Belgrade, Serbia

8/12/09
Belgrade, Serbia

I love Belgrade! It's such an energetic city - it's also much more beautiful than I had expected. Every couple blocks we stumbled upon a park, and the streets were very wide and tree-lined. The concept of recycling and trash pickup has not seemed to have caught on, though.

After getting some much-needed sleep until 11:30 Laura, Lauren and I stopped for lunch at a tasty sandwich shop right in the middle of town. We then wandered around, taking in the juxtaposition of a gorgeous, resilent city set amongst reminders of the NATO bombings. We saw several buildings in partial rubble, with no apparent effort to clean them up. At times there was a distinct feeling that the country has left them there as a reminder.

We also saw a protest on the street, but we couldn't figure out what they were protesting. They were waving flags with cherries on them that said "vilimet." Anyone know?

In addition we explored the breathtaking Sveti Marko (St. Mark's Serbian Orthodox church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mark) containing the grave of Emperor Dusan from the 14th century. Behind this massive structure is a tiny, cute Russian Orthodox church built by refugees after the October revolution.

Later on we found the Kalemegdan Citadel, which is a fortress from the 18th century. Now it's used as a park for Serbians, and it has a spectular view of the city and the junction of the Sava and Danube Rivers. We saw a basketball court in the middle of the fortress with boys at basketball camp...such a surreal setting. There are also remnants of the Kosovo war, including proudly displayed Kosovo Liberation Army weapons and parts of an American fighter jet shot down in 1999. It was a strange feeling to be an American looking at these artifacts...I would bet that just about all the people around me in the park had a different opinion of that conflict.