Blogs from Serbia, Europe - page 9

In April 2005 Joca and I went to Mokra Gora over weekend. Close to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, this mountain if famous for the Šargan Eight (Serbian: Шарганска осмица), a narrow heritage scenic railway, running from the village of Mokra Gora to Šargan Vitasi station. It was build after the World War I as part of the line Belgrade-Sarajevo. The climb over the mountain was an engineering masterpiece: from Uzice to the summit the height difference was 240 metres; it was 3.5 km direct line but by rail it was 15.4 km; the average gradient was 18% and there were 20 tunnels. Steam trains are the main attraction but we preferred to walk. We visited locations where Kusturica’s 2004 film “Life is a miracle” was made. There is a small hotel “Mokra Gora”, where ... read more

I was flattered and happy that Rodica and Nelu asked me to stay for another night. The only downside was that I was expected to meet my next couchsurfing host two countries away the same day I left Oradea. So I was up early and after a tasty breakfast I was zooming down the backroads through Romania, then through a bit of Hungary on my way to Serbia. I was pretty darned proud of my navigation through the city of Szeged, Hungary until I got out of town a few miles and realized I was on the same road I came in on. But eventually I was on the right track, through another border and into Palic, Serbia. There were no house numbers so I drove around awhile and eventually asked a girl in a convenience ... read more

Belgrade - apart from a few perceptive pieces in the travel sections of the weekend broadsheet newspapers and a growing reputation amongst the dedicated followers of the club scene, it doesn’t usually get a glowing press. As a rule, it seems to suffer from the reputation which the previous tensions in the area brought about and unfortunately our visit coincided with some more international bad press after football related violence before a Europa League game in mid September and threatened violence around a subsequently banned civil rights march. I had read a number of pieces of travel literature and previous blogs on the subject of arrival at Nikola Tesla Airport, so along with the above reports fresh in mind and the warnings about over enthusiastic taxi touts it was with a bit of trepidation that we ... read more

The train you are on starts heading in the wrong direction;already an hour past its expected arrival time. You look up the menu to see what your options are-Meat..bread...Meat..bread... some cheese.....Meat..bread... You see buses with rosary beads hanging from the rear-view mirror and images of Jesus and the whole gang staring down at the vehicle's occupants.Gripping on to the seat in front of you, driver hooting his horn.. making yet another unsuccessful attempt at hurdling his way past a group of motorists;you start to think his fondness for all things religious, is less about faith and more about necessity- as he,and the rest of the crazy balkan drivers, need all the help they can get. Yes,I know,it's been awhile. Expensive internet cafes; overcoming 'bloggers block';trying to avoid the impatient glares of fellow travellers the second I ... read more

DAY 103 Flying to Belgrade this morning!! We are on our own for the next month. No more having to fit into other peoples schedules. We are up at 5:45 and leave the hotel at 7:00AM. We take the metro to the bus station. It's an hour ride to the airport. We are flying JAT airlines. This is the Serbian Airlines. We have no idea what to expect, but everything seems to be just like all the others. Going through security they pull out our water bottles and my hand cleanser that is 110 ml bottle, although is not full. They scrape off the price label to mind the # of ml, now this is being very conscientious. They fail to notice the 200ml bottle of sunscreen Angie had forgotten to put her in check bag.l ... read more