25 Jun 2014 Dubrovnik
At our pension there are lemon and orange trees. Apparently in this part of the Mediterranean/ Adriatic, it never freezes, so you can grow citrus. Inland, on top of the nearby mountains, is another story. There was a Winter Olympics at Sarajevo in 1984, and it was plenty cold and snowy on the mountains surrounding Sarajevo.
No breakfast at the pension, but there is a great pastry shop on the main street, Pope John Paul II Str. We walk down to the bus station and get our bus tickets to Sarajevo for tomorrow morning at 8 am. There is a small plaza by the alleyway near our pension. It contains several businesses, including a coffee shop populated by locals. It has started to drizzle, and coffee seems to be a great idea. By the time our coffee is finished, the rain has let up. As Edna suggested, there is a small early morning farmers market. Items are expensive by our Romanian/ Serbian standards, but the fresh figs (4 kuna for a reasonably large ripe green fig), are tasty. 1 to go. There also is an adjacent indoor fish market with some of today's haul still for sale.
Off we go on the city bus (we are using the day card today) to the old city. The rain starts up again. We walk up one of the cross sidewalks to the east. Dubrovnik is rather set into a small cliff; to the east of the main street everything is UPHILL. We ascend on the next north south street, which is apx 50 feet higher than the tourist main street and is next to the city walls. This is a more residential area, with hanging wash and resident cats. We walk along, looking down each cross sidewalk and out to the rest of the city.
Eventually, we get to the east gate of the walled city. Just before we walk out toward a bus stop, a little stall offers a taste of local specialty, candied orange peel. Delicious, but at 39 kuna for a plastic bag holding just an ounce or two, not for us.
Our immediate goal is to use this rainy interlude to see the city beyond the gates by bus. Four buses later, we have seen some of the coast just to the south, the large bridge just to the north of the town, and some of the non-tourist parts of Dubrovnik across the bridge to the north. We are now back at the old city.
At 2 pm we are back at the old city, and the sky seems to be clearing a little. It is time to splurge and walk the city wall that encircles Dubrovnik. This tourist attraction now costs 100 kuna, or about $19, each. Given the crowds, the ups and downs of the wall, and the normal stops for photo ops, you can expect to take 2 hours to do the whole walk.
And so we are off. The standard direction starts from the north gate, walking counter-clockwise. The first thing you walk toward is the west wall, overlooking the Adriatic. Then south, overlooking the small boats all tied up in the harbor. Then east, overlooking the city, then north and descend off the wall.
On the east wall we caught up with an English-language tour. The tour guide was explaining how the siege of Dubrovnik, where the Serbs and Montenegrins shelled the city from the hills to the east that tower over the city, was the greatest atrocity of the breakup of Yugoslavia. He said: look out at the old city. Old roofs are brownish yellow, the color of tiles that are hundreds of years old. New roofs, replaced since 1992, are orange brown. Sure enough, almost every roof is new, with a few old roofs here and there. The maps confirm that the areas not hit are mostly clustered along the west wall, overlooking the Adriatic, and the east and center of the town were badly hit. Fish in a barrel.
Stephen Colbert has defined the word "truthiness" as being 'the truth as one believes it to be.' One would then state: "The truthiness of the matter is . . ." and then one could state anything one wanted, without regard for the truth of the matter. Later in Mostar (in Bosnia), Mike picked up a summary of the breakup of Yugoslavia. It stated that 10 % of the walls in Dubrovnik were destroyed in the siege and shelling. I suppose it can be simultaneously true that 75% of the roofs (tile) and 10% of the walls (stone) could be destroyed, but it is hard to imagine such an outcome. Asserting that the siege of Dubrovnik was "the greatest atrocity of the breakup of Yugoslavia" is a bit of Croatian truthiness.
We saw and heard a whole lot of unresolved differences of fact as we traveled through Bosnia and the Dubrovnik section of Croatia.
