Our train to Belgrade was quick. The border patrol officers were efficient and silent and let us sleep for the most part. Some of the other countries(finger pointing at Turkey) could learn a lesson on how to handle night train passport checks. We arrived quite early in the morning and our attempt to contact the hostel was unsuccessful. We later found out this is because its run by a young couple who have leased an apartment to run their own business. While we applaud them, it makes getting in touch with them difficult. The other problem is that Serbia is non-EU so the roaming charges there run at about 3 Euros a minute per phone call. Yikes! We spent the first day resting and having small walks around the city. In the evening, we met up with a friend of a friend from Madrid. He took us through the fortress and to a bar that overlooks the river for a drink. It's the nicest place in the city. We found out later that Belgrade, while not a beautiful city, has one of the more vibrant nightlifes in Europe.
On Wednesday, we woke up and headed back to the train station to leave our bags. The hostel was located quite far from the station and we didn't want to have to walk all the way back to get our bags just to not pay a couple of Euros. Although, when we arrived at the luggage storage place, it started to seem like not just a bad idea to go store our things at the hostel. There was one guy in a run down back room of the bus station watching everyone's bags. We had no choice but to trust him with our stuff. He grunted at us and gave us a ticket to reclaim our things.
Our first stop were some of the governmental buildings near the city center. The Parliament and Presidential Residence are in close proximity to one another. We took a picture of the President's house not knowing what it was. We were quickly approached by a guard and forced to delete the picture due to security reasons. The funny thing is, we could have taken tons of pictures on the other side. Opposite from the residence is the Belgrade Government Building and the National Parliament.
The city has a lot of history as it has been in existence of some sort since 6000 BC. It was the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Because of this, it suffered many battles and wars that left the city ruined. It later rose to prominence as the capital of Yugoslavia. It agains suffered damage from the NATO bombings during the Yugoslav Wars and the controversy surrounding the Kosovo region down south. Serbia uses the Cyrillic Alphabet like other Slavic countries but they have recently taken to putting everything in the Latin Alphabet as well. This makes navigating the city a bit easier but as we found, there were many streets that didn't have posted signs.
We wandered through the Bohemian Quarter on Skadarlija Street. It was highly recommended by the hostel and the tourist office as a great place to eat. There are many restaurants lining the cobbled streets. Belgrade seemed to have a lot of fun graffiti and street art on the buildings.
After a quick bite to eat at a gyro shop, we returned to the Fortress at the north end of the city. It's named Kalemegdan, which means Fortress Square in Turkish. It sits at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. From it, you can see the area of the city known as New Belgrade. It was an attempt during the communist years to build a new city under the dream of communism. There's not much to look at now and we were told that the people there don't generally come across the river to the old part of town. Most of the city's history revolves around the fortress because it existed within the walls.
The original fortress stones were laid in the 3rd century BC. Like many places in Europe, it has a touch of Roman occupation. It sat, like with other waring neighbors, at the frontier of Europe and wild Central Europe. The Romans fought often with the Huns as they tried to sweep across Europe. A legend tells that the grave of Attila the Hun is under the fortress. As you walk around, you can see different construction styles and areas that look obviously older and more worn down than other parts. It's like looking at a living history of the area.
As it was quite hot, whenever we found some shade in the park around the fortress, we sat for a bit to rest. The park has lots of places for kids to play and fountains that cool the air. There's even a zoo and a theme park within the complex. Our friend's friend we met up with told us one time, a guy drank too much and fell over the edge into the bear pit. He was never seen again. After the fortress, we took care of some errands and wandered through the Student's Square and some of the main pedestrian streets in the city. We tried to go into one church but an old man with a cane grunted at us and motioned we should move along.
Steve Urkel's car, Serbian style.
Our last stop on our tour of Belgrade was at the Cathedral of Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church. His remains were burned on the Cathedral's spot in the mid-16th century by the Turks. The building itself is beautiful on the outside. It's painted bright white with green domes and gold trim work. Everyone told us it was considered to be the symbol of Belgrade and that its even better at night. The idea for the church came to life at the end of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the various Balkan and World Wars delayed the church's construction. It was used by German and Russian forces as a parking lot and storage facility. The construction started again in 1985 and the large dome was put atop the structure in 1989. Here are some day and night shots of the building.
We had a cheap dinner and headed back to the bus station to make sure our things were there. We caught an overnight bus to Dubrovnik. With all of the raucous people getting on the bus, it promised to be a long, arduous, and uncomfortable journey.
Another stop we had to make was by the Yugoslav Defense Ministry. These buildings were destroyed during the NATO bombings in 1995. They have been left in their current state as a reminder of the bad times I guess. It's quite surreal to just walk up on them and see these buildings with mangled concrete slabs, blown out windows, and rubble everywhere.
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