Month: August 2023

Lothar and I left Zlatar in the morning, stopping in Nova Varoš for a last burek breakfast.

We took a stop in Zlatibor.  It’s a bigger town in the same mountain region, and much more touristy.  We ran into what looked like a summer camp event for kids.  There were hundreds of them, all wearing the same tshirts and they were from all over, and groups of them took turns on stage teaching everyone dances from their region.  They were having such a good time!  We saw Serbia, Egypt, Greece and Croatia dancing.

We walked around the lake and and enjoyed the fountains.

On the opposite side, we came across a crepe place!!  Lothar was very happy and got an ‘apple pie’ crepe. Mine was predictably caramel, with bananas and whipped cream, plus plazma cookie and oreo crumble.  I should not have finished all of it but I did.

Once we arrived at Dad’s apartment back in Balgrade, we decided we would walk along the river then find a place to have dinner. 

We walked a long way, met up with the Danube, then I remembered that we might be close to Zemun, the next town over, and I remembered visiting a tower there with great views.  We located the tower on the map, and this was our walk.

We found a stairway in the back streets that took us all the way up!  On the way we saw the market square and pedestrian only zones, shops and restaurants.  We earmarked one for the way back. 

The views from the tower were as great as expected. 

We walked back down a long cobble-stone street that I remembered. 

We found the restaurant ‘Veliki Trg’, and had a last great Serbian meal.  Lothar had grape vine leaf rolls, and I had chevaps with lepinja bread.  Excellent!

Well what a trip!!! We’ll definitely be coming back.

A few hilights from the trip back. We stayed overnight in New York before returning home.

After dinner, those of us so inclined, set out for a hike to the creek across the valley.  Our trail ended but we managed to backtrack and find where it continues back to the creek on the other side. 

This is the first half, ending with all of us at the turn-around point.

We went on, and were able to climb over the hill to rejoin the trail back home.  And we stopped in for ice cream at the little corner store for the kids before finishing.

Hiking Day

This was last day in Zlatar for Lothar and me, and designated Hiking day.  Some final shots around the house.

For breakfast, a neighbour made us her specialty pita with cheese and eggs.  How kind of her! 

Then we went off on our “first hike”.  We were prepared to do one across the valley from the house (a bit further than last night), then one or two more by car to nearby fortresses.  But the first hike took us 4 hours and 5 miles and goodness knows how much vertical distance, and we were DONE after that! 

Play the quick video to see just MY part of the hike. Lothar went further, and Simon went EVEN further, as you’ll see in the story.

We hiked to the hill across the valley, and got pics back to Dad’s cottage from the other side. 

Then Simon wanted to find the creek he saw on the map which was supposed to be just beyond the ridge.  We hiked on, but started splitting up, as not everyone was up for more climbing.  Kitch and Claira said they would wait for us at the bottom of a hill.  I went up with Simon and Lothar, but then we saw that the trail goes on and would circle back to the road at a different spot.  I was pretty wiped out, so volunteered to go back for them, and lead to the next rendezvous point. 

We successfully got together again, when Lothar and Simon told us there’s a trail up to a lookout not too much farther.  So we all agreed to go up there.  There was a nice little covered gezebo where we rested while Simon continued exploring on his own.  It wasn’t much of a lookout because the pine trees had grown so tall all around.  He came back after about 15 minutes and he too was exhausted. 

Then we began heading back.  On the way we passed the houses that we see across the valley, and the old lady that lives there came out and greeted us.  We told her who Dad was and she was delighted to meet us.  She was a bright spark, full of energy and stories.  She sent us on our way with many bags of vegetables picked right from her gardens.  Then she walked almost all the way down the hill with us before turning back, just to make sure we found the way! 

At the bottom we crossed a creek and the kids played around it for a while, so Simon’s search wasn’t in vain either, even if it was a different creek than the one he was trying to find.

When we finally got back, we had a huge appetite.  Kitch and kids went back to freshen up as did we on our side.  Then we drove (we were going to walk) to a lovely restaurant “Rival” nearby and enjoyed our last dinner all together. 

They only had crepes for dessert, so the consensus was to go to a place in town to another place for dessert.  It was nice, but they had everything except crepes, and Lothar had actually wanted them!!

Back at the house, Dad’s latest project, finishing this neat crossection of a large tree and adding a “stem” – it will hang on the outdoor wall as a Clover!

Lothar and I went into town in the morning, for burek of course. We discovered it was incredibly crowded because Monday is farmer’s market day! Wow. Everyone from the vicinity must have been there.

