Belgrade Serbia Day 1

Belgrade Serbia Day 1

We came today from northern Croatia to Belgrade which is the capital city of the state of Serbia. It was also the capital of the former Yugoslavia. It is a large city with many modern buildings and a population of 2 million people. It is located in the center of the country where the two rivers, the Dunav and Sava meet. It seems that here as in other cities we visited rivers are very important as they were used for trade and war and thus were located in very strategic locations.



This is a view of the meeting of the two rivers that mark the location of Belgrade

People sit everywhere,here they are soaking up the sun on the fortress walls.It seems they enjoy their time.

Belgrade has a long history of being under attack right through to the 20th century. There have been so many attacks that every citizen of Belgrade has seen two attacks on the city in his/her life. The most recent bombing was in 1999 by NATO forces to force the Serbian army to withdraw from the Kosovo war. Our guide told us there are five seasons in Belgrade, spring, summer, fall, winter and war. As we keep hearing about all these conflicts we often say how fortunate we are to have been born in a country where we have not known war as these peoples who have suffered a lot over the years.

It seems only fitting that the war machines are on public display

This time we are staying in a new hostel not far from the most famous street in Belgrade called Kneza Mihajla which is a long pedestrian mall again full of cafes and lots of people. It also has people selling grilled corn, ice cream and any manner of goods. The stores are quite expensive and we wonder who shops there as the average monthly salary is 350 Euros a month, not much.

The main strert always crowded and a great place to people watch

Our guide also gave us some insight into the thinking of the people here, she says that after living under Communism and then civil war many people feel that the best attitude is to live for the day because what will the next day bring? For example, when the Milosevic government came to power they took over the banks and the ordinary people’s money disappeared with that takeover, then high inflation and now the country is broke, though it is hard to tell in this city with many fancy cars and fancy people!

A typical street scene, lots of trams and buses moving people everywhere

Boijana, our guide.The building with the ? was the restaurant where we ate lunch

We toured the Old City with our guide who was quite the character, she is pushing 70, acts like a 30 year old and has very definite ideas. We visited the still standing Fortress that dominates the hill and is surrounded by a public park. There were many people strolling with their families, having supper or just people watching which is definitely a national pastime.




Here is our delicious lunch



And who can forget lunch…we ate at the oldest restaurant in the city in an outside courtyard as it was warm here today. The recommended local dish was a grilled pork stew served in a bread bowl with lots of flavour since they use fatty bacon and pork crackling! Washed down with the local beer, Julen it was a great introduction to Serbian cuisine. The Serbs also liked their cakes so instead of supper we stopped for dessert on the Trg Republike.

The Hamburg Torte