We have now left Kragujevac to head across the border to Croatia and on to Pula, stopping at Beograd for a short visit on the way. Farewell Serbia, it really has been a wonderful five days. The first photo below shows our Tarara Folklore Ensemble, Nenad our teacher, Robert our trip leader and Bojan our guide and chief organiser during our time here in Serbia – Mara Blucher.
More about our location and our day
We left Kragujevac for a long bus journey to Pula. We passed from a lush fertile landscape to the coastal ‘karst’ landscape made of white rocks like limestone, with very thin soils. From crops such as sunflowers and corn we saw olive trees near the coast. Grapes were one thing in common to both places!
As we drove through Beograd we saw evidence of the bombing that had occured from the conflicts of the 1990s. Contrasted with that was a new development that is being built on the waterfront of the Danube River which flows through Beograd. It was interesting to note that Beograd is where the Sava River, that flows through Zagreb, meets the Danube.
Marilyn and Karen went exploring to find the Nikola Tesla statue sculpted by Marilyn’s great-uncle Frano Kršinić (1897–1982) who is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th century. He was born in Lumbarda in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the way back we discovered the Beograd Ethnographic Museum and enjoyed looking at a great collection of costumes from many different places.
The fort or old citadel (Upper and Lower Town) and Kalemegdan Park is on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube and is where the population all lived in the distant past. The first mention of a city existing here was when it was founded in the 3rd century BC as “Singidunum” by the Celtic tribe of Scordisci, who had defeated Thracian and Dacian tribes that previously lived in and around the fort.
We stopped at a great little pizza place with fascinating authentic old photos, artefacts and furniture decorating the place. All the way to Pula we enjoyed wonderful scenery, and arrived at our accommodation tired but excited for the next part of our journey.
