Somewhere far away in the hills above Pirot, in the Vlaške mountains, live Masha and Alexey. They came from St. Petersburg and found the perfect place for themselves.
At the heights of 800m, surrounded by mountain peaks on all sides and wild vegetation that smells like freshly brewed tea with lots of honey, they made Rosehip camp a modern glamping camp.
For a long time, they were looking for a place that would be far from cars, houses, and electric cables. In order to find these very hills, they spent a year hiking, kilometres and kilometres in various parts of mountainous Serbia. Their vision was to find agricultural land where people do not live.
When we met them, I thought they were mountaineers, athletes, and that they came from a world where hiking is part of everyday life. Because these are distances and elevations that are not easily crossed.
Alexey is a sociologist, Masha organised a job in an IT company. I can’t imagine them working 9 to 5 cooped up in offices. I can’t really imagine them anywhere else.
Rosehip glamping has 6 modern tents, a sauna, a zen garden and a guest restaurant on the second hill. That was particularly difficult for us. Why did they want guests to go over the hill to come for breakfast or dinner? Well, to experience another incredible view of another mountain. So that, walking from one hill to another, they would stop and watch the birds and pick sedges, St. John’s wort, thyme… And that they would probably learn to do all this with ease and new enthusiasm.
Each tent has its own aura. Ours was the last in the row and far enough away that the presence of other glampers could not be seen or heard. The best part is the view from the tent and from the terrace that doesn’t let you think about anything else. The changing lights that illuminate the peaks across the road, the occasional cloud that descends to shyly hide parts of the forest, and the sounds of the stream in the nearby Zen garden.
Ah, shall I ever move from here?
Masha and Alexey have enormous energy and faith in their project. Ever since they came here, they have been advocating that this part of the country not be polluted with anything but fresh energy and knowledge.
Alexey is an imaginative enthusiast and humanist.
Even while he was in St. Petersburg, he observed the world around him, wanting to contribute to the revival of the place where we live with true values. “I constantly think how much better this nature and our life here would be if wild horses, deer, chamois came back. I only saw a rabbit, unfortunately.” Alexey is working on planning a project to bring back species of animals that have been absent for generations. It will be a special pleasure to watch them through the window of your hut, free, on their natural terrain.
The more you stay in nature, it takes you under its wing and creates new beings out of you. You sleep when nature sleeps, you wake up fresh with the first rays of the sun. So simple.
What is it that continuously creates the content of our thoughts like a continuous beehive?
When we got here, I fell asleep out of shock. It was too much for me to understand this something that I now perceive as little and enough. The only meaningful one.
We went on a tour of the mountain in search of tea ingredients. Swarms of insects prevent me from falling into a waking dream. This is where the pictures begin, in which my grandmother and little me are walking on the slopes of Zlatibor, grandmother is crocheting during breaks, and I am reading Heidi. Heidi is my friend who lives alone with her uncle in the high mountains. Even today, I remember the drawings from the picture books, the old blanket with a stick who is digging while the goats are carefully picking grasses, and Heidi who carelessly runs around and beside Clara only has the grandfather and the mountain as friends.
We return from the tours and go to the next hill again, where Masha will cook us red borscht soup made from beetroot for dinner, which tells a different story about origins and creativity.
Masha and Alexey are my new idols.
Borsch recipe from Masha (copied from DM)
Ingredients for a 4 litre pot.
Bone-in beef 1 kg
2 large beets,
2 medium-sized carrots,
3 large potatoes,
1 large onion,
dill 1 spoon,
1 piece of garlic
pepper black peas 0.5 teaspoons,
bay leaf 5 pcs.
vinegar 1 teaspoon,
sugar 0.5 teaspoons,
salt 1 spoon,
3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Put salt, dill, pepper and bay leaf in a pot, put the meat on top and pour water (cook for about 40 minutes)
- Take out the meat, cut it into cubes
- add potatoes to the broth and half a head of garlic, dill
- Do the frying.
Grated beetroot, carrot, onion, crushed garlic second half,
spread everything on a pan with olive oil.
Pour sugar, salt and vinegar, stir and fry for about 5 minutes. - add roast potatoes to the broth, cook for 5 minutes, then add the chopped meat.
- Taste and check the readiness of the potatoes, if they are ready, you can turn off the soup and let it rest for at least 2 hours.
Serve with sour cream with onion and bacon and black bread
Bon appetit!
