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Bosnia and Serbia: two countries of the same Balkan medal

28 January 2025 • Travel time: with 06 January 2025 on 06 January 2025
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Two Balkan countries were the next victims of our passion for travel: Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Both states are not very popular among tourists; We decided to unite them into one tour.

They started from the capital of Bosnia - the cities of Sarajevo. EUROWINGS aircraft delivered us from Stuttgart to a local airport in an hour and a half. Just in case, we change 20 euros in local stamps there to calmly get to the center. The local currency is completely inconspicuous, and the paper seemed to be torn from the school notebook ...In general, only Cuban pesos (there is a blossom in general), and already Indian rupees compete with stamps in second place. Meanwhile, this is quite expensive money: 2 brands for 1 euros. Surely the brand is popular with counterfeiters.

 At the exit from the airport we were met by sunny weather and relative coolness.


A few days ago, frosts stood here and snow fell, but now the snowdrifts remained only in places where the wipers raked snow, but the puddle is more than enough.

The architecture of the building closest to the airport is a dull scoop with its Khrushchevs and Brezhnevs.  

At the fifteen minutes of walking there is a stop of a trolleybus, which should bring us to the center. One of them left right before our eyes, I had to wait for the next. While they were standing, they saw the locals. Dressed in Chinese winter jackets and down jackets, on the heads of often knitted hats. Something like this is dressed in winter in Russia, but we have already managed to wean from such warm clothes.

The next trolleybus came in 20 minutes. The ticket can be bought right from the driver for 1.80 stamps (90 eurocenters - very inexpensive). It seemed to me that many Sarahs simply ignored the fare, but we have never seen controllers.

Before the “center” (I take this word in quotation marks, since the historical center of the city is located on the eastern outskirts) we got long, for almost an hour. Firstly, traffic jams. Secondly, the city is “smeared” along its rivulet Milyatski, and the airport is located just in the West.

When we arrived at the final, “TRG Austria”, it was already getting dark. But before the apartments at Konak 3, we have only three minutes to go. At the closed entrance of the house, the scoreboard with the buttons of calls. It is not clear to us what to press, because nothing else stood in the address at the Buking. They pressed the first one, and almost immediately the hostess opened the door to us. It turns out that she owned the whole house and lived there herself. She led us to the room on the ground floor, briefly explained everything, showed, left the keys and retired.

So, our apartments: two rooms (living room and bedroom), a combined bathroom, a kitchen. Very spacious. For life, there is almost everything that is necessary, except that there is no microwave.

In the refrigerator, a bottle of wine, for some reason German.


And important: in winter, the apartment warms up well using electric heaters. I walked around the apartment in negligence; long -forgotten sensations in the middle of winter.

They dismantled things, and yet it’s too late, went to the city, change more money and buy something to eat.

Our apartments are located very close to the historical center of the city, which is mainly an oriental bazaar with a Balkan shade. It is enough to cross the bridge of a narrow river Milyatsk. In the bazaar are dozens, and maybe hundreds of stalls selling to everyone, from spillful spirits to Turkish and Bosnian sweets and souvenirs, chevapchik, drill and exchanged metabolic points. The courses in them do not differ much, but if you change a large amount, it is advisable to understand the intricacies of courses and related commissions.

Somewhere there is a commission, somewhere, but the course is lower ...In general, it is easier to ask the employee that I will receive for n euros or dollars.

With supermarkets in Bosnia, the situation is not very good. Most of what the locals call supermarkets are actually very close rooms the size of two or three rooms on the first floors of residential buildings. Real, spacious network institutions there once or twice were expected. This is mainly Mercator and with some stretch of Amko.

Product prices are approximately at the pan -European level. Something (chicken, bakery and fermented milk products) is cheaper, something (actually milk, chocolate, real juices are not nectars) more expensive.

As a “try” I took myself a Balkan specialty - Kaymak. In Kazakhstan, Kaimak is an almost complete analogue of sour cream, in Soviet times, on labels in the store, they wrote in two languages ​ ​ “sour cream/kaymak”. But I am already aware that the Balkan Kaimak is something else.

In general, this is a thick yellowish mass with the taste of oily cream. Kaymak is eaten, smearing on bread, but you can eat just like that, with a spoon. I believe this is an intermediate link between cream and butter. I personally liked it.  


In general, we had dinner, and on this our first day in Sarajevo ended. Before going to bed, they hung a little on the inhibited Internet and watched a TV in which there are two Russian -speaking channels among the five hundred channels: the American “present time” and the Ukrainian “Freedom”.   

