Serbia! Wine and Honey & Day 25!

I leave Novi Sad today for the final two days of my Balkans adventure.  The destination is Belgrade, capital of Serbia and once also capital of Yugoslavia, and the largest city in the country.  Before we arrive, we will be visiting a few sites.

The lovely village of Sremski Karlovci has flowers, 

 
 

colorful linden trees, 

 

and a stork’s nest on a chimney!  

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that storks spend the summer in different coastal areas in Croatia but also here in Serbia.  I’ve seen some nests on street lamps and chimneys but always from the car windows.  This time I grab a picture!

The public water fountain wasn’t needed by the time it was installed, but it is lovely on the square.  The lion heads spouts are Venician due to an Italian artist.

 

There is a prominent Serbian Orthodox monastery, and we see some of the young men, future priests and monks, dressed conservatively in white shirts and ties.  

As we enter the beautiful cathedral, I get chills.  Heavenly acapella music resonants throughout leading to a sense of calm and peace.  

Religious icons dominant surfaces especially at the front in shining gold frames.

Gold colored chandeliers and 

stain glass windows highlight different important figures in the Orthodox Church..  

 

Parishioners come in, touch their foreheads to an icon on a stand and cross themselves right to left instead of the Catholic left to right.

 

In the Orthodox faith, there are three doors at the front below the icons with the alter behind.  People stand for the hour-long service.  Priests must be married to receive an assignment to a church which is usually permanent.  Monks are not married and neither are nuns.

We have a lengthy discussion about the similarities and differences of the Catholic Church versus the Orthodox.  The Orthodox Church developed with a base in Constantinople and the  Catholic split off with its center in Rome.  It was a great discussion!

We walk up a village street and see a sign for cabbage which is currently in season.  $.49/ kilo converts to about $.49/2 lbs which explains the abundance of freshly grated cabbage we have eaten with meals.

The Museum of Beekeeping is located in the ancestral home of the original family member who developed an interest and then a love of bees.  

There are old hives, 

new frame hives, 

 

including one that he built as a replicate to the local Orthodox Church, 

and equipment for separating honey from the frame by centrifugal force.

The multi-generational family currently has 200 hives they maintain.


Down a few stone steps is the cool dark cellar where oak casks are filled with red wine.  

 

This is one of twenty-five wine producers in the area with 200 overall in the region.  Interestingly, a special mold grows on the walls and casks which is intrinsic to their wine production.  Hope no one has a mold allergy!

We sit for a morning honey and wine tasting.  The regular honey is slightly crystallized…but good, while the “medicinal honey”, mixed with royal jelly from the bees, is recommended everyday to maintain good health.  Man, could I have used this two weeks ago!

The third honey is mixed with sesame and is so unusual and delicious.  I think my neighbors, Kim and James, who are also beekeepers would love this!

We taste again and again with cheese and bread before being served four of their wines.  Of course, drinking at 11:00 AM!.

The first is a delightful light white wine which may have to come home with me, and I don’t especially like wine!  The second is a mixed red, then a pure red of a particular grape, and lastly, a beret, or sweet dessert wine.

I have drunk more alcohol on this trip than I have total in the past five years!

Time to leave the honey and wine behind as we head up Mt Fruska Gora to visit one of sixteen monasteries in the area.   

 

The building was destroyed and then restored several times.  Invaders would remove the metal roof which they used to make weapons of war, and left open to the elements, the inside of the building would be ruined by the weather.

Freshly painted frescoes line the walls and ceiling.

 

 

Dejan says anything less than 500 years old is “new” in Europe!

Lunch at “Forest Heaven” 

::

starts with a delicious thick veal soup and soft warm bread followed by freshly grated cabbage cole slaw as a salad and goulash…a thick veal stew and gravy…served over noodles.  Dessert deserves a picture!

A potato dough formed around a plum, baked, and served on a bed of sugar!

Serbian food is the best!  The Fearful Foursome agrees that our meals in Serbia have been more traditional Serbian dishes versus some of our meals on the main trip which were more generic.  Robyn describes those meals as “conference food” usually chicken with maybe a sauce.  Of course, it’s much easier to feed four people versus fifteen.

Ahhhh….a local insect called a stinky martin according to Damir.  I’ve been trying to capture a picture!  We just call them stink bugs!

 

Belgrade, known as the white city, is located at the confluence of the Daube and Sava rivers.  We have crossed these rivers multiple times as they meander through the Balkans.  The city is bustling with traffic and people, buses and trolleys, but no bicycles!

I settle into my room, set the code for the safe, reach in my purse for my passport…..and no passport pouch!  I search my purse again and dump everything out on the window ledge.  No passport!  I search my backpack once, twice, and dump everything out but no passport.

I am trying not to panic because I had it this morning leaving the hotel in Novi Sad.  Rather than carry it around with me to monasteries and other sites, I left the pouch along with several other items in the back seat of the van.  We are always told it is safe since the driver will be with the car.  Did I leave it in the van?  Kick it out getting in and out?  Stolen?

I run downstairs to catch our guide so he can call the van driver to search.  I left my black camera on a black seat in Albania once.  Janet “lost” her passport overnight when it was returned at a border crossing, and she put it in a different place than usual.  I had stuffed my pile of stuff from the car seat into my backpack, but I NEVER would put my passport in my backpack.  

I run back upstairs to search again and pray.  God knows where my passport is, and please let me find it!  Trying to be calm but searching frantically, I see my beige passport neck case in a back area of my backpack!  Thank you, Lord!  And never say never!

After a rest to lower my pulse rate, the foursome go exploring on the wide pedestrian malls looking at storefronts and restaurants.  Since it’s dinner time, we get the usual…ice cream!  As an nod to chef Bobby Flay, I get pistachio and also raspberry gelato.  The raspberry is divine, but Bobby, there are better flavors than pistachio!

Back at the hotel, we gather for more wine…Pam and Tom, and Coke Zero…Robyn and me.  Tom treats us to drinks, but then he can’t remember his room number!

We laugh and laugh since with so many hotels and room numbers I’m amazed when I remember my own.  My problem is waking up at night and wondering which way is the bathroom!

What do you call someone who speaks multiple languages?  Answer: a linguist.  What do you call someone who speaks two languages?  Answer: bilingual.   What do you call someone who speaks one language?  Answer: an American!

The joke is so often true, but not the finer point of our country.

I bought these hand-printed bookmarks at the print shop at Lake Bled.  For those of us with a love of travel and adventure, how true! 

Tomorrow is GJ’s last day in Belgrade, and then it’s goodbye to the Balkans, and hello Williamsburg!