As we progressed a little farther on the east wall, we stopped and talked for a while with a charming Korean couple who were also walking the wall. We had seen very few Asian tourists throughout Romania, but here in Dubrovnik there were lots of Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, and others from all over southeast Asia.
We wandered around some of the streets we had not seen before, and then back to the pension. We passed lot of fair-skinned tourists who had managed to get first-class sunburns. Others were clearly determined to get some beach time - rain be damned.
Dinner at Gabrielle again - this time spaghetti and another pasta dish.
After dinner, we go into the tourist hotel peninsula just to look around. Finally, it is dark and time to go to bed.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
24 Jun 2014 Beograd to Dubrovnik
24 Jun 2014 Beograd to Dubrovnik
We were packed and down for breakfast by a little after 7 am. Another fantastic breakfast.
Checkout time was 11 am. The plan was to gallivant around after breakfast, returning to checkout at 11 am. Then, walk or take a bus one stop to the bus plaza to catch a 11:26 am 72 bus to the airport. Arrive apx 12:15 am in time for our 13:35 flight to Dubrovnik.
So, out after breakfast to walk to the Jewish Cemetery. Instead of walking north to the town center, or northeast to some of the neighborhoods nearby, we walked southeast 5 or 6 blocks, then northeast. This took us through some different close-in neighborhoods. They turned out to be a little newer than what we had seen, including some very nice art deco 5- and 6-story apartment buildings. Then to the northeast, eventually coming out at Sveti Sava, "the world's biggest Orthodox church, a fact made entirely obvious when looking at the city skyline from a distance or standing under its dome. The church is built on the site where the Turks apparently burnt relics of St. Sava. Work on the church interior continues today." (Lonely Planet) This is the church we had seen at the end of Terazija Boulevard a ways away two days ago.
It is now 8:45 am. We could use a coffee, a snack, and a bathroom. We are now walking northwest through neighborhoods. We find our coffee-bathroom place.
A few blocks further on was a nice market, which commanded our attention for about 15 minutes. We walked past a charming breakfast and lunch place which, according to the pictures on the wall, served chicken, pastries, and pork.
Across the street was a jewel of a baklava bakery. Beautiful, but we weren't yet hungry.
Continuing down some small streets, we passed cars parked so tightly to the curb that they are half on the sidewalk (legal, according to painted markings) and are practically touching the property walls.
We came out onto a major intersection. From here the walk is on a sidewalk on a busy boulevard. We spotted an exchange bureau and changed a $10 bill. This gave just a little more than we need to pay the hotel in cash (they would have taken a mix of cash and credit cards), with less than $3 left over.
Another km or so on, there was a big cemetery on the right - Christian. Vendors were selling flowers, bunches of greens to place on the graves, and all sorts of cemetery memorabilia.
Across the street was a beautifully landscaped park with a memorial to the liberation of Beograd from the Nazis in November 1944 (by the Soviets, with the assistance of the Tito partisans [we think]). Yugoslavia and Marshall Tito took their modern form not long thereafter. Anyway, really powerful high Soviet for-the-proletariat sculpture and friezes.
Right next door (i.e., further from town) is the Jewish cemetery. It is in very good shape compared to some of the cemeteries we have seen in Romania. It is also more recent, and reflects that at one time, there appears to be a good bit of wealth in the Jewish community of Beograd. Some cenotaphs would not be out of place in Buenos Aires. The cemetery also contains a Holocaust memorial, reflecting the damage done to the community from 1941 - 1945. We spend about 20 minutes here snapping photos.
It is now just past 10. A 3 tram will take us from right in front back to the train station and our hotel. The tram comes by after 5 or 8 minutes. We use two bus tickets, leaving us with exactly 2 bus tickets.
