The not so hidden gem, but the one that stunned me!

by Marija Binic (Serbia)

I didn't expect to find Serbia

Take 17, just a few hours till the deadline, around a million “write it or not” thoughts, somewhere in-between all the “How to start a travel story” instructions and inner voice screaming “you can’t instruct and you should not suppress that lava of emotions, especially not on a technicality”. So, it was somewhere around this date last year, March 11th, my best friend’s birthday, the one’s that suggested I could go to Mainz and stay with her boyfriend in order to go see that Frankfurt concert I was waiting on for so long, like 15years long, e.g. half of my life long. Getting that suggestion and being the one who adores traveling, I had to sit down and seriously plan that trip. It was a chance to see much more than one show, even though that show would’ve been worth it by itself. So, I did, I made plans to go all the way from magnificent city of Luxembourg, through Germany, to Prague. And yes, those were big, shiny plans, like the ones I usually make, so big I couldn’t imagine them not happening, or so big I never thought that I could miss anything down that route. With that part of them possibly “not happening” my bad knee truly helped, making me spend more than 2months in cast and PT, and keeping me on pins and needles till the very last MRI and final clearance just 3days before the trip. And with another about “missing some place down that route”, well I’ll just tell you that the place that stole my heart wasn’t in any of my 4months long thoughts and plans. Following those plans, we were walking around Mainz, cause he, being that well-mannered guy, suggested to show me the city. After all the walking and sightseeing we sat by the beautiful Rhyne river. Sitting there and watching the bridge made me ask: “What’s on the other side”?, and he answered: “There’s a city, but you can’t spot it from here”, so I continued: “Could we go there later?”, and he said: “Why not, we’ll need exactly 8minutes by train”. That became a good joke later, cause we ended up needing 15, but that was never a problem, especially cause as soon as we got of that train, I noticed all of those one-way tracks on that terminal “Hauptbanhof”, and that felt like I’m right there where I should be, it felt like home, and the bubble gum flavored doughnut we bought inside that station sure helped with that. I didn’t need much to figure out that somewhere around the corner from the big city lights of “Mainhattan”, hidden behind the Biebrich castel from Mainz, there it was, that stunning “Nice of the North”, that beautiful spa town, that inspirational city of “Roulettenburg” that even the famous Dostoevsky, Goethe and Brahms enjoyed so much. And I can understand why, that truly is a town full of surprises, the one with amazingly mowed lawns, fountains full of ducks and swans, sidewalk paths under the trees, bicycles made of metal to serve as bicycle racks, Roman walls and hot springs, monumental buildings like “Kurhaus” or giant cathedrals and churches, museums and theatres, but also hotels, banks and everything you might need in various architecture styles from Neo-classical to Art Nouveau. Pedestrian zone with modern streets, or the romantic cobalt-stone ones full of restaurants, where, If you were lucky enough, you could meet a pleasant retired French pastry chef like we did, or maybe find a type of beer for yourself, even If you are not much of a beer person, like me. And if you just step out of the city center, you might even find that lovely hill, the one starting at the North end of the Nerotal street full of beautiful mansions, and take that charming funicular railway up, called the “Nerobergbahn”. That ride itself is going to be scenic, I promise, but that Russian church full of frescoes from the 19th century, that “Opelbad” pool with the breathtaking views of the city, or those hillside vineyards and outside improv-theater might leave you speechless, or you might end up writing about it in your first story ever.