Days of Honey

Another day, another food festival!
This one named somewhat unimaginatively ‘’Days of Honey’’, is intended to promote... well, you guest it, honey.
It will last for three days, starting on the 17th October, and the location is town only a few dozen miles from Belgrade - Indjija. This little town in Fruska Gora range is by itself a pretty interesting place, being somewhat of a mini industrial Mecca inside Serbia, all thanks to its local government that has wisely offered a variety of Greenfield investments opportunities.
This place is definitely going places, no pun intended.


Having that in mind, I’m betting ‘’Days of Honey’’ will be a very meticulously organized event, and should at least prove interesting.
The main venue will be the town square, where the honey makers will present their products, and local art societies perform music and small-scale plays. Beside honey, there should be other kinds of honey-based products – I recommend you try Medovaca, a honey-infused schnapps drink. Personally, I prefer my spirit straight and cold, but Medovaca isn’t half bad, especially if you like sweet liquor.

This is chance to see a micro industrial boom town and try a lot of different honey flavours while drinking honey-schnapps – how bad could this half day visit be?

Devil’s Town

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk in Serbia about a place called Devil’s Town (Djavolja varos).
It’s a relatively small nature park, or nature monument, as defined by local law.
What is it exactly?
Well, simply put – a collection of weird rock formations. There are around 200 of them in Devil’s Town and they look like strange, elongated sculptures. Every one is really narrow and has a stone on its peak. They are created by erosion, and as I understand it, are somewhat of a geological rarity.
I never visited this place, or even heard about it till recently, but I’ll give it this: it sure looks like out of this world.


Devil’s Town became more famous when it entered the ‘’New wonders’’ competition, under the ‘’nature’’ section. Currently, it’s on the 24th place.
Generally, I’m always skeptical about any ‘’new and hip’’ tourist locations. Devil’s town it located in the southern Serbia, near the town of Kursumlija, so it’s not exactly very accessible because of the distance and road quality (except if you’re visiting Nis or some other southern city). For example, a one-day visit from Belgrade would take up around 10 hours just in transit.

Devil’s Town does look like it’s worth a visit, but don’t expect much more than what you have seen in the pictures.
Near-by Kursumlija has more tourist sites, so it’s probably best to incorporate Devil’s Town into a bigger sightseeing trip, just in case.

Belgrade air show

This is somewhat unexpected – Belgrade is going to host its first big air show.

Of course, there are periodical air shows all over the country, but this one sounds really big – around 40 aircraft and 60 pilots and skydivers are going to take part.

They will include the Serbian air force, national airline JAT, special airborne police units, private air companies and air sport societies. This will all take place on this Saturday, the 27 of September, starting at noon. The main spectator location will be the upper part of the Kalemegdan fortress (now really more of a park), located just next to the city center.

I’m not sure how will this air show stand up to similar events in the rest of Europe, but the idea is absolutely fabulous.
The Serbian capitol needs this kind of major public happenings for all ages, so if you’re in Belgrade or planning to come this weekend, I’m recommending you take a look to the sky from Kalemegdan.



The view should be interesting.

Update:

Yesterday, while practicing for the air show, one of the aircraft had a malfunction and crash-landed on the Belgrade airfield. Its pilot, Istvan Kanas a veteran instructor, has died in the accident.
The organizers decided to cancel the upcoming event because of this tragic development.

Vojvodinijada food festival

Vojvodina, the northern region of Serbia, has a very mixed ethnic background. During last 200 years, almost 20 different nationalities have migrated to this region. Naturally, they brought their own culture, and with it, cuisine.

‘’Vojvodinijada’’ intends to promote this fact.
Actually, this festival is organized like a ‘’best of’’ collection of several similar events that take place year round in several Vojvodina towns. Every one of them is centered on a particular dish or product, like cabbage stew or spicy sausages. Everything will be made on site (riverside resort called ‘’Dunavski salasi’’ located in the suburbs of Novi Sad) and following traditional recipes. Of course, local traditional music band and performers will also attend.


