Golubac Serbia and the Fortress

I’m sitting on the balcony of our apartment in Golubac. We are directly across the road from the Danube. Across the river are the low hills of Romania punctuated with a dozen or more tall wind turbines.

…I came inside when the guests next door came out to their balcony, separated from ours by a thin partition. These people talk loudly, smoke and both have hacking coughs. Their smoke drifts into ‘my’ space and I tighten. I tell myself to relax and ignore the smoke so I can continue sitting outside but another part of me says, ‘no! Go inside’ and points out that while the view is lovely  the smoke and the hacking and the cars driving by on the road below don’t make my discomfort worth staying outside….

Our apartment, in a three story house at the edge of town, is brand new. It has only been open a month and we are among their first guests. The southern roof is covered with solar panels. Everything is clean but at this price ($50/night) it is lacking amenities- no shampoo, only 1 roll of toilet paper, minimal kitchen supplies, no hooks to hang towels on, and the only decoration anywhere in the unit is one painting in the kitchen and one in the main room, the type you’d find in a motel. But it’s spacious, modern and comfortable aside from the smoke coming from the guests next door. And the view is lovely.

The drive from Belgrade took less than 2 hours. The road was fine but given it is the primary route to this area we had expected it to be wider and smoother. Silly us!

The town of Golubac has, according to the the internet, about 3000 people but its lack of ups ale tourist amenities and the shabby look of many of the shops and buildings make it feel smaller. Even though tourists come here to see the famous fort just up the road it does not have what western tourists might expect. The few markets are tiny. There are 8-10 restaurants but only one (where we ate last night) looks new or spruced up. We don’t mind any of this, we just find it interesting.

(I just met the owner of the place who came to take photos of our passports and collect his money. Joroš looks to be about 30 and wore an Izod polo shirt which fits with the large house next door that he said he lives in. Last night there was an Audi, a BMW and a Land-rover parked in the driveway. Joroš said he lived in Fairbanks in 2016 as part of a study-travel program and he flew in and out of Seattle to get there. He was friendly but subdued and asked if we needed anything and was quick to bring more t.p. when I asked for it. I suspect that the things we find lacking here are oversights rather than due to intentional stinginess. When I mentioned the smoke from the neighbors he said they had just checked out. Hooray! Jim suggested that Joroš secure the internet connection here and he seemed oblivious to the fact that that is standard everywhere).

I finally made a decision about where to go next and booked a place for 3 nights starting tomorrow on the edge of the city of Zajačar about 3 hours south of here. I had a hard time deciding where we should go next. Eastern Serbia is even less developed for tourists than the western part and there is no obvious road or route to follow. There are literally no highways nor even well developed primary roads. The primary roads are more like country roads we find in the US, but narrower and not as well maintained.

It’s partly cloudy today, mid 70’s, a pleasant day for a walk….

…

I’m sitting on the balcony after returning from our 6 mile round trip walk to the fort down the road from Golubac. I had read that the walk was dicey because the main road is narrow, curving and has little or no shoulder, but we did it anyway. If it wasn’t for needing to pay attention to the cars passing a couple feet away from us it would have been a nice walk. Actually it was a nice walk anyway, just not relaxing.

We reached the fort in just under an hour. It was a Hungarian fort at the time it is first mentioned in the 1330’s but was built by Serbs. The Ottomans and Hungary fought over it many times and it changed hands frequently between Turks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Serbs and Austrians. Prior to that there was a Roman settlement on the spot and remnants of buildings and other evidence of that culture were discovered in 2010 when work was done to renovate the fortress. 

It cost just under $10 each for us to get access to the middle towers. If we paid $5 more we could have accessed a couple other towers on the most difficult section of the cliff but we were satisfied with the middle option.  It was not busy when we arrived but when we were leaving a tour bus had arrived. I’m glad we went early.

The grounds are neatly kept, bathrooms clean and access to areas of the site is well coordinated. You have to sign a waiver to access the area we chose to go to and they check your footwear to be sure it is appropriate for climbing the metal grated stairs and steep stone paths. As is often the case, coming down was a bit more challenging than going up but neither was difficult for us. But it’s not a good option for people who are afraid of heights or have poor balance. Numerous signs around the grounds warn visitors about venomous snakes. We did not see any other than two small dead ones on the road during our walk home, but I kept

I’ve written about this before, but once again I had mixed feelings about exploring an old site that has been repaired and fortified for tourists. On the one hand it’s great to see a semblance of what this fort once looked like. And it’s fun to have relatively safe access up the cliff and into the towers. On the other hand I can’t help but feel a little… cheapened? Duped? Taken? Manipulated…? I can’t quite find the right words to describe my mixed feelings. But overall I found it interesting, fun and beautiful.

The only down side to the day is Jim’s lower guts were upset, and this evening he has a fever and aches. Hopefully he will get back to normal soon, and I will stay healthy, and we will be up for driving us to Zajaćar tomorrow. 

In addition to climbing steep stairs to reach the middle towers we also went into the museum which had on display various weapons, ammunition, chain mail bits and other objects found at the site. All in all it is an interesting site in a beautiful spot on the river, well worth visiting.

photos:

on the way to Golubac from Belgrade, View from our apartment, Golubac, Waterfront in Golubac where there were always dozens of people with poles set up, Almost to the fort-this was the most pedestrian friendly (short) section of our walk-most of the way had NO shoulder, the fort, Ceramic cannon balls, Jim trying to force down some soup and yummy bread, our apartment complete with solar panels which we are seeing more of each time we come here. (Wind turbines are across the river in Romania)