Ep.6: Spa-Banja Culture in Serbia

We are Ivana and Maki, your hosts.

In this podcast, we discuss interesting details about Serbian language and culture from a

learner's and teacher's perspective.

We offer new and fun resources for learners of Serbian.

To follow each episode with annotated scripts, vocabulary and quizzes, join us also at

Može Kafa podcast on Instagram.

So if you're ready, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the podcast.

Good morning everyone!

Good morning, welcome!

We are good to see you!

I have to say it!

Here is Ivana.

Here is Maki.

How are you today, Ivana?

Good. We are blessed.

What?

We are blessed.

We What we are blessed?

We are blessed.

We are blessed.

yes i said

it yes so i got this award the ones who are watching us on

for the half marathon that happened in kusha but what which

youtube

award was it which place what was it first place but among the women

of Khrushchevac not the whole race so I'm still the eighth in the

overall ranking but in Khrushchevac for now I'm the fastest pause for plant-powered

plant-powered runner yes exactly

so we are talking about health actually today because we

said

as everybody knows the first thing that serbs think of health

is rakia that's why i'm having

this here but also this is kind of controversial so the second one is

not controversial i think bania culture spa culture i mean spas organic springs natural

springs in serbia i had no idea

you had so many springs here and i mean near khrushchev there are so

many but i was searching

for this episode and i found east west north central everywhere there are lots

of options yes uh so there are many i also i think maki now

knows more than me to be honest because i didn't it's just not okay

i'll tell you why i don't know a lot it's because they're like synonymous

to

old people it's the same story in turkey actually so i understand you unfortunately

it's not like

i don't i don't know why younger people would would not like to go

to a spa like it's a great like just relaxation health and it's good

for your skin and you know health and because of the

old people they don't want to see the old people there I think I

actually started going to uh to

the spa in but like spa like the spring right like I'm not meeting

like spa like I was getting

massages or anything like that um in in Germany because there was something near

my the place where I was living and and it was like a thermal

pool or whatever and I would just go there very

often and I'm thinking why didn't I do that in Serbia you know and

it was just this day of relaxation no in serbia

no i think um well i think i went to i didn't go to

um okay i didn't go specifically to these

places for healing i just went to visit or i just

went or i just went to like thermal swimming pools which is because they

are mostly inside these natural parks near the forest so you

end up going there even you go for hiking right but going inside I

think one of the reasons that

maybe young people don't like them is the smell it is kind of funky

yeah

yeah but you get used to it yeah because it's minerals a few minutes

yeah

okay and so you haven't tried it yet i've actually to be honest i've

tried only

once in one hotel so they are using the thermal water and taking it

to the hotel so

not the public one or you know the one that is in really in

the park but nearby so but still it felt so good and I loved

it and I'm planning to go more often but we do I would always

drink that

water with lots of minerals like I know that every time I would go

to I don't want to mention the

name of this spa because we'll talk about it later but every time I

would go there I know and

a couple of times it was always a thing that you go there and

you get this mineral water but like

when I say mineral I don't mean like sparkling I mean like mineral like

full of minerals and yeah it was such a weird taste but it was

kind of like a thing like obviously now i'm there i'm

gonna drink this water yeah and my parents actually get water from Pruska

Gora, like that, with more minerals.

So, yeah, they just go there.

Pruska Gora has a lot of options as well.

So, some facts.

Yeah.

Over a thousand springs Serbia has.

Okay, I didn't know that.

I didn't know that.

So many mountains, of course, but still, the number is too big for that

small country. over 40 spa centers like not hotels and stuff i'm saying like

natural uh you know pools natural

springs that's too much too much to me it's never too much of health

right but yeah i understand

what you mean and their history i was reading about them of course i

can't keep all the

information that i had in my mind so i wrote them down but they

are so old like since the roman times they've been used i mean because

of the wars they were you know they were

kind of gone they were devastated and you know they became ruins

but still

the new government the new countries always repaired them or rebuilt them so they're

in the same place because the source is there right the source is coming

still

from the mountain exactly so that's why they to feel that they're very old

also makes them more interesting to me

yeah I think I'm just thinking this is a really great opportunity for like

tourism right because I mean because I I do it often here in Germany

and then I'm like why did I never

think of just going to like a spa somewhere in Serbia you know and

I think they're missing like a big portion of the population or like the,

foreigners that could go there instead of going to monasteries well actually go to

