Yesterday was my first full day in Belgrade Serbia. I stopped in Belgrade because I still have memories of Belgrade in the news-a war-torn capital. I hoped that Belgrade would still have that impression by Americans so I wouldn't meet too many of them.
The truth was I did meet other Americans-but that doesn't take anything away from Belgrade. Yesterday I went on two walking tours: The first of the old town-I learned of the many years of alternating Austrian-Hungary and Ottoman rule, and how relics from the Ottoman/Muslim era, like a mosque, still exist. The city has many relics of the communist days as well-block buildings, square apartment blocks, and boxy Yugos are still largely in existence. And most exciting, many bridges, buildings, etc we're bombed recently, in 1999 by the UN,, due to civil war with the Albanians and the Serbs. So in recent history, Belgrade was bombed big time, and I was here (now, not then!)
In the afternoon, i took a tour of Zemun, a neighborhood that until 1918, was actually part of the Austria-Hungarian empire, not even part of Serbia, even while the rest of Belgrade was under the Ottoman empire (and Serbia). Therefore Zemun had architecture more applicable to Vienna and Austria, and more winding, smaller streets then the rest off Belgrade. There was a border crossing right at Zemun, where folks had to quarantined for 3 weeks before crossing the border to the new country, for health reasons.
After a full day, I went back to the hostel-which is called the Madness Hostel. The folks are actually really nice there, and did my laundry for free-the only downside is that there is one bathroom for 11 people-just one room with one toilet and one shower. The other night I had to urinate at 3 am-and the bathroom was used-I did the only think I could think of-went down to the street and did it there.
In the evening, there we're a few events going on-one was a Beer Fest, which was supposed to be huge in a muddy field-but I decided against it in favor of a good old-fashioned pub crawl. This one was cool-because there we're no Americans. Quite a few Aussies, and they are a lot of fun and of all ages, including my roomates from the Madness Hostel. We went to one bar near the hostel, another in a district of Belgrade that is modeled on Monmarte in Paris, with cobblestone streets. Finally we went to a dance club on a boat in the Danube River. It was nice, and the DJ was mixing classics like Come On Eileen, Play that Funky Music, etc. It was 2:00 by the time I decided to go back to the hostel, and I made the 25 minute walk and went to bed-I was the first one in the room as the others we're still out.
