Year VIII • special edition, 2014 • free copy www.nacionalnarevija.com
TOURISM 2014 The World Is an Open Book
The Best Offer
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Coach rental Transfers BEOGRAD OPEN TOP Avala ride Belgrade all around guide tour Audio guide / 8 languages Tailor made tours Hotel bookings, accommodation Exchange officies Air ticketing Rent a car
BASTION I Stari grad 517, Kotor +382 32 322 116
Fish restaurant Bastion I was opened in 1996 in the old town of Kotor.
BASTION II Braća Ribnikar 40, Beograd +381 11 344 7711
Restaurant Bastion II, also the restaurant, seafood, opened in Belgrade in 2007 and the restaurant Bastion III opened its doors in December 2011, which offers a national specialties.
BASTION III Tabačiba bb, Kotor +382 32 335 330
Restaurants BASTION I ,II i III can offer you great discount for groups and events. www.bastion123.com
ОХРИДСКИ БИСЕРИ
Ohrid pearl
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Publisher “Princip Pres” Cetinjska 6, 11000 Belgrade Tel.: +381 (11) 322 70 34, 322 16 92 www.nacionalnarevija.com princip.press@gmail.com Director and Editor-in-Chief Mišo Vujović Editor Branislav Matić
WITH THE 36TH INTERNATIONAL TOURISM FAIR IN BELGRADE
Make Your Wish Come True
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Technical Editor Aleksandar Ćosić Photography Editor Dragan Bosnić Header and cover design Jovan Željko Rajačić Associates Milovan Vitezović, jerej Jovan Plamenac, Bojan Mandić, Dragan Lakićević, Nebojša Jevrić, Olga Vukadinović, Jovo Bajić, Dejan Bulajić, Vlada Arsić, Dejan Đorić, Đorđe Srbulović, Mihail Kulačić, Dubravka Preradović, Milena Z. Bogavac, Rozana Sazdić, Vojislav Filipović, Saša Šarković, Zoran Plavšić, Lenka Šibalija
ere we are. Not exactly where we parted last year, a lot has been moved around, forward and backward, but here we are. This rumor that you hear from all sides somehow sounds familiar? “The biggest in this part of Europe”, “over a thousand exhibitors from more than fifty countries”, “broken all previous records”, “the most expensive tour packages sold first”, “despite the crisis”, “side events, fair of wine, hotel and restaurant equipment and souvenirs”... All true and
Translated by Sandra Gagić & “Globe Translations“ Marketing Mirko Vujović, Irena Stolić Secretariat and placement Jelena Jović, Dragana Dimitrijević, Milenko Vasilić Print “Portal”, Belgrade Office for Srpska “Princip Pres RS” Aleja Svetog Save 7, 78000 Banjaluka Tel/Fax: +387 (51) 304 360 Office for Australia “Princip Press Australia PTY LTD”, 12/24 Loch Street, 3182 St Kilda West, VIC
Cover page: Monument “The Belgrade Victor” (Archive of “National Review”) Часопис уписан у Регистар јавних гласила Републике Србије, бр. NV000385
CIP - Каталогизација у публикацији Народна библиотека Србије, Београд ISSN 1452-6905 = Национална ревија Србија COBISS.SR-ID 139088140
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nothing new. Advertising howlers are as boring as politics in the protectorates. They are intolerable even if they do not lie. And in the basis of everything there is this ancient and simple human need to travel. In the old times, without television and internet, imaginative people knew how to travel without ever leaving their hometown. Great Njegoš wrote to his friend in 1851, from Naples, almost on his deathbed: “It is s shame to yell while traveling. Those who don’t travel they don’t live, they don’t understand what the world mixture is. The world is an open book from which one should learn about the world. The world is a theatre, funny where one has to show himself in different and colorful masks.“ A huge industry, the so called tourist industry, was built on the idea of travel and people’s need to travel. The experts from this industry will, during this Fair, present what they have and know the best. And we will, in front of us, leaf through the old chronicle, lead you to Belgrade, then Constantinople, Athens, Sofia, Sanremo, Indonesia, national parks of America, to Jahorina, Leskovac, Negotin, Lukovska Banja... Actually, we will propose. And you, in accordance with the slogan of this year’s Fair, make your wish come true.
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CONTENTS Panorama 08 PROLOGUE: MAKE YOUR WISH COME TRUE 10 ALBUM: UNUSUAL SERBIA
Road Sign 16 HOST: BELGRADE 22 BRIDGES: INDONESIA 28 GUIDE: ATHENS 36 VISIT: SOFIA 42 MEGALOPOLIS: ISTANBUL 52 COAST: SANREMO 58 ADVENTURES: PARKS OF THE USA 68 HIGH: JAHORINA 78 CELEBRATIONS: LESKOVAC 82 INVITATIONS: NEGOTIN
Introducing 84 OINTMENT: LUKOVSKA BANJA 86 EXAMPLES: “MERKUR”, VRNJAČKA BANJA 90 WELCOME: “SLAVIJA” HOTELS, BELGRADE 92 SPECIALIZATION: “SINGIDUNUM” 96 ENCOUNTERS: “GUČA 2014” Partners of the Publication:
VRNJAČKA BANJA
MUNICIPALITY OF KOVAČICA
MINING BASIN ”KOLUBARA“
CITY KNJAŽEVAC
THE BELGRADE BUSINESS SCHOOL
CITY NEGOTIN
MUNICIPALITY OF РУМА
SREMSKA MITROVICA
STUDENT HOSTELS
CE TPP NT
Media partners:
RTS - PUBLIC SERVICE OF SERBIA
RTV VOJVODINA - PUBLIC SERVICE
NEWSPAPER SERBIAN PATRIARCHY
THIS MAGAZINE IS PRINTED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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DOCUMENTARY FICTION AS AWAKENING
Unusual Serbia
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Photographs: Archive of “National Review”, Dragan Bosnić
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e wrote a book about it once. About Serbia, different and mysterious, different from everything the foreign travelers previously knew about it. When they asked us about the genre, we said: documentary fiction. Unusual ideas, silly competitions, strange names, records for Guinness passed before the readers’ eyes. Unusual “reflections of the soul of Serbia” appeared, different types of its people and sense of humor. We exorcised evil spirits, invoked rain, fought against evil spells, drove away fools and demons with laughter. We pointed out to the monuments of nature before which we always stop in awe. We leafed through the herbarium of unbelievable flowers, a sketch for a future Borges’ Manual of the Fantastic Botany of Serbia. We remembered animals and birds that do not exist anywhere else in the world, visited their habitats. We saw the saint with animal head and we told his miraculous life story. We carefully observed the cave fresco called “Bold Jesus”. At one turn of that road we were startled, from the area where history and legends meet, by dragon-like heroes who have been defending us from monsters since we remember. Not far from that mill that keeps grinding persistently from the depths of time, before us, straight from the Vienna press and confidential reports from the court of Louis XV, some famous local vampires jumped before us. We explained that we will not step like this into many worlds, such as the worlds of minerals or words of unusual people, because one goes there for life. Now, when in such large numbers we are gathering under the domes of the International Tourism Fair in Belgrade, we remind you with this Album of all that. And you will certainly know why. s (B. M.)
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MILOŠ CRNJANSKI (1893-1977) AND A MATCHLESSLY DEEP BOW TO MR. BELGRADE
Eternal Passion of the Glorious Town The famous writer wrote his guide “Belgrade” in 1936, in French. Even today, that little book is a supreme tutor of writing about, dreaming, loving, building, defending and understanding one’s city. During the several millennia of Belgrade history, no one has ever written better or deeper about it than Crnjanski, dandy and warrior, short-tempered and gentle, fire and breeze, with the scent of gunpowder and acacia. When will Belgrade repay him?
By: Dragana Bukumirović
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hose names are written in St. Petersburg and Moscow? If I enter the snowy evenings of Vienna, if I start walking through the fog of London, Paris, if I read the history of Bucharest, if I go down to Constantinople, threads and strings, like cobweb, all lead me to the heart of Belgrade. There is not a city in Europe so much related to all the others and which moved the marionettes of others like Belgrade.” Thus wrote Miloš Crnjanski in his little known tourist guide Belgrade. A thin book, with about a hundred pages, including photos, is a deep bow of the writer to the city he carried in his heart as his homeland. We have been waiting for more than half a century for diligent Gojko Tešić to hunt it out and publish it in Narodna knjiga in the Slučaj (The Case) edition, translated by Mira Vuković from French. And this tourist-literary piquantery from the pen of our great writer was published in France already in 1936! For a long, too long time it has been sitting in the darkness, inaccessible to the wider audience. The great writer conquered the new form of writing tourist guides and travel accounts with ease, where talent is implied, but also seeks a practical mind and masterly reduced style. Is it really the characteristic of the writer of Migrations and The Journal of Čarnojević? Still, living the role of a tourist guide, with adjusted optics, he stepped into a new form, inhabited the deserted continent and created an original work. His guide is a small and touching book, and a practical road sign – where, how and with which the traveler shall painlessly conquer a new destination – a calm literature on the surface, while inside soaked with melancholy and deep feeling towards the city he loved so much and longed for. The master of the pen knows that the world can only be described, not explained, that only
The Case Miloš Crnjanski (1893-1977) – superb novel writer, drama writer, narrator, poet, travel account writer, journalist, teacher, diplomat, football player, gentle creator and heartbreaker, so to say The Case (which is also the title of the edition within which his tourist guide was published in Serbian, although late and with a small number of copies). How else would Mr. Crnjanski pass by in present Serbia than marked as “the case”? In Belgrade, which he defended and built so many times in his dreams and reality, he does not have a worthy street today. His endowment rots in the cellar of a disputed building, and the award carrying his name was extinguished due to lack of money and insignificance. However, his guide Belgrade can even today serve as a supreme tutor to many of those who, although untaught, were placed to be teachers to others.
what is not seen exists. He alone lived like a nomad, went from city to city, from state to state (from his birthplace of Chongrad, then Timisoara, Pančevo, Stražilovo, working in Rome and Berlin, long and difficult years in London), carrying Serbia and Belgrade in his heart. Only outlines in the night sky, always different nights yet same sky, and different lines of the city edges remained to him from each city in which his life passed. However, that Belgrade, that constant in it, moved his hand to write the guide and invite: “Come, come and see it.” “I have lived everywhere, I have rambled everywhere, and when I begin wailing, far away, Belgrade comes and consoles me”, he used to say, and admitted to his wife, Mrs. Vida: “I have taken you only because I found you in Belgrade…” GENTILITY FROM UNDESERVED INSULTS Crnjanski longed to bring European and any other travelers close to his beloved city.
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Photographs: Aleksandar Ćosić
St. Sava Temple and Monument to Karađorđe Pioneer (formerly Palace) Park
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H O S T The Sava Quay and Congregational Church The Belgrade Fortress, a view from the river
Ružica Church on the Belgrade Fortress
When the pen starts flying, freed of statistics and other necessary data, from history to climate and geographic position, he enthusiastically invites to Belgrade, although he knows that his much-loved Belgrade does not have the perfect beauty of the cities which developed slowly and safely. “It is a city of clerks and officers, created from nothing, while others digested the Schwab mercy. Houses one by another, marriages according to the father’s wish and deaths according to God’s wish, and wars. From these streets I see the blue railway of Srem… Belgrade has the gentility created from undeserved insults. It is full of emotions of a great European tact. Never has it insulted anyone experiencing a bitter moment, nor has it ever humbled itself in its own bitter moment…” The city on the banks of two powerful rivers, one of the most beautiful cities
in Europe, used to be praised by pilgrims who passed it on their way to Jerusalem, the emissaries and ambassadors of European palaces who stopped on their way to Istanbul to bow to the sultan, while in our times, financial magnates and great movie stars passing through admire it, notes the writer. Alexander Humbolt compared it to Lisbon, Istanbul and Stockholm, while the position of the old Belgrade fortress reminded our Pupin of the position of Gibraltar. Crnjanski, realizing his assignment as a tourist writer, merges the époques gone under the Belgrade sky, fits them into several pages of his little book and repeats: “A guide is not literature like a travel account.” This master knew the difference. He knew what to do with words, but sometimes barely manages to withhold and write his thoughts, especially when some other facts in life are more important – price of accommodation, ticket, excursions, hotels, entertainment… He is experienced; he had already written the guide Rome and Its Surroundings, but, as he openly said, the reader of Love in Toscana will not have a good time if he decides to travel there. He meticulously introduces a traveler ready to conquer Belgrade to the turbulent history and battlefields from which this city repeatedly rose. Can he not remind of the great misfortune which struck this city in the V century, during the invasion of the Huns from Asia, when both the Danube fortress and the whole city were destroyed? What at all can be omitted from the turbulent history of this amazing city? All this is reduced to a few pages by the master’s hand, without neglecting monarchs and generals, old edifices, museums, theaters, authors and their works, even good restaurants and hotels. He suggests those who are in a hurry to come by airplane, although he considers the journey down the Danube as the most pleasant route between Western Europe and the East. THE DESPOT AND THE DANUBE BEAUTY In Crnjanski’s time, Belgrade had several large “Vienna type” cafés, such as “Ruski Car”, “Akademija Nauka” and “Moskva”. Among other things, guests had all local and foreign newspapers at their disposal. (And today?) Crnjanski also writes about the character of Belgrade people, the strange mixture
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of cheerfulness and irony. He calls them spendthrifts. He knows how much troubles those people suffered and that they defend themselves and make their life bearable with humor, that not much can surprise them; he forgives them wine and good mood. “Nowhere in the world does anyone speak so badly about us as we do here, at home, and allow others to speak that way too. So many of them have poured their anger, wisdom and bile over Belgrade!” says Crnjanski angrily. The oldest beauty of this city is neither known nor anticipated, nor sought. Its beauty is the Despot and the Danube beauty. The stone tower is reflected in the water. Where did the rich, silk Turkish galleys go, with yellow skewed swords like crescent moons, bent over the naked bodies of female slaves? asked himself Crnjanski, the same writer and dreamer who contem-
Trains and Nobility Traveling by train also has its beauties, says Crnjanski. The building of the Belgrade railway station, built at the time of Prince Mihailo, is surrounded with good restaurants and a garden, newspaper stands, tobacco shops… Guides from the “Putnik” agency, with knowledge of foreign languages, wait for foreign tourists in this noble city diving out before our eyes. They can entrust their luggage without fear to the carriers who have a number on their cap, and a row of taxis waits at the exit. The starting price is 8 Dinars and one Dinar per each one hundred meters. Buses belonging to big hotels wait for the arrival of fast trains, while there are also horse carts and trams in front of the station.
