Djurdjevic - Personal Photos

January 23, 2011

Personal photos, September 2005

Serbia 2005

Cuprija, Nis, Mt. Kopaonik

SERBIA, Sep 14, 2005 - After two days of meetings in Belgrade, I decided to take two days off and travel to the interior of Serbia, heading for its highest mountain - Mt. Kopaonik. For those of you not familiar with the local geography, here's a map of my planned tour of Serbia.

But first, let me introduce you to my new wheels, a cute little Chevy Spark. Of course, the car rental agency tried to get me to take a bigger car. But after our troubles maneuvering a big car through Montenegro last summer, I've learned my lesson. So I kept asking them to show me smaller cars, until I finally saw the smallest they had - the little Sparky. :-) "That's the one I want," I said. It was also the cheapest, which didn't exactly thrill the salesman. But at least he made a sale, so he seemed happy.

My little Sparky is seen here in Cuprija, my first and unplanned stop, about two-thirds of the way between Belgrade and Nis. The reason I decided to take my coffee break here on the spur of the moment was that Cuprija was one of the Serbian towns I visited back in 1999 to survey and report on the civilian targets that NATO bombs had hit. Little did I know that I was there exactly six years ago to the day! (If you're interested in checking out my entire 1999 "Tour of Serbia," click here).

... and here it is the way it looked today... completely rebuilt and restored to its former function.

... and the way the site looks now, with a brand new apartment building erected on the site of the ruins.

Right next to that apartment building were some old modest homes. Atop the roof of one of them, a pussycat was giving herself a bath just as I was passing by. It reminded me of a pussycat I had left at home...

Nis is Serbia's third-largest city. But it was the first stop on my 1999 Tour of Serbia. I stopped here briefly today on my way to Mt. Kopaonik to say hi to some old friends who took this photo at the main city square, in front of the McDonald's arches, just as they did six years ago, after a TV interview that we filmed here.

Enroute from Nis to Kopaonik, in the middle of nowhere, suddenly I came across this pretty church. I snapped this shot as I was driving by.

A scene from my approach to Mt. Kopaonik that looked like an impressionist painting (sans the modern highway), thanks to a heavy haze in the air.

When I was last on Mt. Kopaonik (back in 1961), there was only one wooden cottage-style "mountain home" for the youth. I was stunned by the development and the many hotels that are now gracing the same spot. I had no idea which hotel to choose, so I walked into the local police station and asked the cops which hotel they considered the best. "The Grand, of course," one of them said. "Of course, the Grand," I replied smiling, assuming that the hotel's name must match its reputation.

By the time I made it to the Grand, the night was about to fall. So there was no time to take any more pictures today. But I was able to snap this shot of the map of the various ski runs that are all around me up here. When I checked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my Internet connection is working even up here, at the Rooftop of Serbia (Mt. Kopaonik is Serbia's highest mountain, as I said earlier). Furthermore, my American cell phone is also working amid all this wilderness. I was able to call my wife in Phoenix and had a nice chat. It just goes to show us how much technology has shrunk the world. And how much Serbia is now in the midst of it.

Thursday, Sep 15, started out with a very foggy and misty morning. With a light but steady drizzle coming done, it sure made one appreciate what it is like to live in a cloud, if not on cloud nine. :-)

But the wonderful sports facilities at the hotel Grand made up for the foul weather outsider. Besides this pretty pool, which looked so peaceful moments before I dove in, there is also a full-size basketball court and tons of other exercise equipment.