Fabian's Blog

After the sins of yesterday evening it was today time to clean the soul and ask forgiveness from God, so we went to one of the most beautifulest monasteries in Serbia: Жича/Žiča which is only a couple of kilometers from Kraljevo.Жича / Žiča is a very important place in Serbian history. It was built by the first King of Serbia, Stefan Nemanjic (the First-Crowned) in 1208. It was destroyed by the end of 13th century, but was rebuilt by King Stefan Milutin at the beginning of the 14th century.Žiča was by tradition royal church of Serbian kings, and although a king could be crowned in any Serbian church, he was never considered true king until he was anointed in Žiča.The red color of the exterior walls is a symbol of the blood of the martyrs of the early Christian church. I find this a really beautiful church /monastery, it is one of my favorites! When I visit Orthodox monasteries and churches I always get a beautiful feeling inside, it gives me a peaceful and calm feeling.Above and below the entrance of the beautiful church of Žiča/ Жича
So me and my friends asked forgiveness for our sins and after I bought my souvenirs it was time to go back to the “normal” world.

For more info look on their beautiful website (yes I could not believe it first!): http://www.zica.org.rs , a part is already in English, but most is in Serbian for the moment.

Yesterday I had a relaxing Sunday in Kraljevo with my friends. We were a bit tired, because Saturday we climbed Midžor/ Миџор, so we decided to relax. We slept out, had a good breakfast annex lunch and then we did some shopping. The have a huge supermarket here in Kraljevo, called Tempo and it is open 7 days in the week 24/24! This supermarket reminds me a bit to the huge supermarkets like Carrefour in France, unfortunately we don have such supermarkets in the Netherlands

After we did the shopping we walked a bit in the town: in the Balkans they have a habit that everybody walk in the main street from the beginning to the end and back. The latest gossips are shared and it functions also as a dating office We went to sit on a new roof terrace with a magic view on Kraljevo and the statue of Milutin, an unknown Serbian soldier.After we finished our drink we walked slowly back to our car, because this evening we would have a barbecue.We passed the archive of Kraljevo (below)….And the church (below)…..The preparations were done, so the barbecue could start. The picture below is very idyllic, but it was really the place were we spend a wonderful evening and night with eating, drinking, talking, more drinking, singing…..Yes this Serbia, where fun is easy to get 

Yesterday, 11th September I climbed Midžor/ Миџор with 2168 meters a.s.l. the highest peak of Serbia (if you do not include Kosovo). I went with my friend from Kraljevo to climb this mountain, but first we had to travel 270km to reach the starting point for the relatively easy climb to the top.Midžor is a peak of Stara Planina (Old mountain) and is on the border of Bulgaria, so it is in the East of Serbia. It is a very remote area and it looks like if you are traveling through a fairytale from a long time ago. But modern times also did arrived  here as we discovered in Babin Zub, a ski center under development with new ski-lifts for example.

After the usual preparations it was time for climbing, below a view on Midžor (the peak on the right) seen from the Babin Zub hotel annex ski-center (on 1758 meters a.s.l).Then we started to climb and of course I made a lot of pictures, which I will put later online, but I liked the one below, therefor I already placed it here.After 2 hours and 40 minutes we finally reached the top of Midžor, because it was not so hard at all to reach the top . On the Bulgarian side there were only clouds, but on the Serbian side there was of course sunce (=sun) The view was astonishing and breathtaking, because as you can see  it is a very beautiful area: it looks almost untouched by humans. The clouds rapidly moved, so in one minute you could be totally in the clouds, while the other minute you could see the sun again.

Of course we made a pictures with the the flags I carried (the Dutch one and an European one, since I hope Serbia will be soon accepted in the “European family”). On the foot of the stone on the peak (which is also the border stone) there was a guest book which we of course signed. Very funny detail: there was a cigarette in the box, for those who could have run out of cigarettes Yeah come on, this is the Balkans Unfortunately to all good things comes an end, because we had to descend to be before dark down. Below a very beautiful view into Serbia.And looking back one more time to Midžor, back in the clouds….

A last picture from the “roof of Srbija”….It was a very beautiful day, it always feels good to reach the top of a mountain Special thanks to my friend Darko, who was willing to drive more then 500km and to share this beautiful day with me.