October 2, 2016 by Rae

A Walking Tour of Sarajevo

This morning, I took Neno’s free walking tour of Sarajevo. This was a really interesting tour as I got all the answers I wanted about Bosnian history. Neno remembers the war of ’92 to ’95 quite well since he was seven to eleven years old at the time and his family spent all 44 months in Sarajevo. But I’m betting ahead of myself.

The tour starts in front of the National Theatre at Susan Sontag Square. I had no trouble finding it even though it was off my map of old town. En route, I passed a few things of interest, like this clothesline. Can you imagine a city or even suburban town in Canada or the US permitting this?! For all we think we are forward thinking, we are incredibly short-sighted.

The hills on the other side of a river looked like a Hollywood backdrop, they were so beautiful.

Don’t they?!

I wish I knew more about these ruins. There is a dearth of signage in Sarajevo, something Neno brought up. Part of the reason is that there are disputes about who should pay for signs.

Sarajevo comes from two Turkish words, Saraj, palace or seat of assembly, and evo, valley. As I said in another post, I find that Sarajevo’s position in a valley is unusual. It definitely limits its growth.

Here’s the National Theatre:

I was surprised to see Cyrillic. Neno would later explain to me that there is a part of Sarajevo, where the airport and East bus station are located, that is called Republika Srpska. It is a Serbian part of BiH and almost autonomous (think of Quebec in Canada, an example Neno brought up, not just my interpretation!). They favour the Cyrillic script while the rest of BiH favours the Latin script.

Neno started with a really comprehensive history of BiH. Surprisingly, it was a much easier narrative to follow than that of Bulgaria! In a nutshell:

The Ottoman Empire ruled here for 500 years, from the end of the 14th century to the end of the 19th century.

Austria-Hungary then came in for 40 years, which is when Sarajevo was modernized. Streets were widened, structures like the National Theatre were built, tram cars came in, street lighting was installed, etc.

After WWI was the first Yugoslavia, which was considered a period of stagnation. The capital was Belgrade and Sarajevo was neglected. There are no examples of Art Deco buildings in Sarajevo like you can see in Belgrade because there was barely any construction during the ’20s and ’30s.

After WWII came the second Yugoslavia, under the dictator Tito. Older Bosnians today think fondly of the ’60s and ’70s, remembering them as being more prosperous times. Tito died in 1980 and things went downhill over the next decade and a half, with the member states of Yugoslavia declaring independence one after the other.

The Siege of Sarajevo, “the longest siege of a capital history in the history of modern warfare” was started by the leadership of Republika Srpska, the Serbs, one of many ethnic groups in the area. They were vanquished by the Bosnians and Croats. The siege lasted 44 months, almost four years.

Neno comes from a mixed marriage, a Bosniak (Muslim) mother and a Serb (Orthodox) father. His father insisted on staying because Sarjevo was his home and, besides, there was no way the war would last more than a week… The family lives in “Communist blocks” about three kilometres from downtown on the eighth floor, so they rode out the war living in the basement of the building with their neighbours. Notice the tense I used at the start of that last sentence. It was not a typo. Neno still lives in the building in which he rode out the Sarajevo Siege.

He promised to tell us about how they got food and water later in the tour, so I will hold off on that, but said that they kept warm and cooked using firewood, essentially cutting down all the trees in their neighbourhood, then moving onto the furniture and books. He went to a makeshift school in the basement and his mother still put on a full face of makeup and nice clothes every day to go to work. Life went on.

Our first stop was one of the “Sarajevo roses.” These are spots where mortar shells hit and which have been preserved by residents who feel that such little memorials are more significant than any statue. Neno poured water on it to make it stand out more. We are right by the National Theatre here. People died here.

Looking up to the hill where the bombings originated. It’s where the bobsled track from the ’84 Olympics is located. Which reminds me that Neno said that from his experience, people know Sarajevo for the Olympics, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and the Siege. I was rather ashamed that I did not know about the Olympics!

A very powerful message on this sign…

This is the older and largest Orthodox church in Sarjevo. It was recently renovated thanks to money that came from Greece (before its economic collapse).

This statue was a gift from Italy after the war. The man is naked, so there was a lot of fuss made about it, similar to The Victor in Belgrade. Shortly after the statue was installed, someone put red pants on it!

People play with this massive chess set every day, rain or shine.

Here is the only synagogue in all of BiH. It was originally built by Sephardic (Spanish) Jews and then Ashkenazi (German) Jews joined it later. BiH has a very small Jewish population, only 700 people, and the synagogue is barely used. The last wedding in it was 60 years ago!

Next to it is the “ugliest building in Sarajevo,” an unusual piece of Communist architecture dating to the time of the Olympics. It is called the Parrot! Amusingly, rent in this monstrosity is a bit more than in the lovely Austro-Hungarian flats across the river because the view is better on this side.

Now, we get to the good stuff that made me so happy I took a tour. As it turned out, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia was NOT on the Latin bridge, but right at the corner of what is now the museum and what was then a café. Neno explained how it all went down and I could not help but think of the assassination of JFK.

The Archduke, in an open motorcade, came down the road in the direction of this museum towards city hall. Members of the Serbian Black Hand group were positioned in two places to assassinate him. The first group left off a hand grenade that injured people, but did not kill the Archduke. The driver sped off and the second group did not get its chance.

The Archduke had his meeting and insisted on canceling lunch so that he could go to the hospital to visit the wounded. However, he forgot to inform the driver of this. So on the way back towards the hospital, the driver started to turn right here at the museum, which, again, was a café… where Black Hand member Gavrilo Princip was despondently pondering the failed coup. The car stopped and the assassin was able to kill the Archduke and his wife, which was the triggering factor for World War I. There is a definite sense of fate/destiny in the tale.