In the morning we went to watch the city thoroughly. First, they climbed onto a low mountain on the northeast outskirts to the yellow bastion. I don’t know when it was yellow, and whether it was at all, but now it is a dilapidated structure of ordinary brick. He has not represented military value for a long time, but excellent views of the whole city are revealed from the bastion.  

And the very first thing that opens is endless cemeteries all over Sarayev.

Only a small part of them are capital official necropolises. The overwhelming majority are small burials of ten graves scattered along the alleys, boulevards and simply in the yards of houses. The sad legacy of the last war. Sarajevo was for a long time under the continuous shelling of the Serbian army, and Bo? The most of the dead are ordinary peaceful people. It was no one to organize mourning processions to the cemeteries, and it was dangerous, with the risk of increasing the number of corpses. Therefore, the dead were buried almost in the place of death, like a couple of years ago in Mariupol. And, obviously, due to strict Muslim rules that did not allow violation of the peace of the dead, even after the end of the war, the burial was not tolerated, turning into a local feature, which only tourists, but not townspeople pay attention to.  

We go down from the bastion and head to the caravanserau Morich Khan.

They built it already in the 16th century, he repeatedly burned down, but recovered again, and in the same form. By the standards of the Middle Ages, he was luxurious, but now it is just a bazaar -type building with a carpet store and any oriental junk for tourists. If I touched the “eastern jerk for tourists”, I will mention that the most interesting products of local artisans are copper utensils and coinage. In the manufacture of them, the Saraeans reached certain heights, and their copper dishes are quite beautiful and authentic. It’s only practical in modern life.  


The next point is the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Heart of Jesus. It was built, of course, during the Austrian occupation at the end of the 19th century in a neuromanic style. The main temple of the Bosnian Catholics. Western Christmas has already passed, but a festive decoration remained around the temple, since today is January 7, that is.

You can not play roulette with them, but go and buy “Sukha Meso” in a supermarket, everything is in order with the price tags.  

Next, we have a relatively long transition to the AWAZ Twist tower. For the European capital, perhaps this is not the largest skyscraper. But it must be borne in mind that, firstly, Sarajevo is located in a seismically active zone, and secondly, Bosnia is a rather poor state that has not yet fully recovered from the consequences of a brutal war (many houses are still visible from bullets and bullets and bullets are still visible. fragments). So the construction, in principle, a rather pretty 40-story 172-meter skyscraper was more likely a matter of honor than practical necessity.  

After the skyscraper, already located in the foothills, we return to the Milyatski Valley. We pass by the National Museum, buildings in the style of the Yugoslav neo -Empire. It is unlikely that we would find something original in this museum, having behind the back several best museums in the world.

We will not even try to waste time on him.  

It is better to go to the next attractions - the Festin's Bridge. The bridge is small, only 38 meters, but original: in the center it forms a loop, as if a pedestrian needs to go upside down to get to the other side. Very Instagram place.

And finally the last point, and again the bridge, Latin. He is either the oldest in Sarajevo, or one of. And this would be his only advantage if not for the tragedy that happened here. In the summer of 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand drove through the bridge in an open car. When he had already reached another shore, shots and Archduke were suddenly heard, and at the same time his wife was killed. The Serbian nationalist Gavrila was shot. It should be noted that he was excellent.


The pistols of those years were far from their striking characteristics from modern sniper rifles, but he managed to kill two people in a moving car in a distance of thirty meters in a few seconds. The principle was immediately seized and sentenced to life imprisonment, where he soon died of tuberculosis. And the orphaned Austria-Hungary nominated Serbia with a hard ultimatum of ten points. Serbia accepted almost all of them, except for one, the most humiliating: “To allow public services to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to cessation of any anti-Austrian activity to work in Serbia. ” And then the world war began, which has never been worse than which until then ...

Serbia, although it was first completely occupied, but according to the results of the war ended up in the camp of the winners.

The dead terrorist Gavril of the principle was appointed a Serbian hero, and in honor of him the Latin bridge was renamed. So he stood with a bridge of the principle, until Yugoslavia collapsed, and the new Bosnian authorities returned the original name to the bridge.  

Now next to this place is the Sarajevo 1878-1918 Museum (that is, the time when the city was under the Austrian occupation). Traces of the legs were allocated on the wall on the sidewalk: there was a principle at the time of shooting at the heir to the throne.  