monasteries as

well but also there is always a monastery nearby exactly so two in one

there you go exactly first

walk in the forest visit the church or monastery and then go relax but

doesn't make sense monasteries

like you know they are also all about the the health mental and physical

health and they know that it is beneficial to be near uh spring exactly

that's true yeah so when it comes to health

benefits what do you think they provide what kind of uh you

know health problems they can cure

uh based on what i was reading a bit almost anything honestly it's like

so it can be like skin diseases or like respiratory issues or

like uh i don't know i don't know if it's like

uh like kidney stones uh diabetes yes rheumatic diseases

yeah and gynecological gynecological

yes gynecological problems that's also makes something that i read in many of them

actually respiratory system problems so i have one story for one of them it's

funny it's a myth obviously

but still i'm going to share it later okay okay later okay fine so

how we are going to talk about

all these 40 we are not going to mention all these 40 spots of

course banyas we are going to

put them into three categories the ones in the north the ones in the

center the ones in the south yeah so three five examples and a little

bit of their history we are going to mention okay all right so for

the the first group let's

start from your place boy wouldina by the way guys boy wouldina is made

up of banat but can

stream so it doesn't matter where you are like these three parts you remember

so the so it's like three areas in poverty and where the where i

that

am i'm from zrenyanin it's banat and banat banat like people in they're called

lale right yeah i know that yes moya blues

yeah and then navisad is actually in srem oh wait is it i think

it's in srem yeah in srem

and then subotica is in bachka for example so uh i just wanted people

because i wanted to mention

that later and i just wanted people to familiarize it uh with it i

hope i picked those uh spas from these three places but you tell me

yes yeah not all of them but that's okay i have one to mention

the first one from voyvodina is bania vurdnik i think that's the most famous

one like in the north

just three to four kilometers from novi sad and um it has

this thermal mineral water in it natural

and it is famous for its big olympic size pools inside pool outside pool

yeah i mean it's not

only for health but also sports i think you can go and you know

enjoy the pools there and

it is most of them all these banias actually have this rehabilitation centers like

certified and they're good for like you can go there as a patient you they are

just show your actually you mostly go there as a patient as well because

it's like you have a receipt not receipt but like a recommendation

or whatever from your doctor right so prescription maybe prescription that's what i want

to say yeah

so there's called is there's is called thermal thermal i think yeah you

go there and you can

you know find some cure or some kind of support for your rheumatic diseases

or all these other kinds of diseases you can maybe suffer from yeah I

read a bit and it's like people

mostly go there for like when they have injuries or like post-surgery issues or

like spine issues

migraines and so on but I think honestly like maybe they specialize with these

things but

maybe they're like specific doctors or whatever but I think anywhere is like good

for anything over health overall yeah i mean popular first of all it helps

your mood and with your mood right

so when you're there you're you know in this hot water sparkling water and

i think your mood and

energy also changes a lot there yeah yeah definitely when you're isolated and you

have any worries and you're just there and you're like meditating but i think

don't

yeah but is definitely a good one to mention first because and i've been

there many times but i just really

never went to the thermal pool right like i just went i just went

there there's a monastery there

as well of course it's called ravenitsa monastery right yeah so what is it

called i forgot when it's

okay you you know better i forgot no but uh but yeah so and

my friends have been there actually one of my friends was there when they're

recently and she loved it so I don't know why

why I never thought of going there.

Now I will.

You and I, we will go on a tour of Banias one day.

We need that.

Yeah.

I definitely, to heal.

Second one from the north is Yunakovich. Very good.

Yunakovich. Yunakovich, yes.

I think it's the surname of a family, right?

I think it is, yeah, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, there's an amazing park, they say, nearby.

And those two beautiful cities that I want to visit,

one day, Suboritsa and Sombor, are nearby.

Yeah. So this is a perfect place to see these northern cities.

And one important information about this, they say they checked,

tested, and everything.

it has the same quality of water as carlos carlovi vari in czech republic

oh wow the same quality of

water they say so it's one of the it is one of the healthiest

ones they say cool i what let me

see what i wrote down i didn't write down anything more i just wrote

down that it's near apathy yes and time i thought apatine apatine

apatine apatine apatine why did i write

maybe there's no tea okay and

that that part is in batka actually the subotica is in batka

somebody's in batka so but it's somewhat very interesting architecture very austro-hungarian and influence,

but also in Subotita,

there are these like weird,

I don't know what type of architecture that is,

but like there are several houses,

very, very colorful and interesting.

There's also one Ottoman tower there that I wrote.

Pasha's Tower, it's called.

Oh. It's Sombor.

So there are beautiful places.

And this brewery, Apatinska Pivare, is also famous, they say.

