Category: Balkans

  • Warmth, Wine and the Road to Belgrade

    Warmth, Wine and the Road to Belgrade

    Gradac Monastery was beautiful. Not just because it was a lovely old building with a long and intriguing history, but also because it was 19 degrees with blue skies and a warm sun shining down on us But we couldn’t stay forever so eventually we dragged ourselves off our bench and back to BigMog. We…

  • Serbian Magic

    Serbian Magic

    We were determined to be hopeful – the first buds had started to appear on the ground and, whilst it had snowed yet again, it was thawing quickly and the sun was feeling distinctly warmer. We packed up after our peaceful night by the Roman palace and headed off to Lazar’s Cave. But when we…

  • The First Buds of Hope

    The First Buds of Hope

    Subotica Lake was pretty enough but not exactly the wilderness and the weather was not on our side. So after a quick walk around we headed off to the village of Novo Milosevo where there was a tractor museum. It seemed unusual to have a museum dedicated to tractors so we had to go and…

  • Beauty Amid Adversity

    Beauty Amid Adversity

    Fifteen monasteries into our sixteen monastery marathon and I had been struck down by some bug that had me unable to get out of bed and barely able to keep water down. We were parked outside the peaceful Grgeteg monastery and all I did for about 36 hours was sleep. But by 6am the next…

  • From Mountain Trails to Monastery Tales

    From Mountain Trails to Monastery Tales

    We had crossed the border into Serbia and our excitement at being in a new country shook off the gloom that had descended on us from the merciless weather and endless mechanical problems. We were not sure what we would find here. On the one hand, Serbia was the aggressor in the 1990s war and…

  • An Elemental Battle

    An Elemental Battle

    The taxi came to take us to the airport at 3:30am. We were heading back to arctic conditions in Sarajevo and had a strong sense of foreboding. As the aeroplane touched down our hearts sank, the whole city was covered in thick snow with biting winds and sleet that stung our eyes and froze our…

  • Sarajevo in the Snow

    Sarajevo in the Snow

    We were fuming. We had spent nearly two months running the gauntlet of the chaotic Italian roads and come out of it unscathed only to have a lorry take out our wing mirror on a quiet road in Bosnia. Whilst we could still drive with a broken mirror it was far from ideal so we…

  • A Winter Wonderland

    A Winter Wonderland

    We woke up early and looked outside at the forest around us. It was so beautiful we thought we would stay all day in the peace and quiet and get a few jobs done around the house But by 10am James had already fixed the front door and battery isolator and we weren’t sure what…

  • Three Snowmen and an Ice Queen

    Three Snowmen and an Ice Queen

    We woke up on our remote plain without a single other person in sight. It was bitterly cold as I did my training and I had been worried that the snow would come early, stranding us out there. But a couple of spots of rain were the only things coming down from the dark clouds.…

  • A Mog with a View

    A Mog with a View

    Just in case my last post left you in any doubt, we had fallen in love with Bosnia from the moment we crossed the border. The people were kind and friendly, the country oozed a sense of calm and we were surrounded by nature. We sank into an atmosphere of rest and relaxation that we…