Šargan 8 Train! 

We all drove together to the main stop of the Šargan Eight train. It’s this cool old train track from the 1920s. It used to connect tiny villages but got canceled. Now, it’s been restored as an awesome ride through tunnels and mountains!

We strolled around the station, got ice cream, and checked out the train museum while we waited for the train to be ready to pull out of the station.

It doesn’t go very fast, so we were able to stand between trains, and essentially be outside while riding the train! The longest tunnel was 1.5 km, totally dark, and water dripped on us! 

We stopped at a number of cute train stations on the way back.

After we were done with the train, we stopped at the “Wooden villiage” on the hill.  We had a nice dessert there, but realized we were running out of time to get to the next fortress by 6pm closing time! So we rushed out. But you already know that story from the previous post. 🙂

Spa Day

Ran in the morning.  The power went out, so we got just warm water for showers. LOL

Kitch and family come over and we went into town for Burek breakfast.  They only had the meat type (rather than cheese), but we got 4 of them, and the yogurts, and everyone loved it.  We went back for some more desserts after.

Then we all went to a spa town for a spa day.  The natural springs are at 36.6 degrees C.  They had pools, hot tub, sauna, salt room, warm stone chairs and various areas to hang out.  That was a great time!  I had no bathing suit, but used my workout stuff.  Not ideal, but it worked.  The lockers were operated by bracelets they gave us, which also allowed you to purchase drinks and snacks, then you settle your tab when you leave. Brilliant and easy system!

The spring waters flow past the spa and through a monastery, so we visited that as well.

After that we drove back to Zlatar by the scenic route.  It was lovely, but very bumpy as they were working on the road in many places. 

We picked up chevaps and sausages at a butcher, where they also grill the meats for you!  We had arm wrestling battles while we waited. LOL

Brought that home, and Slavica had lepinje and salads ready to round out the meal.  We polished everything off again!

Over the next 2 days, we visited 2 fortresses and a monestary. I’ll put those together in one story.

We went for a run in the morning. Then I ran over to Maria’s place because we needed to let them know that we were gonna have crepes, and we wanted to make sure they didn’t have breakfast yet. We managed and had lovely crapes together with four different kinds of jam.

Monastary

Our first outing was to monastery that has nuns. It was very beautiful and scenic

We also explored over a small bridge that said “be careful the bridge is old and rotten” LOL But on the other side Simon found a little cave and nobody else was going there except us so that was really cool.

Fortress Adventure #1

We split up into two cars because some of us wanted to hike up to this fortress that we saw on top of a small mountain from the monastary, and some did not. It was Maria, me and the kids.

But somehow we went the wrong way. We misunderstood the directions Slavica told us, plus Google led us the same wrong way. We ended up driving on big rocks and Maria had to get out and guide me in between the rocks. Then we realized we’re going to have to leave the car there and walk, so to get back, we had to do something like a 20-point turn to get the car turned around and ready to go back out later.

We walked for a while, but we realized that we are actually on the wrong side of a gorge from the mountain with the fortress on it. Doh! But what we could see below the fortress was a whole bunch of caves in the side of the mountain facing us, with little wooden bridges connecting some of them! We were hopeful we could get to that somehow.

So we went back to the car and revisited Google satellite view. After a lot of poking around, we found a different path that we could take to the fortress. At this point, we knew the others had alread been at the restaurant for a while, but we couldn’t abandon our objective now!

We drove there on the new path, and yes, that was the right place because we found the church that we were able to see from the satellite view. And then we found the foot trail that leads up to the top.

The views from the top were awesome and it was actually a really fun climb and the ruins of the Fort were really great. It was actually like a bit of a castle because it had so many different walls. Both at the top and lower down, and there was a bit of a tower left standing as well.

By this time, we were being contacted by our fellow travelers who were waiting for us down at the restaurant. We managed to hike back down and drive back while they were still eating.

Dinner was at this really nice restaurant that also has its own fish farm and raises its own chickens, and other livestock as well. Really picturesque! The dinner was really terrific and our appetite was fierce after all that hiking and climbing!

Fortress Adventure #2

This was on the next day, but also a cool Fortress adventure.

Google took us wrong to get there again.  We ended up on some back roads asking directions.  We got to the foot of a path, and hiked up the hill like mad only to get to the actual parking lot for the fortress.  But the lady was still there, and they let us go in and to the top of the tower.  Whew!!

As always, the views from the top were fantastic, and with the sunset coming were even more stunning. Once we finished with the tower, they closed up and we could take our time around the rest of the ruins.