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plated that life is not visible, but beyond our powers, “in heavens”, and continued: “Where is the Despot who loved Belgrade so much, with the beauty of the watchtower, on top of the hill? Where is the old Istanbul colorfulness, which had to spread somewhere over these waters? Did they leave us our famous gentle spring, thrown into steep old streets, with fruit trees behind fences? That late Turkish era is still here, during the first February sunbathing, under the walls with the bonfire of enormous sunsets. Some shop windows, smelling like halvah and coffee, are still quiet. The white spear of the minaret defends them, and they pass like everything passes. Should that Belgrade which shook the Balkans disappear? Which town of ours had such zeal in the past? Wasn’t it extinguished by those English, French and Russian consuls? Belgrade has been ticking for the Balkans, for already a hundred years. It is the heart of everyone breathing on the Adriatic and Aegean Sea.” THE WHITE SWAN SUNBATHES He was not enchanted by Belgrade because he has not seen the world. In numerous travel accounts and reports we see him illuminating the beaches of the Adriatic Sea, Boka Kotorska and many European cities with his gift. While passing through Vienna, he wrote: “It is snowing outside, and ladies with semi-naked breasts, wrapped in fur, are still
passing by. Tall and pale Dalmatians, often supported by plump ladies, are gone. The Banatians with silk socks are also not here. Only merchants remained, all with pink cheeks. They are now having lunch in ‘Bristol’ and after eating they will hiccup…” Crnjanski was in Munich one foggy morning. Immersed in his thoughts about his “mad life” accompanied by the clacking of railway wheels, he notes: “We entered the station and everything became: Munich. Nothing has changed. I spoke with the officers, calmly, as well as with tram brakesmen, had dinner with the socialists, and before midnight had conversations with those who got drunk from heavy bear greasy like slops. The officers told me that our heroism is pure savagery, that Serbian women are cheaper than Hungarian or Polish. Just like that. Oh, don’t worry, I smiled, and mentioned Senegal men and German women…” He was amazed by Italy, “light and transparent, with gravel in his hand”, he illuminated Toscana with his gift. “Where all nations except Slavic went, I went too, confused, to find my morning star”, he wrote in his travel account Love in Toscana. “Only there, in Sienna, I thought with my gentility and sadness, I can create a new homeland, one I had not had for a long time. I am not bound by old forms and considerations, the blue Serbian forests are barely seen. I will offer myself to spring, I will lean my back against the cherry and sour cherry trees of Srem, and invisibly, neither praised
nor mocked, I will connect with my exhausted body, the mud and the grasses, the hills and the clouds…” He breathed the scent of Paris and the Sena, he admired evenings full of wide waters and bridges bending over eternity and spring, after rains which bring peace. He admired the Paris old ladies selling combs, oranges, newspaper and singing all evening. He admired the people, bent under sins and debauchery, carefree, all for the sake of life. During his travels, he made at least half of Europe eternal with his pen, but nothing can be compared with his writings about old Belgrade, its fruit trees, old lyceums and windows at dusk. That lyricist magician knew: “The pre-war Belgrade which withdrew to Krunska Street and Vračar will also disappear. The Belgrade of warm evenings and acacias, houses in gardens, young people caring about Old Serbia. The Belgrade which had done things no one in Europe was even allowed to dream about, hot and merry, wonderful in its youth…” “The upcoming Belgrade is even more beautiful. It stands there and builds itself as if the whole earth is empty. It stands and sunbathes above the Sava, ‘the white swan’, as Branko Radičević used to call it. The life of Belgrade has been a novel since a long time ago, even when many of our cities were just small towns. Belgrade is a zeal which began burning a long time ago…” SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
A view from Kalemegdan to the confluence of the Sava into Danube and the Great War Island
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HIS EXCELLENCY SAMUEL SAMSON, AMBASSADOR OF INDONESIA IN SERBIA
Country-Archipelago and Its Gifts
How to present, in one place, at the International Tourism Fair in Belgrade, where Indonesia is officially the partner-country, present diverse cultures from 17,000 islands and over 300 ethnic groups? This extremely attractive country, with some of the best known tourist destinations in the world, such as Java and Bali, will have a lot to show. In 2014, they also celebrate 60 years of the bilateral relations between Indonesia and Serbia, which is a reason more for this beautiful encounter By: Branislav Matić
Images from Indonesia
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e has been in Serbia for over three years and he already feels, he says, that it is his second home. He wants Indonesia, at the thirty sixth the International Tourism Fair in Belgrade, where it is the partner-country, to present itself in the best possible light. While preparing for this beautiful and important event, His Excellency Mr. Samuel Samson talked to our editor.
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What will your appearance be based on? As the first Asia-Pacific country to be the official partner of the International Tourism Fair in Belgrade, we would like to show everything about Indonesia and its beauty to the people in Serbia. However it will be a little bit difficult to show the diverse culture from 17.000 islands and more than 300 ethnic groups all at once in one moment or event, so this year we
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will show some part of our cultural heritage and traditional dance performances. In 2014, we also celebrate 60 years of the bilateral relation between Indonesia and Serbia, which is a reason more to show to the people in your country some of the best that we have. The Indonesian stand will be designed with a shape of Indonesia’s traditional boat, inspired by its vast ocean and spirit of exploration of the Indonesian people. We hope that this boat-metaphor will truly take many people from Serbia to visit Indonesia, and vice versa. In order to facilitate tourist flow from Serbia to Indonesia, we will bring renowned travel agents from our country. They will offer their holiday packages and establish cooperation with travel agents in Serbia. The stand will be decorated with images from many of Indonesia’s beautiful tourist attractions. The visitors will be able to enjoy the performances of traditional dances of Indonesia. We will also have live demonstration of weaving technique from Sumatera, where people produce one of Indonesia’s famous traditional fabrics called “songket”. Beyond the Fair, in “Crowne Plaza” Hotel in Belgrade, we will also organize the “Week of Indonesian Cuisine”. We want to offer authentic taste of Indonesian delicacies, and for this reason we are bringing chefs from Indonesia. What are the main trumps in the tourist offer of Indonesia? Its diversity and its beauty. As the biggest archipelagic country in the world, Indonesia is blessed with cultural diversity of traditional languages, traditional music and dances, as well as traditional cuisine. I can assure you that the tourists who visit Indonesia will experience unforgettable moments, moving from one island to another, all of which have their own unique culture and traditions, and this will make them feel like they visited several countries during one trip. In short, everything every tourist dreams to experience can be found all in one place: Indonesia. One of the examples of how we can have the opportunity to travel around Indonesia was given by “KonTiki” Agency in cooperation with “Panorama travel” Agency. In 2011, they organized a 28-days long tour round Indonesia 28. The tourists had the opportunity to visit Sumatra, Java,
Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua, Bali and East Village festivals Nusa Tenggara, covering the area almost in Bali as big as the entire Europe. Surfer on Lombok RECOGNITION WILL Gerupuk CERTAINLY FOLLOW Festival on Papua Based on your insights and research, to what extent the Europeans know about all this? Since ancient times, Europeans have known Indonesia for its good quality spices, coffee, tea and cocoa. With time, Indonesia also became famous for its beautiful landscapes and unique culture, people and traditional cuisine. Some of the famous tourist destinations are the islands of Bali and Java. Tourists from all over the world now also visit other Indonesian islands, such as Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. Tourism has now become one of the main pillars of our economy, which has also contribute to the great progress in artistic crafts, trade, souvenirs, furniture, traditional textiles called “batik”, numerous unique products, with good quality and competitive prices. I am sure that people in Serbia and the surrounding countries will show great interest for Indonesia. By shaping the tourist product of Indonesia, what would you like to be the first association the people will have when they hear the name of your country? Its diversity, its beauty, and the smile and friendliness of its people. Indonesia has a lot to offer and we cannot say we only have one or several trump cards to offer. It is a unique country, rich in its diversity. Tourists there can experience everything they want: water tourism, ad-
Restaurants and Handicrafts – In Serbia we now have two Indonesian restaurants, “Surabaya” in Novi Sad that opened years ago (opened last year) and “Indo-food” in Belgrade (opened 2 years ago). We hope the people in Serbia will be able to taste the delicacy of Indonesian cuisine as if they are actually in Indonesia. In addition to this, Serbian people also can easily buy Indonesian handicraft and furniture. There are several companies around Belgrade (“Tutto Per Tutti”, “Wabi Sabi”, “Isola di Bali”, “Ganes”) that import these goods from Indonesia. They have already found a good market here in Serbia, and some of them are even expanding to surrounding countries. SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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Delegation – In order for our appearance at the International Fair of Tourism in Belgrade to be as successful and fruitful as possible, we are expecting a delegation of over one hundred people from Indonesia, which will be led by the Vice Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy. Within this delegation, we will also have a special delegation from the District Government of the South Sumatra Province, who are interested to learn more about how Serbia is managing and using the Danube and Sava rivers, as Indonesia also has so many rivers.
venture (visiting jungles, diving...), cultural, culinary, shopping tourism... They can select beauty treatments, enjoy a modern city that never sleeps with its night life... In any case, we always welcome the tourists who come to our country with a smile and warm welcome.
An Indonesian girl
Are you satisfied with cooperation between Indonesia and Southern Slavic Countries? Cooperation with the countries of former Yugoslavia has by now been stable and profitable on both sides. Of course, we must always look for new and better ways of cooperation. Strategically, the focus is on business and economy. We will
continue too promote tourism, which will contribute to increase the income of our countries and stimulate their creative economies. Through cooperation in the field of tourism, we have made our culture today known worldwide. We have achieved understanding between our people and people around the world, as well as better relations and exchange of knowledge, which will also represent the foundations of our future development in many sectors, such as sport or education. PARTING WILL BE THE MOST DIFFICULT When you are far away from your country, in the moments of nostalgia, what do you miss the most? In all these years in Serbia, I have not been homesick too often. People in Serbia are friendly, they still maintain relationships based on family and friends, and I have always felt welcome here, as if I am in my own country. If I had to single out something, one thing that I miss the most about Indonesia is the sea-fish. I was born in the city of Ambon, in Eastern Indonesia, which is a country that has 93 percent of water and 7& of land territory, so we do eat a lot of fish in my hometown. However, Serbian cuisine also has its specialties, which my family and I enjoy a lot, and which sometimes makes us forget about our longing for Indonesian food. How long have you been in Serbia and to what extent did you manage to learn about it beyond your official function? I have been in Serbia for more than 3 years now, and during my stay here, I had the opportunity to meet and make friends with many people, starting from officials and celebrities, and including one gardener. Through them, my family and I have learned a lot about this country and its people. I can say that we enjoy living in Serbia. Among the things I like the most about this country are certainly friendliness of its people, nature, culture and food (which I find delicious). The most difficult part, of course, will be to leave this country, which I already feel as my second home. Especially since there are many things that I would like to continue to work on, developing further the cooperation between Indonesia and Serbia.
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www.visitljubljana.com
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G U I D E ATHENS, HOMETOWN OF GODS AND HIGH EUROPEAN CULTURE
White Rose of the Old World
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Mediterranean is not just a geography here, seas and skies, miles and knots, but a spirit. Myths preserve memory of events that precede time and history. The city is a white marble honeycomb over the waters. Ancient temples are not only famous ruins, next to which we take photos as a souvenir, but places where worlds meet forever. Modern tourists, some from the millions of people bustling here all year long, may pass through Athens without being touched by anything. They will find their entertainment and their excitements, because everybody brings from here exactly what belongs to them
Text and photographs: Dragan Bosnić
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G U I D E Sunset at the Acropolis
Evzones on Syntagma Square
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If Ancient Greeks had lived in such a madhouse they would never make such beautiful things Verses by Ljubivoje Ršumović are the best illustration of the first encounter with ancient Athens, the capital of the modern Greece. From the sleepy Upper Town, or Acropolis, streets filled with chaotic traffic spread to infinity, in which only little scooters can quickly reach their destinations. January sun, temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and trees covered with ripe tangerines resemble more mid-May than early winter. Symbolic quantity of precipitation makes roofs flat and white, and the spacious city from the elevations looks even bigger. If the visitor is not tied by a sightseeing program, it would be best that he first climbs the Lycabettus Hill, from where one can see the city as on the palm of his hand. The top can be reached by a beautiful and not very difficult trail or cable car that is not so easy to find. On the top there is a spacious terrace, Chapel of St. George and a restaurant. The view from the terrace reaches the Piraeus Harbor that is about ten kilome-
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Ticket to Acropolis Acropolis can be visited by 15:00 o’clock, the ticket is 15 Euros. With the same ticket one can see the Zeus Temple and Areopagus at the foot of Acropolis.
ters away, and mountain chains that limited the spreading of the city to the area if seventeen kilometers in diameter. Sunset on Lycabettus is a unique experience: while the city in the darkness is lit by countless lights, the sky over the sea remains surrealistically blue for much longer. According to legend, Athens was founded by a great hero Theseus, son of king Aegeus, although stores say that he gained is halfdivine origin from his real father, Poseidon, the god of the sea. The city is dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom, although Poseidon was also a potential protector of the city. The people of Athens built for their protector goddess a magnificent temple in the heart of the city. In order to propitiate the god of the sea, they erected a temple for him too, on the Cape Sounion, the most attractive part of the Apollo’s coast. Not far from this temple, king Aegeus was waiting for his son to come back come from Crete, where Theseus had gone to first kill the monster Minotaur, and then to solve the unsolvable passages of the Labyrinth. In his victorious frenzy, Theseus forgets to erect the agreed white sails. From the cliff, Aegeus saw black sails and, not waiting for the ship to arrive in the port, he jumped into the sea which has been from then on called the Aegean Sea. So much about myths and gods. Six millenniums ago, the area of Athens was inhabited by Pelasgians, and the Acropolis was erected by their followers the Ionians on the rock that dominates over the surrounding area. Athens experiences its first rise in the Mycenaean period, three millenniums ago, and according to modern history its golden period is the fifth century BC, in the times of Pericles. After the Peloponnesian Wars, the power of Athens dropped, and during Hellenistic and Byzantine periods it was a minor city. After liberation from the Turks, the first capital of Greece was Nafplio, and Athens gained that status only in 1834. Rich legacy of the old Athens is visible on every corner in numerous museums in this city and other metropolises around the world.
