I crossed half the Balkans for THIS one thing...
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- Join me on my most ambitious adventure yet: crossing half the Balkans traveling from Istanbul, Turkey, through Bulgaria and Serbia, and finally to Sarajevo, Bosnia, all for one thing: the kajmak of Željo Ćevabdžinica. This journey crosses vast mountain landscapes, farming villages and much much more. We meet some great people and interesting characters along the way, and most importantly, enjoy the sweet taste of ćevapi with kajmak in the end.
0:00 Night Train to Sofia, Bulgaria
9:35 A Bulgarian Village
23:09 The road to NIš, Serbia
26:19 Talking with a Wise Man
35:42 Crossing Serbia...
43:12 Serbia's Haunted City (again)
55:58 The Sweet Taste of Victory (& Kajmak)
58:59 ANNOUNCEMENT
To see the full vlogs of each of the 4 days of this adventure, check out my Patreon: patreon.com/BentheRules?...
Thanks for your support and as always, thanks for watching :)
#balkan #bosnia #serbia #bulgaria #turkey
Türkiye
Istanbul, Turkey
Turkish Trains
Night Trains
European Trains
Bulgaria
Bulgarian
Sofia, Bulgaria
Bulgarian Monastery
Mosques
Churches
Niš, Serbia
Serbian Trains
Balkan Trains
Priboj, Serbia
Serbian
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosna
Sarajevo, BiH
Cevapi and Kajmak
Traveling through the captivating Balkan region is a journey filled with awe-inspiring sights, fascinating history, and vibrant cultural experiences. From the rugged mountains of Montenegro to the turquoise waters of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia, every step in this enchanting land unfolds a new story. Amidst the cobblestone streets of ancient cities like Dubrovnik and Sarajevo, one can immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of Balkan culture, tasting traditional delicacies and witnessing the warmth of local hospitality. Exploring iconic landmarks such as the stunning Plitvice Lakes and the historic Mostar Bridge, this traveler discovers both the breathtaking beauty and the resilience of the Balkans, leaving with countless cherished memories and a deeper understanding of this diverse and captivating corner of Europe.
Ps.. keep up the good work Chief Adventurer. Your videos are always good… by the way been to that “Zeljo” place and ate cevape there myself lol
This needs to be on a T-shirt, very well said
@@BenTheRulesthanks Chief Traveler…… Like I said keep up the good work..
@@BenTheRules hey Ben, forgot to mention that this vdieo reminds of a movie called “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”…. Lol.. im pretty sure you seen it.. ;-)….
@@BenTheRules Željo was my family's favourite spot! I have memories there even as a toddler! 😂
Ben constantly promotes Sarajevo & Bosnia in general. Thank you so much for spending your precious time and enjoy your time here as usual. Love you bro
Of course! It’s a really special place. Pozdrav 👍
Hello from upstate NY I’m from Bosnia living in USA since the war. Love watching your videos from Bosnia. Enjoy ćevapi also when you come back to USA you should visit Utica NY we have several ćevadzbinica so you can have ćevapi here ( no good kajmak) using sour cream in stead also we have bosnian stores you can buy so many Bosnian/ Balkan foods and frozen ćevapi i lepinja.
I’m also from Utica! I made a video about Utica food and we ate cevapi from Al’s on Mohawk street. I’m also friends with the owners of one of the Bosnian shops. Hvala što gledaš :)
Omg what a coincidence. Thanks for the videos from Bosnia. I go to Bosnia every 5-6 years and when someone makes videos I enjoy them.
Next time you should go restaurant Two Brothers they are located by Proctor High School.
As a bosnian i love how people keep enjoying our food its the childhood of many people❤🇧🇦
The ćevapi and pita of Sarajevo can’t be beat!
Serbian and Bulgarian are very close languages. We understand each other without a need for translation.
You should go to Uzice, Serbia and try Kajmak there.
Thank you so much for doing these videos, I enjoy watching them. It definitely helps with missing home as we have to wait until summer to visit ourselves. I can't tell you how much I envy you for having ćevape from Željo 🥹 I have to drive all the way to L.A. to have something even close to it. I hope you enjoy Bosnia and wish you safe further travels. Greetings from NorCal.
