We changed our plans slightly for Belgrade - we intended to get a late transfer the next day to Sarajevo but instead Dan organised for a private transfer the next morning. This meant we had to condense our plans into just today - but that was absolutely fine. There wasn't all that much left to do, to be honest!
The first thing we wanted to do today was the 20th Century walking tour of Belgrade. We had hoped to learn about what had happened since it became Yugoslavia, and what was happening now. Unfortunately the tour only glossed over all of this. I feel like I need to make a hindsight note here: since being to Bosnia my perceptions of Serbia have *drastically* changed. I'll try to keep this as prejudice free as possible but I struggle to have too much sympathy for the Serbians and Bosnia since learning what I've learnt elsewhere!
Either way, our tour barely even touched on these things. Funnily enough, we had the same tour guide as the day before - she was lovely, and she was knowledgable, but I was disappointed not to learn what I had wanted to hear more about. Especially after coming from Tirana and Skopje where our guides had been so open and funny, she shot down any questions that were Kosovo or Bosnia or Communism related. The tour at least took us to some of the major sites, so that was a bonus.
She kept repeating that Belgrade is “Love at second sight” - as in, it’s not the most beautiful city to look at as much of it was destroyed in the various wars. Another quote I have from my notes is that “Serbia was dragged into the Bosnian assassination problem” of World War I - wow. Just. Wow. After everything I have now learnt, and researched myself, this statement just blows my mind.
She did briefly explain why the Kosovo area is important to the people of Serbia - that it holds some very important historical locations, however (again, from what I have learnt myself), ethnically cleansing the people of the region is probably not the best way to get it back! I must say I found it a bit rich (in hindsight) the monuments such as “We were just children” when there has been so very much horror coming out of Serbia.
Anyway, I should stop here - I have more notes from the walking tour but they actually now just make me a bit mad to read them.
After the walking tour, Dan and I made our way to a burek place (called Non Stop Burek, so there was no doubt what they sold) and got ourselves one to share and some dessert - in total coming to about €1.50. Cheap and easy lunch! We returned to the hostel briefly and then the plan was to make our way to the Fort for some more photos. We took the round about way - first via a Second Hand Store (because I couldn’t help myself) - I bought a top for €1, and then through the main shopping district.
Here I bought a dress for €14 - hand made in Serbia and I thought it was very pretty - it would be good for swishing around Italy! We also bought some ice-cream (much more expensive than the previous few cities) before finally making it to the fort. We spent some time looking at the rows and rows of tanks and shell cannons, which again in hindsight seems pretty damn disrespectful.
We managed to secure the lovers seat overlooking the nude Victor. The day before on the walking tour, our guide explained why he was situated there - he’s a little bit on the nude side, and he was supposed to sit in the main square but he would have offended the conservative lady’s sensibilities, so they put him up high and mostly out of eye-shot so no one could see his offending pinky.
After spending a little bit of time up here, we walked down and through the fort and straight through a film crew set which was waiting for people to get out of the way. We watched as they did a single take, before packing up, and moving about 5 metres further ahead.
Now it was time to finally visiting the floating lounges - the splavs. We walked up and down - most weren’t open, or tonight was going to be their opening night. I had contacted one called ShakenShake which was supposed to be great and reserved ourselves a table - for midnight. I asked if there was anything earlier but because it was opening night, that was it! We walked past them and could see they were setting up, and others were busy hastily painting the handrails.
In the end we chose one of the few that was open called TAG. It had a cool outdoor area where you could sit in netting over the water, but it was really windy and wasn’t great weather for that. The cocktails we ordered were pretty ordinary, the food was quite tasty (but treated me badly) so we only stayed for one drink and kept going. I was a bit disappointed but hey, we tried them! There was one along the way called “HOT MESS” which wasn’t open yet for the summer - and the water around it was absolutely insanely filled with trash. It certainly was a mess, alright. It’s hard to imagine what it would look like pumping in the summer.
From here we walked back to the accommodation, it was quite a walk but our feet had been rested from the floating lounge. We grabbed some snacks and supplies for our transfer the next morning (which was, of course, an early start), and hit the hay.