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GODS, TEMPLES, METAPHORS The most evident from Lycabettus Hill is Acropolis. The first inhabitants of Athens lived in caves on a 156 meters high lime rock. This rock was later fortified and the Upper Town or Acropolis was built on it. Parthenon is the dominant building on Acropolis and is dedicated to Virgin (parthenos) Athena. Also important is the Temple of Athena Nike, which was built by the Athenians to their protector after victory over Persia. This building is also known as the Temple of Wingless Victory, because Athena was shown without wings so she wouldn’t fly too far from the city. Erechtheion is a temple dedicated to the king-hero Erichthonius who is identified with Poseidon by many. According to legend, on that spot there was a conflict between Athena and Poseidon. Athena nurtured an olive tree in a rock and became protector of the city, and in order to appease Poseidon’s wrath, the people build Erechtheion in his honor. Erechtheion is well known for Caryatides, sculptures of young priestesses who are holding the vault of the temple on their heads. On the Acropolis there is also a museum with exhibits that date back to the oldest period of the city, until the Roman times. An integral part of Acropolis is Odeon of Herod Atticus and Amphitheater of Dionysus. The Temple of Olympian Zeus was planned as a shrine worthy of the supreme god, but it was not completed even by the Roman times. Huge columns with Corinth decorations indicate that this temple, had it been finished, would have certainly been one of the miracles of the Ancient Times. In immediate vicinity of the Temple of Zeus there is the Arch of Hadrian which constitutes the border between Hadrian’s and Theseus’ city.
Museums of Athens Visiting museums of Athens would require a separate trip. That is why here we will mention only some of them – National Archaeological, Byzantine, Benaki, Theatre, Geological, Acropolis Museum, National Historical Museum, Museum of Greek Folk Art, Maritime Museum in Piraeus and many others. If you could still spare some time for one of them, you should certainly go to the National Archaeological Museum.
Plaka The goal of all hedonists who come to Athens is Plaka. In narrow streets under Acropolis there are numerous taverns with Greek delicacies, wine and rich cultural program. Plaka is also the place to buy souvenirs, for all ages and everyone’s budget. The rule is simple: the farther away you go from Plaka, both taverns and stores are getting cheaper.
Museum in Athens and marina in Piraeus Squares were the soul of old Athens. Ion them people lived, worked, traded, entertained... For major offences a citizen would be forbidden to visit a theatre for six months, and for the most serious ones he would be exiled from the polis. In those times, that would mean certain death. Squares of modern Athens are equally live as they used to be, but life has become more individual-centered. Syntagma Square is the epicenter of modern Athens. It holds luxurious hotels, the Parliament building, Monument to the Unknown Hero, commercial buildings... Sculpture of Syntagma is the first stop of trams, subway goddess Athena and buses that go to all parts of Athens. In numerous cafes and the large National Park people like to sit and go out on a date. Crowds of tourists do not budge from the honor guards Evzones who are standing still, just like the Unknown Hero they are guarding, and handle with dignity thousands of people from all over the world who are taking photographs with them in an incessant queue. Celebrations, ceremonies and protests – everything begins or ends on Syntagma. An important road called Stadiou goes from Syntagma to the second important square – Omonia. In immediate vicinity of Syntagma there are numerous museums, National Park, Academy and Athens Stadium which was completely restored in 1896 for the first modern Olympic SQUARES, TAVERNS, HARBORS
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Sunset on Sounion On the sea coast, the road branches out in two. The right leg leads to Piraeus and the left one leads along the Apollo’s Coast to the Cape Sounion that is seventy kilometers away. Poseidon’s Temple is a good reason to visit this cape, which is the most beautiful during sunset. Sunset Sounion is almost as beautiful as the one on Kalemegdan.
Games. Ermou or Female Street also starts from Syntagma, one of the most attractive streets in Athens. It is a pedestrian zone with exclusive shops, but also street vendors and entertainers. Parallel to it, there is the Street of Karađorđe of Serbia, and both together lead to Plaka. Formerly, the main connections of Athens with the Piraeus Harbor ten kilometers away were Themistocles’ Long Walls. Today, Piraeus can be reached in half an hour by tram, and even faster by subway. The part of the city from Syntagma to Piraeus was built in the post-war period, with modern buildings, characteristic flat roofs and solar cells. Many sports facilities built for the previous Olympic Games are located here. Piraeus is one of the major harbors in the Mediterranean. Huge tankers, tankers,
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ocean liners and fast high-speed ferries that are the link between numerous Greek islands come here. In small harbors, yachts belonging to jet-set from around the world are moored. Living in Piraeus is the dream of every Athenian. Onassis was living by the same principle, as well as many other rich people. The most attractive and the most romantic ports of Piraeus is Turckolimano or, as the Greeks prefer to call it, Mikrolimano. The small port has become famous thanks to Greek Zorba, Melina Mercouri, Theodorakis, Children of Piraeus who sang in the White Rose of Athens and Never on Sunday, films that immortalized every pillar of this port. Our people feel at home here because the coast is lined with restaurants like the Sava bank with rafts. True, prices are much higher, and every restaurant has its “procurement manager” who is pestering tourists and offering the “best choice” and “best food”. Athens is a city that must be visited. Someone to discover the interesting side of history that seemed boring at school, the others to feel the spirit of the Mediterranean or maybe some self-respect that kept slipping away on the Adriatic Coast.
OT K R I J T E DISCOVER ...jedinstveni šarm srednjoeuropske metropole
...the unique Central European charm and air
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V I S I T
From Heavenly Wisdom IN SOFIA, TODAY THE CAPITAL OF BULGARIA, A CITY THAT IS 2,800 YEARS OLD
Фотографије: НР Прес и Радмила Таминџић
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Romans called it Serdika, in the Middle Ages it was Sredec, ant it got its current name in the Turkish times, after the famous church dedicated to the Supreme Wisdom. A walk through the centre of this city is like descending into the depths, through many cultural layers: Thracians, Roman, Byzantine, Slavic, Ottoman, New Bulgarian... Of course, today it is a modern city and tourist destination, with luxurious hotels and shopping malls, but that is already a story similar to all other stories By: Dušanka Tadić
Photographs: Borislav Dimitrov, Radmila Tamindžić
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National Theatre in Sofia
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herever you turn, the history is pulsating. We visited Sofia in the last days of October, unusually sunny and warm. The pedestrian zone in the city centre is crowded with people in T shirts, gardens of cafes are lined one next to the other, some fountains were suddenly put into operation, kids are flying around on rollers, clowns are entertaining people on squares, and everybody else is smiling. Simply because they feel good. Why would they care that the average salary is between 300 and 350 Euros, and pension between 70 and 110 Euros, and that peaceful demonstrations in the streets have been going on for months. Now they are dressed up, they went out for a walk and do not want to think about that. Sofia, in Roman times Serdika, in the Middle Ages Sredec. Emperor Konstantin, they claim, used to say: “Serdika, it is my Rome.” Yes, this capital of Bulgaria, one of the oldest metropolises of Europe, is truly beautiful. The modern name of the city
Serbian Delicacies In the vicinity of Boyana Church, Zoran Pavlović from Belgrade opened Serbian restaurant called “Proa” (“Proja”), after the restaurant wit the same name that he had had for several years in the centre. About fifteen years ago he came to Sofia as a chef, and now he is already building his third restaurant. That means that prosciutto and kajmak from Užice, fried pork fat and sour cabbage, aspic and calf’s head in tripe, as well as other Serbian delicacies, go well in Bulgaria, and we have seen this personally. We don’t remember when we had eaten so well like we did in “Proa”.
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comes from the Turks who called it after the Hagia Sofia Church. Especially impressive is the central part of the city, wide and paved. From the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, the so-called Golden Church, through the square with the same name, step by step we reach churches of St. Sofia, Russian, Rotunda of St. George, Imperial Palace, Theatre “Ivan Vazov”, Bulgarian National Bank, National Assembly, Presidency, CUM (a big shopping mall), Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAN), the oldest and the most beautiful university “St. Kliment of Ohrid”, Vitoška Street, the one with the most expensive stores that stretches from the National Palace of Culture to the Church of Holy Sunday... Everything has come together here, cuddling and sparkling. FOURTEEN METERS OF CULTURE – Wherever you go, you will find the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, you cannot get lost – explains Danijela Janev, guide and translator, to our small crew of reporters, under the dome of the seat of Bulgarian patriarch and the most monumental symbol of the capital. This lovely girl tirelessly leads us under many other domes, bursting with data and legends, without end. For example: below the modern Sofia there are remains of the old Sofia. They say that there are underground tunnels from the Imperial Palace to Sheraton Hotel, next to which there are remains of the Rotunda of St. George, one
of the oldest churches in which, they say, the Council of Sardika took place in 342. They also say that everybody who enters the Russian Church, with those golden domes, should make a wish, because it is believed that the wish would come true... The bundle of history of this area has been rolling since the 7th century BC, when the Dacians (northern branch of the Thracians) settled here and founded a city. Archaeologists jokingly call this phenomenon “14 meters of culture”, since on individual sites around Sofia excavations went down to 14 meters into the ground, in which various cultural layers alternate. It is very exciting, that walk through that Thracians, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and “Liberation” past, the one after the Russian-Turkish War (1877–1878), when the modern independent Bulgarian state was proclaimed. Unlike the picturesque part of the story about two Bulgarian empires, which preceded the Ottoman Empire about 500 years long, period of communism did not impress us much, while the experience of the poorest member state of the European Union since 2007 is too thin to make a meaningful picture about it. A GLOW, FOREIGN AND OUT OF REACH Of eight million citizens of Bulgaria, a little more than ten percent live here, in the southern part of Sofia Valley, situated on thermal and mineral springs, encircled by
mountains Vitoša, Ljulin and Old Mountain. Vitoška Street, The city was founded in the eighth and sev- the Knez-Mihalova enth century before Christ, on the intersecof Sofia tion of the roads that connected Asia with Europe and the Mediterranean. Therefore, Sofia today has more than 250 archaeological, architectural and historical sites, some of which are under UNESCO protection. Let us name just the picturesque church of St. Nicholas and Panteleimon from 1205, better known as Boyana Church, in which they found a layer painted with tempera long before the frescos and icons of Giotto became popular. The modern Sofia is also ornamented with a really large number of galleries, museums and parks, most of which are well arranged and maintained. Construction of the subway began immediately after World War Two, during the first mandate of Todor Živkov, and they are now working on new stops, for which our Danijela says will be beautiful, “all in pastel colors”. Currently
Banica and Čubrica As for Bulgarian cuisine, it is diverse and colorful, but it is not filled with meat and cholesterol. It is more modest. It has many types of stews, stuffed cabbage leaves and bell peppers, mostly stuffed with rice. Vegetable is eaten in so many different ways, here and there chicken or sausages... When you ask them about their national dish, they will immediately say banica (a type of cheese pie), and the spice – čubrica. They use that čubrica in everything (a kind of white flower that is dried and ground, and it very much resembles oregano): in bread, stews, stuffed bell peppers, stuffed cabbage leaves... SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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Respecting Own Past It is touching to see the care with which the Bulgarian state, although in great economic difficulties, relates toward its cultural and spiritual heritage. And the facts are really impressive: on the territory of the country that occupies only two percent of the territory of Europe, there are as many as 40,000 historical monuments (seven of which are on the UNESCO’s list of the world cultural heritage), 36 cultural centers, 160 monasteries and about 330 museums and galleries. From the very beginning of our journey we saw monasteries, churches and church land, mosques, fortresses, hilltops, ethno-parks, museums, monuments... And all this is in excellent condition or currently under restoration.
there is one metro line that starts from the western part of the city, goes under the center and ends in the eastern part, so that it connects the most important parts of the Bulgarian capital. In the past few years, since Bulgaria became a member of the EU, many shopping malls and shopping centers have been opened in the city and suburbs which, based on their product assortment, are not behind wealthier European metropolises, and there are also exclusive hotels such as “Kempinski”, “Sheraton”, “Hilton”, “Radisson”, “Grand Hotel”... It is almost superflu-
ous to emphasize that an average citizen of Bulgaria cannot afford much of all that. As for the night life, Danijela recommended Students’ City. Only that. To our objection that it is probably only for young people, she replied categorically: – No, it is for everybody. During the day those are students’ dormitories, and in the evening everything comes to life, streets, cafes, restaurants, disco clubs... Everything is open all night long and is completely safe. If you feel like eating ice-cream, go that way, if you are hungry, go this way... In the center of Sofia you can die of hunger, everything is closed, there is not a living soul there. So we went to check, and entered one disco club. It was called “Blace”, or something like that. Well yes, there is blasting music inside, everybody dances with everybody, male with female, female with female, male with male, young with old, all together, around the tables, on the tables, some cannons fire huge confetti... At a certain hour we hear Lepa Brena, Ceca, Dragana Mirković... And the taxi driver on the way back laughs: “Aaaah, Serbia...! Understand, understand, Dragana Mirković...”
The Hotel has 9 single rooms, 87 double rooms, 22 apartments, 1 resydency and 1 presidential apartment. The equipment in the room is according to its extent. All rooms have TV sets, telephones, toilets and bathrooms with tubs i.e. shower cabins and hair dryers. Some of the rooms has mini bars.
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All apartments have big terraces, great and comfortable rooms, TV sets and mini bars. Toilets are equipped with hair dryer, shower cabins or Jacuzzi. All rooms and apartments in hotel has internet connection, which is free of charge.
