Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serbia. Show all posts

04/06/2023

The HIVE Tour - Episode 13 - Goodbye Serbia

My time in Serbia is getting close to an end. After nearly 3 weeks here I only have two days left before I leave the country to enter Croatia. I must say at this point that I would have left a week earlier but as soon as I arrived at my AirBnB outside Belgrade I knew I should add a plus week of relaxation at this place. It was just what I needed at this time with a very generous courtyard to work on my bike if needed and you can check it out here in case you're looking for accommodation around this area (you can also check out the location of this post at the end). Aleksandra, the host, is as good as it gets.

So, the bad weather plus the rich content I have harvested during my visit around the area of Novi Sad (check previous episodes) obliged me to focus on cooking and resting. Speaking about the former, by pure luck I bought me some of the best mushrooms I've ever tried which contributed to a delicious dish together with bits of eggplant, all done in the oven escorted by mustard.
Simple and yummy:

The HIVE Tour - Episode 12 - From Novi Sad to Fruska Gora

My short visit to Novi Sad is over though I wish I had more time to dedicate but I have Fruska Gora ahead to explore in this dry parenthesis of rainy weather so that's all I can do at the moment. Don't misunderstand me, I can't complain when I ride on roads like the 119 heading West parallel to Danube river:

01/06/2023

The HIVE Tour - Episode 11 - Novi Sad, Serbia

I leave Petrovaradin behind (which I enjoyed so much as you can see in my previous episode) and walk down the cobblestone backstreets to make it to my bike.


It might look like Ireland but no, trust me, I'm still in Serbia:

26/05/2023

The HIVE Tour - Episode 9 - Riding from Belgrade to Sremski Karlovci

Motorcycles need fuel as humans need food right? Well, there are some rare exceptions like this electric one I saw today parked outside the supermarket:

And I was there not for sight seeing of course but to buy food. So, let's easily agree that we all need energy though in different forms so let's focus on how I will regain mine:

Do you know this guy above? Yep, it's your truly reflected on olive oil. The latter will help my food to not stick on the pan and prevent it from drying out.

Today the chef (me) has pork chops:

Not a vegeterian's party but wait for it my vegan friends, a few images later it's all nice and clean for you again to worth the wait.

It's all Serbian to me so I can't tell where this salt comes from but it tastes amazing:

To solve the dilemma of which vinegar to use I decide to put both:

All together give the following result:

I leave it like that for a couple of hours, basically cause that's all the time I have before going crazy hungry and put it in the oven. The latter does its usual job and...ready:

Turns out that the oven, nice and new as it looks, it didn't do exactly a "usual" job hence the right mid parts are a bit less done than all the rest, even though I put top and bottom on plus hot air. In any case, that's not even a first world problem in my book so it all end on my dish ready to be consumed:

Cooking is mainly for the lazy rainy days but on a rare dry one (still rains like crazy) I take the chance to ride North towards Novi Sad. The first km with Belgrade on my back the scenery is flat like most of the Voivodina region:

All good and fun until I come to a point where the road is closed with no early warning or suggestions for deviation. I see even locals surprised but the just make a U turn and leave. A good Samaritan, a local farmer, parks his tractor and comes to assist me as he sees that I am in obvious WTF state. To my surprise he speaks English so he tells me I have two choices. Either follow a gravel route next to the closed road or make a deviation East and then North through a bunch of towns to meet the road later again. I didn't see him pushing the gravel route scenario that much so tempting as it looked, follow his tarmac suggestions instead. Locals know better.
Most of the times at least.

So, since the 100 road is closed I go back to Stara Pazova and then take the road to Novi Karlovci planning to meet the 100 road again after Indija. Part of that deviation really felt like riding in India, especially during one narrow straight that could barely fit two cars and was full of all sorts of trouble one can find on tarmac. Potholes, bumps, you name them. At some point I have a white van tailgating me so in the absence of space I decide to go faster and leave him behind. I end up doing well beyond triple digits of km/h and he's still licking my ass. The scenario of me doing 150 km/h in order to keep a safe distance didn't look that attractive so I try to find some space to let him go. When I do so, for the rest of that part my front view was a white van basically flying over bumps as if it came out of a cartoon scene...

I'm back on the 100 again when right at the road that leads to Tsortanovci I see this church on my right:


You can't tell from a rough on board image but the golden tops of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene shine from miles away.

A stop here becomes a no brainer:


That thing looks as if they polish it on a daily basis!

For whom the bell tolls?


Hope not for me 🙂

Kinda impressed to see an outdoor place for the candles, we keep them indoors in Greece:

Back on the bike,

And back on the road 100 heading North:

I saw vehicles of the Serbian army on a daily basis while I was near Kosovo but I see some here too in the North as you can see. Hope it's a routine thing and not due to one more conflict.

I haven't seen many bikers in Serbia but all of them wave to other bikers like this guy:

Some more army later:

And here I am entering Sremski Karlovci:

The area around the local Palace is know to worth a visit hence I turn left there to see what is what and from the first looks I guess it really does:



I leave the bike in shade and decide to walk a bit around when a huge school group arrives which immediately stops any thought of queuing to enter any of the impressive bits around so I try to harvest what is easy and not time consuming as I have lots of other places to see later.

In the last on board image you saw part of the complex of the Orthodox Theological School of the Serbian Patriarch.

Here's some less rough images of those impressive buildings:







Of course the local Palace is no exception to the beauty and grace of the whole area here but that's the only images I manage without too much humanity before I hop on my saddle again:





Even the least important buildings still worth a bit of attention here:

Time to hit the road again, see you for more beauties on the next one!

17/05/2023

The HIVE Tour - Episode 6: Weather madness!



What I experience here in Serbia outside Belgrade is meteorological insanity and I could almost believe that it's just how things are here but locals tell me it's far from a typical Serbian May so I guess I'm lucky to experience a rarity.