Ahhhh. We are sitting in out 'apartment just out of Smederevo, south of the Danube in the Serbian Banat. We had a wonderful dinner at the neighbouring restaurant and we are well fed and far more relaxed than yesterday at this time. Our dinner did not begin well; as we sat down on our table, a little cockroach welcomed us as it hurried across the white tablecloth. For a few moments, we were not sure eating was possible, but we chose another table, looked at the menu, and felt too tired to get into the car to search for another place to eat. So far, we have been impressed with how clean everything has been, throughout Austria of course, and Hungary and Romania....
We pulled ourselves together, drank two bottles of water, tried to read the menu, and chose a Serbian salad (hot hot hot with peppers!), a delicious fish soup and local catfish. Everything was tasty and the warm flatbread covered with sesame seeds pulled the meal together. We ate every bit, and forgot about our introduction. We had no dinars, and credit was not accepted, but 13 euros was all that we needed. I now have 500 dinars!
The countryside is spectacular. Watching the sun set over the endless fields in the Rumanian Banat yesterday was punctuated with wonderfully kept colorful villages with cookie cutter houses. The villages in Serbia are not as well kept, but the evidence of the Hapsburg town planning is in evidence. The avenues are wide, with a grassy area in front of the houses, trees planted along the main roads, gated courtyards, pillared open air spaces, brightly painted stucco walls. In the Donauschwaben museum in Branau, the posters that the Hapsburgs printed to attract settlers described the homes the emigrants would have, along with cows and pigs and horses and all that would be necessary to start a new life in the Banat and the Batschka. It was not difficult to imagine the attraction for the settlers. I understand that the land was marshy and difficult to farm initially and that first generation struggled when they arrived, but by the time the Richters arrived, the land was well managed, and the family was comfortable.
The land is flat. The fields stretch out forever with striking skies and soothing shades of yellow and green. Sunflowers, hay, and corn appear to be the most common crops. In the villages, cows munch away in front of the houses, there are flocks of sheep with shepherds, lots of people on bicycles in the towns. Storks have nests in each town and it seemed that they were in their nests feeding their young.
The skies are endless with clouds and striking colours, and unbelievable sunsets (we missed the sunrise!). We were far too late leaving Timisoara to visit Otelec (Johannesfeld) southwards. That is where my father's aunt and uncle moved to buy more land after leaving Backi Brestovac. he was my father's favorite uncle and both Loni and my father remember visiting them there. We were so taken with Timisoara that we wandered all morning. The city is being prepared to became a 'cultural capital' of the EU in 2021. They have torn up all the streets at once in the centre of the old town, which made it impossible to find our hotel last night. In the daylight, we had to clamber over the broken streets and find our way past the construction sites. Interestingly, we have been trying to find evidence of the Turkish presence in Hungary and in Rumania, and until Timisoara have found almost nothing. With all the streets destroyed, the archeologists have found two mosques and a Turkish bath in the middle of one of the central squares. We could peek into the construction site to see the ruins. The significance is that although the Turks occupied wide swaths of the areas we have visited for over 150 years, their presence was totally erased but those who followed. There is little left of the original fortress in Timisoara. Most of the buildings are Hapsburg or later, and they are not particularly well maintained. It appears that the goal is to renovate and rebuild, and if we return in a few years, the city will be transformed.
Timisoara was the capital of the Banat, and when the Banatians were hoping to create their own country after the First World War, much of the activity happened at Timisoara. Their country lasted a couple of weeks, until the Serbs invaded. The Banat is geographically referred to as part of the Pannonian Basin bordered by the Danube to the south, the River Tisa to the west and the river Mures to the north, and the Southern Carpathian mountains to the east. When it was divided between Rumania, Hungary and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which ultimately became Yugoslavia, the aspirations for Banat statehood were crushed. The 'Banatia' was a privately financed institute that was designed to represent the interests of the Banat peoples, to preserve the language and the culture, and it continues to function to this day. It was closed today, so we were unable to visit.
In the morning, Timisoara was entrancing, despite the construction and our agitation last night. We wandered through town, had coffee, and then suddenly panicked again about driving in Serbia. We read all sorts of nightmarish storied on the internet, poured over the State Department website, that of Canada, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Tara was ready to head to Serbia and called her Serbian friend living in London, who reassured her. We all worried ourselves into a tizzy while the sky opened up outside and another fierce rainstorm drove everyone inside. Our discussion continued at the hotel, where the hotel clerks wondered at our concerns and tried repeatedly to reassure us. The husband of one of the young women was a policeman; she called him and he reassured us. It took us hours to finally decide to get into our car and drive to Serbia.
The ride was almost uneventful but beautiful and entrancing. We stopped for gas in Rumania right before the border, and managed to communicate with hand gestures to fill up our tank with our remaining Rumanian currency. The border patrol in Rumania was relieved to hear that we had our vignette. The Serbians were severe but noncommittal and we were on much better roads in the Serbian Banat. Tara used her GPS to guide us through tiny villages and smaller roads. We ran into more storks, many sleepy towns, and the landscape became less flat as the foothills of the Carpathians appeared in the distance. We planned to stop at Vrasc to look at the Hapsburg/Banat houses, but were distracted when Tara tried to fix the child lock in the back seat and the door would not close. Imagine the three of us in a panic again, unable to close our car door. We limped back to the closest garage, which was too far away at the other side of town, and were relieved when it took a twist with a screwdriver to correct the problem. I imagine if we had a man with us, it would not have been a problem at all. Whew.