M E G A L O P O L I S IN ISTANBUL, ON THE SEAM BETWEEN CONTINENTS, REMEMBERING CONSTANTINOPLE
Colorful Giant on the Bosporus
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It has one foot in Europe, the other in Asia. The old collector of contrasts, live guardian of its centuries, grandiose fair of cultures, customs and styles. The capital of three old empires, today it is a city-museum, city-bazaar, all made of trade and great game of numbers, attractive and heavy, seductive and repulsive, but certainly indispensable. It is not by accident that in the 19th century Lamartine said: “If you had to look at the world only once, look at Istanbul” By: Radmila Tamindžić
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lthough it has many umbrellas in the form of domes or roofed bazaars, such as the famous Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarşı), and also has modern shopping malls convenient to provide shelter from rain, rain in Istanbul is definitely not good. It doesn’t suit it. This imposing city is not givHagia Sofia ing in, it is kicking and fighting back, but rain still somehow makes it soft and silent, clouds Interior of darken its glow. It looks as if it has shrunk, the luxurious and its vastness over the two continents is not Topkapi Palace, where the famous so obvious. While raining, it seems that those Harem is located who claim that this city has a population of 15 million are more right than those claiming it has about 20 million inhabitants. And those from the first group really exaggerate. But when, on the other hand, the sine shines over the Golden Horn, a natural harbor that divides the European part of Istanbul in two parts, making the Bosporus and Marmara Sea sparkle, when Maiden’s Tower and Prince’s Islands flash out of the water, when the horizon turns into a thin line, when all that colorful human diversity crawls out and start moving noisily toward you, then to the question as to whether this is located in Istanbul or beyond, the following answer becomes perfectly meaningful: “It is so big that nothing can be beyond it!” It can, but as if it can’t: based on some estimates, Istanbul gets about 500,000 new people per year and 1,000 new streets, half of the monuments and museums from the entire country are located here, and every fifth citizen of Turkey lives in this economic, trade and cultural centre in which all imaginable architectural styles reign.
Maiden’s Tower on water and street scene in front of the Blue Mosque
NAKED LIFE, TRAINED ART
Photographs: Archive of NR and Radmila Tamindžić
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In the 19th century, French poet and statesman Lamartine says: “If you had to look at the world only once, look at Istanbul. God and man, nature and art created a unique image there.” True, there is no such city in the world, and it is all the fault of its geographical position. He changed its name several times (Byzantium, New Rome, Constantinople and Istanbul), it has one foot in Europe, the other in Asia, it crossed marine and continental roads, it holds firmly its centuries and wouldn’t let them pass. And in these centuries it was the capital of three great empires (Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman), it embraced three religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and finally, with the “father of the nation” of modern Turkey, Mustafa KeSRBIJA SPECIJALNO IZDAWE 2014.
mal Atatürk, it got its republicans, and now the islamists are no the rise again... And all this is there, in that one place, huge place, over seven hills, all at the same time, lively, and could not be livelier. Every corner of Istanbul is an entrance into a different world, often a different time. And one has to find a way around in all that. The people of Istanbul are managing to find their way as only they know how, because this continuous fair of various cultures and customs is their natural environment. It is also an excellent environment for artists for whom this mixture of civilizations and centuries is eternal inspiration even when they lovingly criticize it, such as Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who was born in Istanbul. It might even be the best for merchants of all kinds. Together with millenniums of deposited cultures, that naked life pulsates here all over, life that tells you: if you want to survive, you have to buy for less, and sell for more. This law also applies on the seedy, let’s say exotic square Eminonu, and in luxurious districts such as Nisantasi and Macka in the European, or Bağdat Caddesi and Bostanci in the Asian part. ON THE SQUARE OF EMPIRES Tourists mostly know that most of what they should visit is crowded around Sultanahmet Square, the old centre of the Ottoman Empire on the grounds of the former Roman Hippodrome. If they have enough time and patience to wait in huge lines, they
Scarves and Mosques Jelena Stevanović Ilgaz from Belgrade, a costume designer, married to a Turkish engineer, has lived in this megalopolis for twelve years, and lately she has been making jewelry for Turkish soap operas. – One feels the Renaissance of the Ottoman culture everywhere here – she explains. – Since I came here, in the press and television there are incessant discussions about scarves. While Ataturk’s ideology proclaimed that everybody who lives in Turkey is a Turk, with full disregard of existence of national minorities, now it is no longer important whether you are a Turk, but whether you are a Muslim, with full disregard of other confessions. There is not an inch of this country where the voice of the muezzin cannot be heard. In ten years of Erdogan’s rule, 11,000 mosques were built!
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will manage to take a peak into the famous Hagia Sofia, formerly the largest church of the Byzantine Empire that the Turks later turned into a mosque, and Ataturk turned it into a museum. Also into the Sultanahmet or Blue Mosque, with six minarets and humorous domes, the biggest one in Istanbul. And for those who love glamour, their imagination will be particularly inspired by parks, fountains, gold and precious stones of Topkapi Palace and its Harem for more than 300 concubines. Right there in the neighborhood is the Cistern Basilica, an impressive area under water with 336 pillars, formerly a guarantee that citizens of Istanbul during wars will not be thirsty. And the nearby Grand Bazaar, or Kapali Carsi, is a unique monument from the 15th century. It is neither a building, nor palace, nor market, but a real little covered city with about sixty streets and, they say, with as many as 4,000 shops. You are first fascinated with the quantities of gold, carpets, ceramics, light fixtures, bijouterie, watches, footwear, clothes, leather, fur, wedding dresses, delicacies, snacks... Afterwards you really become dizzy from that aggressive sparkling abundance of colors. It is really fortunate that the traders are no longer as assertive as they used to be, they do not pull your sleeve and don’t want to bargain much. You want to take a little break, so you enter the also covered Mısır Çarşisi, or Egyptian Spice Barket, and there you really get dizzy from vapors, colors, smells and constant noise. You rush out straight into a maze of winding little streets, and even there you see one stall after another with just about everything on them. Somehow you pull through to the New Mosque, you pass by men who are washing their feet before prayer, come to the square where they traditionally sell simits (gevreks), boiled corn and roasted chestnuts, you cross the street, tram tracks and again taverns, bars, money changers, bakery shops, pastry shops, jewelry stores, little shops, travel agents... There is no end. IN THE VORTEX OF COLORS, SMELLS AND STREETS You missed the tram because you didn’t have the token and you are not really skilled to use that token machine, so you start slowly on foot over Galata Bridge that connects two European coasts. Even there crowds of people gush on both sides, some-
Serbistan When in Istanbul you say that you are from Serbia, people will give you a big smile: “Aaah, Serbistan, Serbistan!...” Aski Serbistan means Old Serbia. Numerous “old connections” are reflected in the Belgrade Gate, one of four in Istanbul, as well as Belgrade Forest, a luxurious excursion ground spread over 6,000 hectares. Not to mention the fact that in the territory of the Turkish Empire Serbian was one of four official languages, in addition to Turkish, Arabic and Persian. Even the sultans used it, because they thought that only uneducated people could not speak Serbian. Dragoslav Milosavljević, president of the Association of SerbianTurkish Friendship, says that there are three million people in Istanbul who emphasize their Serbian origin, and as many as nine million in the entire Turkey.
body would push you here and there while walking, without even turning around, because that is the lifestyle here. You pass by a bunch of noisy fishermen and their colorful fishing rods with lines thrown into a not co clean water, but you do not see little restaurants on the lower level of the bridge which, in the summer, and we learn this from experienced people, hang on chains and rob with prices. You arrive on the other side and your eyes stop at the lines for the boat toward the coast from which you arrived, you slowly take a little street uphill, just a little more, a little more, and finally you reach that famous İstiklal Caddesi, the famous pedestrian street of Istanbul, a great place for walking, shopping and night life. There is also the old tram there on one track going up and down, which can take “two and a half persons” but, okay, one should not be too critical about a tourist attraction. We also have our “Romantika” on tracks! İstiklal Caddesi is a series of shops with branded goods, consulates, churches, then you see the oldest gymnasium in the city, old post office, numerous passages... And the little streets, or alleys that flow in from the sides! Every one of them leads into a new maze, either of restaurants, or bars, shops, fish, fruit and vegetable markets... Each one is more seductive than the other. On one end Tram on Istiklal Street you see the smoke coming from doner kebabs and fried fish, on the other side you are Riding a carriage offered mussels with lemon and lobster, a guy around Prince is offering fresh squeezed orange and pomeIslands granate juice (they are the best when mixed), and the guy next to him is stretching ice cream like dough. Suddenly you see a win- Three images from the Grand Bazar, dow with stuffed cabbage leaves, moussaka, the best known lamb meat, colorful salads and who knows what kind of casseroles, and even more fre- commercial district in Istanbul quently with coated sculptures made of nuSERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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Madhouse To visit important sites of Istanbul is not easy. Not only because of great distances, but also because traffic is completely crazy. One has available a short subway, tram, bus, dolmus, taxi, ferryboat every fifteen minutes, but explanations on locations are contradictory, stops are often not marked, there are no traffic regulations. Not even red light or pedestrian crossings apply.
Sunset at the Bosporus
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merous types of baklavas, tulumbas, halvah, Turkish delight and various delicacies. Down İstiklal Street you came to the famous Taksim Square, the second centre on Istanbul, surrounded by the most luxurious hotels. It is huge, in the middle there is a large monument to Ataturk, on the side there is that famous park the trees of which were apparently the cause of bloody demonstrations last spring. However, Taksim does not make such a great impression. Although several bigger streets flow into it, the square looks somehow bold, the park looks neglected, and surrounding houses resemble socialist realism. Besides the areas around Sultanahmet and Taksim, there is a lot more that must be seen and experienced in Istanbul. For example, Galata Tower, with 143 steps that
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must be climbed in order to enjoy the view of the Golden Horn, Bosporus and the Marble Sea, palaces and Dolmabahçe Mosque, a complex of buildings of Mikrimah-Sultana, Ecumenical Patriarchy, café and outlook “Pierre Loti”, just as sumptuous as the poor part of the coast... One must cross to the Asian side over the bridges of Ataturk or Fatih Sultan Mehmet, visit the train station Haidar Pasha, Beylerbeyi Palace, stay in Kadikoy district which has the strongest scent of the Orient. Along the big modern buildings, here we have low slanted wooden houses in narrow alleys, right next to old mosques, fountains, Turkish baths and residences. All in all, Istanbul is not equally attractive to everybody. There are those who are so attached to it that have to go back there every once in a while, but there are also those who cannot stand it because it is too noisy, aggressive, too colorful and crowded, it hits you on all sides, and would not let you rest. But like it or not, one should certainly see this miraculous city that looks like an old collector of contrasts. At least once. And one should at least once cruise the Bosporus. It is a must.
Travel Agency - Incoming Tour Operator Ohrid - Macedonia Travel Agency VIS POJ – Ohrid – Macedonia – The Balkans – That’s who we are. We would like to appoint that the story for Ohrid and Macedonia has already been told. Created by millenia, nature, created by history.
VIS POJ SERVICES The services we render are at a high standard level and with a guaranteed quality, which is the result of our selection of local partners with great care. This, on the other hand, allows our full range of programs, which is our final tourist product, to be as unique and as perfect as possible. CONGRESS TOURISM The extensive experience in congress tourism of VIS POJ’s team, its dedication and competence is just another reason to simply entrust the organization of your future meetings, seminars and/or congresses to the hands of real professionals.
Our intention is to simply present ourselves. We are here to lead you through the pathways walked for millennia. To let you know that we are big enough to be your serious partner in Macedonia, but at the same time small enough to pay our due attention to each individual visitor. We are offering numerous services in the field of tourism. We are not only a superb quality organizer of all types of individual and group travels but also a first-class service agent of partner clients.
CULTURAL TOURISM We are so blissful for living in Ohrid, in Macedonia, on the Balkans, in a region abound of cultural heritage which by itself motivates to become real creators of specially designed cultural tours, planned to the smallest of detail, that will meet the needs of our most demanding clients.
You may contact VIS POJ for any or all of the following: - Incentive groups, - Programs of special interest, - Monastery tours, - Eco tours, - Daily trips, - Classical programs around Macedonia, - Program - Wineries in Macedonia, - Sports tourism (fishing & hunting), - Hotel accommodation, - Private accommodation, - Package arrangements, - Seminars and congresses, - Airway tickets, - Transfers, - Rent a car.
On the right bank of the Drina, in the seat of the Guča ravine, between the mountains of Gučevo (Serbia) and Majevica (Srpska), in Banja Koviljača, there is Sports-Recreational Complex “Sunčana Reka”, which occupies four hectares. A unique oasis for rest, relaxation, sport and recreation, very much needed to people burdened with daily obligations, fast lifestyle, exposed to stress, without enough time to dedicate to themselves and their families. The exceptional ambient of this complex includes the following: • House for accommodation of guests “Nada” (1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 - 30 beds); • Accommodation in guesthouses (1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, TV, terrace) and villa “Sunčana Reka” – Total capacity: 57 beds • Restaurant “Pod vrbom” (270 seats) • Organizing celebrations, cocktails, professional meetings • Organizing lunch “in passing” • Organizing musical program • Organizing weddings in restaurants and on terraces • Summer garden, open and covered (500 seats) • Summer house (40 seats) • Business room (100 seats) • Pilates program • Wellness program • Sport terrains for foosball, football, beach volleyball, tennis, badminton, basketball, tables for table tennis, jogging trek (5.000 meters) • Entertainment park for children • Stable, riding horses, horse carriage ride • Spacious parking • Developed beach on the bank of the Drina • Boat ride • Organizing excursions and trekking with a professional guide • And much more... Address: “Sunčana Reka”, 15316 Banja Koviljača, Loznica (Serbia) Telephone: +381 69 825 80 37, +381 15 822 250; Fax: +381 15 822 239 Web: www.suncanareka.rs E-mail: sales@suncanareka.rs, suncanareka11@gmail.com
МИТРОВИЦА СРЕМСКА
ЛЕПОТИЦА
Искориштавање туристичких потенцијала Сремске Митровице и унапређење понуде и квалитета услуга, представљају један од приоритетних задатака челних људи и туристичких радника ове сремске лепотице. Оближња Фрушка гора, коју због бројних манастира Српске православне цркве многи називају и фрушком Светом гором, Специјални резерват природе Бара Засавица, непрегледна и питома војвођанска равница, река Сава и њене обале, представљају праве драгуље које је природа подарила Сремцима, знајући да ће у тим даровима уживати и сваки путник намерник кога пут нанесе у овај део наше земље. Археолошки локалитети са остацима грађевина древнога Сирмиjума,међу којима се издваја Царска палата, која сврстава Митровицу у важно културнотуристичко одредиште на туристичкој мапи света, затим темељи најстарије хришћанске цркве у нашој
земљи, прелепо граско језгро старо два века, позивају све добронамерне људе да упознају Сремску Митровицу и осете непролазни дух овог града и његових становника. Велики број модерних, али и старинских угоститељских објеката са надалеко чувеним сремским специјалитетима и гурманлуцима, винима и ракијом из приватних подрума, спремно је да угости и задовољи укусе и најзахтевнијих гостију. Смештајни капацитети хотела и преноћишта у граду и ближој околини, сеоских домаћинстава и салаша, на располагању су свима који одлуче да посете Сремску Митровицу и да уживају у непроцењивом богатству које јој је историја оставила у наслеђе. Добро дошли у Сирмијум, Civitas sancti Demetrii и Сремску Митровицу!
