The hotel room was really comfy and warm so I didn’t get to leave till 11am. Oddly the internet was working fine in the morning after all the problems the previous evening. The temperature had also warmed up from yesterday and it wasn’t as chilly.

Before leaving the cleaner was cleaning a suite room which had a terrace overlooking the pedestrian street. This was the true penthouse suite, it had a living room, dining table, and bedroom with its own fireplace. Next time I should book that room

I wanted to travel to Medijana the Roman remains just outside the city. Its about 5km and the weather was not warm enough to walk all the way there and back. The internet says bus fares are 50D but on the bus I was charged 70D ($.85 cents).

At first I tried to pay the driver but he didn’t want any money. There is actually an attendant that goes up and down the bendy bus collecting fares, which I’m sure can be difficult keeping track of everyone and moving thru the crowded bus.

They told me where to get off for the archaeological museum which at first seemed the middle of nowhere. This is actually the road to Istanbul heading out of the city, called Constantinople Road, but has since been renamed.

I then noticed the site across the road. At first a sign said entry is only if arranged thru the Museum of Nis. I didn’t know about that then a lady came out and said it is closed but that I can still go and stand at the edge and not go into the site. That was good enough and she didn’t charge entry fee.

All you could really see were the brick remains. There was a building which was locked. There were a couple of other people with official badges and they didn’t seem to mind me being there. To the side were workers maybe excavating more stuff.

From Medijana I was going to walk 2km back into town to Skull Tower. It was sunny today so a pleasant walk back down the road to Istanbul.

At Skull Tower there was a large school party. I was told to buy a ticket for 150D ($1.80). I had to wait for the big school party to go in first but luckily they only went in for a few minutes.

Inside all that remains is the base of the tower. You can see some skulls and rows of recesses where the other skulls would have been placed.

The was a description of the origins in English and Serbian. The Serbs lead a revolt in 1809 to liberate different parts of Serbia from the Turks. At a nearby battle the Serbs were going to be defeated, so their leader chose a suicidal method of blowing up the gunpowder store. This killed 4000 Serbs and 10,000 Turks

Then the Turks ordered the dead Serbs heads be decapitated, deskinned, and sent to Istanbul to show the Emperor. Then it was decided to build a tower with the heads to show Turkish authority and to deter any further uprisings.

It was deliberately placed on the road to Istanbul at the city limits. A passing French poet remarked the tower would glow white from a distance and the hairs would blow in the winds.

Depending on how you interpret the story it wasn’t actually a Turkish massacre since the Serbs decided to blow themselves up. However, it was not necessary for the Turks to mutilate the corpses in such a way. It was quite sad looking at the tower as these were real people.

The guide asked me where I was from and happily told me her son was born in Mississauga 18 years ago and has Canadian citizenship.