The sun is up early today and basks my room in a glorious glow. So I roll over and cover my head with a pillow. It’s time. Not to get up; instead, it’s time to go home. In less than a week, I’ll be clutching my own pillow and soothing to the purring of a cat—my […]
It takes some water, toasted bread, and a few nibbles to recover from the night before and my hangover. There are two routes to Lake Ohrid, each about a three-hour ride. I plug the shortest into my GPS and bid my cat and friends at Royal Winery Queen Maria goodbye. Because of construction and lack […]
The last time I crossed the border and into Macedonia I came through Bulgaria. It was a grey, cold, and threatening rain. As with the Kosovo crossing, the Macedonia officers at that Bulgarian border station wouldn’t let me in without insurance. It was Sunday, and they suggested I wait a day or head south and […]
There’s some confusion about where to cross the border into Kosovo. “Google Maps and Apple Maps both show a route that would take me southeast to Skopje in Macedonia and then back north into Kosovo to Pristina. This makes no sense to me. There is a border crossing in Merdare, but locals here in Nis […]
I feel a youthful beat of energy as I wander the streets of Niš, the southern and third largest city in Serbia. The city is rooted in history, stretching back many millennia with influence from the Celts, Romans, Turks, and Austro-Hungarians. Early today, I uncovered some of these influences and history through Nis’s food and […]
This morning Natalija and I stroll through the city center to the Niš Fortress where we find a table under the trees at Caffe Pozornica near the amphitheater. It’s sunny, breezy and more and more people shuffle into the outdoor cafe as we sip our coffees. Moments later Predrag Jankovic joins us. Predrag owns this […]
I arrive into Niš, Serbia just as dusk disappears and streetlights illuminate the sidewalks and roads. Niš (pronounced like niche) with a population of just under 200,000, is Serbia’s third-largest city. Named after the Nišava River which winds its way through the city, Niš sits in southern Serbia and sits at the cross of the major […]
Riding through the bucolic Serbian countryside, crossing rivers, flanking mountains, and drifting across valleys, it takes just over two hours to ride to Aleksandrovac. The small city is nestled into the hills which today are showing beautiful fall colors of orange, yellow and red. As I get closer to the city center, I smell the unmistakable […]
I ride just over an hour, and after crossing the great Morava River, I get closer to my next destination Virtus Winery outside the town of Svilajnac, southeast of Despotika, near Vitezevo, a small village named after the medieval knights who there prepared to battle the Ottoman Turks—Vitez is the Serbian word for knight. I’m […]
It’s brisk and sunny when I roll out of the Hotel Majestic garage. I’m heading south and will explore some of Serbia’s central wine region, then spend a day in Zupa in the south, before ending up in Nis, Serbia’s third-largest city. After about thirty minutes of riding the main A1 toll road, I dip […]