The exploitation of the tourist potentials of Sremska Mitrovica and the improvement of the offer and quality of services are some of the main tasks of the leading people and tourist workers of this beautiful town in Srem. The nearby mountain of Fruska gora, which is also called "Holy Fruska gora" due to the numerous monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Special nature reserve Zasavica Pond the vast and tame Vojvodina plain, the river Sava and its banks are real gems which nature bestowed on the people of Srem, knowing that every chance traveler arriving in this part of our country will also enjoy these gifts. All well-meaning people are welcome to come and see the archaeological sites and feel the undying spirit of this town and its people. You can visit the remains of the buildings of ancient Sirmium, among which we can single out the imperial palace which places Mitrovica among important cultural and tourist destinations on the tourist map of the world. Visitors can also see the
foundations of the oldest Christian church in our country and the beautiful 200-year old town centre. A large number of both modern and rustic hospitality premises, with widely-known specialties from Srem and wine and brandy from private cellars, are prepared to welcome and please the tastes of even the most demanding guests. The accommodation capacity of hotels and B&B*s in the town and its vicinity and of village households and farms is at the disposal of all those who decide to visit Sremska Mitrovica and to enjoy the invaluable wealth which history bequeathed. Welcome to Sirmium, Civitas Sancti Demetrii and Sremska Mitrovica! Туристичка организација Града Сремска Митровица Светог Димитрија 10, 22000 Сремска Митровица Тел/Факс: 022/618-275; turistorgsm@yahoo.com www.tosmomi.rs
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SANREMO, LIGURIAN GENTLEMEN OF STEADY SHINE
Golden Dust of the Flower Riviera Madonna on the coast has been watching over this city since the 12th century. Five amazing domes of Russian churches write on the sky a Slavic chronicle understandable only to the dedicated. On the sidewalk of Corso Matteotti names of all the winners of the famous local festival are written. Ligurian masters of flowers are unrivaled in Europe, and we are assured of that at every turn, just like every 1st of January at the concert in Vienna. True, this is not a town for those hands tremble when making payment, but once they should come. At least for a little while
Text and photographs: Miodrag Grubački
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t the mention of this picturesque city on the shores of the Ligurian Sea, the first thought leads to music and world famous music festival of “light music”, which premiered as far back as in 1951. Indeed, every February Sanremo lives for music, but one of the centers of the Italian marine tourism breathes fully all twelve months of the year. History and glamour here are constantly flirting with tourism and tourists, and in the summer
months there are more tourists than permanent residents (who count about 60 thousand). The area along the border with French in which Sanremo is called the “Flower Riviera” by the Italians. For many reasons. The surroundings of the town is filled with greenhouses from which the flowers are exported to all Europe, and every 1st of January they reach the Golden Hall of the Viennese Music Association, MusikvSERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
Madonna Church n the shore, San Siro and Russian Church
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Orange and White Beach
Monument to king Vittorio Emanuele III and queen Jelena Savoy, in the yard of the Russian Church
erein, where it makes the unforgettable décor of the New Year’s Concert. Sanremesi (the traditional name for local population) have special attitude toward flowers, and vegetation in general, nurturing it on every step. Squares, streets and coasts of Sanremo have been turned into beautiful big flower pots, alleys and parks. Every free space of this city, which is by the way overpopulated, is enriched with impeccable lawns, fountain or a monument, and some parks, like the Nobel Park or the Botanic Garden of the old Marsaglia family, resemble those that one can see only in the most romantic classical films. In February they hold the “Carnival of Flowers” during which the citizens of all places from the Liguria area, to which Sanremo administratively belongs, demonstrate their artistry in the making of flower arrangements. THE LAST RESIDENCE OF THE PETROVIĆ FAMILY
The city and the surrounding area have great cultural-historical and architectural Villa of Alfred legacy, and this is reflected in the permaNobel nent exhibition of the district museum and numerous monumental buildings in Corso Matteotti, the the city centre. Old edifices are diligently central pedestrian maintained, there are no dilapidated and zone of Sanremo damaged facades, and everything that is
Nobel Famous Alfred Nobel lived in Sanremo for five years. His flamboyant villa was in 1874 turned into a museum, and Nobel himself is only one of numerous celebrities who stayed in this city for a short or long time.
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interesting is accessible to tourists. The “Old Town” is not much different from those in other Mediterranean cities and is characterized by narrow streets, cramped stone buildings, wooden blinds on windows and the spirit of past eras. The pearl of the city architecture is the Russian Church, which was, modeled after the Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, built in 1912 by Russian immigrants and it belongs to the Orthodox Church even today. Five domes of this majestic building dominate the coast, and in the temple yard there are two memorial monuments dedicated to people who are also related to our territories – the last Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III and his wife, Montenegrin princess Jelena of Montenegro Savoy, daughter of king Nikola, who also has his monument built in one of the parks of Sanremo. The princess’ grave used to be held in the Russian Church until 1989, when her relics were returned to her hometown. King Nikola is also buried in the church, in 1921and only 68 years later his last wish was fulfilled and his remains were transferred to Cetinje. The last Montenegrin dynasty - the Petrović dynasty, chose Sanremo as its home, where it was acknowledged and respected by the Italian authorities, until the arrival of Mussolini’s fascists. On the hill above the city, which offers the best panoramic view, in the 17th century the Madonna sanctuary was built on the coast, a unique symbol of Sanremo and motif on most of the local greeting cards and souvenirs. A walk to this place down the winding alleys, with several hundreds stairs, is a special experience, and if you are in this city you should not miss it.
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C O A S T In the old Sanremo, on the city square with the same name, there is San Siro Cathedral. It was built in the 12th century, and it has remained the central Catholic temple of this city. Suring summer evening, the area in front of the cathedral is filled with actors and singers, and access of the audience to their programs is free. HIS MAJESTY THE FESTIVAL The most attractive for tourist is the massive building of Casino, surrounded with luxurious palaces. Those with deeper pockets are more attracted to its interiors, while others are mostly content by taking photographs of the facades, which are ornamented by decorative lights at night. This used to be the venue of the Festival of Italian Canzone until 1976, when it was moved to the auditorium of “Ariston” Theatre, in the same street – Corso Matteotti – only a few hundred meters away. Creative Italians brought together these two famous places with a unique pedestrian zone, the middle of which, on the very ground, is dominated by lead plates with engraved years, naves of compositions and singers who were winning at the competition. In this way, a walk down this street becomes an emotional travel through musical history of not only this country, since the Sanremo Festival has long acquitted international scope. We stop before the plate with the year of 1958. The winner of the festival was legendary Domenico Modugno, with even more famous Nel blu dipinto di blu, whose countless times repeated chorus “Voolaa-ree... can-ta-re” (“to fly, to sing”), has become more popular than the national anthem. Modugno has remained remembered as a singer with most victories in
Ours During our stay on the Flower Riviera, we met many people from the Sothern Slavic territories. For example, well known swimmer Mirjana Šegrt, former Yugoslav record setter, came to Sanremo from Dubrovnik, through Belgrade and Aranđelovac. She is now transferring her swimming skills to younger generations, and she happily remembers her days spent in Belgrade Anka Đuranović from Vršac and Jasmina Cumbo from Belgrade, married to Italians, also found their homes and remained to live in this city. (...)
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Sanremo, four in total, as ell as not less popular veteran of the canzone Claudio Villa. Three victories were achieved by Iva Zaniki, another important name of Italian music. Lead plates along Corso Matteotti continue this unique story, and its actors become, among others, Adriano Celentano, Anna Oksa, Ricchi e Poveri, Toto Cutugno, Matia Bazar, Eros Ramazzotti, Tiziana Rivale... There is no important name of popular Italian music who did not start to sing here, and in the first two decades, in alternation with them, some foreign celebrities also performed. The charisma of Sanremo, together with which, as even Kemal Monteno says in his song, “everybody grew, danced, sang and knew it” has remained present until the present day. Up to that point that, not far from “Ariston” Theatre, a statue was erected to a Mike Bongiorno, a TV host who hosted the Festival eleven times and gave him the special atmosphere. FOR DEEP POCKET Sanremo is not a place to stay for those with shallow pockets, because prices of tourist services in it are only slightly below Monte Carlo which is only 40 kilometers away, and other pearls of the French Riviera. Just as formal borders between Italy and France no longer exist, they are also absent in the selection of tourist diversities and possibilities to spend one’s free time with good quality (read: with a lot of money). From casinos, to national restaurants and branded stores, to entertainment in any hotel, of hundreds that are lined along the coast. On the place where the city and its sea meet, like lego cubes, there are uniformed beaches lined up, and so, depending on the color of the umbrellas and beach chairs on them, one can visit white, blue, red, green and orange beach... Nothing here is by accident, nothing us superfluous. Located next to one of the most attractive and the busiest highways of Europe, Genoa – Monte Carlo – Nice – Marseilles – Barcelona, elegant gentleman of a steady glow, the pearl of Liguria, Sanremo, is simply enticing, even for a short visit. And, if the situation and intentions allow it, the Flower Riviera should certainly be smelled as well...
The Museum on water - Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
Situated on the eastern shore of Ohrid lake, in the bay of the bones, on peninsula Gradiste, Museum on water is a place where visitors can travel back in time , from Slavic to roman period, and also in prehistory, in late Bronze and early Iron age. With his beauty and uniqueness this museum attract many tourists from around the world. Evidence for this is the fact that after its construction the museum is one of the most visited places in Macedonia. After many underwater research which were performed since 1997, in the bottom of the lake were found remains of 6000 wooden piles, and numerous artifacts. After this discoveries, macedonian archaeologist Pasko Kuzman together with Museum of Ohrid, with support from the Government of Republic of Macedonia begin to realize the project Museum on water in Bay of the bones. In 2008 in Bay of the bones were placed 1060 wooden piles in the lake, and on the platform over them were built 8 prehistoric houses. In 2010 were placed 2286 wooden piles more, and were built another 16 prehistoric houses . Total 24 prehistoric houses were built on the platform above 3346 wooden piles. Except prehistoric pile dwelling settlement within the museum on water is museum building, at which are exposed artifacts which are found during underwater expolorations, the original view of the bottom of the lake is shown in the museum building. Here the visitors can learn about history of the museum, accompanied by the curator of the museum, also they can buy copies of the artifacts and useful literature. Also the part of the museum on water is the diving center, were the visitors can dive and see the underwater site, accompanied by experienced diving instructors. The museum also have amphitheater were many cultural events and performances are held. In the hill above the Bay of the bones, reconstruction of the roman castel Is made. The castel represents the Roman period in this region. The roman castel and the hole museum also, is beautifully landscaped with a large number of viewpoints, were the visitors can relax and enjoy the beautiful view of the Ohrid lake and Bay of the bones.
Bay of Bones museum 6323 Pestani, Ohrid Ohrid downtown distance: 13.18 km
Custodian / Administrator Ohrid Museum, Boro Sain 10, 6000 Ohrid +389 (0)46 262 498, +389 (0)46 231 300
A D V E N T U R E S
National park “Arches”
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Facing the Forces of Nature OUR TRAVEL WRITER IN THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
You leave curious, eyes wide open. Without prejudices. You do not confuse natural beauty and foreign policy, the beauty of the country and demons of money. From Badlands and Mount Rushmore, through Devils Tower and Yellowstone, to Grand Canyon, Arches and Monument Valley. And further, further. By car, by plane, by helicopter, in a boat, on the horse. Hundreds of miracles, in such scales that we become aware of being just a grain of sand in the universe. Finally, it is difficult to say which national park makes the strongest impression. And why would we say that?
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A D V E N T U R E S Text and photographs: Josip Šarić
Visitors on the edge of the Grand Canyon The Great Sand Dunes Devils Tower, well known from Spielberg’s film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”
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olombo, in 1492, could even imagine the crowds of adventurers, impoverished estate owners, poor peasants, greedy noblemen, desperate homeless people and god knows who else, who would, in the centuries to come, rush from Europe toward the newly discovered continent searching for light in their dark lives. Time passed by, and on the historical scene a new type of conquerors appeared, those searching for natural beauty and cultural and historical monuments that are abundant in the country the size of a half of a huge continent. We begin our journey on highway no. 90 that, like all other marked with even numbers, lead in the direction East-West. Immense prairie landscapes of Minnesota and South Dakota are silent reminders that many federal states owe their names to indigenous tribes. In this way at least some of numerous communities with which the white immigrants were facing have been preserved from oblivion. Looking at the indigenous people through the focus of Hollywood movie spectacles, which typically showed them without a critical perspective and incorrectly as blood-thirsty hunters of scalps of the white people, the rich history of those who were actually the first to settle down on the North American continent remained in the background. Immersed in thoughts about that injustice, the hours of driving go by reminding us why in America one needs a car even to go and buy a loaf of bread.