Meanwhile, we already walked our appetite and decided to dine with local dishes. We went into the Chevapchikny “Kastel”. Actually, in addition to Chevapchichi, there was nothing more there. We made an order for two medium portions, each about five euros. We waited unexpectedly for a long time, about twenty minutes. I even went to check if we had forgotten about us, but I ran into a waiter who carried our order.  

This restaurant specializes in Chevapchichi in Banya-Lukski.

I don’t know if this is reflected in taste characteristics, but the form of the presentation was definitely non -standard: between the two cakes of hot freshly reduced bread were eight fragrant, juicy Chevapchich - purely meat “sausages”, seasoned with a special set of Balkan spices. And next to the slide of the chopped onion. Even now, from one memory, my saliva flowed. And how was it delicious then! . .

...the next day we decided to visit the local natural attraction: the waterfall of the gearbox, the second in height in Europe (the first is in Norway).  


It’s not so easy to get to him. First, after half a city you need to come to the stop of the SUPEK, from where the bus 69 leaves to the village of Nakorevo. He walks about every half an hour (the exact schedule is behind the cabin of the driver and on the Internet). It’s not long to go to the village, about half an hour, but almost all the time uphill.

From the village you should go along the highway for about an hour, again uphill, before the branch of the path leading directly to the waterfall. After the branch, there is a fascinating walk along the slope of steep mountains along a narrow passage. Now up and down. An hour and a half. In some places, very picturesque cliffs and third -rate waterfalls come across. Around the soul. That is, it is real, an hour and a half there and as much back - and we did not come across a single person!  

When we, already pretty tired, finally came to the point, we were rewarded with a magnificent sight: the waterfall really delights. And this is not a thin stream of water, as often happens with waterfalls, but a powerful stream that pulls the air masses with it and erupts them below, forming a rather strong wind, although complete calm reigns a little further. Falling water gives out a heavy noise, and spray forms something like a fog.

In summer, it would be possible to stand under the spray in the immediate vicinity of the waterfall, for this a special bridge was built there, but in winter the prospect of being under ice water seems unattractive.  

Fatigue is forgotten, we are admiring with admiration for this beauty, photograph and shoot the video. Enjoyed enough of the beautiful, finally turn around and go back. Now the thoughts come to my mind that we were still very lucky with the weather. The path along the mountains is sometimes almost completely covered with impassable snowdrifts, so that I had to walk only a trace, next to the last twenty centimeters that remained to a steep slope. The remnants of the snowdrifts that we saw in Sarajevo indicated that a few days ago there was heavy snowfall, which means that this path was completely covered with snow.  


In the end, I’ll say that the tourists who were here before, noted that if you do not go from the highway to the path, it will be a little easier to get to the waterfall, but you will find yourself at its upper point. However, the view from below is much more beautiful.  

The next day we were going to go to the Mostar. Initially, by train, because the Internet said that trains go back and forth every hour, and time on the road is only two hours. But when it came to a specific choice of time, it suddenly turned out that for an incomprehensible reason, almost all trains to the bridge were canceled; There was one evening train there and morning back. If on the contrary, then we would suit us. And so - I had to refuse a trip by rail and contact bus routes. Buses also go often, but go a little longer, two and a half hours.

Departure from the Central Bus Station, which is next to the railway station. We come there very in advance. We buy tickets “back and forth”.

The ticket is an incomprehensible garland from a cash tape, thirty -length centimeters, cut into several parts. Parts are interconnected only by a tiny unreasonable area, which gave rise to anxiety for its integrity in the coming hours. In principle, places are indicated on the ticket, but when landing, the conductor said that everyone could sit down where they want. And she tore off half a gyricland. By the way, the fears for the integrity of the garlands were justified, and by the time of landing on the return flight, one piece of the remains of my ticket fell off, but, thank God, this did not prevent me from returning back.  

Finally everyone sat down, and the bus started. For almost an hour, he played along Saraev’s cork, stopping at each pillar and picking up new fellow travelers. And then he burst into the suburban open spaces.

The guides are painted as “one of the most charming buildings in the city” in one person in one person, but it really is not easy to find out. The low house is completely hidden behind the stone wall, but we could not get inside.  