All is now unfolding according to plan. After paying the hotel bill and reserving some bills and coins for our foreign money collection, we have 240 dinar left. We walk out with our packs (which seem to be getting heavier every day), catch a bus one stop (riding black, as they say), and are at the 72 bus stop. Carol stays with the packs while Mike goes into the market to use up the last bits of money. 150 dinar ($1.75) gets us 8 - 10 oz of raspberries, and the walnut vendor sells us exactly 90 dinar worth of walnuts (about 4 oz). We now have 0 dinars.
Soon we are on the bus for the long ride through the suburbs to the Nikolai Tesla Airport. We realize that we have not ascertained whether we are in terminal 1 or 2, but our worries are lessened when we approach and realize that terminals 1 and 2 are just one building.
We arrive in plenty of time. Farewell to Serbia.
The flight was uneventful, taking a little more than one hour. We land a little after 3 pm, retrieve our luggage, walk out, purchase tickets on the airport bus (60 kuna for Mike's round trip, 35 kuna for Carol's one way) with the credit card (5.4 kuna to the dollar). Once again we have 0 kuna.
The 20 km ride to Dubrovnik is beautiful, on a road hugging the Adriatic coast. Palm trees, lush semi-tropical plants, spectacular views. We can get off either at the old city or the bus terminal, 3 km north. We get off at the bus station, take out some money from the ATM, put on our bags and walk a few blocks to our pension, Rooms Edna. It is located several structures in on a small passageway about 20 m in from the portside main road. We are met by mom (Edna) and daughter, fed some tea, and make ourselves at home in our first-floor room. For 43.2 euros per night (as much as we paid in Beograd), we get a king-size bed in a room just slightly larger than the bed. The TV is doesn't work, and the bathroom is a shared room just next door. Still, we are staying in a good budget location.
We are starting to come to terms with Dubrovnik, which a Swedish couple later told us was expensive even by Swedish standards. Of course, everything is relative, and someone else said that Dubrovnik was cheap when compared to Nice or Monaco. However, it is twice as expensive as Romania or Bosnia.
We have arrived hungry. There is a nice restaurant a few hundred meters toward the old city, Gabrielle. We hop in for a lunch, and are impressed with the local patronage. Then it is off we go, walking toward town. We buy 8 bus cards, at 12 kuna ($2.50) each. They would cost 15 kuna each on the bus. Later we see a stall selling daily cards, at 30 kuna each, and buy two of them for the next day. The result is that we will have 6 bus cards left over for when we come back to Dubrovnik at the end of our respective trips.
The walk to the old city follows a cliff along the Adriatic. The road passes by the old Jewish cemetery, which is tightly locked (we never figure out who has the key). Eventually, we are at the old city. This is tourist central. There is a short bridge into the old walled city. There is a public restroom just outside the walled city, but the price of admission is 5 kuna (95 cents!), easily the most expensive we have seen, and maybe even more expensive than public loos outside Covent Garden in London. Carol finds a private place surrounded by bushes under the bridge, with hundreds of unsuspecting tourists walking above her.
The old walled city is really SMALL. Marble underfoot and all around. The map shows 14 streets (really alley staircases climbing several stories to the ramparts) crossing the Stradun (main level walkway). After about 5 minutes we realize that we have passed all of them, having gone 300 m (1000 ft) from one end of the city to the other. We have also passed shops shops shops and restaurants restaurants restaurants, each with a multilingual tout or two in front. Most historic sites have entrance fees.
The map shows the synagogue, so we count the streets (really 4 ft wide passageways) as we walk back, and walk in a few meters, and there it is. The building originally dates from 1580-1583. It is now a museum. Admission is 35 kn, or $6US. Nowadays, there are not enough Jews in Dubrovnik to have a minyan, and the building is used as a synagogue only when a group comes in from Zagreb or from somewhere else for a special purpose. There is a group with an English-speaking guide, who has traveled with them as they visit Jewish sites in several countries. With their permission, Mike stumbles through a kaddish for his mother, whose yahrzeit is coming up in 2 days. The chance of finding a minyan elsewhere in the following days is too small to pass up the opportunity.
