A tour of Serbia

Let me say first that on various occasions I passed through this country before the break-up. Even within its present territory I passed through a few times before deciding to visit it. In particular I was several times in Belgrade and in its north-eastern area, in Pančevo and Vršac, to cross the border with Romania, a very poor area with countryside full of crows. The tour I describe was part of a wider journey also including Macedonia, Bulgaria, Northern Greece and Mount Athos (see the related trips). I began my tour entering with my Fiat Tipo from the Hungarian border at Kelebija. After giving a lift to a border policeman as far as Subotica, having bypassed the capital of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, and the Serbian capital, Belgrade, I reached Žiča, home to a modest church.

Continuing south I stopped at the Orthodox monastery of Studenica and then, passing through Novi Pazar, at the monastery of Sopoćani, where I slept and dined as a guest of the local monks. The following morning I could observe the strong contrast between this monastery set in a cold valley steeped in religiosity and the nearby Islamic city of Novi Pazar, where people crowd the markets and the minarets call the faithful to prayer. When I made this journey the war with Croatia had only recently ended and the Kosovo war had not yet begun. I left Serbia entering Montenegro (at the time of the trip part of the Yugoslav Federation) near the mountain town of Rožaje. From here I went to Kosovo (also, at the time of the trip, part of Yugoslavia as an autonomous region of Serbia). The trip presents nothing particularly remarkable although I enjoyed sleeping in the sober Orthodox monastery.

When I made the tour, between one war and the other, I found not a single tourist on my way. For Montenegro and Kosovo see the related tours.