Bombed Out Buildings & The Ambassador - Belgrade, Serbia

I arrived in Belgrade last night, and pulled up to the mansion where my uncle lives as Ambassador of Canada to Serbia and Montenegro. Talked to some very friendly people including his chauffeur Dragaan, and a few of the guards at the front and butlers and chefs.

This morning I woke up bright and early (yes, believe it Dylan), and got to see the embassy, where my uncle works. After that I walked around town from 9-2, visited a number of sites, including the old roman/turkish and serb fortress, called Kalemegdan Fortress and the park that surrounds it. Despite being foggy and dreary, it really is a beautiful and serene place. And the weather here is about -5 right now, a good 25 degrees warmer than Regina, mwhahahahha. After Kalemegdan, I walked over to the Belgrade Cathedral and went inside, very beautiful (see pics). I bought a few things, some postcards, a Red Star shirt (one of the 2 futbol teams here, and man are people religious about it).

I went to have something to eat at a local burger place, but the guy couldn't speak english, so a man in line helped me, and was pretty friendly. So

 

 

I sat a table with him, and had lunch. Again people seem to be really nice. The other eye-popping site is the bombed buildings, and the precision of our bombs. We are talking about bombed right down the centre of the buildings, with every single building around it still in tact (this includes many embassies which if hit could have caused major problems).

I got home just after 2pm, updated the blog with some pics and stories. Around 6pm, I went out and met my friend Ogi at a cafe, the place was cool, made of all brick and the ceilings were 5 1/2 feet, haha, so i had to duck the whole way in. After a couple drinks, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, which was this Serbia bread with cheese in the middle stuff, and it was damn good. We met her friends, and hopped on the bus which was jam packed, and headed to New Belgrade (new part of the city). She had got her friends to grab an extra ticket for me despite the fact that this was a university show and i don't go to university in Serbia. The people at the front

let me in because I was a tourist, and with 5 people that did go to university.

At the concert, we saw 2 of the best Serbian rock bands, people were going crazy, and a DJ spun it for awhile too. So listened for a bit, danced for a bit, and dranks some pivo (beer). When the show was over we went to get our coats, and we're entrapped in the biggest coat check line i have ever seen. It was like a mob of young Serbs all wanting their coats at once, and it was hilarious...i giggled for the good 45 minutes it took me to get my coat. Twice, the non-permanent wall of the coat check got knocked down, and eventually they had about 12-15 police/security guys hold the people back and let people in one by one. Oh great times!

After the coat check shenanigans, we headed back to Trg Republika (Republic Square) around 2 am, grabbed some crepe like food at pizza and pancake place, i had banana and chocolate as i was told it was good, and it was good. After that grub, i headed home for some much needed R&R.

 

(Wednesday) I slept in a bit, hung around the house chatting with my aunt. At around 4:30 I went out to meet some friends and headed to their university, stuck around there for a bit, and then went for a bite to eat and a really nice restraunt called Monza. It is in a houseboat right on the Danube, and was beautiful on the inside. After some crab some pizza like Serbian food, we headed to Belgrade's biggest shopping mall (a bit bigger than Cornwall except with way better stores). I didn't buy anything, but i was interested to see what it is like.

In New Belgrade there are tons of "project" style apartments, that have thousands of suites in them. I guess they were built by Tito during the communist days, if you lived in the rural areas and moved to the city, you got a free apartment, free car and free set of clothing. However, now that the government isn't taking care of them, they appear to be a little rundown.

Anywho, after the shopping mall, we headed to a small cafe where i had some dessert and apple juice, lol. And then back home.