Unfamiliar face in a small town
As I was told, down the same street where the Green Wreath hotel was, there was the only working restaurant I could eat in. It was more like a fast-food stand, small, with a glass case, grill in the corner, three tables outdoors, and few insides. But they said the food was „the best in […]
Driving along Drina
When you go further towards the town of Mali Zvornik, that is when the river Drina starts to appear here and there. The road was obviously patched numerous times, making my French “lion” jounce. When you enter Mali Zvornik you begin to enjoy the view on your right. It seems as if the town’s buildings […]
Another Green Wreath
When arriving in Ljubovija town after a shortstop to Banja Koviljaca, the main thing to do was to find a place to stay. We were on the road all day long, tired of driving, of that rain drizzling along the way. The town was small and we did read about a “big old hotel” that […]
No sight of Drina yet
We got lost a bit, again, choosing „shortcuts“ rather than the regular road. It seems that Andrew Archibald Paton’s path wasn’t that clear either, even though he was „cruising“ the 19th century land on a horse. But he was surely astonished by the view of nature approaching Loznica: „Thick turf covered the pasture lands; the […]
Spa that heals
Wanted to visit Banja Koviljacha spa center, and this is a short reminder of a legend regarding the place – before we go through Loznica town in the next Glimpse and before we actually reach Banja Koviljacha. At the time of our journey, the Serbian government has already established the Asylum Center (in 2008) in […]
Frescoes in Tronosa monastery
„Officer persuaded me to take a Highland ramble into the Gutchevo range, and first visit Tronosha… Ascending rapidly, we were soon lost in the woods, catching only now and then a view of the golden plain through the dark green oaks and pines. For full three hours, our brilliant little party dashed uphill and down […]
Road around Loznica
On our way from Kaona Monastery, we didn’t go to the main road from Trshic village, since the town of Loznica iz only seven kilometers away – following some „shortcut“. But, what we didn’t know is that this road section was at the time utterly unusable. A lot of dirt or sand was it? It […]
History of Kaona monastery
„Through the richest land, forming part of the ancient banat of Matchva, which was in the earlier periods of Servian and Hungarian history so often a source of conflict and contention, we approached distant grey hills, which gradually rose from the horizon, and, losing their indistinctness, revealed a chain so charmingly accident, that I quickened […]
Sleeping ducks in Kaona
Even though our British diplomat didn’t get the chance to go to Kaona hill on the way to Loznica town, hidden by the forest and that curvy road that goes up and down, we were advised to make a quick stop at the Kaona Monastery. “Serene place”, they said, “beautiful temple in the middle of […]
Fortress overlooking Sava
On our way towards the Sava river, we passed by small craft stores and there were railway tracks as we were told (an old small train just went by!), and then the small intersection. It’s not possible to go to the shore just like that because there is no paved river bank. You don’t even […]
No Turkish coffee in Bair?
Different influences are still to be seen in Shabac: the downtown area has an old Austria-Hungarian charm, while small streets towards the Sava river kept the feel of the Orient. The town was under the rule of both throughout history. There on Sava bank, there lies the famous fortress. It dates back to the 15th […]
The first piano in Serbia
„Surrendering our horses to the care of the khan keeper, I proceeded to the konak, or government house, to present my letters. This proved to be a large building, in the style of Constantinople, which, with its line of bow windows, and kiosk-fashioned rooms, surmounted with projecting roofs, might have passed muster on the Bosphorus. […]
Road trip, wrong turn
So, let me just take a quick break here and tell you what happened on my way to Shabac, a town less than 90 kilometers to the west of Belgrade. I was driving and aware that I should be passing by another town by the name of Obrenovac. It’s almost a “straight line” on the […]
Playing pool in Šabac
“As if those small birds have sung to me: ‘Go ahead, traveler! Travel your fatherland! Sure it is small, but it’s also more magnificent than any large empire. The soil you are stepping on – it is not the earth, it is the soil soaked in the blood of your fathers and ancestors since only […]
Following Briton through Serbia
The first idea for this trip came from Andrew Archibald Paton, the 19th-century British diplomat, whose book I was fortunate to stumble upon in a local library one day. He was traveling through “Turkish lands” that, in those days, included vast parts of Serbia, still struggling with the feeble Ottoman Empire. Mr. Paton went from […]