Original subtitles

Hi I'm Laura Alexandra and welcome to Serbia.

I'm exploring this beautiful European country and discovering its rich history,

unique culture and of course its modern-day offerings.

Last time I was in the southwest of Serbia enjoying the mountainous region of Zlatibor

with some action and adventure.

I also ventured underground and found the most amazing cave.

This time my journey continues to see what northern Serbia has to offer.

Whilst I'm on route I'm making a quick stop as there's a UNESCO site that I really want to see.

Monasteries and churches not only represent the history, culture and religion of Serbia,

but they also define the heart, soul and spirit of the Serbian people.

I'm at Manasija monastery, which is perhaps one of the most heavily fortified churches I've ever seen.

With these walls it's no surprise that it's one of the last monuments of Serbian medieval culture.

Hi you must be Daya?

Yes, welcome to the monastery Manasija.

Thank you so much, it looks so impressive I mean there's a fortress, there’s a church.

You'll like it here?

I love it here tell me a little bit about the history?

Monastery Manasija is one of the most important historical monuments in Serbian medieval culture.

It's as you can see the Serbian Orthodox Church surrounded by eleven towers.

The construction of monastery Manasija lasted 11 years, from 1407 till 1418. It was during 11 years

and we have symbol of number 11 everywhere.

It was during 11 years, we have 11 towers around us and the most famous is one that’s called Despot tower.

Despot Stefan Lazarević is very important historical person and this is his endowment.

He was a great man a great patron of art and culture and he supported and sheltered a lot of scholars from

Serbia and exiles from other countries around Serbia, who was held by Ottoman Turks.

Wow I mean there's so much to learn about this place

I'd love to see a little bit more can you show me around please?

of course

let's go.

Shall we?

So can you tell me a little bit more about the Church of the Holy Trinity?

Yes as you have already said the church is dedicated to Holy Trinity, so very interesting thing is that the

Republic of Serbia declared the church and the tower as cultural monument of exceptional importance,

and also the both of them are wearing the design of World Heritage protected by UNESCO.

Wow that's pretty impressive let's go inside.

Let's go.

This is so impressive.

Yeah so here we are these are the most famous frescoes from the medieval century. It is actually the

frescoes that whole world had a chance to see it. These are the only the rests of the frescoes before

during the history these walls used to be all covered with frescoes but after two attacks on Christianity,

the first one the Turkish people, after that the Communists, we managed to save only this part of

frescoes. If you look about here there is the first famous fresco. It's God's hands that are holding

the babies. The babies represent the clear souls of people. Next one here on the left side is the fresco

of Despot Stefan Lazarević in its original size and everywhere where the yellow colour is, it used to

be a gold but they scratch it from the wall. If you look forward on the left and the right side, there are

six warriors and it's the famous fresco that you can find on many photos from the monastery.

The gardens and the ruins are just so incredibly well kept here aren't they? It's just absolutely beautiful.

And peaceful I would say.

Yeah really peaceful around here as well

Well listen Daya, thank you so, so much for showing me around it's been really good, so nice to see you

It's really been a pleasure to have you here and I hope that you will come again.

I definitely will thank you so much Daya.

Goodbye.

I'm back on the road again continuing with the beautiful journey North.

We pass Belgrade and approached the city of Novi Sad.

On route we're taking a break to check out a town that has become something of a tourist hotspot.

Sremski Karlovci is a small town just ten minutes outside of Novi Sad.

It's famous for its oldest school of the Serbs and also has a nice story about a fountain.

I'm off to meet my tour guide Sergen to find out more.

Hi Serge good to see you again.

Hello Laura good to see you.

Lets have a chat about where we are now, what's this behind us?

Oh we’re in the town of Sremski Karlovci, which became very important for the Serbian people

after 17th century, and here we have the second largest and second oldest orthodox seminary in Europe

Wow!

After one in Ukraine. This is like a museum in the open, this city, and I would love to show you more.

Let's go

yeah

You see this place is really popular with tourists.

I can see that

Even with school children as well because this is the place to come to learn about the history of this country.

