2019
Belgrade was the starting point of our 3 month trip around Eastern Europe. We were aiming to visit every country that we hadn’t been to before, which were mostly the Balkan states. We booked a boat hotel in Belgrade which provided a firly unique start. We had decided to make use of free city tours as much as possible and these proved to be an efficient and cost effective way of getting an understanding of a new place. we visited the Tito museum to get an understanding of this major figure of the 20th century. Really interesting experience and amazing to see his collection of batons. After getting an early one as a gift all countries and organisations took to giving him the same. Below is a small selection.
We hired a car for a week so we could take in more of the country. Our route took in several very smart monasteries including Studenica pictured below and the impressive fortress of Petrovaradin in Novi Sad. We headed south to Novi Pasar which turned out to be quite unexpected. It is a heavily muslim area and it was Ramadan so restaurants were open at odd hours and a local newsagent was the only place selling wine. Still we survived.
For the last part of the visit we headed to the Zlatibor area for some walking in the National Park. Generally well marked trails with copious bear-related warning signs gave us a few nice walks but the weather was pretty awful with overnight snow and heavy rain.
A must-do activity here is a ride on the Sargans 8 tourist railway which we duly accomplished.
Another interesting trip here is to Drvengrad which is a small town that was built for a film and then kept in situ.