The museum is nothing much special, and the synagogue is rather small (100 people would overwhelm it, it would seem), but it is really old and pretty in a pastel way. Later we learn that there is an ongoing dispute over whether this building, or a synagogue in Sarajevo (which is now also a museum), is older. They were both built about the same time.
We wander around, absorbing the ambience. A highly recommended restaurant inside the old city just doesn't appeal to us, so we go on. Night falls, and we take a bus back toward the pension. We stop at the restaurant where we had lunch, and get a dinner of sardines, mussels, fried zucchini and a beer. The gentleman at the next table got an octopus salad, so we order that also. The total comes to close to $50, but we are in Dubrovnik, and this is cheap compared to the same food inside the old city. This was a feast of truly local seafood prepared in a regional manner.
We are back at the pension early. No TV to watch, so to sleep. Rooms Edna has managed to rent at least one other room, so we will have to share the bathroom, after all.
We were packed and down for breakfast by a little after 7 am. Another fantastic breakfast.
Checkout time was 11 am. The plan was to gallivant around after breakfast, returning to checkout at 11 am. Then, walk or take a bus one stop to the bus plaza to catch a 11:26 am 72 bus to the airport. Arrive apx 12:15 am in time for our 13:35 flight to Dubrovnik.
So, out after breakfast to walk to the Jewish Cemetery. Instead of walking north to the town center, or northeast to some of the neighborhoods nearby, we walked southeast 5 or 6 blocks, then northeast. This took us through some different close-in neighborhoods. They turned out to be a little newer than what we had seen, including some very nice art deco 5- and 6-story apartment buildings. Then to the northeast, eventually coming out at Sveti Sava, "the world's biggest Orthodox church, a fact made entirely obvious when looking at the city skyline from a distance or standing under its dome. The church is built on the site where the Turks apparently burnt relics of St. Sava. Work on the church interior continues today." (Lonely Planet) This is the church we had seen at the end of Terazija Boulevard a ways away two days ago.
It is now 8:45 am. We could use a coffee, a snack, and a bathroom. We are now walking northwest through neighborhoods. We find our coffee-bathroom place.
A few blocks further on was a nice market, which commanded our attention for about 15 minutes. We walked past a charming breakfast and lunch place which, according to the pictures on the wall, served chicken, pastries, and pork.
Across the street was a jewel of a baklava bakery. Beautiful, but we weren't yet hungry.
Continuing down some small streets, we passed cars parked so tightly to the curb that they are half on the sidewalk (legal, according to painted markings) and are practically touching the property walls.
We came out onto a major intersection. From here the walk is on a sidewalk on a busy boulevard. We spotted an exchange bureau and changed a $10 bill. This gave just a little more than we need to pay the hotel in cash (they would have taken a mix of cash and credit cards), with less than $3 left over.
Another km or so on, there was a big cemetery on the right - Christian. Vendors were selling flowers, bunches of greens to place on the graves, and all sorts of cemetery memorabilia.
Across the street was a beautifully landscaped park with a memorial to the liberation of Beograd from the Nazis in November 1944 (by the Soviets, with the assistance of the Tito partisans [we think]). Yugoslavia and Marshall Tito took their modern form not long thereafter. Anyway, really powerful high Soviet for-the-proletariat sculpture and friezes.
Right next door (i.e., further from town) is the Jewish cemetery. It is in very good shape compared to some of the cemeteries we have seen in Romania. It is also more recent, and reflects that at one time, there appears to be a good bit of wealth in the Jewish community of Beograd. Some cenotaphs would not be out of place in Buenos Aires. The cemetery also contains a Holocaust memorial, reflecting the damage done to the community from 1941 - 1945. We spend about 20 minutes here snapping photos.
