Žiča Monastery, a hidden jewel of Kraljevo, Serbia

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After the adventures of yesterday, and the horrendously high BG I had last night, I woke up this morning in Kraljevo, Serbia with a BG of 232. Not unexpected, but not a good start to the day.

Breakfast was the same as yesterday, a modest buffet in the hotel, and after that Masayo and I rested in the room a little. At 11:30 I checked and was 134, back near where I wanted to be.

We eventually went walking around to see more of Kraljevo, but I wasn’t feeling right. Kind of weak and out of it. I figured I needed to eat more, so we stopped at a bakery where I got a piece of strawberry cake with powdered sugar on it. I still felt funny and couldn’t bring myself to take a shot yet.

We went back to the room, and I checked after a while: 214. I took a Humalog shot, and spent the afternoon slowly feeling better.

In the afternoon we asked the hotel lady to call a taxi for us so we could ride 5 km outside of Kraljevo to see Žiča Monastery, smaller than Studenica, and not a World Heritage Site, but still supposedly nice.

The taxi showed up immediately and drove us out to the monastery. The price was like $3.30 (in dinars), but I had $3 plus a larger bill, and the driver assured me that the $3 was fine. How nice. I always avoid taxis because of their reputation for scams, but this guy was on the up and up.

Žiča Monastery is really nice — dominated by a big red church, and a well-kept lawn. Nuns hurry between buildings, and the view, especially in the sunny late afternoon of today, is pretty nice in all directions. Masayo bought some soap made there, and I got a small bottle of wine, apparently made from the vineyard next to the monastery.

We went inside the church, and bought a small candle to light in a little enclave outside of it. It reminded me of something you’d do at a Buddhist temple in Japan.

Then we wanted to head back to town — 5 km, but there were no taxis around here. We could probably flag one down, but we elected to see if we could walk it. Perhaps not smart after the ill-advised 11 km walk yesterday, but I was feeling ok and it was a warm(ish) sunny day.

It was a fairly easy walk, because the road was flat and straight and lined with buildings and activity. We saw an old man with a cane leading some goats towards the road, and we each got out cameras to take a photo. They guy called out to us, so we went over to him.

He spoke no English, but was talking to us in his ornery old farmer’s voice. He seemed to be saying something about photos, and I assumed he was berating us for using our cameras on him. But as we all tried to communicate, me with my diplomatic friendly grin, he began to laugh and pat me on the shoulder. All smiling, we waved goodbye, and Masayo and I continued down the road.

Eventually we made it back to our room in town, having walked at least 16 km in two days, unusual for us. Lately, anyway. I checked my BG and was 155. Perfect, considering.

The guy at our hotel recommended a restaurant in town to try called Лепи Боро, or Lepi Boro, which served traditional Serbian food. We found it and went inside.

It seemed nicer than the places we usually eat at — cloth napkins and things like that. I ordered a “traditional Serbian hamburger” and Serbian salad, and some water.

It turned out to be a big, rich hamburger patty, served with bread on the side and few scattered fries. The salad was tomato, cucumbers, and huge pile of cheese on top. Somehow, I ate everything, though it was all a little much for my tiny stomach.

About an hour later, though, I started feeling really bad. I didn’t know why, but it was a nausea. I thought I was going to throw up and spent quite a bit of time sitting on the bathroom floor, wondering if I was going to throw up and considering whether to go ahead and force myself, to get it over with.

Eventually I started feeling a little better though, and never did throw up. My mother once told me that if food makes you sick and you don’t know the exact culprit, it’s probably the thing you instinctively suspect. When I thought of the hamburger steak, I felt worse. I don’t think it was bad, I just think my body didn’t want all that meat.

At 11:30 I was 306 but I didn’t care because I was so happy to not feel quite so nauseous anymore. I took my usual nighttime corrective Humalog shot, and stumbled into bed, hoping I would be feeling ok tomorrow.

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