Directly to the famous bridge is adjacent to the old trade and tourist Bazar Kuyunzhiluk. Completely preserved its eastern atmosphere, it is very picturesque. Small shops offer an abundance of works of local artisans: from national clothes and jewelry from precious metals to copper coffee sets. Among them, Chevapchikny and Burechny flourish. In one of them, we ordered for ourselves the Burek - meat (essentially Cheburek) and cottage cheese. Both are quite tasty. While slowly walking, wiring the Bureks, the famous Mostarsky bridge appeared in all their glory. It lives much more pretty and elegant than in any picture: tall and humpbacked.

During the Bosnian war thirty years ago, he was destroyed during shelling, but with the establishment of peace it was rebuilt at the donations of European countries. And now he is quite deservedly luring the crowds of tourists. We must pay tribute to the local authorities. They did not build up the historical center of the city with Novodels, completely preserving the medieval aura of this place. So now, as before, the old stone bridge over the emerald Nerevy is crowned by a bridge, a pearl of Herzegovina.  

In the summer, local young people arrange an attraction for tourists here: they jump from a bridge to the river. And in winter they don’t jump ...I don’t know why ...

By the way, I was always interested in where Herzegovina itself is in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And only in the bridge I found out that here and around. And even in supermarkets on bags with a kaymak they proudly write: “Made in Herzegovina”.

But in general, in Herzegovin, despite the more or less Muslim bridge, the population is mainly Croatian, Catholic.  

We crossed the Nerevite bridge and approached another bridge, crooked. It is a strongly reduced copy of the main city bridge and connects the shores of the Radobes stream. As if replacing the big in case it is full of tourists, and you still need to take a photo for Instagram.

After that, we still have another fad for visiting: a sniper tower. Initially, in socialist times, it was a boring office building. But during the war he was chosen by snipers, since it was slightly higher than others, and the surroundings could be controlled from it. But the enemy in response subjected the tower to artillery shelling. The destruction was very serious, and after the war they decided not to restore the house, but simply abandoned.


But now he was chosen by street artists who covered the walls with their graffiti. Those who see these drawings write that they have artistic value. But since walking around the dilapidated building was unsafe, the authorities protected him and banned visits. Until the last, the guidebooks wrote that from the back of the fence tower, a tap-lip was made, and penetrating inside is not difficult. But we, bypassing the whole house, did not find the slightest slot through which we could go through.

Therefore, it is inconspicuous, we return back.  

In the bridge, as in Sarajevo, there are many street graves. Well, maybe a little less. The war here also made a lot of trouble.

Passing next to one little mosque, I decided to look inside. It is curious how it is there ...A neat such a mosque, repaired ...And inside ...inside the kids, they played football about ten years! I don’t know, maybe these are the children of the mullah and their friends?

They dumbfounded a little when he saw a foreigner at his “match”. But they politely greeted, asked where I came from, and then delicately stepped aside when I took off the decoration of the temple.  

The path to the bus station again lay past the large mosque of Karajozbeg. Now the prayer has already ended, the mosque has completely depopulated. I calmly entered (of course, having removed the shoes) and took a picture. Nothing special, modest, although not devoid of grace, decoration.  

We arrived at the bus station shortly before the departure. When the driver opened the door and began to launch passengers, it suddenly turned out that having a ticket, it turns out, was still not enough to take a place on the bus. The driver demanded a certain “print”. And the seal could only be obtained at the box office for an additional, albeit a small fee (something euro order). A very strange, just ridiculous system!  

But everything worked out well, we took places (although not the best) and set off on the return trip. And then a rain poured from a bucket! What a blessing that we managed to take a walk around the city in good weather.

They returned to Sarajevo already in the dark.  

The fourth and last day in Sarajevo spent relatively relaxed. We walked along the old streets, spent the remaining brands on all nonsense ...


But do many remember that Sarajevo is the capital of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games? I remember very well. In those years, during these games, the whole country stuck on TVs. We watched everything in a row: hockey, biathlon, figure skating ...So, not rich in historical events of the world's scale of Bosnia, still cultivates the theme of those Olympic Games.

There and there, on the streets, there are Olympic rings, visiting an abandoned Bobsley route belongs to popular tourist routes, and the talisman of the Olympiad, the wolf cub, is replicated on magnets, circles, pennants and decorative plates. One such vuchko, made of wires with LED bulbs, stood at the Alta Shopping Center shopping center; At night, against his background, it is good to take a selfie.

The next day we left Sarajevo. We bought bus tickets to Belgrade for two months on the Internet for about 60 euros for two. It seems to me that it would be cheaper on the spot, but there was a risk of being left without a ticket.