It is now just past 10. A 3 tram will take us from right in front back to the train station and our hotel. The tram comes by after 5 or 8 minutes. We use two bus tickets, leaving us with exactly 2 bus tickets.
All is now unfolding according to plan. After paying the hotel bill and reserving some bills and coins for our foreign money collection, we have 240 dinar left. We walk out with our packs (which seem to be getting heavier every day), catch a bus one stop (riding black, as they say), and are at the 72 bus stop. Carol stays with the packs while Mike goes into the market to use up the last bits of money. 150 dinar ($1.75) gets us 8 - 10 oz of raspberries, and the walnut vendor sells us exactly 90 dinar worth of walnuts (about 4 oz). We now have 0 dinars.
Soon we are on the bus for the long ride through the suburbs to the Nikolai Tesla Airport. We realize that we have not ascertained whether we are in terminal 1 or 2, but our worries are lessened when we approach and realize that terminals 1 and 2 are just one building.
We arrive in plenty of time. Farewell to Serbia.
The flight was uneventful, taking a little more than one hour. We land a little after 3 pm, retrieve our luggage, walk out, purchase tickets on the airport bus (60 kuna for Mike's round trip, 35 kuna for Carol's one way) with the credit card (5.4 kuna to the dollar). Once again we have 0 kuna.
The 20 km ride to Dubrovnik is beautiful, on a road hugging the Adriatic coast. Palm trees, lush semi-tropical plants, spectacular views. We can get off either at the old city or the bus terminal, 3 km north. We get off at the bus station, take out some money from the ATM, put on our bags and walk a few blocks to our pension, Rooms Edna. It is located several structures in on a small passageway about 20 m in from the portside main road. We are met by mom (Edna) and daughter, fed some tea, and make ourselves at home in our first-floor room. For 43.2 euros per night (as much as we paid in Beograd), we get a king-size bed in a room just slightly larger than the bed. The TV is doesn't work, and the bathroom is a shared room just next door. Still, we are staying in a good budget location.
We are starting to come to terms with Dubrovnik, which a Swedish couple later told us was expensive even by Swedish standards. Of course, everything is relative, and someone else said that Dubrovnik was cheap when compared to Nice or Monaco. However, it is twice as expensive as Romania or Bosnia.
We have arrived hungry. There is a nice restaurant a few hundred meters toward the old city, Gabrielle. We hop in for a lunch, and are impressed with the local patronage. Then it is off we go, walking toward town. We buy 8 bus cards, at 12 kuna ($2.50) each. They would cost 15 kuna each on the bus. Later we see a stall selling daily cards, at 30 kuna each, and buy two of them for the next day. The result is that we will have 6 bus cards left over for when we come back to Dubrovnik at the end of our respective trips.
The walk to the old city follows a cliff along the Adriatic. The road passes by the old Jewish cemetery, which is tightly locked (we never figure out who has the key). Eventually, we are at the old city. This is tourist central. There is a short bridge into the old walled city. There is a public restroom just outside the walled city, but the price of admission is 5 kuna (95 cents!), easily the most expensive we have seen, and maybe even more expensive than public loos outside Covent Garden in London. Carol finds a private place surrounded by bushes under the bridge, with hundreds of unsuspecting tourists walking above her.
The old walled city is really SMALL. Marble underfoot and all around. The map shows 14 streets (really alley staircases climbing several stories to the ramparts) crossing the Stradun (main level walkway). After about 5 minutes we realize that we have passed all of them, having gone 300 m (1000 ft) from one end of the city to the other. We have also passed shops shops shops and restaurants restaurants restaurants, each with a multilingual tout or two in front. Most historic sites have entrance fees.