I appreciate it, pozdrav :)
Cevabdzinica Zeljo got free promotional video and they don't even know about it. Your Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin language's are very good. Where in the world you have to learn one language and you can automatically speak 4 "different" languages? LOL. It is very surprising how well you understand the Balkans for an American.
Hahaha i hope somebody tells them about the video, their kajmak really is that good.
The language in those countries might be hard to learn, but the payoff is worth it. Like you said, you get to talk to 4 countries worth of people
@@BenTheRules not 4 languages, it is just 4 different accents druze moj, sve je to isto, svi smo mi isti samo nas jebu politicari. Yugoslavia bi bila medju jacim drzavama na svijetu da nas stoka ne rastavise.
@@CodeEtradetako je👍👍
@@CodeEtrade For that we say: "sve isti kurac"
Hej brate ,hvala sto nam prikazujes videa,a iz Priboja mi je muz interesantno,kud sve stignes😊
great video and journey hvala ben!
Hvala ti što gledaš :)
Love all your videos ❤
thank you!
I love your videos man, it just makes me live my travels of a region so dear to my heart through you. I did a similar trip 2 winters ago, from Rome all the way through to austria slovenia and end in Sarajevo, then we flew to istanbul. I wish i could visit in winter more, summer is too busy touristic and hot
The first few times I went to Sarajevo and the Balkans in general it was summer time, but being there in the winter is far superior I have to say. Way less people in the city, much better weather (maybe that’s a hot take), way prettier when it snows, etc
Ben your traveling ist amazing bro
thank you, it's always a blast
My Croatian uncle was also sent as a worker to Libya. He worked in the oil fields as an engineer. There was a special relationship between the two countries
Really an interesting part of 20th century history. To think how different both places are now!
When I was little kid 40years ago 10 was a norm, 5 was for babies.
Now you shoud try Banjalučki ćevap and Leskovački ćevap, they are all different and mantije from Novi Pazar it's their. If you can't visit all these places you can find all in Belgrade but it's not the same
I’ve had mantije in novi Pazar, it was amazing. Sarajevo also has a great mantije place, the woman who makes them is from Novi Pazar originally.
This summer I have plans to try cevapi and Banja Luka and in travnik too
Thanks for these videos...... I've not eaten Kajmak for years..... Love seeing the Balkans through your eyes! Interesting. 😮😮
Thanks for watching, Cheers!
Amazing content, keep it up! Somehow CZcams recommended me your channel, most likely because I'm from Bosnia? :)
Ben I hope you realize that you are now a part of Bosnian Family, we really support and like what you do :) keep up the great job, do some prehistoric investigations specially in southern Bosnia or actually Herzegovina go on goigle earth and you will see so many Illiryian ruins some of them havent been visited by people for more then 2000 years, Bosnia and Herzehovina is a biggest Mistery on our Planet, Bosnian people think and feel they are special or different then most of the people, Illirya was considered before as a place of magic and mistique.
Bosnia (and Herzegovina too!) is a really special place, I’m happy to get to explore it and show some people how it is. Thanks for your comment :)
Constantine was Illyrian, Nish originally was an Illyrian place. Long live Illyrian Culture
The ending was hard to watch🥲 Looking forward to getting cevapi again during our next encounter in Sarajevo!
Sorry to induce such levels of FOMO. Absolutely! 😎
great videos, you're really trying hard to learn and understand the culture of the country you're visiting. keep up the good work! you just got a subscriber :)
fun fact: there are actually 2 towns called Požega in former Yugoslavia, Slavonska Požega in Croatia and Užička Požega (the one you visited). and it's POžega, not PožEga
damn you captured me at the riverside at nis
Ben your amazing how many languages you know bravo Ben Hvala for your adventure you share with us 🇭🇷 🇺🇸
54:35 It's my home city, northeast of Niš, 10km from Bulgarian border. The beer is one of the most popular ones in Serbia. It can be found in few places in Switzerland (usually those where you can get ćevapi).
cool, I'll have to come check it out sometime and get some fresh brewed Zaječarsko
you could enjoy fu..... cevapi with kajmak all the way in Serbia, not only in Bosnia
Hi Ben from Toronto..I like your content but I must say you went to Nis where they have the best BBQ around anywhere, I didn't have cevapi but the meats are the highest quality.even these CZcamsrs from Canada they go all around the world they said Nis has the best BBQ...as far as cevapi goes it's personal preference...great job
I think I watched the same Canadian CZcamsrs you did, that’s why I made sure to have some BBQ in Niš! I used to go to Toronto a lot as a kid since I grew up in upstate NY. Cheers!