Sremski Karlovci became like a capital of Serbs outside of Serbia. Well in 17th century there was one great war

between Austria and the Ottoman Empire, Serbs supported the Austrians, Austrians lost the war,

and in fear of Turkish reprisals about 120 thousand people came from Serbia to here, led by the Patriarch

of the Serbian Orthodox Church. And then Austrian authorities gave them this place to become their

capital in exile, so the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church moved here. Serbs built their cathedral,

which is the most important southern church in this part of today, our country, but at that time was

south Hungary. And then they were building this place following traditions of Europe, they were going to

Europe seeing what they liked and building things here and one of the nicest is this beautiful fountain.

Let me show you there are some stories about the fountain, which are perhaps interest interesting for

our guests. You see it is a belief that if you drink from this fountain you will return to this cute place and

the other thing is even more, especially if you're single and you drink from a certain pipe, then your bride

or groom will come from that part of the city and you'll marry him. Now the catch is to know which is the

richest part of the city so drink from which one of these four pipes.

I like it very tactical.

This is Branko, a pupil of the grammar school who went on to become one of the most loved Serbian poets

ever. We are very proud of Branko and his poetry and the grammar school itself is still, even though the first

and the oldest one of the Serbs, is still one of the best grammar schools in the country. Long tradition

and a number of great, great students, that later on influenced the life, culture, education of this nation.

And is it still open still?

Yes open still, still open, still very active.

You know what I know we're on school grounds right now but could we get a drink?

Oh of course certainly let's go.

I'm here at the wine and honey museum with Borcan whose family has a long-standing tradition of making

honey in the region. But before I find out too much about honey I want to delve in to the actual process

of making a drink that's popular here Bermet, so Borca can you tell me more?

Yes this is a unique wine in the region and the only few families working this type of wine here. But for many

century’s we working this type of wine and the first documents for this type wine is the 18th century.

First Serbian author Milan Lang writing for his book for wine, experience winemaker is a name, and he, he said

this is medical medicinal wine. Many century after that we have same story for this type of wine but family

is, after Second World War, stopped to producing this type of wine. You have here socialism is you know,

cheap wine and they're not good like Bermet, but nineteen years ago we start again to working this type

wine. We work this type of wine with the 27 different herbs, spices and fruits. We open the oak barrel and

inside put everything inside, with the herbs and spices in, using raisins and dried grape inside, long maturation

dry grape. And we have natural sweet wine 90, 100 grams of natural sugar inside with a stronger alcohol.

We have another fermentation with a 16, 17 percent alcohol, of course we are small, we are small

production and we have only a few thousand litres, this type wine in a year, and we sell only here and we sell

everything here of course.

Can you tell us though a little it more about the making process of Bermet?

This is very, very, very hard job and we must use different elements. And when we put in the oak barrel

we must do it a few months and after that wine must to stay maybe, minimum like one year. And after that we

work in filtration and using clean, clean Bermet we can put in a in a in a bottle and of course in a glass

And speaking of which could we try some?

Yes, yes, yeah

So tell us a little bit about this then? What's going into here at the moment this is 27 herbs isn't it?

Yes

Does this need to oxygenate? Does this needs to oxidize?

Yes is that, we have a long maturation and after long maturation we have a good, a very, very, very, hard

and but a different, is a soft smell. But you can see we have very, very, very strong colour for a red of course.

This is a wine for, for dessert, after dinner, after lunch, a small glass. Okay we have now big, but this is small

quantity inside and you can smell and enjoy.

It's absolutely lovely, I mean the thing about this as well, it's quite spicy and I'm finding myself trying to

actually guess the 27 herbs that are in here because, it is absolutely delicious.

Yes after, after a few, few small glass you can feel better this is medical wine.

You know what?

Yes.

I think I'm starting to feel better already to be honest.

Well we've tried the wine, which is lovely can we go and find out a little bit more about honey?

Yes of course

But first Živeli

Živeli, cheers

Whilst we await the honey I take a look around the museum, which is filled with beekeeping tools,

machines, and of course old beehives.

It's well organized and the family's long association with beekeeping is on display for all to see.