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Pueblo Bonito Pueblo people have best demonstrated their building skills through Pueblo Bonito – the building that occupies about 8,000 square meters. It is estimated that it used to have between 650 and 800 rooms in the period between the 8th and 12th century.
We see Bedlends, national monument that also owes its name to the indigenous people, who used to call this area Makosika, namely bad earth. The name says it all, and the surreal image of timeless wasteland hides in its lap big large deposits of fossil mammals about 25 million years old. By American standards not far from Badlands, there is Mount Rushmore, a mountain transformed by an artistic vision and engineering knowledge of Gutzon Borglum. Portraits of President Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln are the modern trademark of the Black Hills, visible from a distance of a hundred kilometers. PARADISE DOOR OF HELL We enter Wyoming and before us is the Devils Tower, immortalized in Spielberg’s vision of the first contact with the aliens in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The natural phenomenon is so fascinating that it became a part of the legend of the Lakota tribe, whose members
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Grand Canyon, the Biggest Everything in Grand Canyon is easier and more accessible today, and visitors are also offered to fly in the plane, rafting down the Colorado and descend to the bottom of the canyon, by helicopter, riding a horse or on foot. All this is still filled with the spirit of adventure and indescribable monumentality of the Grand Canyon remains as a secret memory that not many things can surpass.
Stone with red tapes in Badlands. Yellow stream in Yellowstone. An image from Monument Valley (Valley of the Rocks)
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revere this location even today as a holy place and hold their tribal meetings here. Cross over the Bighorn Mountain is entrance through the door of paradise into potential Hell – Yellowstone. The largest volcanic caldera, underneath which is a huge chamber full of ebullient, restless magma, is a silent threat not only to the American continent. For now, this park is one of the most attractive tourist destinations, where fumaroles are bubbling and spraying all over, as well as geysers surrounded by disinterested and lazy buffaloes and bustling tourists. Since the park spreads over the territories of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, the visitors will often not know in which federal state they currently are. From the Yellowstone, the road to the south runs next to Grand Teton mountain range and the beautiful Lake Jackson, and for a while through Idaho and Utah, and the destination for the next conquests were encountered in Nevada and contemporary Potempkin’s Village – Las Vegas. There are those who like cheap thrills, but much more desirable place to visit is the Meteor Crater in Arizona. The scar on the earth’s face was created about 50,000 years ago, by collision of a tiny space rock of fifty meters in diameter. The consequence of this out-of.-space kiss is a crater 1.2 kilometers in diameter, 170 meters deep and with the edge that rises above the surrounding terrain by about 45 meters. Curious hands of the visitors often stay there caressing the biggest preserved piece of the meteorite, which stands on an open base offering direct contact with the universe. Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico are very generous to the explorers of their cultural, historical and natu-
ral monuments. A huge space like a maze with no entrance reveals surprises one after the other. Mesa Verde and Vederil Mesa are only two of numerous areas containing hundreds of sites with remains of settlements of Anasazi Indians, whose culture bloomed between the 6th and 13th century. The first settlements, built on the plateaus, are replaced in the 12th century are later replaced by multi-storey buildings erected in rock shelters long the cliffs of the canyon. And then, in the 13th century, the settlements are mysteriously being abandoned, leaving a riddle for contemporary researchers of that culture. Chaco Canyon is the opposite, because similar buildings are erected in the open space, at the bottom of the canyon itself. UNDER THE ARCS OF ARCHES Like formerly the hooves of wild mustangs, the road is, mile after mile, being swallowed by wheels of the car until they stop on the rim of sand dunes. Great Sand Dunes are the result of continuous struggle of the wind that blows from San Luis Valley and a huge mountain ridge comprised of Sangre de Cristo Range. Carried by weakened strength of the weary Eol, sand particles are deposited at the foot of the mountain creating sand dunes that rise up to 300 meters in the air, and spread over 80 square kilometer. A perfect place for surfers who are replacing water waves with the sand ones. Flying in a Cessna from Boulder City, over Mojave Desert and its waterless landscapes, is an introduction into the climax of our journey – a visit to Grand Canyon, and then National Park Arches and Monument Valley. Embarrassment
Valley of the Rocks Monument Valley represents the exit gate through which one leaves Colorado Plateau. Navaho Indians called this area Tsé Bii Ndzisgaii, namely the Valley of the Rocks. This part of the Colorado Plateau is characterized by numerous anthropomorphous sandstone rocks, the highest among which are up to 300 meters. If he were alive, even John Wayne would probably not remember how many times he rode between them while acting in the films by John Ford.
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A D V E N T U R E S while watching from the comfort of airconditioned airplane over the natural reservation in which members of Hualapai and Havasupai tribes spend their day begins to fade when the first vertical cliffs of the Grand Canyon begin to appear below the wings of the Cessna. One of the most impressive landscapes on planet Earth inspires in the visitors probably the same awe as the members of Clovis people had who were the first to set foot on the cliffs of this canyon about 12,000 years ago. In the next millenniums, the members of various Indian tribes were the only visitors here, until 1540, when Hopi guides led Spanish explorers to the South Rim. Only in 1869, John Wesley Powell manages to go through the entire Grand Canyon with his expedition. To the northeast of the Grand Canyon, in Utah, there is a little city of Moab which owes its popularity to the widely studied system of nurseries and Arches National Park. Erosion forces started their unstoppable game with rocks about 100 million years ago. Water, ice, extreme temperatures and powerful underground
layer of salt moved, crushed and carved the rocks leaving on the surface numerous anthropomorphic rocks and more than 2,000 arcs that the park was named after. In this unfriendly surrounding, with temperatures that in the summer go up to or above 40o Celsius, the most persistent resident was bio John Wesley Wolfe who lived there between 1888 and 1908. However, if this environment is too harsh for people, it does not mean that there is no life in it. Persistent and patient observers will be able to meet, in various times of a day, the local species of deer, fox, rabbits and smaller rodents, various little reptiles, but also the golden eagle. The circle slowly closes and in the end it is difficult to choose the park that left the strongest impression. Each one of them has its specificities, and depth of experience also depends on the sensibility of the visitor. Undoubtedly, they only revealed only a part of their stories that has lasted for millenniums or even millions of years, and they showed the man how fragile and weak he is in comparison with the forces of nature. ď ł
The DESARET hotel is located on the shore of Lake Ohrid, in the vicinity of Peshtani at the distance of only 12 km from Ohrid. It was built in a traditional Ohrid architecture from the 19th century, providing 580 beds in 246 comfortable twin rooms, 6 suites in the hotel and 18 suites in nine separate villas within the complex. Desaret offers two restaurants, congress hall equipped with conference and multimedia system for presentations with 700 seats, a summer terrace, private sandy beach and car park. The comlex also offers grill restaurant, night bar, disco club, as well as sport terrains for tennis, handball, soccer, table tennis in addition to table-tennis hall and bowling alley. The Desaret hotel complex widely opens the doors and welcomes everybody who would like to hold a seminar, conference or business meetings in its quiet and wonderful sourroundings.
Ohrid - Peshtani, Macedonia Phone: 00389 46 285 951; Fax: 00389 46 285 915
www.hoteldesaret.com.mk hotel@desaret.com.mk
„Миленијум Палас“ је хотел са четири звездице који се налази на југозападу Македоније, на обали прелепог Охридског Језера. „
Millenium Palace“ is a four star hotel located in the southwest part of Macedonia, on the shores of the famous Lake Ohrid.
Смештај 41 стандарднa собa, 10 дуплекса, 6 делукс соба, 6 Јуниор aпартмана.
Accommodation 41 standard rooms, 10 Duplexes, Deluxe rooms, 6 Junior Suits.
Храна Ресторан је капацитета 160, а тераса 100 особа.
Dining With the capacity up to 160 and terrace for 100 persons.
Вински бар
Wine Bar
Конференције и семинари две конференцијске сале капацитета од 120 учесника
Conferences & Seminars two conference halls, each with capacity up to 120 participants
Спа и Велнес Финска сауна, Турска сауна (Амам), Теретана, Масажа.
Spa And Wellness Finish sauna, Turkish sauna (Hamam), Gym, Massage.
w w w. m i l l en i u m p a l a c e. co m . m k
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millenium_palace@t-home.mk
Кеј Маршал Тито бб, 6000 Охрид, Македонија, Тел./Факс: +389 46 263 361
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JAHORINA, THE CENTRE OF WINTER TOURISM AND WHITE SPORTS IN SRPSKA
In the Old Olympic Circle From the first skis, brought exactly ninety years ago, millions of winter sport lovers passed through here. Beginners and great champions, local people and foreigners, big and small, they skied sown these slopes and stayed in local boarding houses, remained permanently enchanted and kept coming back. The true climax was marked by the Winter Olympic Games, which took place here in 1984. Accounting for all this, the Tourist Organization of Eastern Sarajevo entered the new winter season with all the old and new trump cards
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Jahorina, “in upper lights”, above the sea of clouds
ong tradition of skiing and organizing winter competitions on Jahorina begins as far back as in 1923. That year, accounts say, the first skis were brought here. Since then, more than a million lovers of this white sport from around the world have made their firs steps on the slopes and tracks of Jahorina. Jahorina is today one of the most popular winter centers in the Balkans, and many regard it as one of the most beautiful mountains in Europe. On the altitude of 1,529–1,916 meters, it has over 20 kilometers of well developed ski sloes for alpine skiing. The slopes are connected with modern vertical transportation (three six-seats, two two-seats and four ski lifts), with total capacity of over 12,000 skiers per hour. For the lovers of Nordic skiing, slope “Dvorište” is a real pearl. There is also a modern shooting range for biathlon, which provides conditions for superb competitions. It is on this track that the World Military Championships in biathlon took place, in February 2011. Vicinity of the international airport in Sarajevo provides easy access to the ski center to a large number of tourists coming from abroad. – In addition for those who love skiing, snowboarding and other snow sports, offers programs for those looking for fun and entertainment, traditional cuisine and local specialties, trekking in the beautiful winter environment and quality accommodation in cozy and pleasant atmosphere of the local hotels, guest houses, apartments and other types of accommodation – says Branka Spasojević, director of the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo. – In addition to this, hotels in Jahorina offer the opportunity to relax in a modern well equipped wellness center located in them.
Zlatibor Connection – We will continue to develop programs in the area of Jahorina, as well as the city of East Sarajevo. We are planning to implement projects with our partners in Montenegro (municipalities Plužine and Kolašin) and Serbia (municipality of Čajetina and Tourist Organization of Zlatibor). The project is related to development of certain tourist segments on Jahorina and Zlatibor – says Branka Spasojević, director of the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo.
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Summer Attraction on the Mountain – In the future, we will intensively develop summer tourist programs on Jahorina, in order to improve this segment of our offer as well – says Branka Spasojević. – We want to Jahorina to have its well deserved place on the tourist map of this part of Europe as a summer destination as well. For now, in the summer months, popular programs include seminars, conferences, congresses, schools in nature, sports camps, relax, wellness and extreme weekends in exclusive hotels on Jahorina, as well as adrenaline sports, such as mountain biking and hiking. Let’s not forget trekking along well developed mountain treks, collecting medicinal herbs and much more than that.
Jahorina is a mountain that has a soul, adds Spasojević. Except for skiing, our guests are always returning to us also because, as they say, they feel very much at home here. It was here that, long time ago, they made friends for life. – Jahorina is also is competitive for its prices, which are much lower than in other ski resorts in the territories of the Southern Slavs, and for this reason our old guests have remain loyal to us, while new ones keep coming – says the director of the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo. – Everything on Jahorina is ready for the winter tourist season 2013/2014. The trails are cleaned, vertical transportation transport repaired and prices of skipasses fixed, which were available in the period by November 11 and promotional discounted prices in the Olympic Centre “Jahorina”. ON RUSSIAN WINGS As in previous years, the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo, in cooperation with the Association of Hoteliers on Jahorina, Olympic Centre “Jahorina” and Tourist Organization of Republika Srpska, participated in numerous fairs and tourism trade shows in Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia. And the focus has always been the promotion of the upcoming winter tourist season. From November 8 to 10, the seventeenth Tourism Exchange “Workshop 2013” took place on Jahorina, in which about sixty travel agencies from B&H, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia participated, as well as representatives of twenty agencies from Russia. People at the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo hope that this will contribute to an increase in the number SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
Photographs: Vladimir Stanišić, Ivana Amović, Miroslav Bundalo, Archive of the Olympic Centre “Jahorina”
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Fairytales, of course, still exist: Idyllic images from Jahorina
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f Russian tourists on Jahorina. This event also included a presentation on Jahorina for Russian tour operators, who then visited all hotels on this mountain, learned about their offers and made good business arrangements for the upcoming winter tourist season. – Especially important for us is information announced at the Tourism Exchange by Jurij Basjuk, director of Moskovia Airlines – continues Spasojević. – As of December 20, 2013, there will be new regular flight Moscow–Sarajevo. Once a week there ill be a flight from DomodedoSRBIJA SPECIJALNO IZDAWE 2014.
vo Airport in Moscow, in morning hours, and return flight to Moscow would be on the same day in the afternoon, from “Butmir” Airport in Sarajevo. If we take into account that the visa regime has been significantly simplified for guests from Russia, namely the former mandatory, and by no means cheap taxes were abolished, there is a reason to be optimistic about the arrival of a large number of Russian tourists to Jahorina as well. Tourist season 2013/2014 was opened in mid December with already traditional event “Approaching Winter”, which gathered this year numerous travel professionals and friends of Jahorina from the country and abroad. Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo hopes that the works on completion of gondola Jahorina–Pale will soon be finished, and this will improve tourist programs on this mountain, and extend ski slopes by about 15 kilometers.
www.riviera.mk
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contact@riviera.mk
Phone: 00 389 46 209 900
Hotel Riviera is situated at Lake Ohrid close to the old town, offering rooms which were renovated in 2009. They boast lake or city views, cable TV and free wireless internet. The spacious restaurant Riviera features a summer terrace. One of the most distinguishing marks of Ohrid – The Riviera Hotel, situated right on
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the Lake Ohrid shore close to the city centre, represents an attractive destination for individual or group tourist and business visits. The hotel offers possibilities for organizing seminars, jubilees, presentations, cocktail parties, business meetings and as hotel guests, the utilization of seminar rooms and all necessary technical equipment is free.
