Monday marked the start of my yoga retreat in Serbia. I shared an Uber to the airport with one of the ladies I know from my yoga studio, called Mary, and we got there without problem.
The first leg of our flight would take us to Zurich where we would have a 40 minute turn around to get on our next plane to Belgrade. This was a quicker connection than I would normally like to book, but I had just booked the same flight as Mary so hadn’t given it much thought.
We both had hand luggage only but as we boarded the plane Mary was forced to put hers in the hold, despite telling them about the quick connection.
I made a real point of travelling modestly this trip. On other yoga retreats I have taken too many items of clothing and really spent most of the trip in a few outfits, so I have tried to learn from that.
Also the place we are going to is very simple and so I wanted to travel without lots of comforts and attachments and live simply over the week.
When we landed in Zurich the connection was very easy. By now it was midday, so I could break my fast but found myself in a part of the terminal with no food to buy. So we boarded the plane to Belgrade and landed at gone 2pm.
At the baggage reclaim we discovered Mary’s bag hadn’t made the connection and we met one of the other yogis whose bag also hadn’t come from Vienna. So we spent time filling forms before heading out to meet 2 other yogis and the drivers who would transport us to the venue about 2 hours away. It was 3pm by the time we got through the terminal to some food, and all I could get hold of was nuts and crisps, high caloric foods and because I hadn’t eaten for 19 hours I ate them all!
The driver was a maniac, weaving in and out and overtaking into the path of oncoming traffic while on his mobile. It was the least zen experience imaginable before the retreat.
When we arrived we had dinner and settled into our rooms. The place we are staying in is very basic; it has everything we need, but no frills. At all.
The concept of this retreat is one of peaceful relaxation, yin yoga and gentle flow, healing and calm. The lack of creature comforts removes distractions and attachment so all you have is your practice and experience of it. We take silence from 21:30pm through to lunch at 1pm the next day, and the silence removes comparison discussions amongst the yogis which is another distraction.
We had a restorative yoga class that evening, very gentle and combined with meditation. A perfect end to a day of travelling.
As well as the 2 missing suitcases, one yogi had flight issues and ended up being put in 3 flights to get here, and didn’t arrive at the venue until 2am.
But on Tuesday we would wake to a full house of yogis and the missing bags were being located and due to be delivered in the afternoon.
I’m pretty excited to see what the week brings….
