This morning the “foreigners” amongst us received a history lesson about Australia’s involvement in conflicts on European soil. Although caught up in the sights and sounds of life touring new lands, every Australian and Kiwi amongst us had not forgotten that today is ANZAC Day. In these foreign lands we still took time out to remember the sacrifice made by our forebears to protect the lives of the people who live in this part of the world.
This
morning started with a short taxi ride to the Novi Sad train station
for a journey to Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. The
double-decker train was very new and quite flash. It left on
time at
exactly 11:00am for the rapid and smooth 100km
journey.
Just
thirty-five minutes later we arrived in Belgrade, a
big and bustling city. Early in the afternoon the group walked into
the “old” part of the city to the area down near the fortress.
Belgrade has been on this spot at the confluence of the Danube and
Sava rivers for millenia. It was first settled by the Romans and then
over the ensuing centuries has been conquered by many other different
invading forces. The Ottoman Turks had a very long tenure here,
close to 400 years. Despite that there doesn’t seem to be a strong
Turkish influence in the 21st
century. I
do believe, however, that there is an unseen influence in the Serbian
language which contains about 2000 words of Turkish origin. The text
used in Serbia is Cyrillic, not Latin, so the written word is
impossible for we westerners to understand or even interpret.
Thankfully, as is the case in most parts of the world, English
descriptions accompany most things. But not on the public transport
system. Numbers are written in the way to which we are accustomed so
to catch a bus, for example, you just need to know the of the bus you
need to catch and recognise where to get off!
After lunch a guide (Zjelko) met us and we took a two hour tour of the fortress precinct. Zjelko was very informative and entertaining although there was a strong element of what I would call the “tour group formula” to his presentation. I suppose there’s only so many ways you can crack a nut. In a part of the park which the fortress now encircles was a set of banners with accompanying photographs describing the successes of Serbian sports men, women and teams in recent years. I think it was a precursor to the Olympic Games in a couple of months time. Anyway, what I found quite strange about this display was that there was only one banner proclaiming the feats of arguably Serbia’s greatest ever sportsman, Novak Djokovic. What was really strange was that the photograph showed the back of Novak as he was leaving the court after being eliminated from a Major. I reckon they could have tried a little harder to find something that more accurately reflected his contribution to the Serbian sporting landscape.
The
view of the confluence of the Danube and the Sava from the hill-top
upon which the fortress sits is quite spectacular. Both massive
bodies of water, the Sava comes in from the south-west and the Danube
from the north-west. The
sky was bright and sunny and the day was pleasantly warm-ish. The
tour of the fortress finished with Zjelko sharing some of his
father’s Rakia – a traditionally home-made, fruit-based spirit
(this one made of plum) which is 25% abv. It certainly warms you up
from the inside out when it goes down the hatch! Zjelko the led us
through the Student’s Square in the university section of Belgrade
and finally to Republic Square.
By
now it was about 6:00pm, People went their separate ways to explore
more of the city in the last couple of hours before sunset. Others
hung around Republic Square to join the crowds building there.
Preparations were
well underway for some evening musical entertainment of some sort.
Kerry,
Rob and I headed for the Hotel Moscow which we had passed earlier in
the day. This hotel is Belgrade’s swankiest hotel. We headed there
for a very late afternoon tea choosing
to sit at a table out on the street to watch Belgrade go about its
business. Polly strolled by so we invited her to join us for tea. Our
waiter was Nikola, a charming young chap who provided us with great
service. Kerry and I had tea, the Hotel Moscow cake and crepes. Rob
had a glass of ice-cream, cream and fruits. All very delicious. A
girl on a grand piano inside the hotel provided the musical
accompaniment to our little afternoon indulgence. Inside the hotel we
found a lovely setting of tables, chairs and busy waiters tending to
the many guests. The décor and ambience was very “European”and
not as over-stated as the New York Cafe in Budapest. We found a group
of girls from our tour group enjoying
an afternoon-tea indulgence too!
An
early night was the order of the day so Kerry, Rob and I headed back
to the Hotel Argo and retired for the day.
Sounds like an interesting city. Hmm…. Don’t they like Novak? At least he gets a “mention” unlike poor Jelena from Osijek! Kerry, I like Zjelko’s footwear, did you buy some??😉
ReplyDeleteWe took a Danube river cruise from (almost) the Black Sea to Budapest in 2011 and stopped in Belgrade, from memory turning off the Danube into the Sava and moored just around the corner so we could get to the fortress and park, so we have similar shots of the confluence - your photos looked familiar so I checked our photos to find them (I have had too many sleeps since then to have remembered without your prompting photos). We would have also passed through Nova Sad too, but at night time without stopping so didn't see any of that. Good memories were made, as they are being for you now.
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