Serbia rushes to launch accession talks | EurActiv

Serbia rushes to launch accession talks | EurActiv

Balkan Beat Box "War Again"

Many places and 3 countries - Part I: Ohrid, Macedonia

                                                             Fija in action in the city center
 

                                                                          The fortress

                                                             Church of St John at Kaneo

I took my 3 weeks hollidays in September, when Cipriano came to visit me in Vranje. My initial idea was a bit too idealistic, as if I had forgotten the length of the Balkan trips by bus or train. In fact I had planned to make a tour of Serbia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia in less than 3 weeks, which could have been possible if we only wanted to spend one day in each place we wanted to visit. In the end we unfortunatly couldn't go neither to Bosnia nor to Montenegro.

A long week-end in Macedonia - Skopje and Ohrid

Ohrid is one of the places I've heard the most about during the summer. All my colleagues were constantly talking about how beautiful and nice Ohrid was. The truth is that it is in fact a beautiful place but, let's be honest, too perfect for tourists! I decided to keep this place for my vacation in September when that city wouldn't be so crowded and it was a good idea.
Once we arrived at the main bus station it was not hard to find taxi drivers waiting for you and appartment owners to offer the tourists a place to stay for more or less reasonable price.

In my case, I always tend to avoid taking a taxi. But that time was an exception and we accepted to be driven by a man who was shouting at potential customers just like the others. We were actually lucky because he was a honest taxi driver and moreover he was renting nice appartments for the tourists. I was quite sceptic about accepting to visit the appartment and I must confess I was scared of being cheated. Besides I knew that it shouldn't be difficult to find a room in a pension for less than 10 euros.
We were actually very surprised when we saw the nicely decorated and furnished little appartment for a very reasonable price. Our nice taxi driver succeeded in convincing us to accept his offer and stay there. The appartment was located 5 minutes walking from the center and 3 minutes from the walking zone by the river.

Ohrid is a perfect place for those who are looking for a nice and quite week-end under the sun, with beautiful nature, lake with clean and pure water, and an interesting past and history as it is visible by its monuments.
In order to know more about geography and history of Ohrid follow this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrid

                                                                   St. Panteleimon

Salvatore refugee camp (2nd part)- pictures

Uzice, Mokra Gora and the hitchhiking adventure!

                                                         A beautiful view from Mokra Gora

 

In Uzice

                                                                  House in Mokra Gora

                                                                 The Orthodox Church

                                                 Inside one of the houses, open to visitors

                                                  Guess who this is? No? Jonnhy Depp

Mokra Gora or one of the curiosities I wanted to discover for a long time! I still remember the first time I watched Black cat, White cat, the first Emir Kusturica's movy I have assisted to. Hilarious, original, funny and hors du commun. But where is this movy director from? oooh, from yugoslavia. Hmmm, but where exactly from Yugoslavia? (just a quick remark: there are still people thinking that Yugoslavia still exists as such in our marvellous developed Western European countries)... Anyway, a few years later I aknowledged that actually Emir Kusturica, born in Sarajevo in 1954 is from the country where I was going to live for more than half a year, the Republic of Serbia, part of the Former Yugoslavia . No way I could miss the village he contributed to develop and where he supported tourism.

Mokra Gora is one of the most touristic places I have visited in Serbia after Belgrade and Novi Sad. My friend Cristina and I decided to go on a new couchsurfing adventure in Uzice and to visit at the same time this wellknown village which had fed my curiousity during so many months. Mokra Gora, meaning Wet Mountain in English, is located a few kilometers far form Uzice in Western Serbia and is an atypical place to visit, with an atypical architecture style that you hardly can find anywhere else in the Balkans or even in the world (or it wouldn't have won a European Architecture Award from the Brussels Foundation for Architecture).

As someone wrote Between 1921 and 1974a little train gravitated through these mountains of West Serbia to link the Mokra Gora villages. This was also one of the main railway axes between Belgrade and Sarajevo. Thus it symbolised the connection between Serbia and Bosnia. But its particularity was the following: to overcome 300 meters difference in height between little stations Mokra Gora and Sargan the engineers had found out an ingenious system which was in realisation of not less than 22 tunnel on 15 kilometres distance on the rail in the form of figure eight, wherefrom the name "Sarganska Osmica" Thus, most foolish is that the station of Jatare became the only station in the world where, even if the train stopped at the fixed time every day, nobody bought a ticket an nobody came out of the train. One could challenge anybody by the question of wherefrom came the train and whereto it continued its way. In 1999 the inhabitants of this region cleared up the garbage on 10 kilometres long rails and the government decided to make a tourist circuit. You entered the carriages from the 1930 pulled by a steam engine. Along 15.5 km you breath the fresh air of the country in the wooden compartments or you go to an ancient minute wagon-restaurant. 

Emir Kusturica has arranged an ethno village here which is at the same time a cinema studio in the full nature. You may take a walk in a true village of a west Serbia such as it was in XIX century, with its houses of wood brought directly from the environment. The church, the library, the gallery of arts, the swimming pool and evidently a cinema theatre have been entirely integrated in the urbanisation and the architecture of the age. In the local "poslasticarnica" the Coca Cola has been substituted by the delicious "boza", sugared drink drunk in all pastry shops. 

During the same week-end we had the opportunity to walk around the city of Uzice. I wouldn't say that Uzice is such a special city to visit. One day is more than enough to see that place but I would say that the surroundings and the nature are amazing and deserve to be explored. Apart from Mokra Gora, there is Zlatibor mountain which is located not far from Uzice and which is one of the most well-known places for skying during the winter. It is very well preserved and arranged with all the necessary infrastructure to provide you with a nice skying time in Serbia.

I also remember we visited an enourmous cave digged into a big rocky mountain where used to live people hundreds of years ago. The temperature of  the cave is a huge contrast comparing to the outside. It is quite cold and can reach freezing temperatures during the winter. You can visit this cave with the explanations of a guide which I am not sure if he/she speaks English...

Before travelling to Uzice to meet our couchsurfing host, we had already been told that in Western Serbia it was quite popular to hitchike. Well, I must say it is VERY popular and easy to go anywhere in the neighbouring places. Even further... After having experienced hitch hike during the all week-end Cristina and me decided that we could go to Vranje (morethan 300 kilometers from Uzice) hitch hicking. It didn't take long for a truck to stop and take us to a next point where we did it again. I don't remember how many cars and trucks we've been in, but I can say that it was a lot. The interesting thing I noticed is one: only lonely men would stop (be it in their cars or in their trucks). No woman!!!

From the young Serbian student, to the Macedonian trucker and the Muslim husband cheating on his wife in Sarajevo, believe me that we had a very interesting trip... The only problem is that when we thought we would arrive faster to Vranje by hitch hiking than by bus, we were totally mistaken. In fact, our Macedonian driver decided he had to stop in a gas station where he had to wait for his friend for more than 1.30 hours. When we finally left again, a terrible car accident appeared in the middle of the road and we found ourselves blocked during another hour. We finally asked another driver (in a car that time) if he could take us to Vranje. And we were lucky because that driver was exactly going to Vranje. After 10 hours of trip from the center of Uzice we finally got home in Vranje and we couldn't believe it!!!