Because Princip was two weeks shy of his 20th birthday, the age of majority, he was only sentenced to 20 years in prison, rather than death as were the ones who made the initial attempt. He died four years later of tuberculosis.

We then moved on to the oldest mosque in Sarajevo, also recently refurbished, this time with money from Turkey. There are about 200 mosques in Sarajevo and the vast majority of Sarajevans identify as Muslim, although not all are practicing.

We acquired a mascot on our walk. Can you see the plastic tag on the dog’s ear? This dog is a stray and that tag indicates that s/he was sterilised. The stray dog issue dates from the war and they are dealing with it through sterilisation. This dog was incredibly sweet and just about everyone on the tour adopted it!

Here’s that oldest mosque again:

And here is the largest Roman-Catholic church in Sarajevo, with a Franciscan monastery next to it. All are welcome to worship here. Neno identifies as agnostic and says that he comes here on Christmas Eve with his Muslim friends to enjoy the service!

Across from the church is a beer brewery.

This beer brewery was critical during the war as it sits over a large spring of good drinking water. This is where Sarajevans got their water during the war. Food came from the UN, which had a protected landing strip at the airport. Neno said his parents never had to pay for food, but it was very basic and they couldn’t afford anything on the black market. He recalls that some months after the war, his mother traded her gold earrings for the first chocolate he’d had in years and that it was the best chocolate of his life. The lesson he learned there was to appreciate the little things as they can be the most precious.

There is a pub next to the brewery and I will make a point to have a pint there!

Continuing on, he pointed out buildings that still have shrapnel damage.

We went on to the oldest Muslim cemetery in the city.

It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but the slope of that parking lot was enough that I was seriously concerned about that van tipping over!

This is an ancient Ottoman road that led to Constantinople/Istanbul!

This is the oldest road in Sarajevo:

The Muslim graves show the head and feet, with the head pointing towards Mecca.

Here’s city hall:

This is the Spite House. Eminent domain of sorts of practised to get the land on which sits the city hall. One owner said that he didn’t just want money, he wanted his house moved brick by brick across the river. It was and is now a restaurant!

Our tour ended here and Neno gave us a map of eateries to try out in Old Town. I headed off in search of a bathroom and then lunch! A bathroom was surprisingly easy to find and cost 1KM to use. I was going into one of these stalls when the attendant yelled out, “No!” to me and then made a motion of “go around the corner.”

Where I found this. Personally, I would have preferred to squat and have toilet paper… 🙂

I found one of Neno’s recommendations for ćevapčići, Bosnia’s answer to the kebapche. I was the only tourist, no one spoke English, and the menu was entirely in Bosnian so I’m going to take his word that this was an authentic eatery! I pointed to the five-piece (kom) ćevapčići and asked for water. Unlike last night, when I got a bottle of water, I was brought tap water here (which was fine!).

Lunch underwhelmed me even though it was really tasty. I love the bread and the little sausages were actually more flavourful than kebache, but I could have used a little sauce, even if it was just ketchup. It was a cheap filling lunch after a long walk, but not something I’d want to eat regularly. I thought that maybe I forgot to ask for something to go with the ćevapčići, but as I wandered around after and saw heaps of people eating it, I saw that that wasn’t the case. This is just how you eat it.

It was a little late in the afternoon for coffee, but I was in the mood. So after wandering around for a bit, I sat down at a cafe and ordered Bosnian coffee with a piece of hazelnut baklava. They had tons of different kinds, from Nutella and other chocolates to all sorts of nuts. I like pistachio the best and that was 2KM, which I was going to pay, then realised I’d never had it with hazelnut, which was only 1KM. So I decided to try something new! Like at lunch, pointing at the menu (which did have English) worked.

The coffee is simmered in this pot. I know I drank it wrong, but it was really good! I prefer milk to sugar in my coffee, but had the sugar for authenticity’s sake. Be careful as you drink as there is a lot of sludge at the bottom!

This is just what was in my cup and there was more in the pot. I poured some back into the pot to show on the cup walls how thick the sludge is.

I had a headache starting at this point and work to do, so I headed home for the afternoon. Now, I’m regretting not getting stuff to make dinner at home as it is pouring and cold outside. I think I’ll go through the pantry here and see if I can cobble something together!

It was a very informative day and I don’t feel nearly as emotionally drained as I would have expected. I’m hoping my tour tomorrow is a go, but I haven’t heard back. I think I will wander down to their office tomorrow morning and see if I can join the tour…

October 1, 2016 by Rae

An Afternoon Wandering Around Sarajevo

It was a very late night and I didn’t get to sleep until around midnight. I woke up around 5:45AM to the sound of a muezzin leading the adhan (ezan in BiH), the call to prayer of the Muslims in the city. It was so beautiful!

I listened for a bit and it lulled me back to sleep. I managed to sleep until about nine when the child upstairs woke me up. I checked my emails and there was one from a client who has been very quiet the last few weeks asking if I’d mind “cleaning up” some files that came in late in the day so that they’d have them by their morning. There are advantages to my working during their night!

First, though, I had to figure out breakfast. I had buns from Belgrade and some of my Greek peanut butter from Bulgaria on me, so that was food sorted. Coffee was trickier since there wasn’t a single pot in the apartment!

This is what I ended up using to heat water!

Here’s a quick tour of the interior of the apartment. I don’t feel comfortable doing the exterior since I didn’t realise last night that this is a private residence (owners or long-term tenants are upstairs). It just feels too invasive.

