Category Archives: Serbia

Mar30

Beauty of abandoned places

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Kolmanskop, Namibia (Image: National Geographic)

Kolmanskop, Namibia (Image: National Geographic)

Today I found a fascinating post on BuzzFeed featuring photos of the 33 most beautiful abandoned places in the world. It’s hard to pick favorites but I have to say the one of the sand-filled house in Kolmanskop, a ghost town in the Namib Desert, is the most striking to me. The blues, yellows, and oranges are striking. And the multiple door frames captured in this shot make the image self-referential, reminiscent of the hall of mirrors.

It made me look through my own photo collection to find beautiful abandoned places I’ve come across. Here are my top five. How about you? Have you taken any photos of desolate yet striking locations that you’d have to share? If so blog about it and link back – which I guess would officially make this my first-ever travel theme post! Read the rest of this entry →

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Jan21

A bridge to Serbia

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The bridge on the Drina (Image source: http://www.balkantravellers.com)

Ever since I read The Bridge on the Drina, a great novel by Nobel prize-winning Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić, I’ve wanted to go to the Balkans. I was fascinated by the history of the region where the East meets the West, Islam and Christianity mix, and Slavic and Ottoman influences (among others) have been interwoven throughout the ages. That’s essentially what Andrić’s novel is about. Using as a metaphor the UNESCO-listed 16th century Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in the town of Višegrad, today close to the Bosnian-Serbian border, he explores the complicated history and equally complex identity of the region. Andrić didn’t live to see the lastest tragic chapter added to his 400-year long tale – fratricidal wars of the 1990s. The story continues on a happier note today although certainly it’s not all water under the bridge… Read the rest of this entry →