Buses travel to Belgrade from another station, which is located in the Republic of Serbian. The Republic of Serbian with the Republic of Serbia should not be confused. The second is an independent state that we go today. And the first is the federal republic within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovin.

When the world was established under the pressure of NATO in the country, the population was given the opportunity to choose in what autonomy they want to live (since no one wanted to coexist in a single state). Croats and Muslims/Bosniks chose the General Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bosnian Serbs chose to create their own Republic of Serbian. But the trouble is: the two parts of it, North and South turned out to be disconnected by the territory of the Big Federation. To resolve the situation, one district in the narrowest place between the two parts of the RS was declared a special “Brchko district” (by the name of the city in the area) under international administration. Now at the head of the district there is an American. Now the Serbs from one part of their autonomy can safely move to another, bypassing the hated federation.

The southern part of the Sarajevo is part of the Republic of Serbian, and it is there that the "Interch" ("Vostochny") with buses to Belgrade is located there.


The same trolleybus on which we arrived from the airport almost reaches the station. Almost - because he does not call on the territory of the RS, and we walk the last 200 meters. There is no border between parts of the country. Crossing the conditional line, which is carried out only on the map, can be absolutely without problems. Nevertheless, the border remained, and it is well felt when you leave the federation and find yourself in the republic. Firstly, suddenly the signs in the Latin were almost completely disappeared. Cyrillic reigns here. Secondly, not a single national Bosnian flag (yellow triangle on a blue background and several yellow stars) is not visible. Only the banner of the RS, repeating the flag of the state of Serbia, as they say, to the degree of mixing: red-blue-white. Thirdly, the mosques disappeared, of which there are a great many in Sarajevo.  

We came to the bus station too much in advance, so we had about an hour to walk around the environs. They looked at the Orthodox Church, not far from which there are monuments to the Serbs killed in that war. Graffiti on the same house: “Serbia is father, Russia - mother! "(I. e. , according to the version of the written, Serbia" has "Russia ??? )

We return to the bus station. Tickets, of course, were bought from us, but the strange experience of the bridge creates some concern: will they not pay something here? Suspicions intensified when we noticed that people were approaching the cash desk, show some pieces of paper (probably ticket printouts) and make payment. We approached the window and we asked if our ticket was enough. Of course not! The cashier says that for each ticket you still need to be paid one brand. We no longer had brands. We ask, is it possible to pay in the euro? Yes, you can, also 1 euro.

After the resort, they began to decline sharply, and soon the landscapes changed dramatically. There was no trace of snow, everywhere grass, the sun shines. We drove up to the picturesque Drin River. It is wide enough. It is a natural border between Bosnia and Serbia. We rode along the river for a long time until Drin crossed the cereal at the city, but at the same time the state border.  

It seems that they only overcame the line invented by people on the map, but in fact, everything changed at once “abroad”. There was no trace of the mountains and forests, and around there were solid fields, fields, fields and sometimes among the fields of the industrial zone. Let's just say that it was not as interesting to go through Serbia as in Bosnia.  

We arrived in Belgrade even a little earlier than they should. They fell a little at the bus station in search of the right trolley to the city center. Nice bonus: from January 1, public transport in Belgrade has become free for everyone.


So the city authorities want to transfer people to buses, trolleybuses and trams, unload traffic and improve ecology. It should be noted that with the latter in Belgrade serious problems: the city is one of the most environmentally unfavorable in Europe. But now this is the first city with the number of residents of more than half a million and free public transport.  

Several days spent in Belgrade showed us that the system of urban transport in it is very convenient. Cars walk one after another, clearly on the schedule, which is displayed on the scoreboard at each stop. You can get to any area quickly and simply. And now also for free.

In twenty minutes, we reached the Gundulich Boulevard, where our apartments were located. There were no housewives on the spot (we arrived earlier than expected), we had to urgently look for an unpacked Internet on the street and contact her.

Our German "lidl". Surprisingly, in Serbia “lidles” once more than our standard ones. But the main thing is that, as always, Lidla is a good choice and reasonable prices. We buy and return home to dinner and sleep.  

In the morning we went to inspect the city.

To begin with, we went to the far northern outskirts of the city, directly to the shore of the Danube to the abandoned towers of the Silos. Previously, grain was stored there, but then the grain ended, or the mice were bred, but the towers stopped used for their intended purpose. Street artists painted them with giant murals: mainly nature, flowers and women in various situations. Always win -win topics. Beautiful.

