TOURING THE BALKANS # part 2 / photos and stories

My band makes every year at least 50 concerts in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. This means that you play almost every weekend. It is great way to explore territory of Balkan and to visit all bigger and smaller cities, sometimes even villages :)

This photo is from Zadar (Croatia). Zadar is town on dalmatian coast and it has many historical valuable monuments and old churches. You probably heard for church St. Donat or Cathedral St. Stošija but you probably didn't heard for little Stomorica church in which we played a morning gig. As you can see, only remains of the church are still here. The floor plan of the church is fascinating: the five semicircular apses (typical of early Dalmatian church architecture) and the semicircular portal surrounding the central space give it an unusual six-leaved clover shape. It has a great acoustic and audience is above you so it was really interesting musical experience !

This picture is from Šibenik (Croatia). Šibenik is a town also on dalamatian coast when you go south from Zadar. It is a home of the greatest croatian basketball ever - Dražen Petrović. This is his statue that shows him as a young kid who is resting on the bench after playing basketball all day long. One of the legend about Dražen is that he was coming earlier every day to school so him could practice basketball in a school gym while cleaning ladies prepared the school for a new day. Statues is positioned on Baldekin - part of a town where Dražen grew up.

This is photo from our first concert in Belgrade (Serbia). We have a lot of fans there and every year this is one of my favourite towns to play with a band. People in Belgrade are really nice and warm; last time when I was there my friend Marko offered me rakija with the taste of a rose. I wasn't dringing at that period but I said "Hell yeah, I must taste that rose rakija". So we got drunk aftre the gig and when I came to hotel for sleeping, my roommate from band said to me - "Hey man, you smell wonderful like a rose" :D

This one is from Karlovac (Croatia). Karlovac is a small city near Zagreb and he is well known for Karlovačko beer and for four rivers that runs straight trough the city. Those rivers are Dobra, Korana, Mrežnica and Kupa. On the photo we are playing in the snow - I know it is a little bit weird but were making a video for one snowy song. But it was fucking freezing. My fingers got cold and I hardly could play so I took gloves and with them and my hat and black jacket I looked like a thief from a movie "Alone in the house" :D But we are good guys, we don't rob people. Once they robbed our garage with instruments but that is some other story!

I have many pictures from the places on Balkan where I played with my band. And also many more funny and interesting stories. Follow me guys if you are planning to visit my beautiful region!

Cheers!

Miki