We cruised through the town, continued through the countryside to the Danube and watched the sunset. The town of Smederevo has a wonderful fortress along the river, but we were eager to get to our hotel far out of town. We are in a rambling two bedroom apartment in a tall structure that looks like a windmill. We are wellfed, safe, not entirely relaxed, but very ready for sleep and recuperation.
This is turning out to be a very emotional experience.
We pulled ourselves together, drank two bottles of water, tried to read the menu, and chose a Serbian salad (hot hot hot with peppers!), a delicious fish soup and local catfish. Everything was tasty and the warm flatbread covered with sesame seeds pulled the meal together. We ate every bit, and forgot about our introduction. We had no dinars, and credit was not accepted, but 13 euros was all that we needed. I now have 500 dinars!
The countryside is spectacular. Watching the sun set over the endless fields in the Rumanian Banat yesterday was punctuated with wonderfully kept colorful villages with cookie cutter houses. The villages in Serbia are not as well kept, but the evidence of the Hapsburg town planning is in evidence. The avenues are wide, with a grassy area in front of the houses, trees planted along the main roads, gated courtyards, pillared open air spaces, brightly painted stucco walls. In the Donauschwaben museum in Branau, the posters that the Hapsburgs printed to attract settlers described the homes the emigrants would have, along with cows and pigs and horses and all that would be necessary to start a new life in the Banat and the Batschka. It was not difficult to imagine the attraction for the settlers. I understand that the land was marshy and difficult to farm initially and that first generation struggled when they arrived, but by the time the Richters arrived, the land was well managed, and the family was comfortable.
The land is flat. The fields stretch out forever with striking skies and soothing shades of yellow and green. Sunflowers, hay, and corn appear to be the most common crops. In the villages, cows munch away in front of the houses, there are flocks of sheep with shepherds, lots of people on bicycles in the towns. Storks have nests in each town and it seemed that they were in their nests feeding their young.
The skies are endless with clouds and striking colours, and unbelievable sunsets (we missed the sunrise!). We were far too late leaving Timisoara to visit Otelec (Johannesfeld) southwards. That is where my father's aunt and uncle moved to buy more land after leaving Backi Brestovac. he was my father's favorite uncle and both Loni and my father remember visiting them there. We were so taken with Timisoara that we wandered all morning. The city is being prepared to became a 'cultural capital' of the EU in 2021. They have torn up all the streets at once in the centre of the old town, which made it impossible to find our hotel last night. In the daylight, we had to clamber over the broken streets and find our way past the construction sites. Interestingly, we have been trying to find evidence of the Turkish presence in Hungary and in Rumania, and until Timisoara have found almost nothing. With all the streets destroyed, the archeologists have found two mosques and a Turkish bath in the middle of one of the central squares. We could peek into the construction site to see the ruins. The significance is that although the Turks occupied wide swaths of the areas we have visited for over 150 years, their presence was totally erased but those who followed. There is little left of the original fortress in Timisoara. Most of the buildings are Hapsburg or later, and they are not particularly well maintained. It appears that the goal is to renovate and rebuild, and if we return in a few years, the city will be transformed.
Timisoara was the capital of the Banat, and when the Banatians were hoping to create their own country after the First World War, much of the activity happened at Timisoara. Their country lasted a couple of weeks, until the Serbs invaded. The Banat is geographically referred to as part of the Pannonian Basin bordered by the Danube to the south, the River Tisa to the west and the river Mures to the north, and the Southern Carpathian mountains to the east. When it was divided between Rumania, Hungary and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which ultimately became Yugoslavia, the aspirations for Banat statehood were crushed. The 'Banatia' was a privately financed institute that was designed to represent the interests of the Banat peoples, to preserve the language and the culture, and it continues to function to this day. It was closed today, so we were unable to visit.
In the morning, Timisoara was entrancing, despite the construction and our agitation last night. We wandered through town, had coffee, and then suddenly panicked again about driving in Serbia. We read all sorts of nightmarish storied on the internet, poured over the State Department website, that of Canada, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Tara was ready to head to Serbia and called her Serbian friend living in London, who reassured her. We all worried ourselves into a tizzy while the sky opened up outside and another fierce rainstorm drove everyone inside. Our discussion continued at the hotel, where the hotel clerks wondered at our concerns and tried repeatedly to reassure us. The husband of one of the young women was a policeman; she called him and he reassured us. It took us hours to finally decide to get into our car and drive to Serbia.
The ride was almost uneventful but beautiful and entrancing. We stopped for gas in Rumania right before the border, and managed to communicate with hand gestures to fill up our tank with our remaining Rumanian currency. The border patrol in Rumania was relieved to hear that we had our vignette. The Serbians were severe but noncommittal and we were on much better roads in the Serbian Banat. Tara used her GPS to guide us through tiny villages and smaller roads. We ran into more storks, many sleepy towns, and the landscape became less flat as the foothills of the Carpathians appeared in the distance. We planned to stop at Vrasc to look at the Hapsburg/Banat houses, but were distracted when Tara tried to fix the child lock in the back seat and the door would not close. Imagine the three of us in a panic again, unable to close our car door. We limped back to the closest garage, which was too far away at the other side of town, and were relieved when it took a twist with a screwdriver to correct the problem. I imagine if we had a man with us, it would not have been a problem at all. Whew.
We cruised through the town, continued through the countryside to the Danube and watched the sunset. The town of Smederevo has a wonderful fortress along the river, but we were eager to get to our hotel far out of town. We are in a rambling two bedroom apartment in a tall structure that looks like a windmill. We are wellfed, safe, not entirely relaxed, but very ready for sleep and recuperation.
This is turning out to be a very emotional experience.
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