A Relaxing Train Journey?

Rather than walk everywhere, we thought we would take a scenic train ride and relax….

We have a full day tour organised which will take us to the west of Serbia and through some of the mountains; Our guide, Constantine, is due to pick us up outside the Courtyard by Marriott at 8.05am, its just a few minutes walk from our hotel.

We enjoyed a reasonable breakfast, but didn’t want to eat too much given the bus journey ahead. Our bags were packed the previous night, we just had to pack the 3 litres of water that we had ready too. The weather was due to be scorching again but we were well prepared.

Our guide picked us up a few minutes after the time, and we took our seats in the small minibus; there was still one more stop to make to pick up a group of three Spanish women, two sat in the front and the other beside us. The initial drive was only 45 minutes, where we stopped at a petrol station to pick up a few more supplies. We offered to swap with the Spanish folk in the front so they could sit together and I’m really glad we did; the mountainous regions meant winding roads, and me getting travel sick really wasn’t an option. We then continued to our first stop which was a view point up a mountain; the view was beautiful, and we were inspired to buy some raspberry liqueur from a person selling beside the road. Just so you know, Serbia is one of the biggest exporters of raspberries, corn and plums in the world. We also used the toilet at the viewpoint which I definitely do not recommend, but I wont go into that!

This was only a short stop so it was time to get back in the van and head to our next stop, the House on the Dina River. The drive took us through one of Serbias five national parks, this one being the Tara National Park. The house, which sits on a stone in the middle of the Drina River, was originally built by a group of swimmers who needed shelter. It was built out of old bits and pieces, but as this started to become a twist attraction, the authorities decided to make a bit more of it. The house has apparently been rebuilt a number of times due to high water levels in the river, but it is used to this day by a company that provides water sports on the river. It’s quite a cool tourist attraction so we took a couple of pictures then continued on our way.

Our guide was starting to fret, as we needed to get to the Šargen Eight Railway for 1.30pm. Most things in Serbia run slightly late (according to him!), but not this railway. Thankfully, we arrived with enough time to buy a ticket and buy a takeaway sandwich from the restaurant beside the track. The sandwich was prosciutto with kajmak (kind of like cottage cheese) but it was more pitta like than bread. Iain and I ate ours as we had a little bit of time before getting on the train; our guide left and we thought we better take a seat in one of the carriages. Now, we had a great seat, until we were told to move to a different carriage. Turns out the number on the ticket signifies which carriage you are seated in, except there were no more seats left. Instead, we stood outside the carriage, along with the Spaniards and held on. To be fair, once we got moving, we at least had air whereas those in the carriage had nothing. 

The Šargan Eight Railway is a picturesque heritage line operating on narrow-gauge tracks. There are two routes but the route we are taking is 15.5km long line which twists and turns in the shape of the number eight and takes around 2.5 hours. As I said, we were standing all the time, but there are 4 stops which allow you to get out for 5 minutes and take photos at various viewpoints, and there is another stop where you can buy beer, or ice-cream in our case, and you get 30 minutes. The train journey was actually really good, its just the organisation and lack of  English could be improved. By the time we had reached the starting station, we had also finished the 3 litres of water we had brought with us!

Our Spanish Friends

We met the guide at the bottom and had one more stop; a very odd wooden village. The village was basically derelict and a movie producer called Emir Kusturica bought all the land, and turned it into a wooden village including hotel, hairdressers, bar, restaurant and even n orthodox church. It was quite beautiful, but also very weird. 

The Writers House - Dostoyevsky 

Uri Gagarin, Diego Maradona and Che Guevara

The village was the last stop of the tour, we now faced a 3 hour journey back to Belgrade, but at least there was a motorway for part of the way. Note, that the motorway is still being constructed by the Chinese, and there is a whole area where they have workshops and all the signage is Chinese. Anyway, the journey back was good, Iain and I talked with Constantine, mostly about football. He was a massive Partizan Belgrade fan, but also a Rangers fan so I was delighted. Apparently when Gordon Petric played for us (Rangers), that’s what made him choose us as his Scottish Team. 

We arrived back to Belgrade around 8pm and decided to find a restaurant, in fact any restaurant. The plan was to go to the area where we had eaten before, but as it was Friday night, the place was mental. Instead, we went to Adventure Belgrade, a little restaurant on a side street. It was also busy, but at least we could hear ourselves think.

Dinner was good, but we were exhausted, the heat is just energy sapping. We decided to go back the hotel so we were fresh for the tour the following day…..probably shouldn’t have opened the Raspberry Liqueur we bought!