I love the floor in the entrance and the pink wall, which is also in the living room. Almost the same colour as my dressing room at home!

From the entrance, you can access the kitchen and then the bathroom on the right, or turn left to go towards the other rooms.

Here’s the little kitchen. The table there makes it difficult to use the stove and it appears there are two fridges. But it’s functional and clean. There was an American lady living here for three months, so she left behind a lot of food, like pasta, still in the packages, as well as seasonings. So if I want to cook, I’m in better shape than I was in Belgrade, where I had to buy salt. Behind the door is a bank of drawers with utensils in them. Not the best layout, but it would be my dream to have a house with a kitchen like this in its own room with a door that shuts!

When I saw my driver this morning (I think that he is a tenant of my host) who lives upstairs, I asked about a pot to make hot water. There was a lot of miming involved because he did not understand me. Finally, he said that he got it and that he would put something in the kitchen. He understood! That’s a Turkish coffee pot at the top (what I used to make hot water in Belgrade), and a decent size pot if I want to make pasta. I don’t mind the discolouration, that’s old enamelware for you.

The pink wall in the hallway.

The bathroom is pretty good and has tons of storage, but the location of the shower head is really unfortunate. I was unable to avoid spraying the floor last night, so it was a very quick in and out shower!

I am going to ask if I can use this washing machine before I leave!

Looking down the hallway to the rooms. My bedroom is on the left, the dining/living/spare bedroom/office is at the end.

The bedroom has too much furniture, but that gives me some surfaces to spread out. 🙂 The bed is terrible, two hard single beds pushed together. It was cold last night, so I added the blue and white duvet, which I found in the armoire in the hallway, and was then comfy.

And here’s the last room. A table and hard back chair are actually not that great for long typing marathons, but fine for a couple of hours at a time. The futon is terrible. I think comfortable furniture is a Canadian/American concept…

The far wall of this room is hideous, but I love the bedding on the bunk beds! The two rooms have numbers and keys, so I think that they are sometimes rented separately with shared kitchen and bathroom space.

Needless to say, this place feel huge to me! I’m not crazy about having the family upstairs since the child cries a lot, but it’s fine for five days. The location isn’t as good as I would have hoped since I’m at the top of a super steep hill and there doesn’t appear to be any restaurants or shops immediately around me. Thankfully, I’m in great shape from all that Bulgarian hiking, so I shouldn’t have a problem going up and down a few times a day. I’ll be going back out later to find dinner.

So I put in about two hours of work this morning and have another two or so to do by the end of tomorrow my time. I was finally about to shut down and think about tourism around one. I did some research about tours and booked a walking tour for tomorrow morning and sent in a couple of requests for half-day driving tours. My first choice was booked solid for the week and I’m waiting for my second choice to get back to me.

Then, I set off to orientate myself and find some lunch. This is the first place I’ve stayed booked through Airbnb that had a map, which was really appreciated!

Here are some Bosnian Marks. The 5KM coin looks like the Canadian toonie! Some of you might recognise the change purse I bought in Mérida (I only showed it off on Facebook). Love it!

Looking down my street towards Old Town.

Sarajevo orientation tip: don’t bother using the minarets. They all start to look alike after a while!

One of many, many cemeteries in Sarajevo.

When I came home this afternoon, he was awake and very happy to have a bit of a scritch around the ears!

This is a main street in Sarajevo. Very busy and there are no sidewalks. Thankfully, the traffic is in just one direction. So I can always get home, just not always the most efficient route. Even with the map, it’s really difficult to orientate yourself since there isn’t a ton of signage and all the streets go off in odd directions.

Coming into the heart of Old Town, Baščaršija Square, Sarajevo’s old bazaar built in the 15th century.

Like in Belgrade, the pedestrian walk lights are not synchronized to get across a whole boulevard. You have to wait for one green light, cross to a median, then wait for another green light.

This car decided to park right on the tram line and the tram was only just able to stop in time!

This is a famous fountain in Sarajevo, Sebilj. There are replicas in Belgrade and St. Louis, MO. It was built in 1753 in a pseudo-Ottoman style. The pigeons took off just after I took this picture and it was like a scene in The Birds. I’m lucky that none of them crapped on me!

Walking around this square, it is easy to get disorientated as there are so many little alleyways. I wandered randomly, eventually taking out 100KM from an ATM and being rather annoyed that it came as a single 100KM note!

This little dog is paralysed and is still able to move easily thanks to this contraption. Can you imagine how much his parents love him?

I found this lovely fruit and vegetable market that reminded me of Mexico.

Here’s a fish shop. In this part of Sarajevo, the signage is all in Latin letters. Where I landed yesterday, near the airport, there is a lot of Cyrillic. My research tells me that using Latin letters is huge part of Bosnia’s identity as being European, as opposed to being aligned with the East (ie. cutting ties with a Communist past).

Outside this mosque, I found a restaurant called Two for Tea that had all my comfort foods on the menu, hummus, tabouleh, and falafel!

I ordered the Moroccan tea. So lovely! I loved the spicy (as in flavourful, not hot) tea with the sweet honey. The little cookie was really good too!

And lunch! The hummus and tabouleh were spot on and incredibly wonderful. A party for the tastebuds! I was disappointed that like Bulgarian falafel, these were a little flat considering how good the rest of my plate was! I would have preferred pita, of course, but that bread was delicious and I may have had a few bites drizzled with the honey from my tea as a dessert. No, I did not eat that entire basket of bread!