Everyone knows about Apatinska Pivare, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

The third one that I picked from the north is not that famous, to

be honest. But I love the picture of it.

it has this pink water it's like a lake and it's completely pink so

they say the local residents

there they go there all the time there's a line in the summer so

you have to go early and stuff that's called termalna banya patir patir i

think patir yeah it's a new one it's not very old i mean it

has become like a spa center like later than the others yeah but you

know we're promoting

promoting like small businesses hey local small businesses yeah because

everyone's gonna know

about banya vrednik right but yes this is a little bit in the northern

part of foybredina by the way I can't know the, I can't remember the

name. It's in Bacchka.

I think it's in Bacchka, yeah.

Okay, now, I think it is actually, now I'm thinking.

I'm not sure now.

But I have one, one, one banya.

And I-

In Zrenarin? Near Zrenarin.

I saw that.

Do you remember? Okay.

Rotonda, something like that.

Yeah, it's, oh my God, it just went out of, I wrote it somewhere

to ask you, not in the

the podcast later because

i saw that it's news i just i literally was thinking about it the

rusanda i think rusanda

yes and whenever you have any issues like and then people from serb

from serbia from zranian

are sent to um the the little village oh shit it's not that little

village it's a little it's like a village let's say and then actually my

my grandpa and my dad uh they're from there i mean

my grandparents and my dad is from there um from melon melon tea that's

how it's called

the place's name yes and the rusanda is the yeah so the spa so

i've we've i've been there several

times but never to just like you know swim or whatever yeah because it's

mostly it's just again for people that do have issues so they are sent

there and um i don't know if there's like an

official open like swimming pool or something i don't know but uh it was

just i do now i saw it on

a couple of websites yeah hotels are nearby so maybe it's open now exactly

yeah north has

these beautiful places when it comes to central serbia oh my god there were

more options but i chose only four of them but it makes sense right

like the hills the the mountains like fresh air and it's larger like northern

and southern serbia yeah like serbia is like this right so eastern

west also are included in the center to me that's okay the most famous

one i think is bukovička

banya yeah i've heard of it i i've never been there actually there

is also kovilacca that's also very famous but bukovička is called the pearl of

shumadia

do you know what's being treated there or anything like uh

what's specific about it i mean the same kind of diseases yeah exactly they

wrote so many diseases on their website right

um its history is so old and i don't remember his father but mihaela

obranović his father was milosh obronovich i guess right i think these kings the

king and prince they were there and they

kind of made this place very you know elite beautiful back in time it

was like the center of

those royal family let's say now i have to go there

because you like mihailo obronovich because i'm a royal no i want to feel

like a royalty i want to take care of myself yeah okay cool what

mihailo prince mihailo did is he changed

the decoration so it was one of the first european style spas in serbia

oh but before was it like

turkish though or no maybe i'm not sure like more it was more like

i don't know maybe rustic or i don't know but he changed the decoration

and there is a lake nearby Gorashi lake

and also there is a monument of Karajorj because that

place was the first

where the first uprising happened against the Turks so look at you

that information was interesting for me yeah if anyone for anyone who doesn't know

Maki is from Turkey so just just to throw it out there That's why

I need to go there.

Hey, we're still here.

Ha ha. Ha ha.

But by the way, most of these banyas have kind of festivals in the

summer to attract

more people.

Also, there are beautiful places to have some festivals and events.

before we continue with the show here's a quick reminder this podcast is free

for everyone and

supported by listeners like you we hope that this podcast is useful and companion

to you this is a labor of love for both of us to help us continue

creating useful content for everyone

we will appreciate your help if you have the means you can support us

in different ways

you may just go to buymeacoffee.com slash mozecafa podcast and send us some cups

of coffee You may also become a member of our show on patreon.com slash

mozda cafe podcast and get extra benefits like bonus content, full transcripts of the

show in Serbian, or even join us on the show.

We rely on your support to help everyone more in learning Serbian language and

culture. Thanks for joining us today.

And now let's get back to our episode.

How? Mermer is vici.

I never heard of that.

what is it what is it so it's like a marble and the sound

kind of so because that place had these

beautiful marbles it's white yeah yeah okay marimari's

a witsy that's true yeah so that's

the festival that happens there and obviously i have never been to that but

it sounds interesting I'd like to go there.

So many festivals.

Now I'm like discovering, especially like in these pop places.

is like oh my god crazy i mean that sounds beautiful and there's a

beautiful name matarushkabanya again in the center again healing mineral water there

are three mountains nearby

and of course monasteries but there's also medieval town of maglic nearby oh i