Then again there is a big transition for the sake of the main historical attraction of Belgrade: the fortress of Kaleydan.

The fortress was built in the 1st century by the Romans, then inherited the Byzantines in whom the fortress (and with it was the city) was squeezed out by medieval Hungarians, who gave it as a wedding gift to the Serbs when they married the heir to the Serbian Princess. Then the Turks captured the entire Serbian kingdom, they also gave the strengthening the modern name: “Kale Meydan” - “Fortress Square”. The fortress, like the whole of Belgrade, regularly destroyed to the base, but due to the favorable position (at the confluence of the Danube and Sava), it was restored again.  


Currently, the fortress walls are mainly rebuilt after the 2nd World War, when there was no longer the fortification meaning in them. Only for the sake of decorating the city and as a bait for tourists. From here, from 125-meter heights, beautiful views of the two main rivers of Serbia are opened: the already mentioned Danube and Sava.  

Inside the fortress there are interesting souvenir shops and a military museum, next to which there are guns, tanks and armored cars in the open air.

From Kaleydan we descend directly to the embankment of Sava, where the Serbian “cruiser” is parked - the Sava monitor. Monitors are a fashionable direction in military shipbuilding at the end of the 19th century. Smart heads came to the conclusion that huge ships towering over the water surface is an too attractive goal for enemy artillery. Would it be good? Leave the most minimum, leave the most minimum - captain’s cabin and guns. So the monitors appeared. By the beginning of the 20th century, they were mostly outdated, but still continued to serve. For example, in the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla. One of them, the “cheerful” monitor on July 26.1914, was instructed to take the first shots in the war, about the scale and death of which no one had yet guessed.

The ladies, the wives of Prince Mikhail Obrenovich, looked at the residence of the Princess. Interesting in this “palace” only that this is one of the few surviving buildings of the construction of the first half of the 19th century. In appearance - like the estate of the landowner of the middle hand somewhere in the Russian outback.  

From there we are heading to the street of Prince Michael. This is the central pedestrian trade and tourist street. Brand boutiques, shopping centers and restaurants. The street was still decorated with a Christmas-New Year's theme.  

The area of ​ ​ the republic could not really be considered. Half of it was forced by concert equipment, which closed the view of the National Museum and the horse statue of Prince Mikhail. Probably yesterday there was some idea.

Guidebooks recommend visiting the Belgrade Montmartre - the Scarlia quarter.


Like, romance, cobblestone bridge, art graffiti, the abode of bohemia ...But we were not impressed, unlike the original Montmartre. It is ordinary and too simple. But in the Scadaries we went to the restaurant of national cuisine “Hang”. I ordered Chorbu, and my wife is a mold. Chorba is a thick meat and potato soup with paprika. I liked it. One hundred? IT about 5 euros.

And the mold, which was also attached to the side dish, is a flat cutlet that taste reminiscent of Chevapchichi, which automatically makes it tasty. One hundred? IT approximately 12 euros. The euro was still worth hot bread in the form of a large lush cake.  

Saturating and gaining strength, we go to “finish” Belgrade.  

The building of the bought -out (parliament of Serbia). The facade is pretty pretty. But the most interesting is not in the building itself, but in sculptural compositions at the entrance. These are two pairs of “man and horse”. It would seem that it could be more innocent and romantic?

But the flight of the sculptor's fantasy made a unique somersault. Horses are on their hind legs, and people are under them. One person facing the horse, the second - backwards. The horse muzzles are upturned, and their mouths are somehow too voluptuously opened ...What did the author want to say? What did the architects think, installing this circus with horses near the government building of the European state, which, by the way, has strict Orthodox traditions? . .

The last point on this day is the Cathedral of St. Mark.   Orthodox churches in Serbia are quite significantly different from their Russian sisters. Rather, they continue the Byzantine tradition in architecture. Outwardly, this consists in the absence of “onions” and two-, or even three-color staining. Often such temples are not very different from Catholic.

The Church of St. Mark was erected in the first half of the 20th century as the main Orthodox church of the recently arising Balkan Tiger - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. This is a fairly high building, about 60 meters, painted in beige and red tones. Outside, it is more beautiful than inside. The interior is some kind of standard and boring, although there was a lot of money into decoration.  

At this, our acquaintance with Belgrade was mainly completed.