Ćevabdžinica Željo is the best!!! 💕
Absolutely 🔵⚪️
Travels 4 days to get Cevapi, totally worth it 😊
Hi Benjamin, thanks for the great videos! Thanks to them, I am seriously thinking about a 10 day trip through serbia in early May. However, as I do not speak any serbo-croatian at all, I would rather rent a car and move around with that rather than trying to catch buses which seems to require some decent level of understanding of the language. do you think it makes sense?
That’s great! Relying on buses in the Balkans can definitely be frustrating, as the times are often inconsistent, there’s no correct info online, etc etc. so being able to ask directly at the station is important. I would say if you’re going for a more comfortable trip, renting a car it the way to go :) as long as you don’t mind spending a bit more money
@@BenTheRules thanks, as I see that travel times by bus can become lengthy due to the schedules, I might consider hiring a car, doesn't seem too expensive anyways!
Niš is very nice city to eat bc food is good and prices are low
54:00 AKO BOG DA BROTHER!!!
Oh! Falke socks! Nice! :)
You should check Macedonian and Greek monastery's...
❤❤
wonderful videos. Thank you so much for sharing this beauty with us. By the way, Sveta Petka is a woman saint. Our ancestors Slavs worshipped Mokosh as a Holy Mother; in Christianity there is Mary of course, but also Saint Petka (petak Friday was the day of Mokosh); on the other hand, St. Peter would be Sveti Petar in Slavic languages. If you research Slavic religion before Christianity (rodna vera, rodnovery) you are going to learn about Perun, Vid, Mokosh etc; that many cities are named by Veles, for example, or Vid or Mokošice etc.
Thanks for this comment! I would have never known this about Sveta Petka, but it makes a lot of sense now that I’m reading more about her. Cheers!
Hi Ben. We're planning on visiting Bosnia by the end of February. Your videos are really nice. You're doing a good job showing us around. But if you don't mind me giving you two tips as a subscriber 1) try not to move the camera too much because it makes it uncomfortable to watch sometimes 2) the camera is mostly focused on your face. We want to see you too, but it would be nice if you can direct the camera to what your eyes see. Also try to raise the camera so we don't just see the floor. Thank you and keep up the good work!
So for example un this video, I like the info you gave, but I didn't like the fact that I didn't get to see much if Sonjac because you focused the camera on you. I tried to send you a private message to give you my feedback but I don't know why to do it. I'm in no way a pro about filming and I can't do what you're doing, but just my feedback about your videos. I'm sure you'll get more subscribers if you take my advice. Also, I shared your videos to friends, and two of them told me they pushed on the dislike button because of the reasons I just mentioned to you. When I asked them if they commented why they disliked them, they said they don't have the time to comment and that you'll understand. I'm sure others do the same. Not me, by the way. I liked all your videos, and gave you an honest feedback. Sorry for being long
Thanks for taking the time to write this! Noted. I’ll be making some technology changes soon that will hopefully help with wobbling and holding the camera higher. As for showing more scenery, I’ll try to incorporate that more as well. Thanks again for your comments :)
Thanks to you for understanding I had good intentions. And sorry for the many typo mistakes I had too :)
Please go to Tuzi in Montenegro and Ulqin.
I think I will go to Montenegro in the coming months, I’ll check those places out
Yes, that is a good idea. If you are up to that one, visit Stari Bar(Old Bar), you'll like it.
Welcome to Sarajevo Ben. Enjoy!
