Blogs from Serbia, Europe - page 4

Our ship docked at Golubac in Serbia and we drove down the coast to an archaeological site called Lepenski Vir. This was discovered during the 60s in a farmers field in an area which was subsequently going to be flooded by the building of a dam. The archaeologists had 5 years to excavate and move the village they discovered stone by stone. The buildings were built 9000 years ago and are one of the earliest examples of human beings forming a community rather than moving and hunter gathering. All the buildings were facing a stone mountain which was clearly revered by these people. The floor was made of the clay found locally and had a central fireplace with a hole in the roof. The skeletons which were found showed the people to be short but very ... read more

Another country visited and discovered . We started in the north at a place called Novi Sad and it was a very pleasant stop .It,s claim to fame is a fortress that was designed and built in the 1300s (I think that is right) . It really was impressive .The fortress itself is built on a hill but they dug and reinforced tunnels sourounding it . A whole network of tunnels within Air vents , smoke exhaust holes , gun holes (?) for long guns , sink whole traps , the equivalent of dumb waiters to bring down food and other supplies . It was quite the design and required the labour of the 10000 soldiers who lived there to do the work .Above the tnnels and below the fortress they developed what they called the ... read more

It’s our last day before dropping the hire car in Skopje. We are breaking the journey in Nis, mainly because it’s half way between Belgrade and Skopje. Nis has 3 very diverse tourist attractions; the 4th century Roman palace of Constantine the Great, an 18th century Turkish fortress and a 20th century Nazi Concentration Camp. It’s pouring with rain and takes almost an hour to fight our way out of Belgrade through the rush hour traffic, despite the old man going native and driving through red lights, in bus lanes, over pedestrian crossings etc. Eventually the rain clears and by the time we reach Nis it’s 20 degrees and sunny. After Novi Sad and Belgrade, we aren’t expecting to like Nis, but it’s actually quite nice. We walk through the pedestrian precinct to the fortress which ... read more

Today we are going to the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Things I know about Belgrade; (1) it was the capital of Yugoslavia, (2) Tito is buried here – you can visit his mausoleum at the Museum of Yugoslavia and (3) you can visit Nikola Tesla’s remains in a gold casket in the Tesla Museum. First, breakfast. In Serbia, everyone smokes. All the time. Breakfast is no exception; it’s like being stuck in the 1980s. I half expect Michael J Fox to turn up in a DeLorean. We are offered the hotel’s signature breakfast - the waitress says it’s a bit of everything. She means meat. Lots and lots of meat – sausage, bacon, salami, 2 types of ham. Filled to the top with pig products, and smelling of a combination of stale cigarettes and strawberry shower gel, ... read more

Friday 27th After plenty of relaxing at Matkar we were ready to get on the road again and cross the border into Serbia. We had a pretty long drive but as always were taking the smaller roads and driving through villages most of the way which made it much more enjoyable. When we arrived at the border there was a huge queue and we prepared ourselves for another over the top search but amazingly we sailed through without even a sideways glance! Once we had crossed the border we headed in the rough direction of Niš and found a lovely higgledepigglede village with wooden or mud houses and lots of farms. There were some locals sitting in the shade of a tree and we began a very humorous game of shirades trying to ask them if ... read more