Hillbilly travels: Niš, Serbia

Tues 29th – Wed 30th July

Serbia was never really part of our initial plan as a place to visit, but with our fear of driving in Albania and the travel warnings for Kosovo, we didn't have much choice except to head east. Unfortunately most of the tourist spots are further north near Belgrade so our visit to Serbia was more of a breeze through the countryside until we finally reached Niš just outside the border with Bulgaria.

What little we saw of this country was pretty fascinating and unexpected. The border crossing took a little longer than others, and I was careful to hand over my Irish passport instead of my US one. I doubt it would have made much difference nowadays but anything to make border crossings a little smoother is a good thing in my book. The countryside was a mixture of modern homes, horse-drawn carts, crazy drivers, large sprawling farms, nuclear power plants and little old ladies pushing wheel barrows in the blistering sun.

Nuclear power plant along a Serbian highway

When we finally reached Nis it was again a drama to find a non-existent camp site so we opted for another hotel on the side of the highway. Strangely, I'm really starting to miss living in the van. Although the hotels are cheap at around €40/ night, they're straight out of 1973 and you can't help feeling like you're stuck in a cigarette smoke filled time warp.

Promotional photos for Hotel Nais. This must have been taken back in its glory days before the paint started to peel. But it was very cheap!!

The next morning we drove to the outskirts of Niš to visit Skull Tower, a pile of over 900 skulls built by the Turks in the 19th century as a warning to Serbian rebels. Although I obviously don't agree at all with the Serbian antics during the Balkan War, it did give some insight into why there is so much ethnic hatred and tension running through these countries. According to our tour guide, Serbs were categorised as 2nd class citizens unless they converted to Islam. Fed up with centuries of paying higher taxes and being persecuted for their Christian beliefs, thousands of Serbian rebels rose up against the Turkish Empire in the early 19th century. After some heroic battles, the Serbs failed to expel the Turks, leaving the Turks to build this monument of skulls collected during the battles as a warnful reminder against future uprisings. It's a highly gruesome memorial, and many skulls still bear the scars of war such as bullet holes and sword slashes.

Skulls cemented into Skull Tower. There used to be over 900 Serbian rebel skulls on the tower, but now only 58 skulls remain due to vandalism and souvenir hunters.

Exhausted from so much driving lately, we left Nis around 10:30am and decided to move on to Sofia with hopes of a relaxing lunch at a camp site. What ensued was one of the most hellish days of driving and our broken, starving asses checking into a 4-star hotel after 7pm that evening.