Thank you! It’s always great to go there
In 1999 it wasn't Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia but Federal Rebublic of Yugoslavia (SR Jugoslavija - Savezna Republika Jugoslavija) and NATO bombarded downtown of city Niš with cluster munition in broad daylight so that monument is dedicated to the civilians who died that day
Najbolji kajmak na svijetu je Zeljov Kajmak uffff.
Kajmak in Zeljo is far from best... in fact, very likely like with the most of Balkan food they are not best at the restaurants but instead you need to know someone that produces it locally.
if anything, that just shows how good kajmak can get, because the cevapi + kajmak combo there is immaculate
@@BenTheRulesbtw, maybe its worth exploring Vojvodina, the province in Serbia, since it has 17 minorities speaking different languages, different religion, schools etc. I am not aware of the such small place with a greater mix, yet somehow they all live together without major troubles...
Ben, will you be travelling to Croatia?
Yes! For the moment, it's a bit complicated because I have used all my time in the schengen zone as a tourist, but I will go there before too long
@@BenTheRules When you do, you could go to Daruvar and find out more about the Czech minority that lives there and surrounding villages
Caught that YNWA reference. Liverpool fan!?
Loud dudes ( prayers)
Брат мој, патувај и уживај! Видеата ти се одлични. If you come to Macedonia again, the beer is on me!
Thank you 🫡 I appreciate it
znas sta valja. zato se i mi svi vracamo
Priboj accent is so Bosnian.
Hello Ben
Why you don’t come to Croatia?
Also it would be great if you can add more info ( how much did you pay for that gloves?😁) Also couldn’t see properly how was your train bed from Istanbul looking? Was it comfy?
Greetings from Croatian lady living in Dubai👍
28:40 One small correction, "SR" in SR Yugoslavia, stands for "Savezna (United/Unitary) republika" and not Socialist republic. 😊
Ah you’re right, thanks for the correction :)
Federal, not united
@@nusproizvodjachTrue, I was just going by more literal translation.
I know these trains stop at Strpci in Bosnia but there's no immigration so I don't understand how it works.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing tbh. What would stop someone from getting off the train in that rural area and just walking into BiH? There were definitely no border officials at that stop
@@BenTheRules Maybe most of the users are dual Serbia and BiH nationals who don't require checks? Or maybe people have to call the immigration people to check passports, but then that raises the question on what to do on the Serbian side. If someone knows please reply to this
I think this would be worth putting somewhere on the list for future video ideas some point down the line.
I was thinking the same thing. I will do some investigating investigating haha
And yes THERE IS THE GOD !!
Always!!!
28:42 28:43 još ih je trebalo jače stući da se koljčka stoka ne opomene za 700god
Only in Bosnia they’re still publicly playing cheesy euro pop music from the 80’s.
Since you mentioned that Bulgaria is the only slavic country in the balkans that wasn't a part of Yugoslavia, actually supposedly Tito had an idea to include it, but never hsppened.
I remember reading about this before. If I remember correctly, the Bulgarian govt at the time wanted to be an equal stakeholder in Yugoslavia, like Austria-Hungary but ‘Bulgaria-rest of Yugoslavia’ and Yugoslavia didn’t want that because it would give Bulgaria much more power than the other republics. Maybe someone can correct me or provide more info
Do people understand you easily In Bulgaria when you speak to them in Serbocroatian?
I think so. The lady in the video mostly understood, and bus drivers/restaurant workers mostly understood me as well. But I was mostly saying very simple things (and I looked up Bulgarian words before ordering to make sure I could use them if I needed). That being said, if we talked about anything more complicated it would’ve been much harder I think :)
I am Croatian but I understood that Bulgarian lady Konstandinka pretty ok👍
An observation of mine - during my two visits to Croatia I had the impression that Croats understood Bulgarian much better than I did Croatian. As opposed to that - in Serbia they seemed to find my Bulgarian as an almost compleetly uninteligable language. Any thoughts on this?
@@angelmitov8587I think that Bulgarian is like Macedonian more simple version of Proto Slavic language as they almost don’t have a grammar at all..
so Croats can eassy understand them because the language is more simple.. not much Cases (padeži) which are a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numbers where these words get different endings but Macedonians & Bulgarians don’t have them as Croats do.
