, then turning east to climb the gorge towards Dimitrovgrad and the mountain frontier with Bulgaria. The train was halted, and a nostalgic performance of the traditional ritual undertaken by ‘Eastern Bloc’ border guards and custom officials was played out over the next two hours. The late afternoon cold air entered through one of the train carriage windows that had been left open, and outside lay a carpet of cigarette butts, the remains of the harvest of the lungs.
Belgrade to Dimitovgrad
The end of one of the last dry and windless autumn days –
the browns, yellows, reds and dissolving greens