„Циљ Књажевчана је да њихов град за четири године има за трећину мање незапосле них. Да обнове, у могућем обиму, производне активности у некадашњим привредним гигантима. Да Стара планина постане један од водећих планинских туристичких центара у овом делу Европе. Да под плантажама вишње и осталог воћа буде најмање 1.000 хектара. Да Књажевац буде град богат садржајима и да сваки његов део буде осми шљен и уређен. Да се млади овде враћају и остају, зато што се ту лепо живи.“
ГРАД КЊАЖЕВАЦ CITY KNJAŽEVAC
“The goal of people from Knjaževac is to ensure that, four years from now, their city has unemployment cut by one third. To restore, in the possible extent, production activities in former economic giants. To ensure that the Old Mountain has become one of the leading tourist centers in this part of Europe. To have at least 1,000 hectares under plantations of sour cherry and other fruit. To have Knjaževac become a city with rich programs and that every part of it is planned and developed. To have young people return and stay here, because life here is good.”
www.knjazevac.rs
C E L E B R A T I O N S
“BARBECUE FESTIVAL” AND CARNIVAL REMAIN THE MAIN BRANDS OF LESKOVAC TOURISM
Spiced up with the real South The skill is transferred from one generation to the other. The meat must be of best quality, and it is grilled on coal. Ćevapčići must jump on the grill, hamburger must be juicy like ripe apricot, and pork steak must be white and soft like cotton. The rest you will discover yourself. Every year, more than 500,000 people come to Roštiljijada - the Barbecue Festival. And Carnival is a game, a large annual ritual, colorful and ambiguous. Masks are afterwards worn only as a souvenir and memory
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eskovac. Grad of trade and village fairs, the city with the most trades, city of culinary specialties, textile, a fair city, city of cosmetics, until World War Two one of the biggest in Serbia. Along with its other old symbols, it is today also recognizable for “Roštiljijada” and Carnival.
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Tradition of Leskovac barbecue is more than two centuries old. Already in the 18th century the travel writers mention ćevapčići as exceptional delicacies they had tasted in Leskovac. The best were those prepared by butcher and restaurant owner Dimitrije Mita Gligorijević, grandfather of the king of Leskovac barbecue Mio-
drag Gligorijević Bure. Delicacies of Dragi Bure inspired awe and respect around the world, on numerous international culinary exhibitions: in Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna, Stresa, on world exhibitions in Brussels and Montreal. Bure’s specialties were tasted by many celebrities, statesmen, diplomats, including British queen, Brezhnev, Carter, Nixon... He learned the trade in his familyrun ćevapčići shop called “Bure”, which was always full, and served only ćevapčići, kebab and sausages. Drinks were not served, but were brought over from other taverns. At that time, the city was known for teferič, night life in 105 taverns, hotels, gardens and wine cellars. During the allies’ bombing, at King’s birthday in 1944, in addition to Bure’s ćevapčići shop, most taverns and all hotels were also destroyed. The secret of Leskovac barbecue is preserved and transferred from one generation to the other. Two well known elements are the selection of the best quality meat and grilling on coal. Ćevapčići must jump on the grill, hamburger must be juicy like ripe apricot, and pork steak must be white and soft like cotton. From 1965 to 1969, the famous Leskovac barbecue school existed (it was restored again later). From this school, and from the long tradition of Leskovac hospitality industry, and based on the idea of Drago Bure, the “Roštiljijada” of Leskovac was born. The first one took place in 1965,
but it was canceled only two years later. It was brought back to life again in 1989. In the first ten years after restoration, the dates of this festival were frequently changed. Because of weather conditions, from midOctober they were moved closer to the summer, and the jubilee, twenty fifth festival this year will begin on August 25. All contemporary “Roštiljijada” festivals have been organized in the area of the main Bulevar oslobođenja Street, the popular Big Street, with participation of 20 to 30 caterers with 40 stands and gardens. The basis of the offer, of course, includes barbecue specialties: ćevapčići, hamburgers, sausages, pork steaks... In the past years, with the arrival of participants from other areas in Serbia, specialties that are not characteristic for South Serbia also appeared. There are also traditional competitions of students of hospitality schools of
The Biggest in the World The “Roštiljijada” of Leskovac, its competitions and side programs, are visited every year by over half a million local and foreign guests. The greatest interest is for competition in preparing the biggest hamburger in the world. They break record almost every year. the last official record is from 2013, when they made a hamburger of 55 kilograms of barbecue meat, 147 centimeters in diameter and two centimeters thick. At the competition from the biggest “hand made hamburger” in 2013, they made a record breaking example of three kilograms of meat, 37 centimeters in diameter.
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Novica From 2000, this competition has been organized under the name “Memorial of Novica Stanković Šaponja”, after the master of barbecue who broke his own record as often as six times, and three times in the row was the winner of the competition for the making of “hand made hamburger”. The last time Novica made the biggest hamburger was in early 1999 in Moscow. He was killed during the bombing of Serbia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999, in Kosovo.
Serbia and masters in preparing barbecue specialties. “Roštiljijada” is accompanied by numerous cultural and entertainment programs, seminars, counseling, exhibitions, fairs... Unavoidable are concerts of brass musicians, who are also a brand of Leskovac and South Serbia. TEARS AND LAUGHTER OF CARNIVAL MASKS Between two world wars, people in Leskovac had intensive social life. Dance evenings and tea parties, evening parties, great annual balls, costume balls and carnivals. Rich and idle people from Leskovac, primarily members of the Sokol society “Momčilo”, organize Carnival in 1929. The Leskovac Gazette from that time says: “The entire city was on its feet to see colorful costumes and masked faces... The procession moves in accordance with the defined program through almost all streets of Leskovac.” And so on until 1939. In the week between the Meat and White carnivals , before the Easter lent, members of society “Tradicija” organized a carnival. A chroniPROGRAM OF THE NINTH LESKOVAC CARNIVAL Monday, July 7, 2014 • Announcing the Ninth International Carnival Kingdom • “Dear in barrels” (carnival race in barrels) • The choice of Carnival Princess
cle says that these events would end with a “wedding celebrations on the city streets”. In that time, Leskovac was one of a few cities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in which carnivals were being organized. But years and ideologies came that would put these romantic times in oblivion. In 2001, the first majorette group in Serbia was created in Leskovac, with the idea to serve as the beginning of restoration of the Leskovac carnival. The carnival was restored in 2006. For three years it was called “Roštiljijada” Carnival and was organized as a side activity of the barbecue festival. Since 2009, It has been called se Leskovac Carnival, and then this city became a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities. The Leskovac Carnival combines ethnic and contemporary carnival trends. It is the longest one in Serbia, and by the number of direct carnival events it is the largest in the region. Ninth Leskovac Carnival will be organized from, July 7 to 12, 2014. During six carnival evenings, there will be as many as sixteen carnival events and about thirty side programs (concerts, performances for children and adults, art workshops and exhibitions, international workshops for the creation of carnival masks, fashion shows...). The central event – International Carnival Procession, with fireworks and carnival ball – still takes place on Saturdays. Over 1,500 people participate, in about fifty carnival groups, more than a half are from abroad. The carnival days are followed by more than 70,000 observers, with numerous dignitaries, businessmen, diplomats...
Thursday, July 10, 2014 • Fourth Carnival of Pets • Great Children’s Costume Ball
Tuesday, July 8, 2014 • Carnival Water Games
Friday, July 11, 2014 • Carnival of Old-Timers • Festival of Street Entertainers • Sixth Children’s Carnival Procession • Fifth Carnival of the third age • Knight Tournament • Fourth Festival of Fire
Wednesday, July 9, 2014 • Fourth Carnival of Face & Body Painting • Carnival of Tattoo, Piercing and Hair Styles • Fourth Eco-Carnival • Carnival of Majorettes
Saturday, July 12, 2014 • Reception for Carnival participants • Ninth International Carnival Procession • Carnival Fireworks • Carnival Ball
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NEGOTIN TOURISM IN 2014
Year of Enthusiasm and Adventure
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Tourist Triathlon
Beauties and Adventures
At the upcoming Tourism Fair in Belgrade, the Tourist Organization of Negotin municipality, on the joint booth with the Tourist Organization of Kladovo municipality and Agency for Regional Development and Business Centre from Vidin, will present the project “Hike and Bike and Canoe from Iron Gate to Golden Horn | Tourist Triathlon: hiking, cycling and canoeing from the Iron Gate to the Golden Horn“. The project owner is the Tourist Organization of Negotin municipality, and partners are Tourist Organization of Kladovo municipality, Agency for Regional Development and Business Centre from Vidin (Bulgaria). In November 2013, an agreement on donation was signed with IPA Cross-border Cooperation Program. Te goal of this project is development of tourist offer and promotions of cross-border area through joint tourist product: Tourist Triathlon.
Those searching for active holiday, escape from civilization or adrenaline experience, will find pleasant and unexpected surprises in Eastern Serbia. Lovers of nature and adrenaline can chose some of numerous activities: hiking, mountaineering, cycling, free climbing, hunting, fishing or ride on a catamaran or canoes. regardless of what type of offer they choose, the tourists will have a possibility to get to know local landscapes and population, culture and customs, to have fun and learn a lot. This year, Tourist Organization of Negotin municipality will invest most effort in promoting active holiday as tourist offer. Hiking and cycling treks that connect attractive tourist sites will be developed by the beginning of the season Do.
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Calendar of Events in 2014 April 29–30 | Festival of Vlach Folk Music. Promotion and presentation of authentic tradition in Vlach culture. May 12 | International Fair of Honey and Wine. Traditional gathering of producers of honey, wine, souvenirs, with diverse cultural and entertainment program and announcement of the best wines of the fair. June 18–19 | Customs of Krajina. A large number of visitors enjoy competition of musicians, weavers, shepherds’ games, preparation of traditional dishes and selection of the most beautiful shepherdess. June 29 | The Day of the Danube. A daylong socialization of Danube lovers and lovers of water sports. The program also includes cycling race, regatta, small boat rowing, competition in fishing and preparation of fish stew. July 18–20 | Moto Gathering. Gathering of motorcyclists. The program includes biking games, motorcycle procession and concerts.
May 8, July 12 and September 21–23 | Negotin Fairs. The fall fair in Negotin is one of the biggest and best known in Serbia. It has been organized continuously since 1836. September 8 | “Krajina Harvest” on Rogljevske pivnice. The visitors will be able to see traditional customs of going to the vineyards (Moba), and even to participate themselves. A cultural and artistic program, as well as exhibition of wines and souvenirs. take place on the central city square. September 12- 20 | Festival “The Days of Mokranjac”. Musical homage of Negotin and Serbia to the great Serbian composer and conductor Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac (1856– 1914). November 24 | Smedovački Beaujolais. The visitors of this event and lovers of whine can taste wines from the village of Smedovac, and enjoy the diverse cultural and artistic program, in authentic ambient of Smedovačke pivnice.
July 27 | Welcoming the “Đerdap Regatta”. Tournament in beach volleyball. Competition of recreational rowers.
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Health under the Mountain LUKOVSKA BANJA, MEDICINAL NEST ON THE EASTERN SLOPES OF KOPAONIK
The youngest and the highest Serbian spa resort has more and more guests every year, so it is necessary to book for months in advance. And guests, mostly the returning ones, always see something new. Owners of the spa resort (all employees) invest a significant part of their revenues into further development, aware that this is an investment into the future and into themselves By: Petar Milatović
Photographs: Archive of Lukovska banja, Dragan Bosnić
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uddled beneath eastern slopes of Kopaonik, 35 kilometers from Kuršumlija, Lukovska banja is the highest spa resort in Serbia (681 meters above the level of the far-away sea). And it is the youngest one, since the first real hotel, “Kopaonik”, was built in 1999. This is not the end with superlatives, because by the number of mineral waters (37), of different composition and temperature (from 35 to 69.5 degrees Celsius), and by their generosity (over 100 liters per second), it is one of the richest spa resorts in the beautiful string of spa resort of Serbia. SRBIJA SPECIJALNO IZDAWE 2014.
If we uncover the veil of distant past, we will see that the medicinal waters of this spa resort were used by ancient Romans. Even King Milutin couldn’t’ resist them, one of the most powerful rulers of medieval Serbia, a the bathroom in the so-called Upper Spa Resort still carries his name. Even the Turks used to bathe here in their bathroom-hamam. The first contemporary bathroom, with a male and female swimming pool, was built in 1948, but the real development, the seed of what exists in Lukovska banja today, starts with the construction of the already men-
tioned “Kopaonik” Hotel (1999). The climax of development by now was reached when very modern “Jelak” Hotel was built in 2009. They have kept building even after this, so the old hotel was extended with a new part with 17 rooms and 40 beds, which received the first guests only recently, for the New Year’s eve. The new outdoor swimming pool, with mandatory thermal water, will receive the first swimmers already on the 1st of May: and all this in less than a year, and all this from their own funds. SOLUTIONS WILL LOOK FOR YOU The person signing this article, for many years a visitor in this beautiful spa resort, knows for a fact that guests keep coming back here, convinced that thy can find there what is necessary for their health and healthier life. Based on numerous medical research and personal experiences, Lukovska is god-given for therapy of, primarily, rheumatic problems, degenerative diseases of the spine and improvement of general condition of the body after injury of the bone-joint system. Several people I talked to, all serious people successful in their careers, confirmed to me over and over again that the stay here changed their lives profoundly. They had severe rheumatic pain and problems with spine, namely painful consequences of bone fractures after traffic or other accidents. Lukovska banja helped them. I have heard a similar story from beautiful and young Russian girls, Anja and Svetlana, who arrived from Sankt Petersburg searching for, and this is hard to believe given their age, a cure for their rheumatic troubles. They were previously treated in Igalo, not very successfully, and after that an acquaintance told them to try in Lukovska banja. With a smile they confide that they would come here again next year, only in a bigger company. In the resort I also met a married couple from Sofia, he is an engineer and she is a doctor: They are coming for the third year to this nest on the eastern slopes of Kopaonik. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of guests is increasing year by year, and that accommodation must be booked months in advance. Although it is not decent in a decent magazine for a journalist to talk about his (health) problems, I do it this time to add credibility to what was already said. Namely, although I do not suffer from all the diseases that are treated here by the professional medical staff of this spa resort, I say for the fact that my gout is now pretty much under control. It is obvious that it does not thrive well in these waters and their temperatures and medicinal qualities.