We have here ready for a tasting, like three different honeys. One is a pure honey and is the meadow,

different flowers everything inside is very good. After that the yellow colour is we put everything in beehive,

we put in a bottle inside. We have poland propolis, royal jelly with two different honey pure honey. One

is a meadow and one is a linden tree. And brown colour is delicious this is a sesame honey

and now you can you can taste.

Okay, should go for is this pure honey?

Yeah this is a pure honey yes, meadow honey.

There you go there's your spoon, let's have a little taste of this. See what me and Serge actually think.

This looks like sort of the normal honey that I would buy in the UK this particular one.

Yeah but this honey working much-

Wow that is really sweet

This is really not industrial honey you know my father, old beekeeper working this honey, and very, very

small quantity and we sell only honey in this, in this, my house.

That taste that’s got a really clean taste in there as well mmm so what's this next one?

Next is Apicomplexa, so the pole and propolis, royal jelly, a very good for health, for energy, for immunity

system, you know and properly slick natural antibiotic you know in, who's producing bees worker.

That is the tastiest medicine

Yes.

I've ever had

Yes, one glass in a day but in very small quantity few times in a day is a very good for health.

Mmmm

I like that one. I really like that one!

And brown colour you see it's a sesame, sesame honey.

Okay we'll dig into this one then, what's your most popular one?

Apicomplexa maybe the most popular and sesame is the same.

It's a specific, specifically different and very nice taste, different tastes and very popular here.

I really like that

Yes I know

It's really quite a different taste, I've never tasted any honey like that to be honest,

Yes.

But you can really taste this sesame in there. And the interesting thing is it could go, I'm already thinking

about where it could go, like for me on toast in the morning, maybe into a cake recipe

A little bread and you can put it on a little bread or only clean you can eat is this for everything

I know that Serge just put his spoon back in there but I'm gonna keep on eating this because I think I'm gonna

actually go to the gift shop and buy myself some of this, this is my absolute favourite.

Yes

I love this

Enjoy

Thank you so much

You're welcome

Filled up with wine and honey I'm back on the road again.

Sergen is with me and he's recommending we make another quick stop to see a monastery,

that is a particular favourite of his.

Hey welcome to 16th century monastery of Krušedol,

which was built by the last Serbian ever-medieval ruler whose name was Maksim Branković.

Great name

Yeah he built this monastery to be a mausoleum for his family and also an assembly spot for the Serbs in this

area. Inside there is some spectacular art so let's go inside and take a look.

Great.

Here we are in Krušedol monastery church, which is famous for its art and imagery. Serbian people are very

proud of their frescoes and in this church we can see the comparison of two different eras, two different

styles. On the pillars we have old medieval Byzantine style frescoes, which are early 16th century. It's actually

the last example of that famous Serbian medieval fresco art school. And then unfortunately in 1716 this

beautiful church has suffered from a fire. It was burned by the Turks, the Ottomans, and then they had to

repaint it again and 200 years later they did this beautiful baroque interior decoration, which now can

make us compare the two styles. Do you know what is the difference between an icon and a painting?

No I don't actually, tell me

Well the painting is there to induce just an emotion in a viewer, while the icon is there to broadcast the spiritual

message and, if you look together to these two examples of the two styles, what would you say?

Is this the strongest spiritual messenger?

Or those ones?

I probably say this one he looks more like something like he's got a serious face more

character in him somehow.

I couldn't agree more

Yes! But that's more sort of colourful I mean it's all so vibrant isn't it in here.

It's very vibrant, very saturated colours. It is believed the Serbian medieval fresco master painters had

certain knowledge about the composition of the colour. How to make them very durable and very vivid.

After centuries they're still there they're not washed out.

Serge there's so much to see in here is there anything else to point out to me?

Yes first of all we have mortal remains of Maksim Branković, which the founder of the church, still here.

And then we can see over there is where our first modern King, King Milan from 19th century is buried.

Just under one hour from Belgrade, and on the outskirts of Serbia’s second largest city Novi Sad,

lies Fruška Gora National Park. A bird-watching paradise in the province of Vojvodina, with its

vineyards, and most famously 17 monasteries, it's the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.

