Monasteries, the Spa, and more Guca

Monasteries, the Spa, and more Guca
Friday, August 07, 2009
1:14 AM

After a solid nights rest we got together with the girls and headed out to see some of the Monasteries in Cacak. These were some of the most famous in Serbia and were places of refuge during the numerous times that war raged throughout the region. The first one was quite a bit off the beaten path and very peaceful. It had two large buildings and a chapel, but only two people lived there which was surprising.

The large areas were for services and over a hundred people came out to the monastery every Sunday. Mala, Aleks' sister, even had her wedding there. The chapel had been rebuilt numerous times since it was first constructed in the 1400s and was beautiful. The second one was up in the hills and was actually a bit larger. When we arrived we were initially told to look at the chapel very quickly because a christening was about to take place. We ended up watching the majority of the ceremony that felt a lot like a Catholic ceremony in Latin with the priest seeming to mumble almost all the words. The second site was especially well known because the current head of the Serbian Orthodox Church was once a monk there.

A spa/hot spring was right down the road so we stopped in to relax a bit before Guca. Everyone wanted to get massages but they were booked so we got jacuzzis. To our surprise the jacuzzi didn’t go over 34C which is lukewarm at best. We were pretty frustrated but still surprisingly refreshed. Mitch and our 'tour-guide' Dargan had a few rousing games of ping pong then we got what we planned on being a quick dinner downtown. That quick dinner, like anytime you sit down, especially in Eastern Europe, took almost two hours.

We got back to the hotel and headed out for another night of Guca. Although we were with a much smaller group this time as it was the weekend the festival was quite a bit different. The crowds were out in full force and we spent quite a bit of time dancing around at the main stage. Guca really is the most anything goes place I've ever seen, we had a blast.