Belgrade

I adopted a pretty important habit on my travels: checking, double-checking, and triple-checking my flight information. Luckily, I did this as I realized I would be leaving Budapest 5 hours earlier than I thought I was. After another restless night, I woke up at 4 am, packed the rest of my things, got the subway then a bus to the airport. Again, I arrived too early, which was OK with me. I locked my bags to a bench with my ever-handy bike lock and fell asleep for an hour. I checked in with no problems but was singled out at security, they checked my jacket for explosives for some reason. After security, I went to a change house and tried to exchange my Forints (the Hungarian currency) for Dinar (the Serbian currency.) I was denied. Being the ever crafty person, I exchanged them for Euros knowing they would be accepted in any country trying to join the EU, like Serbia. I caught my 45-minute flight from Budapest to Belgrade via Belavia, the Belarusian Airline that was so nice to me when I was in Hue. It was an interesting flight as I sat down next to a boy that had various iterations of the words ‘Fuck You” scrawled across his shirt, and there was a rather loud child behind me. It did not matter as I was still very tired. I popped in my earplugs, put on an eye mask as I was out as soon as I sat down.

Turbulence woke me from my slumber and would serve as a harbinger of things to come. I got into Serbia with no problems. I exchanged my Euros for Dinar and then caught a shuttle van to the city center. It was here that I learned my happy-go-lucky days as a traveling American were over as I passed gigantic Communist apartment buildings in the process of being scrawled with new graffiti. 

My hostel was not too far away from the city center, so I grabbed my bags from the shuttle van and decided to hoof it. Walking through downtown Belgrade, something caught my attention. I noticed a rather large building that was in ruins. What had once been a walkway connecting two parts of the building was destroyed with rubble around it. As I continued towards the façade side, a rather large sign said that this was from NATO bombing. The building was the former Ministry of Defense. As I went farther into the heart of Belgrade, I looked in disbelief on my map. I had to turn right on Balkanska Street and cross Gavrilo Princip Avenue.

Gavrilo Princip was a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb that single-handedly brought the promise of the 20th Century to a screeching halt when on 28 June 1914, he shot and killed the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo. He was part of a clandestine organization known as the Black Hand that wanted the Balkans free from the grip of the empire. After the assassination, due to the series of alliances and counter alliances, this act was the spark that set off the powder keg that was World War I, which lead to World War II, The Cold War, and even the War on Terror. Needless to say, I was a bit taken back that there was not only a street commemorating this man but a park as well featuring a statue of his likeness. I guess that I knew where they were on the freedom fighter / terrorist side of the moral divide.

I continued walking and found my hostel. This is where I met Adam, the hostel proprietor. Dressed like my Indiana Jones self with a prominent dermatologist prescribed hat and my Cambodian scarf, he asked me in good humor where my alligator was as he greeted me. I told him it was back in Louisiana. He showed me around the property, including my pod in a 12 topper. Then I dropped my bags and headed out. I grabbed some lunch consisting of a sandwich, a beer, and fizzy water. I brought them back, and he scolded me for being a typical tourist. He would then tell me where to go for authentic Serbian food.

We took a seat in the lounge area while we chit-chatted. Adam said he studied in the US and then made it all the way to Houston. However, in his words, “the party really got started here.” That is when Gina, the hostel mascot, decided to say hello. This cat had been living in the hostel for three years after Adam saved her life. She was a pregnant stray that got hit by a car and limped to the hostel for help. Adam grabbed her and took her to the vet. She had an emergency cesarean and sadly lost all her kittens. Her leg was set, and as Adam said, after 20 days of being a tripod, she was adopted by him.

