Nis or how they do it in Serbia

Another crazy idea of mine - a short weekend in Serbia... Belgrade is too far from Sofia so decided to go to Nis which is 3 to 4 hours by bus depending on the time on the border. Matpu 96 is the only company that provides transport from Sofia to Serbia, not really my favourite as the buses are not the best and wifi never works. But again is the only one... Buses from Sofia live at 7.30 am and 4 pm and from Nis to Sofia at 3pm.

Nis is not really a very touristic place though they pride themselves on some attractions and monuments. One of them is the Skull Tower, located at the end of the city. The ticket costs 150 Serbian dinars (1€ is 115 dinars as of June 2014) but to be honest it is possible to get inside without tickets as the person at the gate did not even check them but just waved at us to go inside.

Inside this little church the remains of the Skull Tower (Cele Kula) which originally contained 952 skulls of Serbs killed in a battle near Nis but today there are only 58 skulls.

Another place worth a visit is the Nis Fortress on the bank of Nishava river with a lovely park inside.

Or if the weather is too hot to stay in the city, do not hesitate to visit Niska Banja, a suburbian town 5 km from Nis. A great shady park with some nice views over the hills and the city. There is a local bus number 1 which goes to Niska Banja from the center of Nis, it takes about 20 minutes to get there. The ticket is 80 dinars from the city center or 60 dinars from the Skull Tower.

This is something that I found really surprising, the cost of public transportation is relatively high compared to the price of food. And Serbian food is amazing and is absolutely worth the detour. For a sweet tooth try sladka pitka with cherry jam (home-made one), sort of a crêpe (but the dough is dry) with lots of cherry jam inside and some icing sugar. Is delicious and very filling (for 60 dinars only)!

And of course, the Serbian grill: 300 gr of pure meat grilled in front of you and put in a soft grilled bread accompanied by your choice of veggies and sauces (for those who love spicy, try home-made lutenitsa sauce). You can find all varieties of grilled meat: pork stuffed with cheese escalope made from ground pork (Gurmanska), ground pork mixed with veggies, chicken fillets, pieces of chicken fillets wrapped in bacon and all of them are yummy. The price for this type of sandwich goes from 170 to 270 dinars depending on the type of meat and the chain or stall. But frankly one sandwich is enough to fill you for at least half of the day or even the whole day. So if you are a food lover, do not miss on that!

There are of course other types of food available, like pizza or salads (Bulgarian shopska salad is very popular here too).

If you prefer a salty breakfast, try Mekeke - a huge fried bagette (30 dinars) to eat with a yourgurt.

Yes, food is amazingly cheap in Serbia as well as drinks in cafés. A cappucino is 100 dinars, Coke or Fanta is around 120 dinars and a beer is between 120 and 200 dinars but of course, cheaper in groceries.

Amazing thing in Nis is their ad system. Ads are attached to the tree and not just one tree but all the trees! It must definitely work as all the trees in the city are covered with ads :)

Yes, that's how they do it!

Another thing you should know if you are planning to travel to Nis, do it with your car if you have a possibility. Many of the places that might be interesting are outside Nis. I really wanted to see Vronksi Mausoleum inside the Holy Trinity church but it is located outside Nis... reachable with a bus though (as we were told at the hotel) but we didn't make it but I really hope you will!

Melnik, wine capital of Bulgaria

I'm quite ashamed of myself, I spent almost 2 weeks in Bulgaria and I only visit 2 places there. I wish I could stay longer in this lovely country. There are places that are all about tourist attractions, monuments, museums, sightseeing... And there are others with a soul so deep that you lose yourself in it. I think that this can be applied to the whole county in general but one place that touched my soul was Melnik. The trip there from Sofia takes about 4 hours, you change buses in Sandanski and from there to Melnik you get a small dusty minibus... so dusty that I was really happy it was only a 30 min ride and a shower is a must after. But when I got off in this tiny village of Melnik surrounded by pyramid mountains with a flat grassy top, I realised that was the place for me.

 There is only one street in Melnik, Melnik street which is hardly 1 km long. The air is fresh, the lanscape is beautiful, very few tourists, relaxed people. We stayed in Bolyarka hotel that we loved... A balcony, a fireplace and a bathtub... What not to love! They also have a hamman there. 

A short (15 min) hike to enjoy the view over the town...

Melnik is the wine capital of Bulgaria.  Surrounded by wineyards, every restaurant and possibly every  house in town makes its own wine. Young wine is sold everywhere in plastic bottles and costs around 3.6 lev per liter. But is still delicious and no headache the next day no matter how much you drink. In restaurants you can try a better quality wine which goes perfectly with home made food such as typical bulgarian sausage accompanied by Lutenitsa (typical spicy sauce) or again with the famous Shopska salad. If you want

some bread which you have to order on the side in Bulgaria,  ask to grill it. They add some slightly spicy sauce on the top, it's yummy.

You will also find a variety of home made jams, I really loved the plum one. Melnik is particularly famous for

its white jam but sadly I haven't tried it. May be you will :)

Yesterday was a long and a bit tiring day and at the end of it different thoughts were haunting my brain. 

I started talking with my boyfriend about passions. So it brought me to think about how much you are willing to give up if you really love something or someone for that matter. I do not knowif saying something or someone is appropriate as loving someone (like a mother loves her child) is something sostrong that people sacrifice their lives without a second thought. 

So let's talk about this "something" that I think everyone has in his or her life. It doesn't really matter what it is, it can be money, jewelry, cars or sport,board games, cooking. It is something you seize to exist without.

In my case, I was speaking about travelling.

Yes, I love travel, it is my passion that I discovered several years ago and cannot give it up. It's like a drug...

Oh, it reminds my of a conversation I had once... This guy told me that he was very passionate about online gamesand I asked why (for me it's a valid question as I was never attracted to it but really curious to know whatpeople find about it). He said that life online is so intense and exciting that the minute you pull out of 

it and get back to the reality, you feel like the whole world has stopped. Everything is so still, nothing 

moves, you feel paralized and deprived of any feeling.

This is exactly the way I feel about travelling. The minute I stop, I feel that I am being held inside this bubble  where life has frozen and time has stopped still. I sometimes feel that I need it like oxygen and it is hard to stay in one place or settle down for that matter. The second I do, my heart keeps calling me to go and see something else I have not seen on this earth yet.

But as much as I am passionate about it I managed to meet many other people who seem to love it much much more, immesurably.

All these people who quit their jobs and "normal" life (at least this concept of normality that is accepted in our society) and families and went thousands of miles away to brade dreadlocks on the beaches or make bracelets or work as a bar-tender on a beach in Cambodia. They don't seem to care about if they have enough money to buy food tomorrow or sometimes a place to sleep for the night but they always find a way. Many go through some rough times but they still persevere, they don't resign and go back to their parents crying for help, they are not complaining that life has been hard of them (well, may be some do, but most of the people I happened to meet, don't). So this brings me back to my initial question of how much people are willing to give up for something they truly love.