A bright and sunny Sunday, and a leisurely start. Niš wasn’t top of my list of places to visit; in fact I was only there because it was a convenient staging post for my next onward journey. But I’ve pretty much fallen in love with the place (though I wonder to what extent the fact that this is the first properly sunny day since Croatia plays a role). It has great food and coffee, and like Belgrade is built around a massive star-shaped fortress. This one is a pleasant park, with all sorts of remnants going back to Roman times - as well as coffee shops.
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| Fortress gate |
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| Serbia, land of fortresses and jazz |
Through the fortress and out the other side, I felt ready for some more misery, so I visited the local (and infamous) Nazi concentration camp, named “Red Cross” after the part of town it’s in. It is well-preserved and grim, even in the sunlight. The Germans who occupied the area from 1941 to 1944 had a policy of murdering 100 locals for every German soldier killed by rebels, and 50 locals for every injured soldier. These locals were of course to a great extent Jews, Communists, and others whose existence was perceived as a threat.
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| Machine-gun tower |
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| Solitary confinement cells |
I had a bit more time after lunch to bounce around town before my bus came. When it did, I got the bad news that my ticket didn’t come with a reservation, and that the bus was fully booked. Fortunately, a friendly local helped me to convince the bus driver to let us on anyway; I had to stand for part of the way, but I’m now in Kosovo. More tomorrow!
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