After lunch, I was still tired, so I headed to my bunk to take a nap. I woke up and walked around the city. I went past the Serbian Parliament building that had posters in English talking about Albanian terrorists. I continued walking and made it just in time for closing of an open-air market. I turned around to head back and it started to rain. I was standing under an overhang when a store owner invited me inside to get out of the rain. I bought a strawberry juice and looked out the window as Belgrade glistened in the rain. When it ended, I headed back from where I came. My hostel was ideally located next to a pedestrian boulevard. I found a postcard for my nephews and headed back towards my hostel, making sure to stop at Adam’s restaurant suggestion for dinner. I then had a beer at a local bar and sauntered back to the hostel. Before going to bed, I watched part of a series on the Yugoslav War then the Ashley Too episode of Black Mirror. It was during this time 23 Chinese teenagers moved into the hostel and all around me. This was going to be interesting.

The next day on my way to two walking tours of Belgrade, I walked through a park with a lovely little cat house built for all the strays. Unfortunately, it was downhill from where I noticed a homeless guy taking a shit in the woods. 

The first tour was a contemporary tour of modern Belgrade. We met at Republic Square (not to be confused with Revolution Square) that commemorated Belgrade’s liberation from the Turks at the end of the 19th Century, where a lovely young lady met us. As she walked, like most of my guides, she shared facts in rapid-fire. The first and most interesting was Yugoslavia means Kingdom of the Southern Slavs. The now nonexistent country of Yugoslavia was born in the aftermath of World War I with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It comprised present-day Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, with Kosovo and Vojvodina being in Serbia’s sphere of influence. All these different people and states would end up under the control of one man, Marshall Tito, but we will get to him later.

Walking towards an Orthodox church, our guide shared information about this faith. Catholicism and Orthodox used to be one church. However, they began having differences in doctrinal issues. This lead to the great schism of 1054 AD when the head of the respective churches excommunicated the head of the other church. It only made matters more divisive when the seat of the Orthodox church Constantinople was sacked. Watching the congregants enter the church, it was the practice of the Serbian Orthodox to kiss the door. Orthodox crosses also have three bars, each with different symbolism. The top bar is where the abbreviation INRI was written, meaning in Latin IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM or Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. The second bar is where his hands were nailed, and the final was a footrest as a body could not be suspended by nails alone. It is believed that in his last moments, Jesus’s leg muscles spasmed to point the right side of the footrest towards Heaven, with the other pointing to Hell. An Orthodox Friday Prayer shares these words regarding the symbolism:

In the midst, between two thieves, was Your Cross found as the balance-beam of righteousness;
For a while, one was led down to Hell by the burden of his blaspheming,
The other was lightened of his sins unto the knowledge of things divine.
O Christ God glory to You

After Church, our group headed to a local park where we were introduced to one of the gifts to humanity from this part of the world, Rakia. Rakia is a fruit spirit that is 80 Proof and absolutely delicious. However, I did not realize why our hostess was getting us liquored up. This would be the part of the tour where we would learn about Serbia’s place globally over the last 30-odd years. As we started walking again, she showed us a memorial to the dead children of Belgrade killed by NATO bombs. She walked us over to the hollowed-out building that was their main television station with a memorial to the people killed in that building, and then we were walked over to the former defense Ministry Building I passed on the way to my hostel. She shared that apparently, NATO bombs use depleted uranium, so people on the cleanup crews for these buildings were having health problems. It was all kind of one-sided, but I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to offend my hostess.

We continued walking and she discussed an actual lighter side of Serbia and possibly their favorite son, Nikola Tesla. Tesla grew up in Serbia and Croatia, but really made a name for himself in America with his various inventions including Alternating Current, the AC of AC/DC. It was then that our guide shared with us 10,000,000,000 Dinar bills of defunct Yugoslavian currency with his likeness on it as a souvenir as we walked past his museum and old house. I guess with their recent history tied in so much darkness, they needed a positive role model to cling to. 

I thanked her with a generous tip of current currency. As the tour was ending, I then went and had lunch. On my walk, I noticed an interesting looking restaurant named Polet or полет as Serbia uses both Latin letters and Cyrilic in their singage. I was not let down. I was taken into the back room, which was where they must have had concerts and such. I sat at my table and had a lovely grilled goat cheese salad and a breaded pork chop in gravy. It was delicious.