The map shows the synagogue, so we count the streets (really 4 ft wide passageways) as we walk back, and walk in a few meters, and there it is. The building originally dates from 1580-1583. It is now a museum. Admission is 35 kn, or $6US. Nowadays, there are not enough Jews in Dubrovnik to have a minyan, and the building is used as a synagogue only when a group comes in from Zagreb or from somewhere else for a special purpose. There is a group with an English-speaking guide, who has traveled with them as they visit Jewish sites in several countries. With their permission, Mike stumbles through a kaddish for his mother, whose yahrzeit is coming up in 2 days. The chance of finding a minyan elsewhere in the following days is too small to pass up the opportunity.
The museum is nothing much special, and the synagogue is rather small (100 people would overwhelm it, it would seem), but it is really old and pretty in a pastel way. Later we learn that there is an ongoing dispute over whether this building, or a synagogue in Sarajevo (which is now also a museum), is older. They were both built about the same time.
We wander around, absorbing the ambience. A highly recommended restaurant inside the old city just doesn't appeal to us, so we go on. Night falls, and we take a bus back toward the pension. We stop at the restaurant where we had lunch, and get a dinner of sardines, mussels, fried zucchini and a beer. The gentleman at the next table got an octopus salad, so we order that also. The total comes to close to $50, but we are in Dubrovnik, and this is cheap compared to the same food inside the old city. This was a feast of truly local seafood prepared in a regional manner.
We are back at the pension early. No TV to watch, so to sleep. Rooms Edna has managed to rent at least one other room, so we will have to share the bathroom, after all.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
23 Jun 2014 Beograd & Zemun
23 Jun 2014 Beograd & Zemun
Breakfast was included at our hotel. And what a breakfast it was: hard boiled eggs, fried eggs with bright orange yolks, all sorts of meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, bread and butter, fruit juices, coffee, cooked vegetables, etc.
We asked to stay another night in the same room. Not possible. The front desk staff said that they might be able to find another room, but they wouldn't know until closer to 11 am, checkout time. The computer set aside for guests: still not working.
We had one errand for today before going to the picturesque nearby town of Zemun, and that was washing our clothes - this was going to be pretty much the last wash until we split up on 27 Jun. However, we were going to have to stay close to the hotel until where we were going to stay tonight was settled. So we packed up, and left everything in the room until later, except for a large bag of wash. The laundry was a long block away, sort of hidden in a large commercial/office building. Eventually we found it, agreed on a price (800 dinar or $9.50) and a pickup time (after 5 pm). Then, having nothing much better to do, we walked back to the market. We were determined to figure out when to catch our 72 bus to the airport tomorrow.
Along the way, we saw some political graffiti. A red 1389, struck out and replaced by a red star and a red hammer and sickle. We asked later, and it was explained: "1389" is the symbol for the Serbian Nationalists. From the internet:
Breakfast was included at our hotel. And what a breakfast it was: hard boiled eggs, fried eggs with bright orange yolks, all sorts of meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, bread and butter, fruit juices, coffee, cooked vegetables, etc.
We asked to stay another night in the same room. Not possible. The front desk staff said that they might be able to find another room, but they wouldn't know until closer to 11 am, checkout time. The computer set aside for guests: still not working.
We had one errand for today before going to the picturesque nearby town of Zemun, and that was washing our clothes - this was going to be pretty much the last wash until we split up on 27 Jun. However, we were going to have to stay close to the hotel until where we were going to stay tonight was settled. So we packed up, and left everything in the room until later, except for a large bag of wash. The laundry was a long block away, sort of hidden in a large commercial/office building. Eventually we found it, agreed on a price (800 dinar or $9.50) and a pickup time (after 5 pm). Then, having nothing much better to do, we walked back to the market. We were determined to figure out when to catch our 72 bus to the airport tomorrow.
Along the way, we saw some political graffiti. A red 1389, struck out and replaced by a red star and a red hammer and sickle. We asked later, and it was explained: "1389" is the symbol for the Serbian Nationalists. From the internet:
"The Serbian National Movement 1389, one of a plethora of far-right groups in the country, has joined the race for parliamentary seats in the forthcoming elections to say 'No' to the EU.
