Year: 2023

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!