I then met up with my next tour group to be more about what I came to see, Communism in Yugoslavia. And when one thinks of Communism in Yugoslavia, only one man should come to mind: Grand Marshall Josip Broz Tito.

Born to a Slovenian and a Croat, Tito was already a skilled soldier by the outset of World War II, having served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and being taken prisoner by the Russians. This was until they had to leave the Great War in 1917 to deal with the Communist Revolution of which Tito took part. He returned to the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia very active in the Communist movements of the area, a rather large thorn in the side of the powers that were. However, it was not long before he got a chance to prove his military acumen at home.

The Nazis invaded this part of the world in 1941, and Tito served as leader of the Yugoslavian Partisans, a guerilla force. They fought very hard and alone as the country’s leaders quickly capitulated to the Nazi War machine. After years of fighting and incredibly limited  support from the Soviet Union, a policy that Stalin knew would make countries weak and ripe for the taking, Tito miraculously liberated Yugoslavia from the Axis Powers. Due to this, he felt he had more leeway than other Bloc countries to work in his own interests. After the War, he was elected to be the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and then President for Life. However, Stalin had other plans.

Josef Stalin did not like that Tito wanted to create an economy independent of the Soviet Union and planted spies in the Yugoslav Communist Party. He was quoted as saying, “I will shake my little finger, and there will be no more Tito.” You’d think that a man that was more than capable of killing millions of his own people was not someone to mess with, but then again, you are not Tito. The Grand Marshall wrote a letter to Stalin saying thusly, ‘Stop sending people to kill me. We’ve already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle. […] If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send a second.’ He would not have to back up his claim as Stalin’s died in 1953. 

With a bit more leeway at this time, Tito created the Non-Aligned Movement, where countries made definite statements that they were not aligned with either side in the Cold War. However, flirting was definitely allowed. This made the Yugoslavian Passport one of the best in the world as it allowed unencumbered travel to both sides of the Iron Curtain. Domestically, he made it a military priority for people to serve and billet in places outside their home territories and develop ties with their countrymen of differing backgrounds. Internationally, he exported munitions and other goods to developing and developed parts of the world, later including the Yugo automobile. 

While walking to catch a bus to a historical site, our tour guide made something clear. The days of not courting Russian support were over. As we walked by a statue dedicated to Czar Nicholas and down a hill to a Russian Cultural center and passing Gazprom (the behemouth Russian energy company) signs everywhere, I could tell that Russia was definitely making inroads. Unfortunately, in more ways than one.

We hopped a bus and headed out to the historical site. We entered with our tickets and headed through a lovely manicured greenspace to see Tito’s Mausoleum. But before we got there was possibly one of the most epic bronze statues I had ever seen, showing off an incredibly dramatic pose of the former leader of Yugoslavia. We then headed into his Mausoleum, a third greenhouse, a third museum, and a third eternal resting place. His white stone sarcophagus was in the middle of the room. Both sides had pictures of his life and interesting displays, one of which were batons from an annual relay race he held where batons would pass around each of the territories of Yugoslavia. Say what you will about the man, but having the ability to keep such a disparate populace, with hundreds of years of sometimes antagonistic history together for so long and coming off of several fresh wars was an incredible feat. Especially compared to how quickly it fell about after his death on May 4th, 1980. Statesmen from both sides of the Iron Curtain attended his state funeral.

After Tito, we went back to the city. We said our goodbyes, and I headed back to the hostel. A new crop of people arrived, including a Scandinavian Skinhead, a Young Serbian Rapper, and a gorgeous older Chinese woman with sleeve tattoos. It would prove to be an interesting night.

The next day, I got up and decided to head to the Belgrade fortress. I was all ready to go and when I was walking out, Adam offered me a glass of red wine at 10 in the morning. Cutting my teeth in New Orleans, having alcohol before noon was a common practice. So I sat with him, and we chatted. The lovely Chinese lady gave me some bread with jelly she did not eat, and the young Serbian joined us. Adam showed me a fun place to go by the lake on a map, and the Serbian asked if he could join if I went. I said that I would probably just check out the fortress and come back as I had some work. With that, I said goodbye to my new friends.