"Misa Vacic, of the far-right 1389 movement in Serbia, said that the group will take part in early parliamentary elections in Serbia due on March 16. "Our aim is to bring patriotic values to the people," Vacic said.
"According to him, these patriotic values include saying "No" to the EU and NATO membership, gay rights and corruption and "Yes" to the re-introduction of compulsory military service."
On the other hand, the symbol of a red star above a red hammer and sickle represents NKJP:
"The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbian: Нова комунистичка партија Југославије, Nova Komunistička Partija Jugoslavije) (NKPJ) is a Marxist-Leninist party in Serbia registered as a citizens group."
NOTE: We don't think either party did very well. But this symbolism is all over the country.
When we get back to the hotel, they tell us that they have found us another room, even bigger than the first. After all, we are booking.com customers and they want to keep us happy. Fine with us. We move our stuff into a HUMONGOUS triple, and then are off to be tourists.
Beograd sits at the SE intersection of the Sava and the Danube Rivers. It was at one time the northernmost outpost of the Ottoman Empire. Across the Sava River to the west was the city of Zemun. It was at one time the southernmost outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Sava was the boundary.
That was then. Now you just take the 83 bus from just outside our hotel. Which we did.
But we didn't get off in time. So we end up at the end of the line. The driver allowed us to ride back to the old town without payment of another fare. Two cigarettes (by the driver) later, we were off, and back into the old town. It is a small place, this old town. But it has cobblestones, some very old churches, and a famous millennium tower.
Now they are a simple walk in from the main road, and up a small steep hill. A pretty cemetery at the top. You see the 9th c. Gardos fortress, and the millennium tower, built in 1896. The views of the Danube and of both old cities are great.
Down a long series of steps bordered by grapevines and flowers, and out to the walk along the river. Restaurants and coffee houses everywhere. We stopped at Stari Carinarnica (address Key Oslobodenja 31), a restaurant we had written down during our "In Your Pocket" research in Timisoara. Lunch was a lentil soup, a fish soup, and a fish goulash (a bowl of noodles/a bowl of goulash - mix and eat). The waiter, following tradition, gave us bibs. Delicious and well worth seeking out. We ate in an outdoor portico. Behind was the original 400 year old inn which had been, and was continuing to be, renovated.
After lunch, as you turn the corner, there is a small market. Fruits and vegetables, of course. And then books. One seller had Harry Potter books in Serbian, so we purchased the 4th book for our son-in-law, who collects Harry Potter in all sorts of languages. (We had picked up Harry Potter 4 in Romanian at the Brasov train station.) It was 300 dinar used ($3.50). Later we would see a new Serbian Harry Potter for close to $30.
An 84 bus took us to the bus terminal. We went across the street and up a walkway into the main square. We started asking for internet, and we were pointed to a department store building, with internet on the 3rd (top) floor in a classy bookstore We put in a little over an hour.
It was now 3 pm. Time for some ice cream, and then for a walk through the Citadel (how could you visit Beograd without walking through the citadel?). Up the main tourist walkway to a fancy ice cream shop next to the restaurant we ate at the day before. The scoops were expensive, but it was worth it.
The citadel was not up a hill, unlike most citadels. The whole city is on the river bluff over the Danube and Sava Rivers. At one time the citadel had complete walls and gates and moats. Now the walls are there, but no gates. It is more like a large city park, with walkways among the walls. As we leave to the south, we actually go through a gate, and soon we are back into the city itself. We take a different walk back to the hotel via the laundry. Our large bag of wash is ready, dry and folded.
For dinner we walk out to Sapska Kafana, a well-regarded traditional restaurant. We walk through a park, past a consulate or two, through some nice typical neighborhoods. Feels very NYC to Carol.
The restaurant is open, but we are late (after 8:30 pm) and their choices of food are limited. The waiter is not very helpful and we order without knowing what we are getting. We are served a VERY strange combination: urnbes (cheese coated with spices), three haiduk sausages and fries, along with a beer. Too bad we weren't here at an optimum time.
