Thanks Dave, I seem to recall that I removed my pic from the scrapbook a while ago but may think about putting that one with Natasha in. And thank you Sue for the compliment, Natasha is of course the one that makes the picture look nice, not the newly forty year old man she is trying to escape from.
During my birthday dinner [I turned 40] my older brother in-law mentioned that he had some business to attend to in the Kosovo region and would only be gone for a day, as soon as I heard that I asked if I could come along, I was thinking of the danger aspect and looking forward to it. I`m a little stupid at times.
My wife was against the idea and so were her parents, I knew the area was dangerous but the adventure seemed to good to me to pass up. My older brother in-law agreed to let me tag along but his mother was argueing against it with him, I didn`t understand much of what was being said but Lily
translated the main points for me. Evidently her mother didn`t even want him going let alone me also as one of Lils uncles [fathers side] was on a KLA death list and if we were found by them we could be either killed or kidnapped and ransomed. All that risk simply fueled my desire to get out there and it was arranged that he should pick me up in two days time.
I was looking forward to the trip but conversations were happening in the household that put an end to it. I couldn`t very well argue that I should be going when the whole family had decided that I simply wasn`t! The older brother was feeling a little guilty about giving in and not taking me but I guess I would have been just an extra person he would have had to watch out for when it comes down to it. He went by himself but when he got back was keen to drive us to
anywhere in Serbia we wanted to go. I had read of an interesting church/ mausoleum near the town of Topola and it was decided that we should go there.
The drive to Topola was interesting and was mostly along one of the major north south highways, passing smaller towns and through the countryside. The approach to the mausoleum by-passed the centre of Topola and it was easy for us to navigate to our destination. After the car was parked and
Natasha secured in her stroller we walked through a tree lined avenue up the middle of acres of parkland and got lost, we really should follow posted directions sometimes but it was such a
beautiful place we enjoyed the longer walk. Eventually we got back on track and after having
drinks,icecreams and paying a small amount for tickets walked to the church of St. George. I took a photo of
this metal container near the entrance that had burning candles in it that seemed to form the shapes of people, if you check the pic out you can see priests and on the right what looks like images of people in hell to me.
From the
outside the church of St. George/Karadjordje mausoleum looked pretty impressive, but the interior was amazing.
This picture shows the area above the church door, it`s suppose to be depicting St. George slaying the dragon but the artist has placed King Petars head instead of that of St. George. Easy to imagine who the dragon represents when you know that King Petar lead a great rebellion against the Turks. The groundfloor level is the most beautifully "decorated" building I have seen to date, sadly I was advised that no photos were allowed and words fail me when trying to describe how I felt being in and looking around this church. I do recall that 15,000 different colours were used in the mosaics that covered the walls. A short walk downstairs revealed the royal family crypt, once again the walls were lined with colourful mosaics and a number of granite slabs with names and dates were laying in various niches. It was sad to note how many kids were buried there. The silence of the place was getting to Natasha and she broke it with yells every now and then,startling all inside.
We spent almost an hour looking around and then headed off a short distance to the museum. This is filled with personal objects belonging to King Peter Karadjordje. As there were no signs indicating no photos allowed here I snapped of a couple of quick ones before the caretaker walked in and
stopped me.
This picture is of one of the gifts presented to King Peter by the Jeruselum museum and shows a depiction on the last supper in oyster shell, I thought it might be of interest to Da Vinci Code readers, if you have read that book check out the photo and you`ll know what I mean.
The whole area has been overrun by the Turks a number of times and the buildings either destroyed or gutted then rebuilt, sadly the man that donated funds and land to build the church was beheaded and his head presented to the ruling Sultan.
At the entrance to this reserve there was an art gallery/museum which was worth the time we spent visiting it on the way out.
By afternoon we were getting both tired and hungary so we decided to have lunch in Topola. We were slightly side-tracked by my desire to purchase my father a bottle of red wine from this region[since Roman times wine has been produced here, though the muslims didn`t allow that during the times they were occupying the area] and we stopped at a small
vineyard to buy a bottle. I was given a great tour of the place and shown a small selection of their better wines to choose from.
Topola was a nice clean town with many parks but finding a traditional resturant took a long time. Many side-walk cafes and great number of shops along with the usual kiosks, parking was difficult but we did find a parking station that cost very little . The drive home was fast with few cars on the road and there was a great meal on the table for us when we walked in the door
Next......The trip home and the family member that rode for free.
Re: Off To Serbia
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