Serbia

As we approached the Serbia airport, the pilot announced that a lightening strike had shut down the airport so we would be circling at least 45 minutes before we could land. It gave me the opportunity to carefully see the city and surrounding rivers. We landed with our further incident. Driving into the city, the sunset color was perfect but being in the back of a taxi, there were no good shots to take. I like suddenly seeing something beautiful lit all golden.

In search of dinner, the first option had run out of savory dumplings and the second option had run out of everything so we just got 2 pastries and drank beer at a pub. Worked for me!

I picked the agenda for the day but sadly the Nicola Tesla museum left something to be desired. The walk to the fortress allowed sights of the Moscow hotel (where they boast Einstein once stayed) and a lovely walking mall.

A large park surrounded the fortress, filled with vendors and playground activities. The military museum started with ancient map replicas and artifacts that I found beautiful from an art perspective. The museum was about war and that area was constantly being conquered by someone. With 2 waterways converging, Belgrade proved too tempting to everyone. As the displays moved through time though, the graphic and violent nature of the topic traumatized me. The curators omitted the atrocities they committed over the last 30 years but then focused on the NATO bombing on Belgrade.

To cleanse my emotional pallet, we wandered the grounds, took in the Danube views, and found a beautiful orthodox church decorated lavishly with tiles. I spotted a shiny orthodox spire and became obsessed with finding it. Although the church was more impressive far away, we stumbled upon the tavern named “?” We totally needed a beer and ate stuffed cabbage served by a character of a man. We strolled for ice cream and then rested.

Late in the evening we sat at the hotel bar where a drunk woman researcher from San Diego invited us to join her party. She and bf had much to discuss and we chatted with her colleagues who were forensic psychologists. I would not like that job!

The next day we walked to the largest orthodox church in world by volume. Wow, it was magnificent with gold and elaborate mosaics. Afterwards we went to the shop we tried to eat at the day before. We successfully acquired the savory dumplings which were delicious. I glimpsed a statue earlier and had to investigate and photograph. St. Sava was one of the better states in the city and OMG did Belgrade have a lot of statues.

After a rest, we trekked to the national museum. I appreciated the Serbian-centric story. They did leave out how awful they are. We ate again at “?” but added chicken stuffed with cheese to the line up.

We had online bus tickets to Sarajevo but at the train station we had a hard time finding the right berth. Rudeness prevailed from the locals.

I’ll call the bus trip highly unpleasant. Not as bad a Burma but not fun. It was full bus and we stopped and got out for