The Fruška Gora National Park, with the greatest concentration of linden trees in Europe stretches east

to west touching the Danube River at Sremski Karlovci.

It's popular with hikers, cyclists, nature lovers and those looking for a bit of culture.

But unfortunately I'll have to experience this another time.

I finally arrived in the lively university city of Novi Sad.

Once here you can't help but notice one of the prime symbols of the city, the fortress of Petrovaradin.

With its monumental architecture, underground galleries and mazes of tunnels,

it's certainly an impressive sight.

The fortress is also home to one of the biggest music festivals in the world, the EXIT festival.

This has earned global recognition for its diversity and cutting-edge music.

I'm with the founder of EXIT Festival here in Serbia, Dušan thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for coming

Now tell me a little bit about the history and background of EXIT Festival.

EXIT started as a youth movement for peace and freedom in Serbia back almost 20 years ago.

And firstly we grew to one of the biggest music festivals in the world and as we started from social

activism, social work is still very important for us. We do multiple of projects throughout the year, from

humanitarian projects like gathering hundreds of thousand Euros for children care in Serbia, to

some process that we for instance run the candidacy for European cultural capital for Novi Sad, and we won

the bonnet for 2021. So basically we are combining the best music and the best atmosphere, at one of the best

music festivals and the social activism. And that is actually how it all started back in the days, with the

Woodstock in Summer of Love, and we are one of the few festivals that really cherish our

origins and how it all started.

So what big names have played EXIT before?

We actually are also one of the artists most loved festival. They all have to come here because of the

special atmosphere and really a unique place and the setting of the fortress. That we are now, we have the

almost every big name that is out there. Like last year we had The Killers, Liam Gallagher, we had Snoop Dog,

we had Prodigy, Jamiroquai, Moby and every big DJ in the world. I don't think that there is any big DJ in the

world that didn't play EXIT. From the mainstream names like Guetta, Garrix, Hardwell and such names.

Down to more underground names like you know Nina Kraviz, Richie Hawtin, everybody Salomun. Everybody

really, everybody. Especially in electronic music, our dance arena is known as probably one of the

best electronic stages in the world.

Well listen Dušan, it's been an absolute pleasure to chat here. I can literally chat to you all day

but I need to explore more of your city.

Yes, you sure do

So thank you so much,

Thank you

and I'm definitely coming to EXIT festival.

I'm in Serbia's second largest city Novi Sad. it's a modern city with such a rich and varied culture

that it has even won the European city of culture award for 2021.

Hi you must be my tour guide for Novi Sad? I'm Laura.

Hello Laura my name is Tihana, welcome to Novi Sad second largest city in Serbia.

So we are met here in the city centre in front of City Hall where you can see that this is a multicultural,

multilingual, multi-religious city. As such here on the table you can see that we are speaking four official

languages Hungarian, Slovakian, Rusyn and also in Serbian language, in two letters please write that she

really can learn Latin words. And there is also one more table we're showing, connected actually Twin Cities

and Norwich City is also on that table.

Really?

Yes this is most important building on the city square. We have a multicultural city, so here lives more than 20

nationalities and we really live together, connect with each other. We have a Catholic Church, Orthodox

Church, Synagogue, Slovakian Greek Church Orthodox Church. So there is a lot of churches, 500 meters from

each other and people go in all of these churches just to see tradition and to see the culture of the other

religious, and here you can see the influence of trading period of the city from Austro-Hungarian Empire.

There is a lot of influence.

Well thank you so much for telling me, that it sounds so interesting. But there's so much more to explore,

can we go and see the rest of the city?

Of course, yes let's go

So this is a mini shopping centre area, this is the main city street and here are coming people to shopping and

also you are going to see a lot of cafes. People are sitting around during the day, enjoying the architecture,

enjoying the vivid of the city and it's also very interesting because, it's in all architect style

and people can shop everything, books, clothes, shoes.

Fabrics even.

Yes fabrics

How about art as well?

