No other tourists at UNESCO’s Felix Romuliana in Serbia

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Today was a good day for sightseeing, and a bad day for diabetes. But, as always, travel trumps blood sugar so overall ’twas a good day.

Masayo and I woke up in our old but cozy hotel room in Zaječar, Serbia, and headed downstairs to the dining room for our free breakfast. Once there I checked my BG — it was 118. Good start.

Breakfast was good — they made us each three fried eggs, with big thick bacon strips, bread, and coffee. As usual, I had to guess on the bread — something I haven’t got good at yet.

After that we asked the hotel lady to call a taxi for us to get to Felix Romuliana, a few kilometers outside town. (There seem to be no buses there, or at least no frequent ones.) She called and the taxi came.

We rode straight there, and the guy said the fee was 400 dinars ($4). I only had a 2000-dinar note, though, and he had no change. We were at an impasse. Then I decided to go pay for our admission into the Felix Romuliana site, and get change for the driver. Off I sprinted.

They ticket window was kind of deep inside after I passed through the main gate, so it took me a while. (A dog ran along with me, like a kind of escort.) Nobody was at the window when I got there. Someone from across the large site then called to me. It was two security guys; there is no actual staff here otherwise. They sold me two tickets and gave me change.

I tipped the driver an extra 100 dinars for making him wait (he seemed surprised, like it genuinely wasn’t necessary) and Masayo and I entered the site.

Felix Romuliana was built by the emperor Galerius, son-in-law of Diocletian, whose palace we saw in Split, Croatia a few weeks ago. Most of Felix Romuliana is still underground, and is being excavated. Several interesting structures are above ground now, though, including several marble pillars and the giant towers that surround the complex.

We walked around, by ourselves, in the drizzling rain. No other tourists were there; one of the security guards half-heartedly shadowed us, but it really felt like it was all there for us. We could climb all over the ruins, snap photos everywhere, and read the few info signs scattered around.

I checked my BG when we got to the area with the pillars, hoping for a good diabetic photo opportunity. Well, the photo might be all right but the BG wasn’t: 254. I took a Humalog shot without food.

We walked all around some more, and then asked the security guard if he could call a taxi for us to go back to town. He did, and said it would be there in 10 minutes. The ride back was 400 dinars, but there was no tip this time!

Back in Zaječar we stopped by a bakery and had a snack. Mine was a chocolate cookie and milk. I took another Humalog shot at the bakery.

We then went to see the town museum, just across the plaza from our hotel. When we walked in, a woman stepped out of an office and asked in good English if we had seen the Felix Romuliana site. We showed her our ticket stubs, and she commenced a tour for us without asking for money.

It was nice; we hadn’t anticipated a guided tour, much less a free one with no other tourists, but that’s what we got. The lady’s English was excellent, and she showed us all around the various exhibits. Many of them related to the Roman ruins, but there was some general information about the town of Zaječar that was also interesting.

She recommended we go to “the Turkish house”, a house kept in its early 20th century Ottoman Empire state nearby. We went and the girl there unlocked the upper floor, where the old rooms are, just for us. It was full of interesting old furniture, and an old record player (with a 78 rpm record on it, faded and in the shadows just enough that I couldn’t see what it was), and what looked like a well-kept but very early movie camera (I don’t know why). I asked the girl there if that is what it was, but she didn’t know.

After that we headed back to the hotel room to relax; I checked my BG and was still high, 260. We went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner — for the second day in a row, but we really liked the atmosphere, the food, and the price.

Today’s special was bean soup with bread and salad, again for 300 dinars ($3). I got the brown bean salad and Masayo got the green bean. Both were good, though mine was only slightly lukewarm while Masayo’s was hot. I wasn’t sure it was supposed to be like that, but it was good. Some of the meat didn’t look fully cooked, but I tend to be paranoid about that so I’m not a good judge. At any rate, I didn’t eat all the meat (but I ate all the beans).

I hoped I had managed to bring my BG back down with my dinnertime shot, but I hadn’t: at 11 pm I was 288. More corrective Humalog, and finally to bed. Very nice day: another UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an interesting museum tour to boot!

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