Lunch was 10.50KM, plus a 2KM tip. So reasonable! I asked the server if he could break my 100 note (I had 15KM left from yesterday, but didn’t want to give up my change if I had to!). He visibly blanched and said, “Euro?” I said, “No, marks!” and he laughed with relief and said it was absolutely not a problem.

I wandered some more and was impressed that Sarajevo does not shy away from its recent bloody history. I didn’t go in. I just wasn’t in the right head space for that yet.

Standing on the spot on the Latin Bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, precipitating the First World War. Talk about feeling the weight of history!

Couples leave locks on the bridge.

Another bridge.

I headed up this pedestrian street towards a cemetery.

And emerged into a neighbourhood of recently built houses.

Terminating in a not so recently built house.

The tour of the cemetery was shattering. So many graves of so many lives that started in the early ’70s and ended in the early to mid-’90s. Such a waste. This was a war that happened in our lifetimes, not in some far off past so that we can pretend we are so much more civilised than our ancestors were.

There was music coming from a nearby mosque that really added to the ambiance. I’m not ashamed to say that I wept.

The first line says “from nest to the stars” and the second “wife and daughter.” Fuad is a man’s name (Arabic for heart), so I believe that second line is a signature rather a description of the person buried.

There was a sort of fortification at the top of the cemetery, with a lot of people heading up there, so I decided to check it out and found an astounding nearly 360 view of Sarajevo.

This is yet another cemetery.

These are the steps I took to come up to the viewpoint.

I was ready to head home after this and thought I could use my map to plot a route that would avoid my having to backtrack and go back downhill. That plan failed and, most of the way home, I realised I had to go back down to a shop anyway to get bread and coffee!

I love how the newer houses are built in the old style.

Old Vratnik Fort entrance.

These neglected tombstones are across from the cemetery I visited.

I finished my afternoon by finding a tiny shop where I was able to get the coffee and bread I need. Hopefully the coffee is good! I was disappointed I wasn’t able to find Tchibo in Belgrade.

My first impressions of Sarajevo are that it is really lovely and that the people are kind and welcoming (with many speaking good English!), but that its tragic recent history is still very present. I will have lots more after my walking tour tomorrow! Now, I’m off to find some dinner.

September 27, 2016 by Rae

A Belgradian Miscellany

It was a bit of a rough start today after going to bed way too late. A have a client that is huge in terms of its importance on my portfolio. It’s not, say, Apple, but I say the name of this company and people have the same reaction as if it were. So when they informed me that they needed to formalise our relationship and sent me a bunch of forms last night, I felt it was imperative that I fill them out right away to show that I might be a one-person outfit, but I’m serious and I have all that information on-hand.

So I finally got up around nine this morning and didn’t get out the door till past eleven. I got as far as a cafe, where I enjoyed an espresso before setting off to find a post office. I passed this sign asking a question I’ve asked myself a million times…

I found the post office easily behind the National Museum. There was no English signage and several queues, so I popped some of the sign text into Google Translate until I found one that said something like “registration for letter mail.” I was rather impressed by the look of the post office, being much closer to what you find in Canada and he US than what I found in the UK and Bulgaria. While waiting for my turn, I Googled “postage stamp” and learned that it’s the same as in Bulgarian, marka.

The clerk spoke English and said that I had to buy a stamp at the “post shop in the hallway.” I went back out and noticed a small kiosk-type thing. I went to the cashier and asked for a stamp (Marka, molim), showing my postcard. She took a glance at it and went, “Ha, yes!” She found a stamp and put it on the card for me. The cost was only 75RSD, about 0.90CAD. She then started to gesture from the card towards outside and I realised she was trying to tell me where to mail the card (there were boxes out front). Wow! What great service! Who would have expected Serbia to have a less intimidating and more professional seeming postal service than Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, or the UK! Now, to see if the card arrives in Virginia!

Next stop was the ethnographic museum, a couple of blocks away. Could that be it?

Yep! It’s here that I have to comment on something that baffles me about Belgrade. Serbia uses both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets interchangeably. Like in Bulgaria, they make up tourist maps with everything written in Latin letters while the bulk of their street signage is in Cyrillic. So like in Bulgaria, I’m left wondering how tourists who don’t read Cyrillic manage to match their maps up to street signage and why in a country that favours Latin letters, they don’t use them for street signage… I remain grateful that I can go between the two alphabets, even with the few Serbian characters I haven’t learned yet!

The ethnographic museum had a special exhibit on:

I really enjoyed the richly embroidered textiles.

And beaded objects.

The building is quite remarkable and the museum is spread out over several stories. It’s much bigger than I expected and is basically a history of the Serbian people to the start of the 20th century.

The first floor is dedicated to traditional dress in the area, not just within the boundaries of modern day Serbia, but neighbouring countries as well.

I’m rather sad that we live in a time where we don’t dress up. I could see myself wearing a number of these gorgeous costumes!

I really liked this photo showing real people wearing the costumes.

The dresses with the coins reminded me of Native American jingle dresses.

This reminded me of the rug in my room in Malak Izvor.

In the late 19th century, the region became to adopt Western European dress.

We then moved on to exhibits showing transportation, housing, and economic ventures.

The housing style reminds me a lot of what I saw in the more affluent parts of Mexico, being built with inner courtyards to have privacy from the street.

This panel absolutely fascinated me. All those years of studying history and anthropology and I never noticed that humans have gone from living low to the ground to gradually working their way upwards. For example, we’ve gone from kneeling before a cooking fire to standing at a hob.

Brandy distilling.

Some of the local industry included beekeeping, olive growing, viticulture/winemaking.

Cobbler’s shop.

One style of house that is almost like a North American log cabin.

And this one is made of stone. Two different areas, two different kinds of building materials.

