“Serbia 🇷🇸 ~Drive Day From Ulica Gornja Bistrica to Vrnjacka Banja”

• August 5, 2020
• By Pen
• 2 Comments

Even though all the countries which make up the Balkans, at one time were a single large county of Yugoslavia, so far each and every country has been different from one another. There have been similarities, too, but not many. What seems familiar across the board are the beautiful forests, and mountains; plus multiple churches. Mostly, they have been rebuilt or repaired from after the war; though the architecture changes a little

Here in Serbia, from the West and Central to a more Southern reach, we find mostly rural countryside, with a large agricultural presence. We saw so many raspberry farms, we thought for sure, we would be in for a treat, again. But, there were no fruit stands along the road. What we did see, were many processing plants, so we figured the harvests are big business here, and sold to the plants in large quantities.

Many homes showcase beautiful potted plants and planters, bursting with flowers in front of their windows or balconies. Other homes have small tea gardens blooming with a myriad of spring and summer color. All the Balkans have some flowers in similar fashion, it’s just that we see more homes with this added flare, here in Serbia.

Masks are rarely seen, here, and not required. If we saw any, it was when we traveled through a sizeable city, for which there were only a few in our seven hour day. Aside from some very nice homes we have seen on our route, the bigger towns and the cities have a tired look, so far.

Most of what we want to see is up North; Belgrad and further. We think lodging will be easier to come by, when we get up there. As I mentioned before, here in Western and Central Serbia, the lack of hotels is not from closures, there just are not that many businesses for tourists, because it would appear not many tourists come to these parts. Yesterday, I thought for awhile, we might spend the night in the car. We finally found a hotel, but it was overpriced at 35 Euros. Daryl was not too keen on sleeping in the car, so we paid the price, as they would not barter.

This morning, we awoke to pouring down rain, with thunder and lightening. It is very early; just turning light, so we hope it will get it out of its system, before we hit the road, later. Yesterday we had clouds and small rain, so I was not too surprised.

We are only less than two hours to our destination, we set out for, yesterday (West to Southeast), so today we will enjoy a rather unique medieval site, and begin looking for lodging, earlier, so we can relax a bit, too. We have WIFI for the first time, since arriving in Serbia, so that is encouraging, but we were too tired to do much of anything, and went to bed early.

Here are photos from our day, yesterday. We take many side roads off the route, when we see a sign for something of interest, or, sometimes we see something on or route we must check out. We had an enjoyable day, though it was a long day in the car.

Now, for some random photos, from it drive, yesterday