Serbia, April 2012

In April, we finally made it down to Serbia.  It's something that has long been on our list of places to go, mainly because my father is Serbian and I have always wanted to see his country and his birthplace.  My father was born in Subotica, a beautiful art-deco town in northern Serbia, almost more Hungarian than it is Serbian.  It is less than 30 minutes from the Hungarian border and all signs are both in Serbian and Hungarian.

It was great to be in Subotica itself, since I had heard so much about it, but what I really wanted was to find the home where my father grew up.  I had a photograph of him standing in front of it from 1986, but that was over 25 years ago, and I had no idea what condition it would be in (if it still existed) and really no idea where to look for it.  On the back was written "Villa Zlatibor, Lake Palic" and that's it.

Luckily, Lake Palic is a well known recreational area just outside Subotica.  We showed the photo to the lady at the tourist office in Subotica and she seemed pretty certain that it was on the Palic Zoo grounds.  I was very skeptical but with little other leads, figured I'd give it a shot.  Eric and I went to the zoo and asked the lady at the ticket counter if the building looked familiar.  She said no but we bought tickets and wandered around inside anyway.  It seemed funny that my search had led me here, walking from the bison corral to the lion cages and over to the monkey exhibit.

Eric ducked into the bathroom and I walked  farther ahead along the path.  All of a sudden, the rooftops of a bulding began to appear.  As I kept walking, it started to look familiar, although I was trying not to get too excited and get my hopes up.  I held up the picture to compare the building's features.  The structure was the same, the bushes more overgrown, the roof tiles had been updated, but that was it, I was sure.  I couldn't believe our luck!  We had travelled all the way there with just one picture and a one line description and had found it on our first day trying!  It was amazing standing in the same spot my dad had, back in 1986.

The groundskeeper told us it was now an administration building.  It has a small front porch but a bigger back veranda.  It's not in the best condition but good enough that people are still using it.  He couldn't tell us much more about it (and besides, we were communicating in Serbian/Slovak so the mutual comprehension levels were not so high).  I left my card at the front desk in case anyone there could give me more information (it was Sunday so no one was working from the back office).  I picked up a few zoo brochures as souvenirs for myself and my brother and sister who did not make the trip with me.  What do you know, the house is right on the front cover!  Sometimes the things you are most looking for are right in front of you!