I was surprised to learn about the tobacco growing. For some reason, I though tobacco was a New World crop!

I have to share a shot of the unexpected fancy bathroom!

There were models of different house styles, including this single-story house typical of Kosovo.

I thought this was a rather interesting looking hearth.

Wine cellar.

This was a very interesting little museum that gave me a lot of insight into the different classes of people in ancient Serbia.

It was one by this point, so I decided to go back to Burger House for lunch! En route, I passed some beautiful buildings.

My burger was great! Not as good as the first one, but that’s only because I was more reasonable and didn’t get as many toppings. The base was just as solid. Mmm!

I then headed back to Belgrade Fortress to see some of the paid exhibits. Spoiler: I found plenty of ticket takers for the exhibits, but no vendors! I was appalled and disappointed by that. By the time I’d walked the site three times trying to find the elusive ticket vendors, I’d also learned that the exhibit I was most interested in was closed on Tuesdays, so I gave up.

But I did see lots of wonderful things in my amblings!

First, I stopped for an ice cream. The lady did not speak English, but I was, of course, able to say, “Chocolate hazelnut, please.” She pointed to make sure she had the right one and I said, “Yes.” Then she say, “65,” and, get this, I understood her perfectly! The numbers are super close to Bulgarian, but simpler. As she scrambled to find something to write on, I said, “It’s okay. Here’s 70.” The look of surprise she gave me was wonderful! I will never get as far with Serbian as I did with Bulgarian, but such small victories are truly precious!

I didn’t notice this cottage on my tour the other day. Looks like a private residence as there’s even a satellite dish out front.

I got to a good vantage point where I could see all the way to Zemun. I can’t believe I walked there yesterday!

The clocktower is one of the paid exhibits I wasn’t able to visit.

Here’s the Monument to Victory from the front.

It is called Pobednik (the victor) and “built to commemorate Serbia’s victory over Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Balkan Wars and the First World War” in 1928. He has his back turned away from the Ottoman Empire and is facing the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was put up on a pedestal because he is nude and that was considered scandalous. He measures 14 metres and is one of the most visible symbols and landmarks of Belgrade.

This is a tomb.

I was curious when I came across this archery range. I used to really be into archery some 20 or so years ago. So when I learned it was just 600RSD for lessons and 12 shots, I signed up!

I was rusty but got in a few good shots! This was definitely my favourite part of my day!

I loved these foundations barely poking out of the ground.

It was only mid-afternoon when I decided I’d had my fill of the fortress, so I decided to head across downtown to the Nikola Tesla Museum, which I knew my friend Bast would be interested in. Tesla was, of course, a great inventor who is credited with the invention of AC current and of wireless communication (post-humously winning the battle against Marconi for that claim). It’s interesting that his museum is in Belgrade since he was only here for three days, was born in modern day Croatia, and died in the United states.

It was around here that a young woman in her late teens or early twenties came up and asked me if I would buy her an ice cream. I much prefer to buy food or a beverage for a panhandler/homeless person than I do to just give change if I can afford it. There were tons of gelato vendors around, so I figured she’d take advantage of my generosity. Nope. She went to a convenience store cooler and picked out the cheapest treat that was ice cream, only 60RSD. I’m only sharing this to show that while this world gives us plenty of reasons to be cynical, it also gives us plenty of reasons to rue our cynicism. I will not miss 0.75CAD and I left her stunned that I’d done this for her. I wonder how many people she asked.

The National Assembly.

Here’s the big post office again.

Another one of those buildings that would be impressive after a power washing!

A fountain in glass…

Here’s the home of the Nikola Tesla museum.

The museum is tiny and does not in any way do justice to this genius and everything he invented, but if you can get an English tour, it’s worth a visit and is quite the experience!

Some of Tesla’s articles of clothing.

This plaque shows that the Niagara Falls power plant was mostly built using Tesla’s patents.

We watched a rather enthusiastic, but still very informative, film on Tesla’s life and work before the guide took us to recreate some of Tesla’s experiments.

One of his many coils. This one converts 220V power to an output of something like a million volts.

When the machine is on, sparks shoot out of the top.

I was one of the chosen for this experience. I’m holding a standard fluorescent light tube.

It’s alive! My tube lit up with a bright green light that doesn’t show in this picture, although you can see that it is lit up, using me as a conductor! We all joked that we looked like we were holding lightsabers from Star Wars and the guide claimed that this is how the effect was done in the original movies…

He then showed us the “dragon” coil.

Which illuminates that light.

Then, we moved onto the baby coil, where folks were actually electrocuted, the shock being stronger the farther their hand was from the rod. This one also featured people holding light tubes that lit up and the highlight was that two people were used as conductors. Electricity is magic!

I then saw a few of Tesla’s patents.

And an urn that supposedly contains his ashes! Tesla died in New York, but his nephew, who owned this house (explaining why the museum is in Belgrade) had the body cremated and the ashes brought to the museum.

It was five when I was done and I was absolutely tuckered out. I found my way home without a map (I’m finally starting to get orientated!), stopping at a convenience store for a beer to enjoy with dinner. It was rather neat to join the throng of people heading home at rush hour and, like them, pop into a shop to get whatever I was lacking for dinner! I really missed out not getting urban living experience in Bulgaria.