Out a couple blocks to a tram, and back to the hotel.
On the other hand, the symbol of a red star above a red hammer and sickle represents NKJP:
"The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbian: Нова комунистичка партија Југославије, Nova Komunistička Partija Jugoslavije) (NKPJ) is a Marxist-Leninist party in Serbia registered as a citizens group."
NOTE: We don't think either party did very well. But this symbolism is all over the country.
When we get back to the hotel, they tell us that they have found us another room, even bigger than the first. After all, we are booking.com customers and they want to keep us happy. Fine with us. We move our stuff into a HUMONGOUS triple, and then are off to be tourists.
Beograd sits at the SE intersection of the Sava and the Danube Rivers. It was at one time the northernmost outpost of the Ottoman Empire. Across the Sava River to the west was the city of Zemun. It was at one time the southernmost outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Sava was the boundary.
That was then. Now you just take the 83 bus from just outside our hotel. Which we did.
But we didn't get off in time. So we end up at the end of the line. The driver allowed us to ride back to the old town without payment of another fare. Two cigarettes (by the driver) later, we were off, and back into the old town. It is a small place, this old town. But it has cobblestones, some very old churches, and a famous millennium tower.
Now they are a simple walk in from the main road, and up a small steep hill. A pretty cemetery at the top. You see the 9th c. Gardos fortress, and the millennium tower, built in 1896. The views of the Danube and of both old cities are great.
Down a long series of steps bordered by grapevines and flowers, and out to the walk along the river. Restaurants and coffee houses everywhere. We stopped at Stari Carinarnica (address Key Oslobodenja 31), a restaurant we had written down during our "In Your Pocket" research in Timisoara. Lunch was a lentil soup, a fish soup, and a fish goulash (a bowl of noodles/a bowl of goulash - mix and eat). The waiter, following tradition, gave us bibs. Delicious and well worth seeking out. We ate in an outdoor portico. Behind was the original 400 year old inn which had been, and was continuing to be, renovated.
After lunch, as you turn the corner, there is a small market. Fruits and vegetables, of course. And then books. One seller had Harry Potter books in Serbian, so we purchased the 4th book for our son-in-law, who collects Harry Potter in all sorts of languages. (We had picked up Harry Potter 4 in Romanian at the Brasov train station.) It was 300 dinar used ($3.50). Later we would see a new Serbian Harry Potter for close to $30.
An 84 bus took us to the bus terminal. We went across the street and up a walkway into the main square. We started asking for internet, and we were pointed to a department store building, with internet on the 3rd (top) floor in a classy bookstore We put in a little over an hour.
It was now 3 pm. Time for some ice cream, and then for a walk through the Citadel (how could you visit Beograd without walking through the citadel?). Up the main tourist walkway to a fancy ice cream shop next to the restaurant we ate at the day before. The scoops were expensive, but it was worth it.
The citadel was not up a hill, unlike most citadels. The whole city is on the river bluff over the Danube and Sava Rivers. At one time the citadel had complete walls and gates and moats. Now the walls are there, but no gates. It is more like a large city park, with walkways among the walls. As we leave to the south, we actually go through a gate, and soon we are back into the city itself. We take a different walk back to the hotel via the laundry. Our large bag of wash is ready, dry and folded.
For dinner we walk out to Sapska Kafana, a well-regarded traditional restaurant. We walk through a park, past a consulate or two, through some nice typical neighborhoods. Feels very NYC to Carol.
The restaurant is open, but we are late (after 8:30 pm) and their choices of food are limited. The waiter is not very helpful and we order without knowing what we are getting. We are served a VERY strange combination: urnbes (cheese coated with spices), three haiduk sausages and fries, along with a beer. Too bad we weren't here at an optimum time.
Out a couple blocks to a tram, and back to the hotel.
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