Case inflection, characteristic of Slavic languages, was lost in Bulgarian and Macedonian approximately between the 11th and 16th centuries.
it is good but short films
It was impossible to make this video short hahaha, thanks for watching
I agree I wish it was shorter
Kajmak is imported from Serbia.
I m convinced that your knowledge of Serbian language is much better than the way you are speaking/pronouncing ..you even read cyrillic alphabet ...relax ...u are doing good ..as for cevapi and kajmak I surely agree ..but slow down with cevapi ..it is also a good recipe for heart attack too ,
Hahah idk it’s a super difficult language
Nema boljih cevapa nego u Sarajevu kao ni boljeg bureka nego sto se pravi u BiH. To se zna🤍💙
Tako je 😎
Ovaj lik samo šnjopa 😊
I wonder where do you work , do you have a profession? How do you guys live , I mean you who records those CZcams videos every day , which by the way are all the same , Turkey, Balkan, Paris, Italy 😂 all same thing,aren’t you tired of this?
Lol I’m happy to answer these questions. I have a real job (coding) that I can do from anywhere, so I can work while traveling. I don’t record videos every day, I typically film about 2-3 per month, and spend maybe 8-10 hours editing each week. For the last part, I totally disagree! There are so many cool things to see, especially in the Balkans, so I definitely don’t get tired of it. Also, how are Paris, Italy, Turkey, balkans (and lebanon) all the same????
@@BenTheRules well I said the videos are pretty much similar about every country or cities, nothing new or different then from any other videos out there. Copy paste, Paris beside the architecture that is pretty, much more resembles to Lebanon , Algeria and other North Africa countries, I mean when comes to people living there since is full of Arabic and Africa people, same as to Nice , when I visited last summer I thought I was in Morocco 🇲🇦. Let’s not even talk about Marseille , you don’t know if you are in France or some Arabic country
@@BenTheRules italy is beautiful but north part of country, or I should say everything above Rome , south is very poor , dirty, dangerous, Rome is also very much dirty specially around there train 🚂 stations, Termini, buildings are old and not well maintained, so many homeless people wondering around there. I loved Positano and Sorrento when comes to south but nothing else, still very much mafia rule in the south part of Italy
@@BenTheRules when comes to Turkey 🇹🇷 never been there , but again same thing, only showing Istanbul like it is the only city in whole Turkey, can someone show Ankara I think that is capital city, or something else not only Constantinople. Same as to Balkan countries, you can not compare Sarajevo to any other Balkan countries because majority are Muslim and the city is very much similar to Turkey then any other cities around there.
Ohh comon... Željo is a turist fraud. You will never see a locals in there.
Best kajmak is know to be in South Serbia. (Speaking as a Croat)
No way! two friends of mine who are from Sarajevo have brought me to Željo and they swear that it's the best. Like I say in the video there are places with better cevapi (like Ferhatovic) but the kajmak+bread+cevapi at Zeljo is a great combo. as for the south serbian kajmak, I will have to go there and see for myself :) hvala što gledaš!
You go to Proboj and only visit Mosk? Wonder what is your obsession with Islam? If you visit such a diverse areas, you should visit all religious objects…
Last time I was in Priboj I also showed the Orthodox Church, go check it out! It was just out of my way this time
Why the Islam bothers you so much?
Ben have right to film what he wants!
@@emina65m 11 genocide against muslims tells why
Odlican lik. Hvala za promociju Bosne, Bosnjaka i bosanskog jezika sirom regije 🤩
Ne postoji bosanski jezik, a i to bošnjaci ste izmislili. To su činjenice, hteli vi to da prihvatite ili ne. :)
@@surovitip3107 K nozi, mitomanu servski.
Hello Ben, can you share your insta? :)
@bentherules_yt but I'm not very active on there at the moment
You make great content brother, work on your titles and targeted audience within US etc... to bring more viewers and more subscribers, I really want you to succeed and I believe if you crack the code you can easily get 100k subscribers this year.
Hahaha thank you! You want to manage my channel???
dont go to servia or croatia.