Who Says They Can’t Lukovska banja, together with Prolom banja, where “Prolom Water” is being bottled, and Đavolja Varoš, is in the system of “Planinka AD” from Kuršumlija, whose owners are (95 percent) employees. Together with regular salaries, they invest the rest of their income into development of both their company and, of course, themselves. It is good to hear that something like this exists in our little country of Serbia.
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“MERKUR’S” NEW STEP FORWARD
School of Health and Life
How to maintain health results achieved during one’s stay in “Merkur”? How to continue leading good quality life and apply what was learned from the doctors? How to ensure support from family and friends in this? Why is all this important? In the future, every “Merkur’s” guest, with discharge form, will get a CD with answers to these questions, personal advices for health life and recommended date for return By Ljiljana Rebronja
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hen almost a half a year ago it started its promotional campaign “Be Health”, with Dragan Nikolić as its new face, Special Hospital “Merkur” announced that it was turning a new page in its history. It confirmed that the focus of business philosophy of this company is modernization in all segments, continuous technical and technological improvement and more significant turning toward modern guests, their realistically different habits and need. Toward the guest who, in addition to the implied good quality and efficient service, requires dedication of employees, wants t feel their care for his health, expects to, by entering the large “Merkur’s” family, gain a friend who will continuously remind him that he should have a healthier life, because that is a condition for happiness and long lasting. With the help of medicine, in “Merkur”, in which pure energy and medicinal healing power of nature turn into health as if by magic, it is not difficult to win this battle. But, how can they help the guests to maintain their health results achieved during their stay in “Merkur”, to continue leading good and healthy life at home, not to forget what they learned from their doctors and to improve their health? How to teach their friends and family to be supportive for them in the building of a healthier lifestyle? How to expand the front of preventive actions through education and information? How to help people?
SEVEN STORIES ABOUT SEVEN PACKAGES With the project “Merkur’s” School of Health, with help from contemporary technology, the right answers to these questions have been found. In this way, in the future, every “Merkur’s” guest who has used one of seven medical packages here (“General Medical Package”, “Living with Diabetes”, “Gastro Package”, “Movement without Pain”, “Quick Diagnostics”, “Lady Life” and “Linea Life”) will receive, together with the discharge list, a CD with advices for healthy lifestyle, with his/her name and with the recommended date for the next visit. The entire project is similar to a serious internet portal with a menu in which all “Merkur’s” packages are offered. The guest, namely the patient, may choose only the package he/she has already used, or any other package about which he/she wants to learn more. Depending n the health problem that the patients have, on this CD they
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Prices for the Upcoming Season By following market trends in 2013, purchasing power of the citizens with is continuously decreasing, and taking into account increased prices of energy products and staple foods, and investments in the previous period, the “Merkur’s” price policy for the upcoming season was prepared. Prices were slightly increased for the first time after three years, between five and seven percent. They had to take into account the decreased life standard of local guests and the achieved European quality of service. Prices of the medical board: Season I — from May 1 to July 31 and from November 1 to December 31, 2014: from 2,690 to 4,220 RSD. Season II — from August 1 to October 31, 2014: from 2,970 to 4,650 RSD.
can fid advices on correct diet, physical activity, manner of preparation and administering insulin, as well as numerous other useful information. In this, “Merkur’s” experts also designed an original way of communication with the guests: a doctor talks to them personally, reminding them about what they must not forget, what they should apply in their lives, giving them useful life improving advices, and taking this opportunity to familiarize them with Special Hospital “Merkur”, its potentials and offers. “MERKUR” AND AFTER “MERKUR” For example, in the package called “Quick Diagnostics”, a doctor talks personally to the patient and through the story first explains to whom the package is
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intended, then speaks about the advantages of fats check-in, about what the patient would gain, about advantages of staying in “Merkur”, mineral waters, necessity to undergo new screening. Finally, the doctor advises the patient how to correct bad habits. And in the package called “Living with Diabetes”, the doctor first speaks generally about diabetes, tradition of therapy in “Merkur”, about advantages of staying in this Special Hospital which has been successfully defending its leadership position in Serbia and the region for many years. This is followed by explaining the necessity to undergo new screening, and in the second part the emphasis would be placed on recommendations for everyday life in home conditions, like self control of feet and body weight... After seven stories about seven medical packages, patients, their friends and family will also be able to see the film about the most attractive offers of “Merkur’s” (Wellness Centre “Fons Romanus”, Aqua Centre “Waterfall”, Fitness Centre “Merkur Gym”, Peloid Centre “Limus Romanus”...). And as this story about “Merkur” is always accompanied by the story of Vrnjačka Banja, this education becomes one unusual promotion. After “Merkur’s” Passport, this is another attractive marketing tool for improvement and promotion of and sales. This time, education is in focus. Education that is in line with the slogan “Be Health”.
www.orao-pizza.co.rs
DELIVERY Call: 011 245 80 69 or 066 01 37 73! Delivery time is up to 45 minutes after pacing the order!
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orao@orao-pizza.co.rs
“Orao” was founded in 1991, as an Italian restaurant, with diverse assortment of drinks, pasta and other Italian specialties. We were the first in Belgrade to start selling pizzas by slice, for which people stand in line even today. Later we expanded our assortment, so we extended the menu with the offer of various dishes of traditional and international cuisine. Soon we became famous for superb quality of food and service. For this, the credit goes to the experienced team of professional restaurant experts, led by manager Mihajlo Salata. “Orao” is frequented by a wide range of people. Some of them come here daily just for a coffee, some come for lunch or dinner with friends or business partners, and there are those who decide to celebrate something in “Orao”. Every guest feels good here and everybody gets equal attention. The pleasant atmosphere is complemented by discrete instrumental music in lunch and dinner time. “Orao” is also providing services of catering and organizing promotions, celebrations and cocktails.
I N T R O D U C I N G
“SLAVIJA” HOTELS IN BELGRADE AMONG THE BIGGEST IN THE BALKANS
Your Best Choice
By: Zoran Plavšić
They have survived the country in which they were built. With their quality, modern offer, decent prices and care about clients, they are well positioned today. Every tenth guest in the capital of Serbia stays in these hotels
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f a guest in Belgrade wants good accommodation, decent prices and having everything within reach, then he chooses “Slavija” hotels. They are located on the rim of Slavija Square, they have more than 1,100 beds, from single rooms to apartments, tailored to the needs of every guest. From Sa Square, in front of the hotel, streets branch out in radial directions toward Terazije and Kalemegdan (which is 2.5 kilometers away), a little closer is Bohemian Street Skadarlija, there is only a little bit more than a kilometer to the Railway and Bus Station. Nearby are Tašmajdan Park with the Church of St. Marco, then the Temple of St. Sava, National Library... In an easy walk one can reach numerous business centers, state authorities, embassies, universities... In front of the hotel busses leave for Airport “Nikola Tesla”, about twenty trolley, tram and bus lines go over the Square. – Care about guests and their satisfaction is our business strategy – says Jelena Smiljanić, sales and marketing manager in “Slavija” hotels. – We belong to the biggest hotels in the Balkans. Our services, depending on the building, length of stay and season, are divided into three levels and everybody can choose what’s best for them. In “Slavija” hotels, for more than half a century of their history, great celebrities from all over the world used to stay, statesmen, politicians, athletes... The modern “Slavija” Hotel was built in 1962, when Belgrade was the host to the European Athletic Championship. It was later extended, and across from it, in Svetosavska Street, Hotel “Slavija Lux” emerged, opened in the yes of the Conference of the Non-Alignment Movement in 1989. The seven-storey building was built in record six months, as one of then only three five star hotels in the capital of Serbia.
Thread Hotel “Slavija Lux” was built on the place where there had been a hotel since 1888, which was later destroyed during bombing on April 6, 1941. In this old hotel, in April 1919, the Socialist Workers Party of Yugoslavia was founded, and there is a memorial plaque as a reminder of this standing until today.
Lunch from London In 2005, the then Patriarch Pavle organized here a lunch for church dignitaries and representatives of religious communities. Among 400 invitees there was the Ecumenical Patriarch, and they were all served by about one hundred waiters. For reprsentatives of the Jewish community, “Slavija” Hotek ordered kosher meals from London. A special acknowledgment from the Serbian Patriarchy is a testimony to this.
GREAT NETWORK OF BENEFITS The old building, the so-called Tower, ranking one star, now often hosts elementary and high school excursions, accommodation is also provided for individuals for about 200 Euros per month (which is cheaper than private accommodation, since there are no additional utility costs (electricity, water, internet...). The former lux category hotel “Slavija 3” now has three stars, and the prices are adjusted accordingly. Seminar rooms and restaurant have been refurbished, and the former tavern is turned into a casino. The restaurant has introduced daily menus for families, at very affordable prices. Regular guests are coming from many places from Southern Slavic territories: Guests have a garage, sauna, fitness club, massage parlor, beauty salon and hair dresser available... There is also a terminal of “Air Serbia”, the national air carrier. The hotel has agreements with taxi drivers, with tour operators they organize city tours and excursions around Serbia, daily and evening walks in Skadarlija, on raft-restaurans, places that attract the visitors of the capital. Food here is prepared according to the tradition of the famous “Metropol’s” school of gastronomy, and chefs also forged their artistry in France and England. The (Inter)national cuisine is adapted also to guests from Arabic countries, with a menu in their language. Foreigners are most frequently asking for pies, especially cheese pie, barbecue, rakia... More than one hundred local and foreign wines are available. SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
Booking and information office@slavijahotel.com Tel: +381 11 308 4800 Fax: +38161 821 31 03
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A D V A N C E D
T R A I N I N G
CENTER FOR BUSINESS SKILLS OF “SINGIDUNUM” UNIVERSITY
Toward the
Future
Together with theoretical and practical knowledge, knowledge of information technologies and foreign language skills, personal business skills are today a special competitive advantage in sharp competition in the labor market. “Singidunum” is the first university in Serbia to recognized this Text and photographs: Rozana Sazdić
Belgrade, Danijelova 32 011 30 93 220 www.singidunum.ac.rs
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“S
ingidunum” University has founded the Center for Business Skills, the first university center university in Serbia and the region, a centre for studying personal business skills, such as leadership and team work, oral, telephone and written communication skills, critical thinking, business networking, problem solving, time management... These programs (soft skills) are realized
SRBIJA SPECIJALNO IZDAWE 2014.
by professors, assistants and associates of the University, and they are aimed at students and everybody who is interested in career advancement. – Competences that are sought today in employment include theoretical and practical knowledge, knowledge of information technologies, foreign language skills and personal business skills. Candidates in the labor market stand out
for their communication skills, creativity, initiative, critical thinking skills, negotiating skills... exactly the personal skills that account as advantage when there are a large number of people with similar professional and theoretical knowledge. This is not by accident, because it is known that business results of both employees and the companies depend on the development of personal skills. That is why there is a need that every student, regardless of profession, has developed personal business skills – says Jelena Vukašinović, PhD, Coordinator of the Center for Business Skills. Employees must also develop personal business skills and adopt new knowledge in order to be successful. These skills have special significance in tourism, in the sector of services in general, because the quality of service to a large extent depends on the human factor. Employees in this sector are focused on consumers. The quality of service is also determined by the appearance of employees, their education, engagement, friendliness, care and readiness to accept the needs of the users and give them individual attention. Mastering personal business skills is of key importance here. SPECIAL IMPORTANCE IN TOURISM When we talk about significance of possessing personal business skills, we should also take into account the contemporary structural changes in the world. Service activities (transport, communications, insurance, finances, trade, education...) show tendency of growth. It is expected that by 2010, over 20 million
Needs of Students and Economy – We organize all study programs, both the teaching and attar-curricular activities, by paying attention to students’ needs. Our goal is to provide to them good quality education that will enable them to become competitive in the labor market and be included in contemporary business trends without further specialization, and the Center for Business Skills was founded for this reason. Personal and business skills are the answer to the needs of the market – says the rector, professor Milovan Stanišić, PhD.
new jobs will be created in Europe – 4.5 Professor million jobs in traffic, distribution, hotel Milovan management, about five million in educaStanišić, rector of tion, healthcare and administration, over “Singidunum” 14 million in the field of business and other services. Also, further expansion of jobs that require higher education has been forecasted. Business skills can be learned, and they can help Serbia to join the developed markets. It is necessary to adjust the development of professional (hard) skills and personal business skills (soft) and to provide stronger connection between educational institution and economy. – Since business skills are increasing the quality of service, in addition to Jelena professional knowledge, foreign language Vukašinović, PhD, skills and IT skills have an important role coordinator of the in tourism. According to UNWTO, share Centre for Business of tourism in total value of gross product Skills is nine percent, namely every 11th employee in the world works in tourism. If Prof. Slobodan we want to treat tourism as an industry Unković, PhD, that can contribute to the development of director of the our country, then we should act like that Department of – concluded professor Slobodan Unković, Graduate Studies PhD, director of the Department of Grad- and International uate Studies and International CooperaCooperation of tion of “Singidunum”. “Singidunum”
SERBIA SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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ГУЧА
54. Сабор трубача 4-10. 8. 2014.
54rd Trumpet Festival 4-10 8 2014
GUČA
New Convention Centre Zlatibor, Villa “Romanija”
within resort complex “Ratko Mitrović“, with 314 beds Institution “Studentska odmarališta Srbije” Business Unit “Ratko Mitrović”, Zlatibor +381 31 841 369 +381 31 841 791
> High quality programs, in accordance with all requirements of modern congress tourism > The most advanced audio and video equipment > Two conference halls, one with 240 congress seats, and the other with 240 congress and 60 conference seats > Comfortable rooms, from single to quadruple rooms > Organize in the best way your congresses, symposia and professional meetings Call us, and we will take care of the rest!