I’ve got lots of work for tomorrow, so I probably won’t get any exploring done. Just a heads up! 🙂

September 26, 2016 by Rae

Across the Sava to the Shores of the Danube

Like in many cities I’ve visited, most tourist attractions are closed in Belgrade on Mondays. Since I didn’t have any work, I figured it would be the perfect day to walk to historic Zemun. This community used to be the at the very edge of Austria-Hungary, with the Sava River being the border. Post WWII, Zemun was jointed to Belgrade with the building of New Belgrade and is now part of the city. It was about 7KM to the touristy part of Zemun along the waterfront, so the plan was to walk there and figure out a bus back. Google actually did a decent good job representing my route:

To get to Zemun, I had to cross Branko’s Bridge. To get there, I walked down Brankova, which becomes Boulevard Nikole Tesle on the other side. The effects of the heavy traffic on Brankova were evident in the filthy building façades.

It was only in reviewing my photos that I noticed the amazing graffiti on that building!

As I set out across the bridge, I saw this impressive sight, a tow truck pulling a bus with its front all smashed in.

Stopping on the bridge to take pictures was scary as it shook badly!

I learned some interesting history about this bridge on my tour Saturday. During WWII, Belgrade blew it up to keep the Germans from marching into the city. The Germans responded by building a pontoon bridge that still exists today! Luba, our guide, was very impressed by the solidity of German construction! Then, during the NATA bombings of 1999, the bridge was targeted for destruction. The citizens of Belgrade decided that was the last straw (my interpretation of Luba’s tale) and marched en masse onto the bridge wearing tee-shirts with targets on them. The bridge was saved.

Looking out to the fortress and the Monument to Victory.

The boats are all clubs and restaurants.

On the other side of the Sava, in New Belgrade, I went down these stairs to get to the footpath along the water.

The bridge reminded me of the overpasses in Michigan and Indiana.

Quite an impressive staircase. Amazing that the graffiti artists were unable to respect it.

The signage had funny jokes/quotes in English. This one says, “I’m looking to by [sic] a helmet. They come in a tremendous price range and I don’t understand what makes a $200 helmet is better. It only depends on the value you place on your head. $10 head… $10 helmet. :)”

After so many months of mountainous terrain, it was a joy to walk on flat land!

That does not look like Tijuana… 😉

3KM down, 4.5 to go! The quote on this one says, “Geography doesn’t mean much until you have travelled over it.”

This was a lovely walk, with the city feeling very far away.

“Boatel” is genius!

Here’s what a boatel looks like.

Great War Island sits in the middle of the Sava and is a nature preserve. Building on it is strictly forbidden and wouldn’t work anyway since there is flooding. In the summer, a pontoon bridge is built from the New Belgrade side and residents flock to the beaches. I was surprised and impressed that the Sava and Danube are clean enough to swim in!

The pontoon bridge would start from here.

As I approached the Zemun Quay, I found an endless row of ice cream vendors. These are folks standing guard in front of a cooler full of packaged treats. I picked one that wasn’t busy and learned two things. 1) Hazelnut is the same in Bulgarian and Serbian; 2) Milka (an amazing chocolate bar brand) makes chocolate hazelnut ice cream. I couldn’t believe my cone was only 65RSD!

I can’t imagine Americans are popular in Serbia because of the US’ position on Kosovo… I am a guest in this country, so that is all I will say on that subject. Please do not bring it up in the comments.

Zemun at last!

Almost the same name as the best pizzeria in the world…

These exterior blinds are exactly like what I have on my building. See how they allow in a little light while maintaining privacy? I’m not sure I like them, at least not this high up!

I started to climb up towards the Gardoš Tower, where I knew I’d get an amazing view. The tower “was built and officially opened on August 20, 1896, to celebrate a thousand years of Hungarian settlement in the Pannonian plain.”

I went through a neighbourhood of small single-family homes and narrow cobblestone streets unsuitable for vehicles. Must be fun getting your groceries home!

But easy to access your roof!

Rather magnificent tower!

I found the back way up, through very old staircases.

I came around the front and saw that I could climb to the top for 200RSD. I was rather tired by this point, so I decided to first have a coffee at the conveniently located restaurant right next door. The view from my table towards Belgrade was incredible and I couldn’t wait to get higher up!

One cappuccino later, I was ready to head up to the “belvedere.”

This was not nearly as high a climb as at St. Paul’s, but just as dizzying!

The view was worth the climb!

A very nice man offered to take my picture. I knew I had a new blog header!

He and his wife live in Atlanta, Georgia, but are originally from Belgrade. They gave me lots of interesting info about what I was seeing. I was asked if I’d had anything bad happen in my travels in terms of crime or feeling in danger and all I could think of was being scammed of about 6CAD by a cab driver in Belgrade… I’ve been very lucky!

Through our conversation, it came up that I was off to find lunch and that they were about to go have lunch at a friend’s restaurant. Did I want to join them? Sure! We set off down the vehicular road from the tower into downtown Zemun. That street really reminded me of Mexico!

There are a number of lovely squares in Zemun, which reminded me of Mérida. It’s obvious that Zemun was once its own community.

Here we are at the restaurant, Ze & Z Pizzeria.

The placemats were huge, but gorgeous!

We all had beer!

They went for a salad special of the day and a vegetarian pizza. I went for a Margherita pizza. Like in Bulgaria, pizza in Serbia is delicious, plentiful, and cheap! I may have eaten the whole thing over the nearly two hours we were there!

After we were done eating, she pulled out a homemade dessert. I was stuffed, but had a taste. Yum!

I’m not sure what their bill was, but mine was just 510RSD. I added 200RSD as a tip for the extra attentive service and was told I was being generous. So 8.75CAD for a really good lunch I knew would sustain me for hours!

It was past three by the time we were done with lunch and I wanted to explore a bit. But before I was left to my own devices, they helped me figure out how and where to get a bus back to downtown.

We parted ways at the end of this street. What a wonderful encounter this was! I learned so much about Belgrade and the Serbian language.

