This weekend I thought why not explore Serbia a bit more! I'm staying in Belgrade, the capital, but for the weekend I went southeast by about three hours to explore Niš (pronounced Neesh). It's the third largest city in Serbia, after Belgrade and Novi Sad. It's a cool little city with a whole lot of history, so it was right up my alley! It was SO much fun to visit and I learned a lot too!
Niš was sprawled out over hills and valleys in all it's autumnal glory. The colors on the trees were so vibrant and varied that a good 50% of the pictures I took in Niš were just of leaves. Most all of the homes are nestled into the mountains and still use wood burning stoves to heat up, so my nose was met with the delightful scent of crisp mountain air and warm woodsmoke. The people were friendly, but I really had to exercise my Serbian, as less people spoke English here than in Belgrade. But part of the charm of Niš was that it was much less touristy and less fast-paced than the capital.
On Saturday I arrived at the bus station and walked straight to my hotel - the Tami Residence. If you ever find yourself in Niš, you've got to stay here. The service was great, the beds were comfy, and there was a hot tub AND a sauna! Needless to say I spent my Saturday enjoying all the luxuries my hotel had to offer and ending up at the hotel restaurant for a three course dinner. To start - Porcini mushroom soup with garlic and rosemary focaccia bread (personally, my favorite part of the meal). My rosé was really good, but not the best I've had so far in Serbia. Next, Niš is known for their meats on the grill, apparently they're the best here out of all of Serbia, so I ordered the Niš meatballs. They were in the shape of little donuts which cracked me up, but they were delicious! And for dessert I ordered some baklava to take back to my room. Because there's nothing better than baklava in bed while watching National Geographic in a hotel room.
I woke up promptly at 7am on Sunday and raced to my continental breakfast. Honestly not as good as some continental breakfasts that I've had in the past. It weirds me out when they try to serve me breakfast, like sir this is cereal I think I can pour my own milk thank you. But I suppose they're just trying to be super attentive. The coffee was excellent though and boy did I need it!
I checked out and got in a cab to Mediana, the first stop of the day. Mediana is an archeological site that used to be the home of Emperor Constantine and six of his heirs. The floors are all mosaics and the outline of the different rooms is still prevalent. Unfortunately I did not google it the night before, otherwise I would have seen that the site is under reconstruction until the end of 2021. So only saw the outskirts of it from behind the fence (below middle) which was a bummer, but later at the day when I went to the archaeological hall museum they had a lot of info about it and a miniature diorama of what it looks like! (below right)
So, stranded by my taxi driver at a closed tourist trap, I walk to the next spot on my list: Skull Tower. Skull Tower is quite literally a tower built from human skulls. And it has a rather dark history, as the name might suggest. In 1809 when the Ottomans were invading Serbia this tower was the site of the Battle of Cegar. The Serbian rebels were outnumbered and surrounded. Rebel commander Stevan Sinđelić knew that he and his soldiers were doomed so he set light to their powder magazine, essentially sacrificing himself and his soldiers while also bringing down quite a few Ottoman soldiers with them. The Ottoman governor, Hurshid Pasha, was enraged at the large loss of Ottoman soldiers. So he demanded that a tower be built out of the skulls of the Serbians to act as a warning and to incite fear in the rest of the population, hopefully to quell further rebellion. It actually had the opposite effect though on the resilient Serbs and it served as a symbol of martyrdom and independence from there on out. The French poet Lamartine even wrote about skull tower when he passed through Niš on his journeys.
"I set in the shades of the tower to take a rest. As I set down, I raised my head and looked at the monument in which shade I was sitting in, and I saw its walls for which it seemed to me to be made of marble or white stone to be actually made of layers of human skulls...[the] Serbian people had proud heart that could be torn, but not broken, just like one couldn’t break oak’s heart up in the mountain"
In 1892 after the Ottomans withdrew from Niš, they built a chapel around the remains of the tower to preserve the memory of resistance. The tower originally had 952 skulls embedded, but now only 58 remain. It was certainly an eerie sight, but definitely worthwhile. My ticket was only a buck fifty and the manager of the chapel was able to tell me the whole story and answer all my questions.
The rest of the day lightened up considerably after skull tower. Tinkers Alley was next on my list of places to check out! It was an adorable cobblestoned street, much like Skadarlija in Belgrade. However I was expecting tinkerers - like blacksmiths, clockmakers, tailors and woodworkers and people who, well, tinker. It was just a bunch of cafes and restaurants, but I'm not one to disagree with Fate's Journey. So I sat right on down and ordered myself a warm cup of tea while I mapped out where to go next!
The Archaeological Hall of the National Museum was just around the corner so that was obviously my next stop. It was small, but packed with information and cool displays that engaged the museum patron. Marble statues from the Roman times and coins from the Middle ages and more miniature dioramas than your heart could dream of! Definitely a must see if you ever find yourself in Niš.
I was making good time and didn't quite want to head to the fortress just yet so I enjoyed yet another cup of coffee on a restaurant/boat on the Nišava River and let my shoulders have a bit of a rest. Carrying my backpack around all day wasn't exactly ideal, but totally worth it in the end.
The fortress was massive - and now a giant park that the city of Niš enjoys. There are concerts there (including the famous Nišville Jazz Festival! I went to a dollar museum about the history of Jazz in Niš which was super cute, but about what you would expect from a dollar museum). There were also a ton of fun little archaeological sites that pop up all around the park and luckily the plaques beside them had English translations so I knew that I was standing in an ancient bathhouse or visiting the commanding headquarters or gun powder storage room! There were dogs everywhere and all they wanted to do was take a nap in the sunny piles of leaves. It warmed my heart until I stepped into a rather large pile of dog droppings. There were a few cafes in the park as well, which obviously meant that I stopped and enjoyed an ice cold coca cola!
There also were a ton of statues and monuments that the guide on my map said I should visit, and I did, but once you've seen one statue of a man riding a horse you've kind of seen them all.
In the end I managed to visit 8 out of the 11 recommended sites on my guide BUT the guide left out the Jazz Museum which was such a hidden gem and the river restaurant! I was absolutely wiped out on my bus back home to Belgrade. I happily read my kindle for three hours straight, thankful each moment that my backpack was off and that I bought a pair of ten dollar slippers for the ride back.
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