Thanks Brian for sharing these very interesting posts with us, as somebody said on here years ago “if we can’t take the time to share these stories now then they will all be forgotten about for ever”.
I can remember waiting at the Turkish border for three days trying to get hold of a wide load permit that was supposed to be coming from Ankara. I suppose that now you would just send a message to somebody’s mobile phone and that would be acceptable.
I would like to share this National Hotel story with you guys as I think that it might sound familiar to one of you.
On my first trip to Belgrade I was running with an old fellow called Ken Singleton and we arrived at the National late on a Friday afternoon. There was another Dow driver there called Barry Longden and as we were all clearing customs down in the docks next to The Danube we decided to stay at the National and run into Belgrade early on the Monday morning.
Now I remember Barry telling me that when he started running down to the Middle East the road outside the National was still cobbled but I can’t remember which year it was. There was a short video on one of the threads a couple of weeks ago from 1975 and it shown that just past The National the road was bitumen so it must of been before 1975 that Barry was running down there. I do remember that he drove for Ashworth’s of Burnley and Jenkinson’s from Salford before he started at Dow.
Well Ken, Barry and myself walked into the reception area and the first thing that they did was to check all the telexes to see which other British guys were in the area and also to see who was loading from where. Then we walked into the restaurant to be greeted by two waiters who were both wearing shabby black suits and ties. As Barry and Ken both said “hello George” it seemed to me that they had known him for a few years. Ken asked for three Pevo’s, we sat down at a table and a couple of minutes later the old George from that photo, the W.C. Fields look a like came over to us with a tray with three bottle of beer on it and four glasses. If you remember the beer sometimes came in brown bottles and sometimes it came in green bottles, all from the same brand which I think was called Bip.
So old George, puts the tray down on the table and takes off one of the caps off one of the bottles and then pours about an inch of the beer into one of the glasses. He then drinks the beer in the glass and with a smile on his face he then gives Ken the opened bottle and a glass. I am thinking what’s going on here but Ken just smiles back at him. Then George opens the second bottle, he pours about an inch of beer into his glass, he swallows it in one go and say’s “that’s O.K.” then passes the opened bottle with a glass over to Barry who looks like he has seen it all before.
Then George opens the third bottle, he pours about two inches of beer into his glass, takes a drink of it, swills it around his mouth for a few seconds, swallows it then he puts the bottle and a glass in front of me and say’s " that is a very good year" and then walks off.
I really felt Gobsmacked and probably looked like it as Ken and Barry just burst out laughing at me, the strange thing was that I saw George do this on a couple of occasions over the years.
Like most of the drivers who stopped at The National in the 70’s/80’s the only words of Yugoslav that I could ever speak was Dobra Dan George, Ein Pevo and a Mixed Grill. 
The National Hotel, Belgrade.
Barry Longden.
Ken Singleton.