Yeah there is a lot of art here, there is passages, which is also very interesting and specialty for city centre

and that's the main, one of the main reason Novi Sad is proclaimed as a city of culture, Europe Capital of

Culture for 2021. And of course as you can see people love sitting here drinking coffee

so we love to drink a coffee

Oh I was going to say, do you kind of come to the square and start people watching here?

Yes, yes during the night there is a lot of young coming here, and enjoying drinking wine, beer and coffee too.

It's so lovely around here, I know what you mean now about people watching, it's really tempting to do isn't it?

Yes but people like to sit and enjoying the day, sun as we do.

Yep, it's lovely and there's so many different age groups as well I've seen around here you know, from

families playing to kind of like couples going shopping.

Yeah, very nice.

Well listen, let's sit back and relax shall we

Yeah, yeah, cheers

This is a park, then you park at the end of the pedestrian zone, and people have to come here to

refresh, to enjoy and of course in the summertime there is a lot of street musicians.

So we have a street musician festival in city of Novi Sad, of course there is some part of film festival,

there is some also exhibitions and events held here during a year and what is interesting is that during the

winter time there is a Ice circle, so people go to Ice Skating

Like an ice rink here on the pond?

Yeah an Ice Rink, the next to the lake. And of course people with family, people with the children, so family

comes here at the evening. So people, children, enjoy playing and feeding the ducks in the lake.

Are there any walks is well round here that we can do?

Yes of course we can walk around the area and sit in the shadow of mostly linden woods.

Lovely sounds nice, well on the way into the city I actually spotted something that looked like a fortress

can we go and explore that?

Yeah a very nice place

Let's go

So we're here at the fortress

Yes this is Petrovaradin Fortress, which is on the Danube River and it is most important historical place

in the city. So the Petrovaradin fortress started building at the end of 17th century and it was built almost in

one century, till the almost end of 17th century. And the reason why it was built was to keep her safe and

peace here in Austro-Hungaria, southern side of Austro-Hungarian Empire, from the Ottoman Empire.

Nowadays here held a lot of festivals such as famous EXIT festival, one of the best in whole Europe,

here comes for EXIT festival more than 60 countries all over the world. They're enjoying all the stages, music

and there is also a lot of art galleries, restaurants, very nice hotel, clubs, cafes,

people really like to come here to enjoy.

Now you just mentioned art galleries can we go and actually see some art?

Oh yes of course let's go.

So there's lots of galleries, how many are there? Per, you know are they every couple of metres?

Every couple of meters there is different type of art, so people really can enjoy. What is important to say is that

people can go for free inside, to speak with the artists, to meet with them, to chit chat about the history of

Petrovaradin Fortress, about the history of that galleries, exhibitions of course there have an colony,

a fine art circle, so there is a lot of things happening here during the year.

I love the fact that it looks like there's an artist here as well let's have a look in this one

Probably the artist having rest.

Thank you so much for showing me around Tihana,

I've had such a lovely time wish I had longer in Novi Sad but I'll be back.

I'll be waiting for you and I hope you enjoy next time as much as this time.

Definitely thank you.

Tonight I'm having dinner at a Salish restaurant just outside of Novi Sad of which, there's many in the area.

This one is called Salish 137. A Salish restaurant is a farm that makes home-cooked food, and like this one,

many of them have accommodation as well.

The restaurant certainly ooze character and the atmosphere here is electric,

the locals sure know how to enjoy themselves.

I caught up with the owner Alexander to find out more .

Alexander thank you so much for having us here at the restaurant

I mean can you tell us a little bit more about Salish food?

Actually the food is completely local and we are living in Volvodina and Volvodina is a huge picture of

the nations. So let's say this is a melting pot, the cuisine on Salish is cuisine that people were eating 200

years ago. And that cuisine, if you're looking what is it inside, is a huge mixture of the influences of the region.

Also there is some influence of Mediterranean cuisine here.

Here on Salish 137, which means farm 137, we are trying to produce as much food as possible.

We are buying the local food from the people living nearby us, and we are producing the old stuff and the

foods that the people were eating here let's say 200 years ago. Of course we have all types of the meat,

we actually have a productions of the sausages, of the pancetta, and the hams, and everything.

Every November, December we organise that because we want to have food that we can produce here

for our guests.

