Post by adrian65 on Sept 30, 2008 5:47:08 GMT -5
... it HAS to be a blast!
And it was!
A few weeks ago I invited Zoran to come in Romania to do some rockhounding. He couldn't come but invited me to come to his place. Deal done!
This Friday I arrived in Belgrade and met him, spending together with him and his family a great week-end (well, in fact that's an understatement but I couldn't find any better words).
Here's the bridge over the Danube in Belgrade, a few minutes before we firstly met:
We went to his shop, which is very nicely and completely equipped.
Zoran kindly asked me to inspect everything ant to ask him any question. I also did some cutting at his trim saw:
He told me about every tool, the story of each cab, etc. The conversation went fine and we found ourselves very compatible to each other, due to common passion for rocks but not only.
Zoran even made a silver pendant from scratch to finish, framing a gorgeous opal cab. But, silly me, I was so concentrated in following his work that I completely forgot to take pictures
It was a great tutorial and Zoran not only worked that pendant but also gave me detailed explanations while working. I must tell you that his jewels look even more beautiful in person than in the pics!
Zoran also gave me a lot of rocks from his shop. In fact, I kindly asked him to show me how he makes a pendant mainly because I realized that could be the only way to stop him giving me rocks ;D. (Just kidding)
We made then a short rockhounding trip around Belgrade for some picture jasper.
Is a persistent and cold rain supposed to stop two rockhounds to do their job? Nope! Especially if they are fully equipped for bad weather:
As you can see, the rockhounding spot is right next to a railway, and we even had the "luck" that one train to pass there while we where searching for rocks.
The next day (Saturday) we made a longer, round trip and we went for two spots
Firstly we arrived at a place where we found fossil woods. Zoran took care to include a fossil wood spot in our trip, knowing that pet wood is my favorite material. And what a spot that was !
We found lots of pet woods, especially branches having the entire section intact.
Here are some pieces, notice the branch in matrix and also notice that I might have a pair of gloves at hand when I go rockhounding:
The second place that we went at in that day was an occurrence of colourfull jaspers. The scenery was really beautiful:
We were glad that it was a cold rainy day, eitherway the bees might had been active...
We finally arrived in Belgrade in the evening, after a hard but such pleasant day.
On Sunday we went in another place, that was pretty close to my way back home. Here we found some white/purplish chalcedony and agates in a coloured matrix (green-orange). The short hike through the woods to that spot was very nice and pleasant, too.
Here's Zoran trying hard to extract a piece from that wall. And he did!
After that, we returned to the cars and we split, each of us for the way back home.
I found a lot of great rocks, sorry I didn't post them too but I firstly have to wash them.
But I didn't find only rocks in that wonderful trip: I found a great friend, with a heart larger than his welcoming home where he made me his guest and where I really felt myself at home.
Thank you again Zoran and please post here your impressions and photos that I'm sure will complete the picture of our small vacation.
With the hope that some of you folks had the patience to read that "book" till the end, I thank you all for looking!
Adrian
And it was!
A few weeks ago I invited Zoran to come in Romania to do some rockhounding. He couldn't come but invited me to come to his place. Deal done!
This Friday I arrived in Belgrade and met him, spending together with him and his family a great week-end (well, in fact that's an understatement but I couldn't find any better words).
Here's the bridge over the Danube in Belgrade, a few minutes before we firstly met:
We went to his shop, which is very nicely and completely equipped.
Zoran kindly asked me to inspect everything ant to ask him any question. I also did some cutting at his trim saw:
He told me about every tool, the story of each cab, etc. The conversation went fine and we found ourselves very compatible to each other, due to common passion for rocks but not only.
Zoran even made a silver pendant from scratch to finish, framing a gorgeous opal cab. But, silly me, I was so concentrated in following his work that I completely forgot to take pictures
It was a great tutorial and Zoran not only worked that pendant but also gave me detailed explanations while working. I must tell you that his jewels look even more beautiful in person than in the pics!
Zoran also gave me a lot of rocks from his shop. In fact, I kindly asked him to show me how he makes a pendant mainly because I realized that could be the only way to stop him giving me rocks ;D. (Just kidding)
We made then a short rockhounding trip around Belgrade for some picture jasper.
Is a persistent and cold rain supposed to stop two rockhounds to do their job? Nope! Especially if they are fully equipped for bad weather:
As you can see, the rockhounding spot is right next to a railway, and we even had the "luck" that one train to pass there while we where searching for rocks.
The next day (Saturday) we made a longer, round trip and we went for two spots
Firstly we arrived at a place where we found fossil woods. Zoran took care to include a fossil wood spot in our trip, knowing that pet wood is my favorite material. And what a spot that was !
We found lots of pet woods, especially branches having the entire section intact.
Here are some pieces, notice the branch in matrix and also notice that I might have a pair of gloves at hand when I go rockhounding:
The second place that we went at in that day was an occurrence of colourfull jaspers. The scenery was really beautiful:
We were glad that it was a cold rainy day, eitherway the bees might had been active...
We finally arrived in Belgrade in the evening, after a hard but such pleasant day.
On Sunday we went in another place, that was pretty close to my way back home. Here we found some white/purplish chalcedony and agates in a coloured matrix (green-orange). The short hike through the woods to that spot was very nice and pleasant, too.
Here's Zoran trying hard to extract a piece from that wall. And he did!
After that, we returned to the cars and we split, each of us for the way back home.
I found a lot of great rocks, sorry I didn't post them too but I firstly have to wash them.
But I didn't find only rocks in that wonderful trip: I found a great friend, with a heart larger than his welcoming home where he made me his guest and where I really felt myself at home.
Thank you again Zoran and please post here your impressions and photos that I'm sure will complete the picture of our small vacation.
With the hope that some of you folks had the patience to read that "book" till the end, I thank you all for looking!
Adrian