Sombor is a small town in the northwest of Serbia, a country in southeastern Europe located in the middle of Balkan Peninsula.

The town of Sombor has a population of 48,000 people. It lies near the borders of Hungary and Croatia, not far from Special Nature Reserve Gornje Podunavlje (on the Danube river), which is well-known for its variety of birds. Sometimes, we were privileged to see some of these wonderful creatures flying above us, reminding us of the amazing beauty of nature.

I grew up in one of the greenest towns in Europe. In fact, Sombor is known as The Green Town. While there are areas of town that are more urban, it is still a welcoming and pleasant place to live in – especially when growing up.

My parents viewed Sombor as a very urban environment. They had grown up in villages nearby where nature, spontaneity, and familiarity between people and neighbors were more pronounced. Children from those villages were very excited about coming to Sombor. To them Sombor was a metropolis, especially when compared to their villages of about 5,000 people.

When I eventually moved to a bigger town for high school and college, I realized that, in Sombor, time passes more slowly. The day was longer when I was a child, and I had plenty of time for various activities. Maybe there is some truth to the fact that time passes slowly during childhood. I remember we always used to ask when our birthday would finally come, or how much longer until the New Year or some other big day. It was like we had to wait forever.

I can say that my birth town gave me an interesting childhood. The fact that my parents put a lot of love and effort into taking us anywhere there was something to see, experience, and learn certainly helped. And they did all that with just a little money. We were a lower-middle class family, just like many other families in our town. We didn’t have much, but it was enough – we knew to appreciate what we had.

I was among the people who yearned for better, for more, and that’s why I left this gorgeous town. However, in spite of some advantages, in a bigger town I found a bigger crowd, chaos, more traffic, and a faster and stressful life. Now, with that knowledge and experience, when I came back to my birth town I feel nostalgia - but I am also refreshed because I have a different perspective of Sombor.

JM

During the summer, watermelon sellers lined up just across our street, next to the road. It was a special occasion every time dad would bring us a watermelon, and we were very happy.

On that very same road, we would sometimes hear a man announcing that the circus had come to town. He invited us to come and see all kinds of animals perform. Animals that we could never see in our hometown were an attraction, and we were so joyful when we witnessed this spectacle once. I was very young then so my memory is a bit foggy, but I remember seeing an elephant and a lion, who performed some tricks.

The part of the town where I lived has a lot of buildings where children of my age would gather to play ball games. I was often there. Sometimes, these games would last from dawn to twilight, or until our parents would call us from the balcony to come home. When the weather was bad, I had fun watching American cartoons and Japanese anime cartoons, or simply playing various self-invented games with my two sisters.

The center of the town was about twenty minutes away from our place. Here there were a bunch of shops, the always full cafes, many popcorn stands, and lots of people and families with children – especially in the summer. You could find people having a good time taking a horse and carriage ride, passing through the town in a slow, old-fashioned way. There were also many places of culture, like a museum and a gallery, but they weren’t that interesting to me. I thought they were rather boring.

The main street was filled with trees whose roots roughly raised parts of the concrete. These trees were rich with leaves that made a beautiful canopy, protecting old and ruined facades from our view. A few years ago, the trees were taken out and new, young ones were planted. The main street was paved and the town got a fountain at the beginning of the street. This is how it looks now, and it actually follows the model of the flat grounded towns in the area.

The Holy Trinity square is also placed in the center of the town. Various activities are organized there, including concerts showcasing musical groups and singers. This was also the place where about 100-200 children gathered every Saturday morning to sell various items, so we could earn our first money. Nearby, there was a small market, where people were selling groceries – mostly fruit and vegetables. For us, it looked like a multicolored sea of food and people.

The young people wanted to expand their horizons and earn money, so many of us left for bigger towns or went abroad. Although, I still believe that if money hadn’t been important, this town would be the ideal life for someone.

JM

I was an avid reader and was always attracted to parks as a spot to sit and read. I imagined inhaling the smell of flowers and feeling the sun on my skin, but I almost never went. The park was a small place where you could easily meet some familiar faces, and despite the familiarity and warmth between people and family, primitivism ruled, and there was a lack of freedom to express yourself and your originality.

Of all the activities, Labor Day, celebrated on the 1st of May, holds a special place in my heart. Every year, we used to go in Shikara. This is a distant part of the town with a small forest and dusty road, and it was where a fair was held every year on the holiday. This was enormous fun for us kids. People were selling the most diverse things – food, jewelry, and other items. Also, some interesting games were organized there. I remember a game of throwing wooden rings on top of glass bottles. Few visitors could ever manage to achieve the task. Truly, the goal was almost impossible to reach, but people kept persistently giving money and trying again and again. There was also a small carousel. But the most important fact was that we were surrounded by nature, fresh air, and the May sun.

Another place we would go to run away from the city, crowded with buildings and traffic, was the canal. The canal was 40 minutes away from our apartment, and it was a substitute river for our town. I enjoyed learning how to fish. I became a part of a group of fishermen who used to come there often. The only problem was the mosquitoes and other insects, which I couldn’t ignore.

You can imagine what it was like for a little girl to put worms on the hook. Once, when I finally did it, I wound up with my fishing rod and the hook stuck in some branches behind me, and I had to call somebody to help me. Nevertheless, one day spent in nature is irreplaceable, especially when a person lives surrounded by concrete.

Perhaps the most beautiful memory from those years was going to a small forest near our home with my family. We went there to pick the flowers of linden trees in order to make tea. Dad was the one who climbed the trees, and mom, my sisters and I used to gather it all in bags. The whole event was like a working picnic in the forest, we would always bring a blanket and some food and drink. The trees were all around us, the air was fresh, and we could smell the morning dew, oaks, chestnuts, acorns, and linden trees. We could hear the sounds of insects and small animals. It is this simple atmosphere that’s engraved in my memory.

Later, when my friends and I became teenagers, we would meet at one place near the Holy Trinity square by the small fountain. This was a well-known meeting place amongst youth, so it was significant to us, although there was nothing special about that small fountain. Almost all of us knew each other. Everywhere we went, we would meet someone familiar to us. The town stayed the same, but from our perspective, it was suddenly small and tight.

As we grew up, we went searching for greater possibilities. We started to leave our homes in order to continue our education. The young people wanted to expand their horizons and earn money, so many of us left for bigger towns or went abroad. Although, I still believe that if money hadn’t been important, this town would be the ideal life for someone.

I can say that I was among the people who yearned for better, for more. That’s why I left this gorgeous town. However, in spite of some advantages, in a bigger town I found a bigger crowd, chaos, more traffic, and a faster and stressful life. Now, with that knowledge and experience, when I came back to my birth town I feel nostalgia – but I am also refreshed because I have a different perspective of Sombor. I am fulfilled and satisfied, and I look forward to each new day.