So what else is there for tourists to do around here? There's accommodation isn't there?

Yeah, we do have 15 rooms and sun and children's playground. We do have a horse club so they can go on

the horses, they can enjoy chariots, and they can do whatever they want. Normally on the first day they do

nothing, they just come to eat, sit and enjoy the music.

Obviously second day is the day to do some local activities and they enjoy in the nature, we are

completely surrounded in nature, and we do try to organize few of the things every year,

which are like regular manifestations here.

And how about your menu as well I mean does it change all the time?

Yes, menu seasonal of course, we have game dishes when there is a period for the hunters, where they

go hunting. We have some dishes that we will offer in autumn or in the winter, also we do have some other,

some other food that we can offer in the summer time.

So there are few things that you can you can eat all year round and there are a lot of things that we are

offering in the season. Depends what are the fruits and what are the plants that we can pick up.

The food looks so yummy Alexander, I think I'm gonna tuck in right now

Enjoy yourself please

If I'd have known what was coming next I probably wouldn't have eaten so much.

Oh.

What am I doing?

Dance

Okay

I don't know what I'm doing, I literally don't know the steps

Wooooo

It's so random

Thank you, thank you

Thank you

Having explored Novi Sad I'm now moving on to Subotica.

Serge is with me to tell me more about this vibrant city.

Subotica is located just 20 km from the Hungarian border. It's also around about one hour's drive from

Novi Sad. The city actually blends Hungarian, Croatian and Serbian culture and architecture and it's also got a

Lake that you can do activities on and around called Lake Palić.

Right now is Serge to tell me a bit more.

Hi.

Hello Laura we meet again

I know, can you tell me a little bit about this place?

Yes! We are in the cities essential square, which is called Liberty Square. Subotica is famous for its

elaborate architecture, but of different styles. If you just look around us we will see that in this nice pedestrian

zone the first very building, on the left over there, is in neo-gothic style. And then we have classic national

theatre, which is on the process of renovations; the exterior was recently fully restored.

Then we have a yellowish building at the end of the square, which initially was built to be a gathering place

of the high society of Subotica, with their private functions. And then later 19th century building done

in the neo-baroque style, became the city library. And the highlight of this beautiful city centre is Subotica’s

town hall, which is considered to be one of the nicest, most beautiful buildings in all of Serbia and a real pearl

of Hungarian secession, architectural style, also known as Hungarian branch of Art Nouveau.

Can we go and see it?

Yes it will be my pleasure

Excellent

Before we go in I would love to tell you a little bit more about this massive building.

Look they built it in only four years, imagine, they needed two years to make the general construction

and then two more years for very beautiful inside, interior decoration.

Now the style of this building, Hungarian secession, as you can see is full of beautiful floral motifs and

we call that folklore elements, and Hungarian romantic nationalism. That was the time when many nations

in Europe were experiencing their awakening and strengthening of national feelings, and they were

expressing that through their culture, through their art. And that's why Hungarian people decided to decorate

this building in their folklore tradition and using only domestic materials that they could find in

the surroundings. When it comes to interior decoration however, even though I believe this already has been

a surprise for you, what you will see inside perhaps is even going to be a step further.

Let's go inside.

Okay.

Wow just look how impressive this is?

Isn't it but you haven't seen all over it yet.

That's very true actually, can you tell me a little bit about it?

Yes this is the finest example in all of Serbia of the interior decoration done in the style of Art Nouveau.

It's not any Art Nouveau it's also known as the Hungarian secession. It's a branch of Art Nouveau

where we have these floral elements, folklore romanticism of the Hungarian people.

It's very unique for population of Hungarians that we have here in Subotica.

And it's very beautiful as well can we go and explore a bit further?

Oh yes let's take a look at the council hall, which is the real pearl.

Wow this is amazing isn't it?

Absolutely

Tell me a little bit about this?

Look we are now in so-called the Grand Hall, it's also a debating chamber for the local Parliament of the city

of Subotica and look at this beautiful interior decoration. We call it a pearl of Hungarian secession;

at that time when this was built in 1908 this was part of Hungary. Subotica was a big, strong, enriched city

obviously, and the stained glass windows here have a lineage of Hungarian kings.