A new day is a new goal. Early in the morning we got on the bus and went out at the Belgrade Central Railway Station. Today we are going in the second most important city in Serbia - Novy Sad. The distance between them is small, the train goes only an hour, but the difference in appearance is very significant. The fact is that Belgrade first was under the Ottoman domination for a long time, and then became a South Slavic Orthodox city. The overwhelming number of temples there are Orthodox, respectively. Another thing is the Novy garden.

It was built in the 17th century by the Austrians to protect against the Turks. In the 18th century, the Austrian commander Evgeny Savoy won here one of his most brilliant victories over the Ottomans. And in 1914, the Casemates of the fortress contained under arrest the Austro-Hungarian non-commissioned officer Josip Broz on charges of inciting to the rebellion. However, the accusations could not be proved, and after 30 years, Josip, having annexed the partisan nickname Tito to his surname, led the most powerful Balkan power to Yugoslavia. In Sarajevo and Belgrade, magnets with a portrait of Tito and the comic signature “Yugo Boss” are sold.

The Petrovaradin fortress was preserved much better than Belgrade. Towers, bastions, redoubts - all in excellent condition. But even better, the views that open from the fortress to the city and to the Danube with its bridges.  

On one of these bridges, we go to the Novosti Garden.

We go to the center along a pedestrian tourist street Dunavsk.

As always, souvenir shops, ethnic shops, restaurants and fast food stalls stretch here here. Along the way, in neighboring alleys we visit the endless churches: the Almashka Church, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Church of St. George, the church of Peter and Paul ...Everything was already mixed up in the head, and to remember which one was and how it was different from others is decisively impossible.  

In the center, they had a bite of the bucks and continued the excursion. We approached the synagogue, which is probably the largest and most beautiful temple from the outside in Novy Sad. I wanted to look inside, but it has already become familiar that it was almost impossible to get into the European synagogues. Most likely, for idle walking for security reasons, they are almost always closed. And this one is no exception.

Finally, we approached the last point for today: Square of Freedom (“TRG Slobode”). There are old buildings, a town hall, statues.


But the real decoration of the area is the Catholic Cathedral of the Virgin Mary.  

That's it, it's time to return home. We decided to go from the Novyard Garden station. They were not too lazy to saw there for half an hour, and were brutally disappointed: the entire station was fenced with metal fences and clearly did not show signs of life. It was my puncture! Of course, it was necessary to remember that two or three months ago, a trumped collapsed at the station, burying a dozen people under him. However, it was somehow not expected that the entire station would be closed because of this.

But city buses continue to stop there. We ask one of the drivers how to get to Petrovaradin. He called us the number of the right route, and pretty soon we arrived at the station and an hour later in Belgrade.  

The next day we wanted to get out of nature.

But it turned out that near Belgrade there are almost no beautiful places that can be reached by public transport, and travel agencies that could offer organized excursions have not yet come across. Maybe they are not at all in such a country unusual for tourists?  

In general, we consulted with Chatgpt and decided to climb the mountain Alal, the highest point in the vicinity of the Serbian capital, with which magnificent views of the city are supposedly opened.

Special thanks to the bus message in Belgrade. On the Internet, it is very easy to choose a route with quick transfers, buses often, strictly on schedule and ...are completely free, as you probably already remembered.  

For about an hour we left to get from the house to the remote outskirts of Belgrade, from where the ascent began.  

At the stop, we were met by a pack of local mongrels containing 7 faces.


They met as their own: the tails were desperately twitched, joyful barking stunned, and there were even attempts to put the front paws on us from excess of feelings. The attempt was tactful (so as not to upset those who meet), but strongly rejected. However, the friends of a person were not at all upset. Moreover, it turned out that they decided to make us a company on the rise! In short, we began the ascent as part of a large and noisy group, like a gypsy camp.

The navigator led us upstairs by some wildest goat paths, which no one probably used it for a long time, they were so neglected. On the way, our psarny was dispersed through the thicket, then gathered again. Gradually, nevertheless, dog enthusiasm disappeared, they scattered more and more often, and gathered less and less, and only one dog, red and lame, devotedly reached us to the very top.  

ALALA - the mountain is low, only 511 meters above sea level, and two hundred meters over the surrounding plain. More amazing changes in nature with the rise. If initially a deciduous forest reigned, completely flying around for the winter, and therefore gray and boring, then it was replaced by beautiful coniferous trees, pines, ate and cypresses. Moreover, the plus temperature below went upstairs in a small minus. Small, but sufficient in order to fabul the freshly conquered snowballs to adorn these Christmas trees.  

