Saturday, September 19, 2015

The Nis (neesh) Fortress in the city of Nis, Serbia. Much like the fortress in Kotor,  this is an aggregation of constructions by various powers at different times.  In the background  (under the green umbrellas) are the remains of a Roman bath--not a military installation by any means, but evidence of an occupation going back a couple thousand years. In the foreground, the domed building is the hamam (Turkish bath) the first Ottoman presence on the site built in late 1400's. The Ottomans also built a major walled fortress a couple hundred years later which you see a piece of in the background,  and maintained control of this for a hundred years or so until Serbia gained independence.
Nis as a town is much more like what I would call a "normal" place. That is I think I may have escaped the tourist bubble. The bus to get here from the coast did not have a single tourist as far as I could tell and no one I interacted with spoke English. In fact one of the bus company staff here, when I asked if she spoke English just glared at me like she would rather shoot me than talk to me. I moved on to the next wicket not wanting to be glared at or shot and found other staff much more helpful.

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