Mosquito bites - and two rivers

My God how the mosquitos loves me! It’s a very intense love/hate relationship. They love me – and I hate them! Every morning new bites are itching on my shoulder, arms and fingers - or anywhere they can suck my blood. Greedy bastards!

Maybe this is one of the prices to pay when you are living between two big rivers? You might know that Danube is running through the Serbian capital, well - alongside at least, but there’s also the river dividing the old town from the new town; Sava. Somehow Sava can be regarded as the border between the mountainous and wild Balkans and the slow and quiet Pannonian plain stretching through Vojvodina, Slavonia and Hungary.

The river was historically a part of the Vojna Krajina or the Military Frontier, between The Habsburg - and the Ottoman Empire. The origin of the river is to be found where Sava Dolinka and Sava Bohinjka flows together between the Slovenian towns Radovljica and Lesce. From this point it runs through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia for about 950 km before it runs in confluence with Danube.

I remember being 6 years old when I got thrilled about a book in the local library in my hometown of Trondheim. This book was titled “Donau”, which is both the Norwegian and German name for Danube – in Serbian it is Dunav. It featured many pictures from the places this beautiful river was running through. Some of them taken during night showing the bright lights of several great historical cities like Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. 

When Dunav passes through Belgrade it caresses the Serbian capitals Eastern outskirts. After this fling she continues eastwards defining the border between Romania and Bulgaria, turns North just avoiding Bucharest and runs out in The Black Sea - but not before making a short visit in Moldova and Ukraine. Running 2850 km Danube is the second longest river in Europe, just after Volga. 

The pictures of this river really fascinated a little boy in Northern Europe. Now he’s living in one of the great cities along its route. And who knows: maybe this exciting waterway one day might lead back to my Great Grandfathers childhood city of Lahr - to be found in German Schwarzwald, just a few kilometers from Donaueschingen where Danube origins. The ways of life are mysterious and all in all; maybe it in the end is worth all the mosquito bites?