Golubac 2009! Camping in Eastern Serbia

We get the major religious holidays twice here - once on the day we are familiar with in the West, and once on the Eastern Orthodox calendar. This year we planned a camping trip for the Eastern Orthodox Easter holidays.

Our camping trip took us out along the Danube (Western Europe's longest river) to the stretch of it that divides north-eastern Serbia from central-southern Romania. It's a beautiful length of river. Most of the Serbian bank of the Danube there is part of Djerdap National Park, which begins at a point called the Iron Gate, a geographical feature where steep, rocky cliffs narrow the river to just a few hundred yards breadth. Historically this point of the river has been key to commercial and military policy. From the Roman period forward fortifications, chains, and military camps have been built around the area to control trade and the movement of people and armies.

Today, not much is going on there commercially. The EU and the end of the Cold War have made it virtually unthinkable that war or ideology will divide people across the river. What's left is a serene landscape, friendly rural people, and fascinating archeological sites like Golubac fortress (pictured above at the Iron Gate), Viminacium, and Lepinski Vir.

Here's Alex in the excavated part of the mausoleum at Viminacium, the ancient Roman capital of the province of Moesia (modern Serbia). Viminacium was a major Roman city and military camp with a population of around 35,000 people. The mausoleum has some amazing tomb frescoes from the late classical period and, best of all for the kids SKELETONS! About a dozen tombs lie open at the dig and our tour guide took us right down into the dig and face to face with the grisly remains of these former pagan and Christian citizens of the empire. Needless to say the kids thought this was very cool!

The large central tomb in the background is likely the tomb of the Roman Emperor Hostelian, son of the far more powerful Emperor Trajan.










The two cute kids in a section of Golubac fortress. The fortress was built in the 1300s and was held, variously, by Serbs, Turks, and Hungarians over the next 500 years. Portions of it are now underwater following the daming and diversion of the Danube, but most of it is still above ground and good for climbing and pretend battles.









Ellie at our first night's camp. Everywhere we went Serbs gave us colored eggs. Many of them were colored with natural dyes and some had intricate patterns made by masking sections of the shell with bits of cut leaves.