Serbia: a great surprise ! We didn’t know what to expect. Are people distant or open minded and warmhearted ? Serbian people are very nice !
We traveled through the south of Serbia from Knjazevac to Novi Pazar to join Montenegro. The mountainous landscape are beautiful even if there is a lot of rubbish along the roads. Most of them are bottles but there are also many diapers. On the main roads near the cities we saw many dead animals: dogs, cats and others. About humans: there is a lot of tombstones.
On the road, every car horn us to say “move”, “be careful”, “hello” or “good luck”. In contrary of Romania and Bulgaria where there is still horses, here people use Gillet in their garden, in fields and on the roads. A towing can be connected on the tiller to carry many stuff. It’s very convenient !
In some towns there is an atmosphere of holidays. People are happy. In particular the kids who can buy candies in the street and have many entertainments: trampoline, carousel, small electric cars…
Oeufs de pâques
Serbian people are very welcoming and generous. When we asked for water to a family in a garden, we was invited to drink a coffee which has been accompanied by bier and Easter eggs (decorated boiled eggs) and finally the diner and food for the next breakfast. Some English, German, gestures and technology allow to communicate.
Then, thanks to the website warmshower, Stefan hosted us as kings. Thank you very much !
After the lunch in a small town an old man offered us food from the bakery. Finally, Dzenis and his mother opened their door when we was looking for a place to put our tent at thousand meters above sea level. The night was warmer.
All these meeting allowed us to exchange with Serbian people, to discover their life and their culture and to understand what are their objectives and their troubles in this country impacted by a relatively recent war.
Monastère de Zica
In Serbia we liked also beautiful orthodox churches and monasteries. We liked landscape and the pint of beer at less than one euro. We understand why the brass band “38 tonnes” come every year. We promised to come back later, maybe for the festival of Guca.