We finished that day too with a lovely dinner, this time by Slavica back at home. See the empty dishes? We all had such an appetite, that the food just disappeared! It was a full platter of amazing cabbage rolls, a pile of thin steaks, and a bowl of tomato and mixed salad. All gone!

Lothar and I started the day going into town for a Burek breakfast. He loved it as much as I do I think! So nice to be able to share that. 🙂 Then a little coffee shop after – the one that Dad likes to go to. I had a very nice Cranberry tea.

It was a big excursion day, revisiting one of my hilights from past visits: Uvac. It’s a beautiful winding canyon and nature reserve for the griffin vulture. There’s also a cave! This is what the river looks like.

Even before getting on our boat, we witnessed a sky full of birds. So many, and they’re not small either! The griffin vultures are hugely important because they get rid of dead animals, rather than hunting for prey. You’ll definitely need to zoom in to see them.

Here we all are, getting ready to board the river boat. We are by no means the only boat on the river. Many people come here to experience the beauty of the river canyon.

What a lovely ride! It was a pretty leisurely pace, with new beautiful vistas around every bend. Then we docked in the middle of nowhere!

Ah, this is when we go into the cave! It was cold, and remains unlit due to several species of blind fish and such. So we actually used a few flashlights and our phone flashlights to light our way. It gave it a real cave exploration feeling! Everyone loved it. The cave system actually goes on a lot further, but that’s where you’d start having to crawl through tight spaces to get further, so the tour turns back at that point. Then back out into the warm sun and the boat!

Onward through the winding canyon we went. There are places where you can stop and hike to the top, and we did just that on the way back. Here’s a longer hike that some take, which they said is 2 hours up to a villiage at the top.

Our hike took us up to some incredible views of the canyon. We took a nice break up there before heading back down. Simon took a swim in the river while we waited for everyone to return to the boat.

It was a nice ride back the rest of the way, then we just hung out around the area before heading home.

The next part of the trip is south in the Zlatar region where Dad and Slavica have 2 cottages.

But first, we ran a few errands… Pick up rental car, load up stuff to take from the apartment to the cottage, and go back to Ada to retrieve Claira’s lost sunglasses, and get another pair of close-up specs for Lothar. Amazingly, the lady at the bathing suit shop still had them, and she was real happy to get them back!

Then we went to have pork roast with crackling for a big lunch at Uželac before driving down to Zlatar. There was drama because we didn’t have a reservation and also no one could find it, and they circled round and round till they finally found it and we rejoined them there.

Then we drove the ~4 hours down to Zlatar. Claira was with us in the car. On the way we saw a perfect double rainbow! And of course nice countryside, tunnels, train, scenic villiages, steeples and fortresses.

And finally arrived at the cottages. Lothar and I are staying downstairs in the main cottage – here are some initial views.

Maria and family stayed at the second cottage – a cute little A frame. There’s a lot of those around. The kids had to fight over which bed they get upstairs.

It sure is a lot colder here!  We rearranged our furniture a bit on our side, and with the heater it’s quite cozy!

Easy Day

The next morning, the whole cottage lost power! LOL  It turned out to be our heater shorting out. Dad got it fixed.

We took an easy day.  A couple of walks around the area, and lots of sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view.  It’s so beautiful here. Dad has made amazing landscaping out what was just a hill, and Slavica has filled it all with flowers.

We hung around the house a lot, and enjoyed nice meals together.

We went for a walk to the top of our hill, where there’s a large center where people used to come to recuperate after heart surgery in the mountains. It has fitness trails all around it. It’s no longer in use though. There was also a zip line on the way, but we didn’t end up going.

Later we drove down into the little town nearby called “Nova Varoš”, and stopped by some vendor stalls at a nearby hotel too. They have “Kineska Robna Kuća”, which is like Chinese Warehouse. It’s like the dollar store!

What a lovely and relaxing day all together.

We mostly slept through the night and everyone made it nicely through the second day without anymore jet lag.

Ada Ciganlija

Took the bus to Ada!  This is the big long island in the river.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant there.  I guess we were hungry because not many picturess were taken! Simon has a big appetite these days, yes, those are both his plates!r

We walked along the beach after – I was able to walk on the pebbles! Last time we were here ~8 years ago, my feet were so tender and perhaps tight that it was too painful to lift one foot to take a step! Happy to see how far my foot health and strength have come.