The rise, although it was quite steep, but did not take so much time, forty minutes. We went through a small hotel in the style of the “Odmorishta” chalet, and from there to the top is completely a stone's throw. A pretty stone staircase leads to it, on both sides of which are the same snowy spruce.

At the highest point of the mountain there is a very beautiful memorial: a monument-muzole to an unknown soldier. It looks like a small ancient temple.


On a high pedestal consisting of five steps (according to the number of centuries spent by the Serbs under the Turkish yoke) there is a mausoleum built of massive blocks of gray-black stone, covered with a triangular roof. The through passage under the roof is guarded by eight caryatids, four at each entrance. They personify eight main ethnic groups of Yugoslavia: Bosniyka, Slovenca, Serbka, Montenegrin and others. Their faces have a neutral expression. Under the floor of the mausoleum is a sarcophagus with an unknown soldier who died in the First World War. In general, the monument is dedicated to all South Slavic soldiers who fell in the Balkan and First World War. Built in 1934 - 1938 on the site of the ruins of the ancient Serbian and Turkish fortress. The Mausoleum of the Persian king Kira was taken as a sample. The memorial was opened by the Yugoslav king Alexander.  

Leaving the Mausoleum, we walked still along the surrounding site, trying to look for Belgrade.

But - no chance. At the top there is a dense fog, because of which nothing is visible already in a hundred meters. But it was good to remove the spruce in the snow and the mausoleum. Later, looking at the photos, I noticed that those pictures in the fog look like black and white. As if the photographer specifically chose this mode, and even a little blurred (fog) the outlines of the mausoleum to give him a more severe and sad appearance, as in the picture of painters of the era of romanticism.  

In general, rarely what buildings from a relatively recent story can touch like this. Moreover, I had not heard anything about this memorial before.  

Tired of walking off -road, we decided to go down the serpentine of the highway. Not much below the top, the road led us to the Belgrade TV tower. They built it in the sixties. Height 205 meters. The highest building in the Balkans.

The Balkans are generally the largest temple. It seemed to be built in the image and likeness of Ayia-Sofia in Istanbul, but in my opinion it is still not quite similar to it. Meanwhile, is he above “Holy Sofia” and possesses Bo? a loser dome.  

They built it at the place of burning by the Turks of the relics of St. Savva, the main Serbian holy bishop. They began to build in 1935, but with the outbreak of World War II they suspended construction, and in socialist times they completely abandoned. So in the middle of the city, the vaginal walls stood, until in the late 80s the authorities again allocated funds to continue work. And still, the work dragged on for a long time ...Only the coverage of walls and domes took with mosaics for six years. Moreover, mare artists worked mainly for Gazprom’s money, which has a big business in Serbia.  

And in 2001 the temple was opened. The result of long -term construction is amazing. Usually Orthodox temples are boring for my taste, but not this one.


Spacious and very bright, he just shines from everywhere with his mosaics and surprisingly appropriate abundant gilding. And how many natural crafts are used there in the decoration!  

Silent chants are continuously broadcast, and also quite pleasant and not at all dreary. Such an unobtrusive background ...

Our journey basically ended on this. In the morning of the next day, we easily reached the Nikola Tesla Airport on buses with one transplant, went on border procedures and landed after almost two hours, at the Karlsruhe -Baden -Baden airport.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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Улица в Сараево на Рождество
Мечеть Гази Хусрев-бега или, как её называют в Сараево, Бегова мечеть – самый значительный архитектурный памятник османского периода в Боснии и Герцеговине. Построена она в 16-м веке на средства Гази Хусрев-бега. Хусрев-бег в 1521-41 годах был наместником султана в Боснии, и при нём Сараево достиг расцвета. Апофеозом славных деяний Хусрев-бега стало строительство огромной мечети в центре города.
Торговый центр в Сараево
По пути к водопаду Скакавац
По дороге на Мостар
Мостар на Неретве
В горах Боснии
Дрина
Дрина - естественная граница между Сербией и Боснией
Возле военного музея в крепости Калемегдан
Крепость Калемегдан
Церковь в Нови-Сад
Монитор
Ресторан
Народная Скупщина Сербии
В соборе святого Марка
Вид с Петровидинской крепости
В турситическом магазине Нови-Сада
Церковь в Нови-Саде
Храм святой Марии в Нови-Саде
На горе Авала
На горе Авала
Собор святого Савы
Собор святого Савы
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