Serbia

Amidst the Corona pandemic my son Levi and I traveled to Serbia for his first overseas adventure.

 

The plane there was nearly empty, perhaps 10 other people on board, so we received first class treatment from the flight crew and had lots of room to spread out. 

Upon arrival in Serbia, we were greeted by the apartment we rented owners son, who kindly drove us to the apartment. 

 

 

We spent day one exploring Kalemagdan Fortress, a place with amazing history, first constructed during Celtic times, it has seen many battles, lost countless lives, been destroyed and rebuilt many times over. Atila the Hun was here in 442 AD, that is over 1500 years before we walked in his footsteps.

What we see in the “White City” today was primarily built during the Ottoman/ Austro-Hungarian era. It is no surprise there are said to be spirits hanging around this fortress.

Belgrade became the capital of Serbia during the mid-19th century, and that of socialist Yugoslavia at the end of WWII in 1945, after being occupied for a time by Nazi Germany. Nazi occupation ended when partisan leader Tito, took office in what was then Yugoslavia, ruling for 35 years, and for a while even beyond his death in 1980. It is said that Tito became fed up with Stalin attempting to have him assassinated and as a result wrote openly, “Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.”

 

We toured the city, seeing all the different architecture, from ornate building to communist housing blocks, bombed buildings, we took a tour of the Tesla Museum learning about his life and accomplishments.

 Grave sites of Monastery founders

We were able to take a day trip to Novi Sad Serbia, the second largest city.  Stopping along the way at a Monastery We visited another fortress, learned the history of the city, visited a local winery, and had lunch, and got to know some locals, who were extremely friendly.

 

The Princess Painting

One day was spent touring the” Princess Ljuica’s residence. The   Residence of Princess Ljubica, was originally the home of the Serbian ruling family. Today, the residence is an exceptional museum, where you can wander the rooms at your own pace, and will be ushered downstairs to see a piece of artwork (after being instructed to leave all personal belongings upstairs). The painting along with its very large and serious Russian guard are the only things in a large underground room. Unless of course the Princess is still there admiring her belongings.

 

Of course no trip would be complete without finding the cemetery and spending an afternoon wandering among the ornate headstones.

Serbia was one of the friendlies places I have been, for being a war zone and living under communist rule, literally changing countries multiple times, I was so impressed. And it is very inexpensive, our driver was shocked and grateful over a 10 tip for meeting us late and bringing us to our apartment, then setting us up with a “Russian guard” he was a neighbor in the apartment building, the neighbors told him some Americans were coming and he said he would watch over us…True to his word, he was on the steps every evening when we came home, he never spoke to us, just nodded as we went in.

This is definitely a place to return to, great trip, lovely people, very good food, all at a fraction of the cost of other European Cities we have visited.