I took this picture because I liked the building, but it also shows where I had to catch the no. 84 bus back, just about where that white D in a green square is located.

I was pretty tired and knew there wasn’t really much more to see, so I just wandered for maybe another 30 minutes or so to enjoy the architecture.

Unfortunately named restaurant…

Look at that balcony’s privacy screen!

I went to the bus stop and a no. 84 bus pulled up immediately. I got on and asked the driver if he spoke English. I got a weird look, so I said, “Trg Republike?” and he just waved me back dismissively. A local bookseller had told me I could buy a ticket from the driver for about 200RSD, so I held up a bill and the driver just grunted and motioned for me to go away, obviously very annoyed with me. So I sat down and hoped a ticket inspector didn’t board us as I knew that would be a hefty fine.

Off we went and then… BOOM. Yes, second time on a bus in Serbia, second time with an accident! This time, a car hit the bus!!! The driver was pissed. I’m pretty sure I heard a litany of Serbian curses. Everyone began to get off the bus, so I did so too, feeling a little dejected since I’d have to start all over. And then, I realised we were right at Branko’s Bridge, so I was less than 2KM from home! I couldn’t believe the bus had gone so far (more than 5KM!). I was fine with walking home from where I was, so I set off to cross the Sava on foot once more.

That green bridge is the pontoon one the Germans built. Now, it’s a trolley bridge.

I was rather impressed that there is a lift for cyclists!

Google Maps did a decent job of routing me from the bridge to Trg Republike, and I was, of course, able to get home from there.

Here’s my building. My flat is in the second to last row to the top, with the blind pushed out, like you saw above. I will confess I’ve been using the scary lift to get up there when I come in after doing a lot of walking.

I came in and Skyped my mother. Around 7:30 or so, I found the strength to go back to the Black Turtle Pub for a pint and a bit of music that wasn’t to my taste. I discovered after the beer that I was actually hungry, so I continued on just a bit further along the block to a gyros place that had English on the menu. My chicken sandwich was fantastic and inexpensive, so I might eat there again!

It was another full and wonderful day in Belgrade!

September 25, 2016 by Rae

A Mexican Themed Second Day in Belgrade

Warning: Today’s post features photos and discussion on the subject of torture that some readers may find upsetting.

One thing I didn’t expect coming to Europe was that I would have to essentially become a night owl again. It’s been really hard to get to bed early because my friends and colleagues get online late in my evening, so that’s the best time to get in touch. Moreover, things seem to just start later in Europe and there is more nightlife. So midnight has been a normal bedtime for me since I got across the pond, but I haven’t necessarily been able to get up late enough in the mornings to make up for that late bedtime. If the dogs weren’t whining for their walk by 7:30 or 8:00, there was a worker at the house or I was holidaying and needing to get going.

So one of the things I expected is that I was going to need to crash at my next stop. This was one of the reasons why I chose to rent an apartment for the week rather than, say, stay at a hostel in a private room, and also why I was adamant about being downtown. This way, I can rest up, take it slow, and not have to go far to soak in the ambiance. So that’s why my daily plans aren’t particularly ambitious. Moreover, Belgrade isn’t really a city of museums or lots of set things to do. It’s really the perfect place to just amble and see what you stumble across.

This morning, I set off for Belgrade Fortress to visit the military museum and see more of the fortification. Spoiler: I need to go back there a fourth time. There’s just so much!

I finally headed out around eleven and didn’t get farther than Republic Square before plunking myself down at a café and ordering an espresso macchiato. I used some Serbian for the first time, hvala, which is rather like saying “thanks.” Both it and please are two-word expressions, but my tour guide yesterday said that I can just say the first part. So I made sure to use “molim” and “hvala” a lot today, even when doing transactions in English. Baby steps! Hvala (Хвала) has the dreaded X sound that can be like the ch in “loch,” like a k, or like an h, depending on its place in the word, and followed by a consonant. Not an easy word. Serbian doesn’t seem to like vowels much. Trg (square) and vrt (garden) are words!

After my coffee, I took a street that parallels Knez Mihailova Street, but there wasn’t much on it, so I took a shortcut through this magnificent courtyard to get there. Can you imagine living in one of those apartments?!

I got to the fortress and ambled for a bit, finding this tennis court:

The clocktower is one of several bits in the fortress that you have to pay to see. I will do that later this week!

I went through the outer Stambol Gate, built in 1750-1760. On our tour yesterday, there was a young Australian guy who said that the fortress is really cool because they don’t have anything like that in Australia. Then, he turned to me and said, “You must feel the same way!” Um, no, we Canadians actually have several fortress-type things dating back to the 18th century! Citadel Hill in Halifax was fortified in 1749, the Fortress of Louisbourg (also in Nova Scotia) was constructed between 1720 and 1740, and the Citadelle in Quebec dates back to 1673!

I was not expecting to see dinosaurs today…

The fortress site is massive!

Yeah, this was definitely not on the list for today…

Holy smokes they look real and scary!

As a medievalist, this sounded interesting, but also rather disturbing. After some debating with myself, I decided to check it out.

It was on the way to the military museum.

The entrance fee wasn’t expensive, about 300RSD, and I was rather disturbed that the cashier told me to enjoy myself… I stepped into this creepy dungeon setting that had really disturbing audio playing. There were no sounds of torture or anything like that, but the effect was very disquieting.

This panel immediately put me at ease, with the curators addressing my fears that the exhibit might be gratuitous and explaining that their motives are to present an unemotional, factual overview of a terrible subject that is still a problem today.

A “break-knee.”

