Saturday in Singidunum

 A week today we'll Uber our way to Pearson--the Union Pearson Express makes no sense for us--and fly out to Munich and then Serbia. There is lots to do and already my travel anxiety is rising. And yet, I'm trying to resist the contradictory temptation to waste time and watch something, anything, on Netflix. So, in the spirit of being productive and getting things done, here's our itinerary in Serbia.

1. We arrive at Nikola Tesla airport, Beograd (Beo=white, grad=town) on Friday Sept. 4th @ 12:25 pm. Zak's brother, Petar, plans to pick us up and take us to the Airbnb apartment we've rented in the city centre. I expect that we'll do little the rest of the day other than Burek, Beer, and Cevapcici.

2. Saturday in Singidunum. Today will be the sights of the Serbian capital, starting with Beograd Fortress in Kalemegdan park and then Saint Sava--one of largest Orthodox churches in the world. Fitting, really, to start with these two sites given the stormy history of the Serbian people and their connection to Orthodox Christianity.

3. Sunday will be a mini road trip to north-west of Beograd to Sremski Karlovci (seat of the Serbian Orthodox church under the Hapsburgs, also where the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed), Fruska Gora (Frankish Mountain), and then Sirmium--one of the capitals of the Tetrarchy (Sremska Mitrovica). 

4. Monday, maybe a visit to the farm. Zak's dad still keeps a farm near Jabucje (J=somewhere apples are grown) south-east of the city. From the looks of it on Google Earth it seems a very fertile place but, sadly, it's not being actively farmed.

5. Tuesday we'll roll down the E75 heading south-east. Today we'll visit the monasteries of Manasija and Ravarica, ending the day in Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad).

6. Wednesday will see us to Naissus and Mediana (Nis), Justiniana Prima (Caricin Grad), ending at Ljubostinja monastery.

7. Thursday takes us to Sopocani and Studenica monasteries.

8. Friday we head back to Beograd with a stop in Oplenac to see the Church of St George and the Karadjordjevic Dynasty masoleum.

9. Saturday we leave Beograd by bus and head to 
Sarajevo and then Mostar on our way to the Croatian coast.