The fortress was at the end of that pedestrian street, not surprisingly up a hill. It gave a great view of the city and the surrounding. They also had quite a formidable arms museum which I enjoyed. After the fortress, I got lunch back in the pedestrian area consisting of a great club sandwich. However, it was a little odd how the waiter came to the table at the end of the meal while giving me my check and demanding a tip. Not wanting to cause a scene, I left him a meager tip and headed out.

My next stop was the Hotel Moscow for the Šnit Cake and some wine. The Hotel Moscow is probably the most famous hotel in Belgrade, if not Serbia, having stood for more than a century and counting Albert Einstein, Leonid Brezhnev, and Brad Pitt as guests. Their Šnit Cake at the Restaurant Tchaikovsky is their most famous dessert. The Šnit Cake is a delicious fruit cake. The main ingredients are almonds, cherries, pineapple, and the finest, top-secret homemade cream. Paired with a glass of white wine as the pianist played My Way, it felt like a dream.

I went back to the hostel and took a little nap, even though the Chinese kids were loud. It was fine, though, as I just popped in some earplugs and was set. I woke up to find a note from a client outlining some work he wanted done, so I worked until about 1 AM finishing that project.

The next day I had a pretty lazy morning waiting for a client to give me more instructions for work. Unfortunately, the Serbian rapper and the Chinese woman had checked out already when I got up. It felt a twinge of sadness as I wanted to give my Defend New Orleans shirt to the young Serb for what he did for me.

I left the hostel to get some breakfast from a nearby pastry shop when I saw something incredibly odd. Parked on the street was a car with a front Massachusetts license place. I figured it was just a souvenir, and surely, the back plate would not match. As I walked around the car, I was wrong. The front plate matched the back. It was incredibly weird.

After getting back to the hostel and doing some work, I headed out and had lunch at Polet again. I walked around some more until I got my instructions for work. I decided after work to walk through town to a cineplex to see the Luc Besson-directed film, Anna. I went across the Sava River on the Branko’s Bridge until I reached a shopping mall. It looked like any other shopping mall, which was great to see. After walking around a little, I went to the cineplex and bought my ticket.

The film was not very good, but it was nice to relax for a little bit. As I headed back across the bridge, I noticed another giant Gazprom sign. Given the close connection between Serbia and Russia, it was no wonder why this company would want a strong presence in a probably soon-to-be-member state of the EU.

As I was walking through town, I noticed another landmark. Directly across the street from the Belgrade Hilton was possibly the most ubiquitous shrine of Capitalism, a McDonald’s. Not only was it the first and only McDonald’s I had seen, but it was also the first McDonald’s in all of Serbia, which opened on March 24, 1988, well before the Iron Curtain fell.

I headed back to the hostel, had a few drinks with my fellow travelers, and then went down to bed. I lulled myself to sleep watching Spiderman: Into The Spider-verse. It was really good and so much better than Anna.

The next day was my last in Belgrade, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. So, I walked desultorily around the city, stopping and seeing things that I fancied. I headed back over to the Fortress as there were a lot of little souvenirs. I wanted to see if I could get a cast of that epic Tito statue, but unfortunately, the only one available would definitely put me overweight for my suitcase.

I then went and got lunch again at Polet (it really was that good) and had a goat cheese salad and a Hunter’s Schnitzel. I headed back to the Moscow Hotel and got some red wine and a tiramisu cake for dessert. It was absolutely lovely. I then headed to another of Belgrade’s landmarks, the St Sava Church.

St Sava, although it was built in the last century, looks much older and grander. Unfortunately, it was undergoing much-needed renovations, but one was still allowed to enter the crypt. While there were a lot of people down there, it was beautiful and immaculate. There was also a large sign saying that Gazprom was generously donating to the renovations.

After the church, I then headed to a market to get some snacks for the road the next day. I came back to the hostel to wind down for the night—Bosnia in the morning.