Discovering Heritage: Belgrade to Djerdap
Who knew one could achieve so much in a day without even having a morsel of food? Winding through the vast mountains of Eastern Serbia, we were joined by the river Danube snaking its way further forward, beyond the reach of our eyes. We ventured out of Belgrade into the countryside to beginning the day which would forever be known as the ‘Serbian U-turn’.
Having left the hustle and bustle of busy city of Belgrade, it was the first time we had time to think and space to breathe in a week. We’d already achieved so much in the last few days, with all our interviews, TV appearances and meetings, so we decided to head for the hills and see what geography porn Serbia had to offer.
We had planned to set off at 10am in the morning, but due to the casual nature we had all started to adopt, we left at 2.30pm. Another thing which is hard to get used to is time keeping. I’m not sure if its just the people we have met or how they do things over here. But more often than not, when you arrange to be somewhere at, let’s say, five in the evening, turning up at six o’clock is more than okay.
Travelling Serbia and experiencing Serbian culture without the guided assistance of my Serbian mother (unlike any other time I’ve been here before) has really opened my eyes to the traits and behaviour patterns of my mum which always used to either confuse or annoy me in the past. Anyway, back to our geographical porn hunt.
Driving out of the city, with Belgrade at our backs, the land soon became vast farming fields, as far as the eye could see. All green, all different and all so well kept. We had a couple of things on the agenda for that day, but the fact we left so late, meant that we were behind and we were racing the light of the Sun before it left us to wake up our friends in Australia.
As the terrain became more and more mountainous, the winding roads joined the Danube River which runs through the heart of Serbia. It lead us to Djerdap National Park and what a wonderful sight it was to behold. The first real moment our jaws dropped and we spunked our pants was seeing the vast river which had carved its way through the mountains. We got ourselves some sexy slider shots with the 24mm prince then popped back in the car and continued along the glorious path of destiny.
We repeated this process, missing the potentially fantastic lunch we should have had, until the landscape became boring and every shot we filmed blurred into the last and became boring. Still miles from our objective, we stopped off at an archaeological site in Lepenski Vir that Maja had researched. Still knowing very little about it, we parked up and went to explore. The girls worked their magic and we got in for free.
We had stumbled upon a vast white building, made of glass and painted white steel beams, nestled in the hills. It turned out to be the archaeological site where they discovered the oldest European human sculpture on record. Wonderful. All the excitement and creativity I should have had was lost on my empty stomach. All feeling the hunger and still fighting for the Sun’s light, we blagged a quick interview, then slumped off back down the road.
Sunset came quick and strong. Thick, warm orange colours filled the sky, bouncing of all the clouds on its way creating different shades of beauty. Having said that, I didn’t give a shit. I was hungry now, real hungry. We managed to reach a town called ‘Donji Milanovic’ in time for a sexy sunset slider shot. Will dropped the camera because he wasn’t thinking straight… now, we had to eat. Our equipment and documentary was in danger.
Forcing the group to find a restaurant for some reason meant that we had to meet an interesting photographer/barber and speak with him for a solid half an hour, postpoining my food gorging session. Finally, after we concluded the interesting conversation, we sat down, downed a beer, ordered two breads loaves, each big enough to feed an American family, then we went to town on the menu. The rest was a blur of flavours, meat and oil for the next hour.
When my conscious self came to, we paid and continued on the snake’s path through the mountains to our final destination, ‘The Iron Gate’.
Now in the dark, we journeyed to a small village on the border with Romania, trying to find a place to hide the car in the hope of uncomfortably resting our heads against the awkward nooks and crannies that the interior of a car has to offer four weary filmmaker superstar-heroes. Back and forth we went, out and back into the village we went, searching for the least sketchy place to unwind without having some frail old farmer with a stern look waking us up before the sun. Thus ‘The Serbian U-turn’ was born. Finally, finding a place out of the way of light, sound and the infamous frail village folk, we began our descent into the world of imagination and dreams.
