Travels with Kathryn

Yesterday (Saturday) we went on a day trip. I had booked a small group trip for my brother and I to visit the North of Serbia, in particular: Krusedol Monastery, Sremski Karlovci, Petrovaradin Fortress, and Novi Sad. It turns out our “group” was us, 3 Spaniards, the guide and the driver!

We drove for about an hour to Serbia’s biggest mountain, all 532m of it – this is considered to be a holy mountain for the Serbian Orthodox church and has no fewer than 16 monasteries. It’s very pretty so I can see what attracted the monks and nuns…

Our first stop was the Krusedol Monastery, which was built during the 16th century and today is home to 8 monks. I have not kept count of now many monestaries I have visited on this trip, but it has been a lot, however, what particularly appealed to me was peaking through the window to the monk’s dining room and lined up on the window sill was a selection of alcoholic beverages. These monks know how to live! Anyway, the main reason for this monestary being a stop on the tourist route is not for this fact, but for the heavily decorated church interior which, of ourse, one was not allowed to take photos of. What was lovely, especially for my atheist brother, was when the choir started to practice, which created a delightful atmosphere.

A short drive to our next stop, the small town of Sremski Karlovci. As soon as we left Belgrade and crossed the Sava/Danube, we are now in what used to be the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which means that the architecture is in this style which you can certainly tell from the photos below.

We had also stopped here to sample “Bermet” wine which is only made in this area, and was served on the Titanic. It is marketed as a sweet red desert wine, but is efectively mulled wine. My brother described it as “Christmas in a glass”. Even though I do not like red wine (and its a merlot grape), I did rather like this. I suspect it was the Christmassyness of it.

Next on to the Petrovaradin Fortress. This is a HUGE fortress complex on the Danube and is the largest on the entire river. Construction began in the 17th century, and it was finally finished in the 18th century. Although the views from its walls are amazing, we were effectively in a freezing cold wind tunnel so I was glad of The Goose (yes, the goosedown jacket which has been carried around since the beginning of the trip is finally coming into its own!). Whilst there are some buildings, what the fortress is really known for is the Exit Festival every July. I, not been a cool hip person, had not heard of it, but I have now Googled, and it really is pretty big, e.g., The Prodigy is headlinning next year.

Our main stop was the second largest city in Serbia, Novi Sad. This region was part of the Ottoman Empire and during the 17th century, Orthodox Christians were forbidden from living in Petrovaradin (where the fortress is) and therefore they started to build homes on the other side of the river – this became Novi Sad. As part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was granted the status of “free Royal city” in 1748. Today, it is considered the Serbian Capital of Culture (particularly in the late early 19th and early 20th century when it was home to many Serbian poets, writers, and jurists). The main centre has been completely restored and is incredibly pretty.

I then fed and watered James (he was getting ancy) including swapping the bagel he ordered (because it had mushrooms and egg in it) for the one I ordered (chicken and lettuce), and then some quiet time on the drive home.

We arrived back into Belgrade at around 4pm and headed out to a “traditional” restaurant for our last meal. I had soup, dropped my bread roll into it, and got it everywhere… This morning, I also struggled with my tea pot and splashed tea everywhere. At this rate, I will not be allowed to eat in public again!

This morning after pancakes (at least I didn’t get the chocolate and raspberry filling down myself) we were picked up in the sunshine (see below) and I was dropped off at the bus station with James continuing onto the airport for his flight home. Having been on my own for the trip since Istanbul, it was nice to have company, and I was working out that for almost all the rest of the trip I will have people to play with – I am looking forward to travelling with all of you (and am grateful for bringing me stuff!). I think James had a nice time, and he should be partically relieved that I didn’t suffocate him last night after the VERY LOUD snoring after he had been drinking wine…

Belgrade bus station gets a bad reputation which I do kind of understand, however, had done my research so did not even flinch at the need to buy a “platform ticket” to actually get on my bus. This is in addition to one’s actual bus ticket… Anyway, we should not hold this against Belgrade – I would absolutely recommend it to you for a weekend break as it is far nicer than its online write-up would have you believe and it has an incredibly interesting history we should all know more about. The only criticisms I shall make are: (i) public transport is dreadful. Its very slow buses and you can only buy tickets from about 3 places in the city, not anywhere silly like on the actual bus or at bus stops; and (ii) the food is very salty. Apparently this is a Serbian

I am going to be on this bus for 7.45hr, and I started writing this at hour 4, and we had just crossed the border. Marks are going to both the Serbian exit person and Bosnia Herzegovina entry person for applying appropriate pressure when stamping my passport. Hurrah.

Close to the border, the scenery in Bosnia Herzegovina looks very similar to that of Serbia. However, there does appear to have been more recent investment on the Bosnia Herzegovina side of the Drina river than the Serbian side. However, as I approached Sarajevo, I started to get the clear impression of arriving into a modern European city. However, this was not the impression of Sarajevo East Bus Station, which is a desolate outpost in the middle of nowhere! I asked at the counter where the nearest ATM was and was told it was 2km that way… Luckily, there were taxis, unluckily they could charge whatever they liked (as I only had euros) to get me into civilisation. I TMaP’d (could have been worse) and checked in to my delightful AirBnB, got my first load of laundry in the machine, and was very pleased that there was half a bag of pasta which meant I did not have to go out to find food. I then formulated my plan for tomorrow and off to bed…