No Swimming!

The President Hotel on Lake Palic, Serbia.

I have to admit: I had a pity-party for a moment and had to check myself. In the end it always makes sense, but for a hot second I really wanted to go away this weekend - to travel - to see another city - to explore a different country. There is this tendency in my spirit to always GO, and while being adventurous can be an admirable quality, it can also leave one fatigued, distant and without connection to people or places. I've never had any sort of balance in this area until Chris came into my life. Because of him, I am learning the importance and beauty of real rest and meaningful connection with "home."

As in turned out, Chris and I stayed in Subotica and explored our new home a little more. There is a sweet, little lake town called Palic about 4 miles away from us. before we moved to Serbia, we were so excited to live near a lake. I could just see myself taking morning runs to the lake, jumping in the crystal blue water to cool off, playing volley ball with new friends, and then sitting at a little cafe eating ice-cream and drying off before running home. Chris had visited the lake in June when he was house hunting, and he was bummed that there were no boats on the lake and it did not seem that anyone was swimming. Hmmm, I thought, people must have been working when he saw the lake.

Luckily we talked to a few locals before visiting Lake Palic in our swimming attire. You cannot readily find this information on Google, but apparently Lake Palic was once used to dispose of sewage. During the Austro-Hungarian empire, Lake Palic was one of the top 4 vacation destinations, but now people don't come to swim. Apparently there are plans to empty the lake and turn this once again into a desirable swimming hole and vacation spot, but the locals are skeptical that this will happen any time soon. I think it just all comes down to money. Serbia is a beautiful country, but without money, places like Lake Palic become mere shadows of their former selves.

So, we didn't swim, but we did stroll around the lake. As you can see, the lake is still beautiful, but all you can do is LOOK at it. There are several restaurants and cafes by the lake as well, but my intuition would tell me to stay away from any seafood.

Gmama - I took this picture for you because I knew you would love the flowers!

As I am writing this blog, I am trying to figure out how to do my laundry. That will most likely be left for tomorrows blog! Oh the woes of being a house wife in a foreign country!

As always, thank you for reading! Keep in touch!