DAY 10: MONDAY 8 AUGUST 2011

Camping costs: Studenica Hotel €15 – 1 night

Up early with a breakfast of our cereal and milk. A shower and change and off to Mokra Gora Ŝargan Eight Railway. We arrived there early, so bought tickets, sorted out the back of the Landy and went to have a coffee.

When we saw crowds growing and the engine head for the carriages. Dan went to pay and Cassie and Wendy went to get a seat on one of the carriages. So the journey began.

The train had speakers playing the story of the railway in Serbian, and surprisingly, English too! The journey up was interesting, a few tunnels we went through and a stop at the top where we bought an ice cream.

Then, on the journey down the train stopped at all these platforms, the story referred to them as ‘crazy stops’, it made the journey back a lot longer than it needed to be. When we got back, we loaded ourselves up and set off for Studenica and the Monastery.

The drive was hard going with the windy mountain passes.

We stopped in a funny little town called Ivanjeca for lunch and to get some more money. We decided to have ice cream sundaes for lunch, as non of us were particularly hungry…probably the stinking heat we were experiencing today. The sundaes we ordered turned out to be fruit salads with ice cream and cream. Dan’s was a kind of float sundae concoction. Yummy never the less.

Off we trudged for the rest of our journey. As we drove we wondered where on earth the monastery was. It seemed as though we were just driving and getting no where! Finally, around the corner it came into view! Relief washed over us. We had made it!

First thing we saw was a great big sign telling us: NO SLEEVELESS SHIRTS, SHORT SKIRTS TO GO INTO THE MONASTERY

That counted that evening out as Wendy was in a boob-tube and skirt, Cassie was in a sleeveless shirt and Dan was in shorts…non of us were in the mood to change either. We decided to park at the sign that showed sobe/rooms and enquire about prices to stay.

We thought that we would stay 2 nights, firstly to rest and secondly to explore and maybe take a swim in the river. The receptionist told us €15 for the 3 of us for 1 night. We agreed, got our key and went to investigate. The smell hit us first…damp, old and mothballs. Then the visual got us…pot hanging from the ceiling in the corner to catch water, ceiling masking taped together, light bulb cello-taped together and the list carried on. We thought this was the only place to stay, so we gathered our bits and bobs and put them into the room and went for a pivo and sok.

The “hotel” had no kitchen so we had to walk up behind the monastery to get food. It turns out there’s another hotel, one in much better condition that we could have stayed at…oh well…too late now! A Serbian guy at the hotel, who was working at the monastery on a conservation project, told us that the hotel we were eating at and the Studenica Hotel were taken over by the Monastery. They were now just resting places. The one we ate at had just had some work done to it, but the one we were staying at hadn’t had anything done to it for at least 30 years!

That night we slept wondering if bed bugs were going to gnaw us and if the ceiling would collapse on Wendy in the night.

Luckily we woke up in one piece and decided to hit the road. One night was enough. It was off to Durmitor National Park in Montenegro. Good bye to the Hotel from the Shinning!