Til next time,
xx
The first thing we wanted to do today was the 20th Century walking tour of Belgrade. We had hoped to learn about what had happened since it became Yugoslavia, and what was happening now. Unfortunately the tour only glossed over all of this. I feel like I need to make a hindsight note here: since being to Bosnia my perceptions of Serbia have *drastically* changed. I'll try to keep this as prejudice free as possible but I struggle to have too much sympathy for the Serbians and Bosnia since learning what I've learnt elsewhere!
Either way, our tour barely even touched on these things. Funnily enough, we had the same tour guide as the day before - she was lovely, and she was knowledgable, but I was disappointed not to learn what I had wanted to hear more about. Especially after coming from Tirana and Skopje where our guides had been so open and funny, she shot down any questions that were Kosovo or Bosnia or Communism related. The tour at least took us to some of the major sites, so that was a bonus.
 |
| The radio station bombed in 1999, left as a reminder. |
She kept repeating that Belgrade is “Love at second sight” - as in, it’s not the most beautiful city to look at as much of it was destroyed in the various wars. Another quote I have from my notes is that “Serbia was dragged into the Bosnian assassination problem” of World War I - wow. Just. Wow. After everything I have now learnt, and researched myself, this statement just blows my mind.
She did briefly explain why the Kosovo area is important to the people of Serbia - that it holds some very important historical locations, however (again, from what I have learnt myself), ethnically cleansing the people of the region is probably not the best way to get it back! I must say I found it a bit rich (in hindsight) the monuments such as “We were just children” when there has been so very much horror coming out of Serbia.
Anyway, I should stop here - I have more notes from the walking tour but they actually now just make me a bit mad to read them.
After the walking tour, Dan and I made our way to a burek place (called Non Stop Burek, so there was no doubt what they sold) and got ourselves one to share and some dessert - in total coming to about €1.50. Cheap and easy lunch! We returned to the hostel briefly and then the plan was to make our way to the Fort for some more photos. We took the round about way - first via a Second Hand Store (because I couldn’t help myself) - I bought a top for €1, and then through the main shopping district.
Here I bought a dress for €14 - hand made in Serbia and I thought it was very pretty - it would be good for swishing around Italy! We also bought some ice-cream (much more expensive than the previous few cities) before finally making it to the fort. We spent some time looking at the rows and rows of tanks and shell cannons, which again in hindsight seems pretty damn disrespectful.
We managed to secure the lovers seat overlooking the nude Victor. The day before on the walking tour, our guide explained why he was situated there - he’s a little bit on the nude side, and he was supposed to sit in the main square but he would have offended the conservative lady’s sensibilities, so they put him up high and mostly out of eye-shot so no one could see his offending pinky.
After spending a little bit of time up here, we walked down and through the fort and straight through a film crew set which was waiting for people to get out of the way. We watched as they did a single take, before packing up, and moving about 5 metres further ahead.
Now it was time to finally visiting the floating lounges - the splavs. We walked up and down - most weren’t open, or tonight was going to be their opening night. I had contacted one called ShakenShake which was supposed to be great and reserved ourselves a table - for midnight. I asked if there was anything earlier but because it was opening night, that was it! We walked past them and could see they were setting up, and others were busy hastily painting the handrails.
In the end we chose one of the few that was open called TAG. It had a cool outdoor area where you could sit in netting over the water, but it was really windy and wasn’t great weather for that. The cocktails we ordered were pretty ordinary, the food was quite tasty (but treated me badly) so we only stayed for one drink and kept going. I was a bit disappointed but hey, we tried them! There was one along the way called “HOT MESS” which wasn’t open yet for the summer - and the water around it was absolutely insanely filled with trash. It certainly was a mess, alright. It’s hard to imagine what it would look like pumping in the summer.
From here we walked back to the accommodation, it was quite a walk but our feet had been rested from the floating lounge. We grabbed some snacks and supplies for our transfer the next morning (which was, of course, an early start), and hit the hay.
Til next time,
xx
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| The horses are riding the men. Also, protest flags. |
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