Beautiful Belgrade

  Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Wednesday, November 8, 2006

I lucked out again and ended up with a private cabin on the train. This one even had a sink! For some reason I had thought that the train would arrive at 5 am, so I was up at 4:40 get my stuff ready to go. We didn't end up pulling in until almost 8 am. I just got more sleep.

When I found my hostel, Belgrade Eye, they told me the price had gone up and I would just have to pay the difference. I argued a bit but wasn't getting anywhere. I had already figured out from people in Sofia that this is not the place I should have stayed at. As they didn't have any change I gave them my original amount and planned on "forgetting" to pay the rest. I was already irritated as I stood out side for almost 30 minutes waiting for them to let me in.

Belgrade has something like 30 museums. They are all very hard to find even though the city is easy to navigate. Please explain. They use Cyrillic, my map uses Latin letters, and Lonely Planet uses their own interpretation of words. Have I mentioned that I don't like Lonely Planet?

The easiest thing to find is the Kalemegdan Citadel. This is a hill over looking the intersection of the Danube and the Vasa rivers. It has been fortified since the Celts were here. There is a ton of stuff to check out; you just don't know what any of it is. There is an old castle complex from the 15th century that is just amazing. Around the corner from that there are two small chapels. The first one, Holy Mother of God, was built in XVIII. (Can anyone tell me what number that is?) At one point it was used as a gun powder storage shed. Today it is a military church. I popped in and could just see some amazing mosaics, however there was a service going on and I didn't want to intrude.

Kalemegdan Citadel

Right next door is the St. Petka Chapel. This was jammed packed with people waiting in line to kiss the pictures of saints. They were also buying what I guess was bottled Holy Water. I wanted to take pictures of it all, but somehow thought it would be wrong.

I eventually ended up on the main shopping street. It was amazing. Belgrade is stunningly beautiful. I have only seen two buildings that were bombed. Some do look a bit run down, but they are clean. People use trash cans here and there are no stray dogs running around. However, there are more beggars and gypsies and they are more aggressive than the ones I saw in Romania and Bulgaria.

While I was wandering down this main street I ran into Kevin, a guy from my hostel in Sofia. I hadn't spoken to him there but I recognized him. He was with an Aussie couple, Erin and Tim. The four of us headed to the Military History Museum. This museum deals with military history beginning with the earliest people in the area. Almost all of it is in Serbian. We mostly just compared weaponry and uniforms. The point of this museum is that it holds a downed stealth bomber from the conflicts a few years ago. I think that we all envisioned a room with a huge, but damaged, plane in it.

Instead we found a room full of uniforms, guns, and other memorabilia that was taken from captured US soldiers. The part of the plane on display was no bigger than an every day pillow. It was shocking to see blood on the uniforms and to know how recent it all was. I couldn't help but think about those poor soldiers and wonder what happened to them. Then again, I don't think I want to know. They were very careful to label things as a NATO gun or a NATO uniform. However, it was all American. The whole thing was a bit shocking and really makes you want to look at yourself and understand what was going on better. In one way I felt I should be defending the bombing, but on the other I don't know enough to do that.

After we left the group of us was trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. I found out quite quickly that California Kevin was a real pain in the ass. Luckily he left and I was left with the Aussies.

The three of us went to lunch and then took a long walk to Sveti Sava, the largest Orthodox church in the world. Construction began in 1935, but has been halted by Hitler, Communism, and lack of funds. Today the outside is finished, but not the interior. However, you can go inside for a look. It was big, and I'm sure that it will be beautiful.

By that point it was dark and time to head back to the hostel. I didn't really accomplish much today. However, I think that it is just important to be in a place, and not always see all of a place.