The person who made these stained glass windows, is the same one that made stained glass windows for the

house of parliament in Budapest in Hungary. So obviously the local community here could afford such

a rich, lavish, council, debating hall. Today this is a multicultural City, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, it has

a big Hungarian population still, also Serbian and Croatian and all of them are today representing their

communities in this debating chamber. And as you can see over there we have a number of flags, not only flags

of Serbia but also flags of these local communities of the place. So we may say that politicians of Subotica

have a pleasure to have their meetings in the best looking, nicest, debating hall of Serbia.

Well Subotica has amazing architecture here but what are people actually doing in their spare time?

Oh for that we will need to go a little bit out of the city to the lake and its surroundings.

Lake Palić is 8 km from Subotica. The actual lake itself covers 3.8 km squared and there's loads of activities

to do here like sailing, water sports, and even driving electric boats.

Serge tell us a little bit more about the lake?

Oh the lake Palić is a natural lake and that same year when they opened the city hall of 1912,

this beautiful resort has been built and opened.

The lake itself still today attracts many people because it's very nice to walk on this promenade here, enjoy

all the activities that you mentioned, but also there is a film festival in Palić, which is perhaps among the top

three, top five in Serbia, it's a European Film Festival.

Palić is a host of many art exhibitions and similar cultural events. There is a camping ground on the

opposite side and it's in the proximity of the highway, so many people who are travelling through our country

like to stay in Palić for a day or two, just to recharge their batteries and continue with their travel.

Serge thank you so much for showing me around it's been so much fun and hopefully I'll see you again soon.

It's been a pleasure.

My time in Serbia is almost at an end but I've got time for just one more thing.

A glass of wine at the Zvonko Bogdan winery.

I'm here at Zvonko Bogdan distillery and the lovely Dragana is going to tell us a little bit more,

thank you for having me.

Thank you welcome.

And firstly can I ask who Zvonko Bogdan is?

Zvonko Bogdan is one famous singer here in Serbia and also in former Yugoslavia. He sings some old,

traditional, folk songs typical for Vinarija area and he decides to have winery, so now we produce also wines.

And I mean the place is absolutely stunning, it's not like a winery that I've ever been to before,

how big is the winery first?

It covers territory of 5,803 metres.

Wow

Yeah, we have about 64 hectares under the vineyards

and the wineries surrounded with 17 grape varieties from white grapes we have Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc,

Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, just some Muscat. From red grapes we have one local variety, which is

Blue Franca or Blue Frankish, or in English as Limburg also Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Do you know what? I've seen the place, it's absolutely beautiful. I've loved the stories as well,

can we taste a little bit of the wine?

Please

Excellent

Do we want to taste some white first?

Yes sure

Okay, here is serving Sauvignon Blanc.

Typical Sauvignon Blanc, which 13% of alcohol and this is 2016 harvest

Mmm, that's really clean I love that one. Really tasty

It's really fresh and fruity. This one is Cuvee or Merlot Cabernet Franc and that Landenberg. That local variety.

And what kind of things do tourist say when they come here?

They must really think this is a unique experience?

Yeah, usually they think that this is a really old building, but it's completely new.

So I think the production part we finished it in 2009 and the restaurant part in 2015.

So we try to build something new, but to stay in the same style like general the buildings on Palić Lake,

so the winery is built in some that secession style, or in English Art Nouveo style,

it's typical for Palić and for Subotica also.

This red as well, is so rich, I absolutely love it.

Thank you I will join you

Excellent! Well thank you so much for showing me around here and telling me a little bit as well, and Živeli.

Živeli, cheers.

I've had an amazing time here in Serbia. It's a country that's full of contrasts.

It offers loads of things to do, which makes it the perfect location for a city break.

It appeals to those looking for culture and also there are loads of activities to do in the mountains,

the hills and loads of greenery around here. If you are looking for adventure as well,

what's more the people are friendly and it offers exceptional value for money.

My advice to you is come here, sample the rich history and varied culture that Serbia has to offer

and believe me, you won't be disappointed.