Claira and Lothar bought a bathing suit, then joined Simon at the water obstacle course.  I didn’t bring a bathing suit, and didn’t feel like getting wet, so I watched with the other party poopers from the sideline. 🙂

We went to see Dad’s wedding tree – when they got married 10 years ago, they planted a tree! We were pretty sure we found the right one, but many of the plaques with the names had gone missing, so it was tricky!

We saw many things walking around the island. Lizard, dragon fly, kitten, pinecones that grow upward, plums, and an outdoor science park.  Claira’s dragon fly was dead but pretty and so we searched for things to use as a container to get it home.

It darkened quickly, and it was because of a fast-approaching rain cloud. We outran it, and made it to the Ada Mall, where everyone got to buy stuff we forgot to bring while it poured outside.  Lothar and I got the “eye art” done and ordered one to be printed. It’s a stylized close-up of each of our irises, edited together in one image.  Simon wanted to get one done too, so Lothar took a picture of his eye. LOL No, it wasn’t the same. We finished by sitting down for some drinks, then back to the apartment to refresh and prep and dinner.

Dinner was great, the restaurant was Kasina. I had this amazing sliced steak with cheeses and salad. Not typical Serbian, but really fine. And of course my Schweppes Bitter Lemon. We topped it off with ice cream at “Gram” which was right behind where we sat, so how could we not!

Run along the Danube

I went for a nice run along the river. I made a few wrong turns getting there, but once there, I ran out and back one way, then the same the other way. The temperature was wonderful once I got going. Cool at the start though! There’s a whole strip of restaurants there by the water.

I got myself a Burek on the way back. I’d been waiting for this moment!! Besides the lovely grilled meats like chevaps, Burek is probably the food I miss the most. I’ve tried to make it, but it’s very much a texture experience, and it’s very hard to get it perfect going from scratch. Yummmm!

Pančevo

Hunted for bus tickets so we could go to Pančevo.  It’s silly, but no one has paper tickets anymore. It’s all smartphone based, but it’s billed to your phone bill, so as visitors this is not an option. We finally found a kiosk that had some available. Wow! We almost went without tickets, because the fine is just $3 per person, and it started to seem like we would never be able to buy any!

Our first stop was lunch on an island, so we needed to get to the little water taxi to get us across. On the way, we walked along the Timur river, passed a playground, and I went on a see-saw with Simon, and Maria with Claira.  The water taxi took us to Shajka restaurant. 

We met up with Baka Tinka and family.  I had some nice sausages and Lothar liked my mustard so much that he asked for some for his (stuffed Pljeskavica) meal too. The Šopska salad became one of our staples, and the Lepinja bread was almost always hot and available.

After lunch, we went back to ‘the garden’ at their cottage for dessert and hanging out. 

They have a lovely long lot with pines that they planted together 50 years ago! 

They had 6 puppies there that they were feeding and trying to find homes for them.  The puppies ate, then kept falling asleep on people’s laps.  Mostly Claira’s. So cute!! 

We called aunt Lily on Skype and she was so happy to see all of us.

Eye Print Pickup

We slept in till 11!!  Oops!  We split up, since Lothar and I had to go pick up our Eye Print. It was a quaint little shop with World of Warcraft art on the walls.

Did some Walking around Belgrade, and got some Pogačice! Yumm! These I have made before, you just have to get your hands on some rendered pork. I also add parmesan cheese. I’ll have to try making them again after we get back home.

Church and Temple

Caught up with the others and saw St. Mark’s Church and St. Slava Temple. 

We walked past an exercise park on the way to the second temple, and had a go at some of the equipment.

St. Sava’s Temple. This one was actually built fairly recently. Very impressive considering typically modern buildings are a lot simpler and less decorated than the older ones.

Dad’s Place

In the afternoon, went to Dad’s apartment.  It’s on the 6th and top floor of their building. There’s no elevator, so it’s a good hike up to the top.

Both Dad and Slavica are huge collectors of interesting art, carvings, sculptures and antique items, so it’s like a little museum in there! And half of the apartment is in what used to be an attic, so the roofs are slanted, and there are sky lights in all those rooms. Very cute, but I can’t count the number of times I bumped my hair clip on the ceiling.

New Belgrade

We walked along the Danube there in New Belgrade, where there’s a small amusement park for kids. I loved the dragon on the little roller coaster.

Then we all had lovely dinner at Old Serbian House restaurant.  We had ‘Tele na saču’, which is veal cooked in a special pot that’s burried in coals.  It’s teh most tender thing, and the drippings go into potatoes under the meat. Wonderful soul food.

And that was our last night in Belgrade all together!