Niš Serbia

After one last coffee with Dragan we set off for Niš at around noon. I would have happily stayed a couple more days but we wanted to fit in visits to a few more places before going to Mojkovac next Friday to see Kristina’s parents. This trip continues to be very people oriented. I’m grateful we’ve been able to spend time with so many great people, but I am looking forward to staying at a couple places where we won’t be social. I love people and enjoy spending time with them, but when I don’t get enough quiet time alone I can get a little irritable. 

The winding and hilly road to Niš was in good shape and not too busy. We passed vast fields, forested hills and small mountains along the border with Bulgaria, as well as various (but not numerous) villages. We found our apartment in Niš with no trouble. Ours is a very new 3 story building and our host has only been renting this apartment for 2 months. Some of the plates still had price stickers on them.

Our host, Lidija, was friendly and polite but more business-like than personal. She grew up in Niš and works as an accountant (she had an itemized list of every object in the apartment, something we had never encountered before). After showing us around briefly she left us on our own. This one bedroom place is clean but small compared with our last place. It’s only a few buildings off a main street so it is pretty noisy it doesn’t bother me. There are tiny, shiny black bugs that come in through the open door, but they aren’t harmful, just creepy.

We walked a few blocks to a market to get more eggs, cheese, bread, etc. then ventured out again for dinner at a nearby restaurant. The food (the usual salads, chicken and potatoes), was good but not noteworthy. The walk along the main drag is interesting but not especially pleasant because of the chaotic traffic and stinky exhaust fumes. Crossing streets feels scary yet laws are strict here about stopping for pedestrians so generally even if cars are speeding toward you they will likely stop. 

Walking in Serbia in general and Niš in particular is interesting simply by virtue of it looking so different from what is familiar in America. In this part of town there are no chain stores, only small businesses and shops mostly in run down or poorly maintained buildings. Often shops’ products spill out onto the narrow sidewalks. The sidewalks also serve as parking areas. 

People of all ages walk and bike on the narrow, broken walkways, moving into the street when necessary to get around obstacles. 

Seeing signs written in Serbian is interesting too, especially the Cyrillic signs. I like seeing how much I can understand without looking up words on Google.

There are also large, abandoned buildings in and around every town and city. Factories, public buildings, apartment buildings, and buildings with no signs indicating what they were once used for sit forgotten. Many are covered with graffiti and the land around them is typically overgrown with tall weeds and often littered with trash. Plants and trees sprout from walls or inside those buildings with collapsed roofs. Sometimes only part of a building is derelict while other parts still used. 

As I’ve written before, buildings and houses are packed closer together than in most places in the States, yet even in the smallest yards and courtyards people tend flower and vegetable gardens. Streets are much narrower, and everything built according to a smaller scale. Shops and markets are packed full of stuff and aisles too small for two people to walk past each other without turning sideways. Cars and appliances are also smaller as are most living spaces. And way more people walk here than in America. 

Many people here have a ‘look’ to them that is different from how people look in the US. Part of this is due to hair, clothing and make-up differences. A lot of middle and older aged women dye their hair unnatural shades of red, orange and purple. Men and boys often wear track suits, t-shirts or nice casual shirts and often carry purses or small shoulder bags. I never see women in baseball caps nor many men either. Only students carry backpacks. Next to nobody wears the sort of outdoorsy hiking/active-wear that is common in the western US. Jim and I stand out here. But beyond the clothes there is something else I have yet to identify that contributes to people looking different here. I see it and feel it but can’t say what ‘it’ is. I am guessing that some of what I see in people’s faces and posture is history, both national and personal, carried by people here. I hope eventually to better identify and articulate what I see and sense. For now I continue to silently humbly respect people I meet and pass by whose lives have been much less easy and comfortable than mine. 

(I forgot to write that when we were with Zorica in Zajačar she said that for 5-6 years during the 90’s war they had to drive to Bulgaria to get basic food and staples because nothing was available in Zajačar due to the embargo against Serbia. It was a very hard time for everybody and most (not all) people we meet still hold a grudge against the US and NATO for bombing their country. Yet they like Americans, just not our leaders).

I didn’t sleep long enough but enjoyed the sounds of mourning doves and church bells the next morning. Shortly after getting up I got a note from Dragana, our Serbian teacher who lives in Niš, saying that she could not meet with us as planned on Saturday because she was leaving town for the weekend to visit her brother. Jim and I were a bit annoyed because the only reason we came to Niš was to see Dragana. I wrote back and said we were free all day (Friday) and if she had time for meeting for coffee to let us know. It turns out she had an atypical break in her day and said she could meet us at her favorite cafe on the grounds of the fort near the center of Niš.

The day was hot again, in the low to mid 90’s, but there are lots of trees within the fort grounds and we found a shady table at the cafe that serves the local hiking club. Dragana greeted us with hugs. She is in her early 30’s and is engaged to her high school sweetheart. She loves working for Serbonika because the owner and boss is very fair and pays her teachers well. Dragana also loves Psychology and hopes some day to combine her love for teaching language with Psychology.

She asked if we minded if she smoked and of course we said we did not. She will quit some day but not yet. We had a wide ranging conversation over the course of 90 minutes and enjoyed getting to know her better. We took photos together before we hugged again and parted ways.

The fort in Niš was built in the early 1700’s. There was a Roman city built there in the 1st century. Constantine the Great was born there. Now the area is a huge free park with numerous remnants of buildings and structures spanning 1900 years. It is free to roam about and we found it to be very pleasant with lots to look at. They also have an annual jazz festival there and call it Nišville (a play on Nashville). 

After meandering around the fort park we took a long hot walk through the center of Niš to get to the well-known ‘Skull Tower’. We liked Niš and wouldn’t mind spending more time there if we come again. There is a large pedestrian-only zone with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants, as well as numerous old buildings and structures scattered about. 

The skull tower was created in 1809 during the First Serbian Uprising. The Serb leader chose to blow himself, his men and the Ottomans up instead of letting his men be captured, killed and impaled by the Ottomans. The Turks placed the 958 skulls of the Serbian soldiers in the outer walls of a tall tower with the intention of disrespecting the dead and scaring the Serbs into submission. Instead the Serbs chose to see the tower as a reminder of their leader’s willingness to protect his men from being tortured and humiliated. Only 50+ skulls remain. It’s an eerie site. 

Between our walks to the Fort, the skull tower, home, and back out again to dinner at a (good) place on the other side of the river (concrete banks and slimy green stuff growing in the water that men fish in nonetheless) we put in nearly 8 miles of walking that day. We both ended up with headaches, probably from dehydration and so much time in the hot sun.

(Note- twice in this city of 300,000 we saw guys riding in a cart pulled by a horse down the city streets).

photos: on the way to Niš, our place (white building on right), our teacher Dragana, in the fort, Niš, Skull Tower, river in Niš, horse passing by our apartment.