‘’Vojvodinijada’’ looks like nothing new – like all ‘’best of’’’, it’s better to visit one of the original festivals that revolve around just one food product. On the other hand, if you can make to one of those, this isn’t going to be bad, either.
Because I live in the region, I can tell you that the food will be slightly greasy, spicy, and mostly based on pork meat product. If you’re a vegetarian, run for your life.
But if you like me find those thing tasty, you should spend an hour or two there.
Just plan for a light dinner afterwards.

Fruska Gora – Petrovaradin Fortress

In my last post I mentioned that Exit music festival in Novi Sad takes place on a huge fortress complex. Well, that place is called Petrovaradin Fortress, and is probably the oldest constantly settled site in Vojvodina.
The original fort was built on a natural cliff extending from Fruska Gora, right next to the river Danube by local Pre-Celtic tribes around 3000 B.C. Although historians aren’t sure what was that village or small town like, they are certain it was a permanent, fortified settlement.

Those tribes were succeeded by the Romans, Hungarians, Turks and many other nations and, more importantly, armies. Current structure was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 18Th century, and hasn’t changed since then.
Today, Petrovaradin Fortress spreads for acres with an elaborate underground tunnel system that has 4 levels and combined length of 16 kilometers.

Fort lost its military purpose some 50 years ago, and now is completely transformed into a cultural destination.
It has a hotel, several restaurants with different themes (I recommend the one with Italian cuisine), two museums and dozens of galleries and painting studios. Because of its tranquility and picturesque scenery, a lot of people regularly spend a few hours every weekend there, relaxing and enjoying the grate view of Novi Sad and Fruska Gora.

Of course, if you like to go out and party, there are two big clubs on the fortress you shouldn’t miss out.
First one is called ‘’Museum’’ and is located right next to the hotel and the real natural history museum.
But the second one is far more interesting.


‘’Jelisavetin Bastion’’ was built right in the outer tunnels and has a big summer garden between the fortress walls.
Firs time I went there I was completely blown away – guests have to walk something like 100 meters through a tunnel network before they reach the club rooms – it was like an Indian Jones adventure and you should check it out, but not if you’re claustrophobic.

Exit festival is over!

And thank God for that.
One more day and my immune system would have completely shut down. But for me this festival was probably the best one in the last 5 years – all the fun and no fuss.

Exit is a music festival that started in Novi Sad in the year 2000. Since then it has grown to become the biggest event of that kind in the former Yugoslavia, and some say southeastern Europe. It takes place in the Petrovaradin fortress, a beautiful location on the Danube, just on the other side of Novi Sad city center.

I always attend, but this year was something special. The organization was best so far – no queuing, no big crowds, even on the main events. Also, around 50% of the visitors were from abroad, mostly UK, so this also gave it a great international flavor.

Performers I especial like were the N.E.R.D, Sham 69, Juliette and the licks and Tizzies, a small band of my friends that had it’s firs Exit show (I co/directed a lo-fi video for them, check it out on youtube). Between the main shows I chilled out on Reggae stage where dancefloor DJ and MC rocked all night long – this was a perfect combo for me.

I couldn’t attend the last day, so I missed The Sex Pistols and Hives, but so is life.

All in all, Exit festival didn’t let me down this year not one bit. I hope it will stay like this in the years to come, so you too can come and enjoy the good music vibes.

Cinema city Novi Sad

If you heard anything about the second largest city in Serbia, Novi Sad, it was probably because of Exit, the fastest growing music festival in Eastern Europe.
Although that sounds like some bad promotional slogan, it’s actually true.

But Exit starts in July.

Right now, Novi Sad is all about Cinema City - international film and new media festival.
What’s the connection? Both festivals are managed by the same team of young, experience people, with the backing of local and regional governments.
This is only the second annual Cinema City, but it has a lot of potential. There will be several projection locations – some indoor, and some under the open sky, right in the city center. Alongside those, experimental workshops, new media labs and of course, a lot of nightlife events (we never pass an opportunity to throw a good party) will take place.
The festival starts on the 14th of June, and will last another 7 days.
Check out more about Cinema City.


I know the festival is starting really soon, but if you’re in the region (Belgrade, possibly), you should come to Novi Sad at least for a day.
If you like movies and/or you like to go out and party, this is the best ticket in town.