We had a bit of a sleep in today and got up at leisure, which was nice after the crazy pace of the tour. Then we went walking for a couple of hours before we had to go to the airport.
We went inside a number of churches we saw on the walking tour yesterday. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was very dimly lit inside with frescoes that are in need of a restoration. They were beautiful but fading away.
Then we went to the Church of St George, which amazingly was built in the 4th century AD. Some of it has been restored, but there are still some original bricks as well. Incredible!
Next we went to the underground ruins of the Roman town that stood here called Serdica. Some of these were uncovered in 1966 when one of the many underpasses here were being dug out. The ruins were from the 2nd century AD. More were then found as I mentioned yesterday when the Serdica train station was being built in 2010-2012. We walked through and saw where an early Christian basilicas, thermal baths, six large buildings and a late medieval church all were, and some of their ruins. In total the ruins cover an area of 9000 square kilometres. We walked down some main streets with original stones as well. We thought it interesting that many of these ruins are exposed to the elements, which probably means eventually they will erode away. It’s unusual to not have them covered with glass or a roof built over the top. Some even included mosaic floors that were not in good shape.
Next we went to the National Baths, a beautiful colourful building built in 1906 that our walking tour didn’t make it to yesterday due to a party being on. Here we ran into the 10am free walking tour so listened in to their explanation about the building. Before houses had their own bathrooms, people came here to bathe and stay hygienic. Once houses started to have their own bathrooms, it all became about socialisation. People came here to bathe and find out the latest news from friends and family. It was completely abandoned during the communist period and became very run down, but was restored to its former glory in 2002 and part of the building is now open as a museum. The guide said she hopes in the future they reopen some of the baths here as well.
We then went into the central market and bought some lunch at a bakery, before having a look inside the Jewish synagogue. Then we completed our “Claire and Jenny end of European adventure” tradition - we went to the Lindt shop. We hadn’t expected there to be one here so it was a nice surprise! We had 11.40 leve left, and we scooped up 11.86 worth of Lindt balls. The man behind the counter saw us counting all our coins and told us not to worry, we could have the last ball even though we didn’t have quite enough money. Yay for plane snacks!!
We checked out of our hotel and caught the metro for 12 stops from Serdica to the airport and our flight leaves in a few hours via Dubai. We will be back in Melbourne at 10pm on Saturday.
Thank you so much for reading while we have been over here. I know I have certainly learned a lot about this part of the world that I didn’t know, so I hope my blog has helped you to learn about it too. If you haven’t already considered coming to the Balkans, definitely do so! There is this perception back home that this part of the world is dangerous and not nice to visit, and it couldn’t be more wrong. The Balkans have had a turbulent past but are now coming back from that and are a fantastic tourist destination. There is so much to see, do and learn and the people are really nice and hospitable. They want you to see their countries now that the awful war of the 90s is in the past.
I’ve also had a fantastic time with my amazing Mum. This is our sixth time travelling together and we are so in sync that we are a great travel pair! I love her very much and admire her strength and passion for adventure. She came on this trip saying she was worried the younger people on our tour would think she was an old nuffy, and then she walked a heap more than most of them and beat most of them up the fort in Kotor (including me!!).
Now it’s back to cold, dark Melbourne and back to work. I know I will be back in Europe one day, it’s just a bit longer between visits nowadays because I have a mortgage and a full time job! I hope you’ll read along when I head to Egypt and Jordan in January which I am very excited about.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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