Eleven Days in Belgrade - Country No. 41

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We landed at 7:30 PM local time, and got through immigration and customs, baggage claim, currency exchange and new SIM card for our phones...all within 30 minutes.  That'\s record.  |Our taxi driver took us right to the door of our apartment building where our  hosts was waiting for us.  Lots of snow and temps below freezing, she quickly checked us in, showed us around, and we settled in our usual manner....unpacked, having a snack, and watching our favorite TV shows within a half hour. 

Our apartment is on the fourth floor of a small residential building nestled between a few other larger apartment buildings.  Ours is built within the Mansard roof so we have dormers that let in a lot of light.  The apartment was renovated recently with new doors and windows, resurfaced floors, a nice new and fully equipped kitchen, large bath with soaking tub, and stellar Wi-Fi and a big screen TV.  We are getting really spoiled being back in Europe.

We slept in a bit, dug into our travel supply of cereals for breakfast, and then took a late morning walk to the market.  It is always a great adventure, shopping for the first time, with a new language and new currency conversion rates.  In the end we purchased about a week's supply of the basics, a few cuts of meat, and some veggies to get us through the next few days.  In total we send a whopping $60 USD for this haul...smile.

For the new few days we researched our options.  Being in the center of the historic district, everything was a short walk, so we visited Republic Square and the surrounding neighborhood and make plans for our extended stay.  The next day we decided to participate in another "free" walking tour.  Our guide, Christina, was great.  She walked us well over 5 miles visiting the exteriors of several landmarks.  Her commentary was full of facts and stories about Serbia history and she gave us some nice insight into the Serbian culture.

Republic Square

  The famous Moscow Hotel

   The office of the Prime Minister and President

 Parliament

St. Mark's Church...wonderful stonework.

 Nicola Teala Museum

 The first McDonald's opening in the Balkans.  Our guide said that thousands stood in lone for hours to have a "terrible" hamburger...smile.

 National Catherdral.  Once again, when done, will be the largest in the Balkans.  LOL.

 Dino Park at the Fortress

 Belgrade Fortress

A few days later we both woke up with sore throats and a slight fever.  For the next 48 hours we stayed home, spent most of that time in bed, and on the third morning started feeling a bit better.  We blamed the Istanbul Airport as the source of our discomfort...who knows.  There were A LOT OF PEOPLE sneezing there...smile.

Once back on our feet we visited the National Museum and Gallery.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a really beautifully designed and modern museum, all signs in Serbian and English.  The museum was closed for 15 years and just recently opened again with a fresh look.  The collections were great...not too much, not too little...and there were some classical painting there really caught our eye...including a few Van Gogh, Cassatt, and Ruben.

At about 85% we decided to take on a big day hike around the city once again with the Tesla Museum and Great Green Market as our destinations.  The museum was small, busy, and the displays had little explanation.  There were many of Tesla's inventions on display but without some history or detail it was hard to appreciate what we were seeing.  While there was a resident guide, it was hard to understand him as he spoke very fast and had a unique accent.  We walked to the Kalenic Farmer's Market and finally scored a portable cutting board we had been seeking, enjoyed the huge weekend flea market, and eventually found out way back to the apartment.  Even though the walk was only about four miles, we were pretty tired by the end.

On Saturday we booked a small group tour to the city of Novi Sad.  It was so be a small group tour of 15 on a mini-bus and the price was right.  The company had great reviews and we were looking forward to getting out of the big city and seeing some of the surrounding area.  Our driver and guide met us on time in his personal car...the larger group was a no-show and they downsized.  We picked up to young women from China who were very quiet, took lots of photos, and probably only understood a small portion of his dialog.  Milos was great, a really pleasant and well-traveled fellow, and his BMW sedan was comfortable.  He was quite chatty, asked us a lot of questions, and shared quite a bit of Serbian history.  Our first stop was an important monastery from the 15th century.  The frescoes were original and not restored and were the highlight of our visit.  There was a baptism going on and it was fun to watch a local family revel in the new life.  

Our next stop was in Sremski Karlovci,, a little village and heart of the wine producing area.  We visited a local family winery with the owner guided us through a seven bottle tasting.  She was pleasant, informative, and welcoming.  We sat in the wine cellar below her family home and tasted a few wines from old vines with genetic history going back to the late 1600s.  I actually tasted a few wines this time around, the first time I have had any alcohol in about three years.  Afterward we stopped in the village center for a short walk around some of the historic buildings. 

From there we continued on to the city of Novi Sad, second largest in Serbia at about 650,000.  We drove to the top of the rise and the fortress above the city for some great views.  The Danube River flowed below the fortress.  Then it was down into the city for some free time.  We invited Milos to join us for lunch, he took us to his favorite local Servian restaurant, a bit off of the tourist path, and quite lovely.  The service was great, the food tasty, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun.  We enjoyed a rather lively political conversation, shared some interesting comments on American culture, and it was a great way to spend a couple of hours.

The drive back into town was quite, talking about family and some of his travels, we got to know him a bit better.  We got back late in the day and he dropped us at our apartment.  |It was a lovely day with great memories.

We spend out last full day in Belgrade getting ready for the next day's transfer to Sarajevo, Bosnia.  We needed to find a print shop for our bus tickets, arranged our morning taxi ride, and did laundry.  In the afternoon we took a short walk around the neighborhood one more time...being a Sunday, most everything was closed and it was overcast and threatening to rain, so we did not stay out too long.  We finished off the last precious rib-eye steak we had found...the second of two and really quite good.  We have by now discovered a lot of BBC detective TV shows on Netflix and our evening was a pleasant mix of our favorites and a few new additions...one from Sweden and another from Finland...both in English.  The world is getting smaller everyday.