Seeing Belgrade

We were constantly looking for cheap warm clothes to buy, and a hat to add to my collection. We walked to Republic Square, there we saw lots of statues of Tito and the Moscow Hotel. The city has some beautiful parks, and as it was snowing and the trees were bare, it looked like a picture in black and white. We walked around a Serbian fortress,Kalemegdan, and from it's wall we could see the meeting of the Sava and Danube rivers. The water was frozen, and the snow kept falling.

We walked from the park to an older part of Belgrade. I really like the Yugoslavian architecture, it is all very old and dark against the snow, like the buildings you see in Red Square. There are lots of open spaces and the trolley cars keep rolling by. If the people were in period costume and the neon signs gone, it could be the turn of the century. We came across the home of Princess Ljubica (Violet). She was a Serbian Princess. We walked through the home which is fully furnished , and has family portraits on the walls - all in Turkish dress. It is fascinating how many cultures have influenced the area.

Next we went to the Museum of Revolution. "The nations and Nationalities of Yugoslavia". It cost us a whopping 5cents to get in and we were the only ones there. Most of the museum was photographs, showing the history of worker's unions, followed by the WWII period and then Tito. The building is where the Union of Unaligned Nations used to meet ie. the 3rd world socialist countries. It was very cold inside and a bit repetitive.

We next happened upon the Parliament building . Another beautiful building with a large area in front of it, and a huge staircase going up to it, with statues of a man battling with a horse on either side. Very effective.

We walked up and down a boulevard of cobbled stones, line with interesting shops and a square at either end. We settled for lunch in an eating hall, which was large and bare. We had a delicious spaghetti. Then latter we went to the opera for $6!!! and saw Rigoletto by Verdi. So cheap and so unusual an activity to be doing in Belgrade. It was well performed, and the stage was quite bare as they rotate performances. We saw a list of up coming events and they have lots of ballet, opera and theatre every night in several venues. Extremely cultural city.

Thoroughly satisfied we went to the station to catch our 23:20 train to Zagreb.

Photo by Boggy