This was a type of horrible gag.

The bit on the chastity belt was a revelation to me. They pointed out how it was most likely used voluntarily by women to prevent rape. “We wish to however point out that the belt was nevertheless an instrument of torture to which women had subjected themselves to escape the violence of men.”

The rack:

It was here that I started to have enough of the terrible things humans do to each other. I’ll leave it up to your imagination what this did:

A throne of spikes…

“The idea of mechanizing torture was born in Germany…”

A cloth of very rough fabric that would flay the skin.

This was a horrible exhibit, but well worth going to. I’m getting a little upset revisiting it, but I’m glad I went and I think it was exceedingly well done. Many of these methods — and worse — are still in use today. We are not as civilised as we think we are.

Next up was the military museum. To be honest, I had mixed feelings about visiting it, not sure I wanted to pay to look at a bunch of tanks and various weapons. But entrance was only 150 dinars so I took a chance.

Coming in, we start with the weapons of the ancient peoples of this land. I really liked how they are presented in this mosaic. Already, I knew this museum was going to be special.

So many of these exhibits, like this map, were beautiful and represented a lot of hard work.

14th century quotes about a battle between Bulgaria and Serbia. Serbia won.

Armour that is a work of art.

Giant cannonball?

First time I’ve seen “Bosnia and Herzegovina” in its own language.

We eventually entered the early 20th century. The museum doesn’t go much further than that, except for showing tanks and missiles outside. While I wish more contemporary history had been displayed, I felt that this was a jewel of a music, well laid out and with really interesting exhibits.

I loved the moss growing inside this gun!

It was past one by the time I got out of the museum and I was famished. I headed back to Knez Mihailova Street and took a side street at random where I found a sushi restaurant next to… a “Mexican” restaurant, Zapata Ciudad! Having had sushi in the last week, I decided to try the Mexican joint. The food descriptions were only in Serbian, but the Spanish dish names were enough for me to have an idea of what I would be ordering. I went with the “burrito traditionale.”

That was rather a lot of food. No, I did not come even remotely close to finishing it!

Here’s my TripAdvisor review of Ciudad Zapata:

I live in Mexico part-time and spend a lot of time traveling through the southern US where there are several American interpretations of Mexican cuisine. So I was curious to see how Serbia would interpret the various cuisines of this part of the world.

My first impression was that the portion size was insane (two huge burritos!) and I wished I’d realised I could order a half portion for 30% less.

Then, I noticed the chips and salsa. The chips are real Mexican tortilla chips like they make in restaurants from their leftover tortillas, not the yellow corn chips that are more commonly used in the US! While lacking in chiles, the pico de gallo was exactly like what I get in Mexico, with perfectly proportioned onion, fresh tomato, a squeeze of lime, and even a little avocado. I was immediately transported back to my Mexican village, even with the lack of heat. Very impressed!

The burritos were… interesting. It would have been nice if they had been heated up. They were wheat tortillas stuffed with kidney beans, plain white rice, mushrooms, marinated sweet peppers, and your meat of choice (I went with chicken, which was marinated and tender — so yummy!). I don’t like mushrooms and picked them out, then found the burritos quite tasty thanks to those peppers. To my great amusement, the only hot sauce on offer was Thai (a Sriracha knock-off), but it added some much needed kick to my meal. The size of these burritos was very American, but there was none of the Tex-Mex/Southwest heaviness since there was no meat or sour cream.

I really enjoyed my little taste of Mexico and the Southwest in Belgrade and would definitely come back to Ciudad if only for the chips and salsa!

After lunch, I ambled down towards Belgrade’s Museum of Science and Technology. Entrance was free!

It was very loud in there at the beginning because a lady was playing this giant organ.

The museum is a series of small collections of themed items showing the evolution of technology. I’m always disturbed when something from my childhood is presented as an antique in a museum!

What a massive camera!

Utensils for roasting, grinding, and brewing coffee:

A mainframe analogue computer. WOW. There were also other similar components that were just part of a bigger computer!

I remember these…

These instruments were used to fasten boats to undeveloped shorelines.

I was smitten by this pretty blue phonograph!

Interesting stove, so antiquated on top, but with rather fancy knobs on the front.

So pretty!

They don’t make appliances like they used to!

What a lovely printing machine!

Typesetter cabinet:

The Science and Tech Museum was small, just one room at the top of the building, but it was filled with treasures. I would have felt I got my money’s worth if I’d had to pay a few hundred dinars in admission.

I decided to head home for a break (it was almost 4:00) and passed the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky (Crkva Svetog Aleksandra Nevskog), which was really beautiful!

There’s always an interesting building around you in this part of Belgrade.

The house of Nikola Pašić, an important Serbian/Yugoslav politician and diplomat for more than 40 years.

I was surprised to see that AXA insurance operates out in Serbia. They are the company that did right by me after my toad was murdered in West Virginia.

I walked up Skadarlija Street, crossed an intersection, took a right, and… realised I was behind my building! I couldn’t believe how close I was to the Bohemian Quarter and promptly made plans to have dinner there!

The reason that I had gone back to Skadarlija Street was that I’d spotted an earring vendor on my tour yesterday. This woman hand makes earrings in a découpage style. I was surprised by how unattractive these look up close when they are so striking from a distance. I think that’s part of why I fell hard for them. They were only 400RSD! So that’s now two pairs of Serbian earrings! These are light as a feather despite their size.

I love the filigree detailing on the bottom.

I went back out to have dinner around six, opting for Dva Jelena (two deer) as it was highly recommended. I started with a cold glass of chardonnay.

I was brought this bread that I didn’t ask for and which was not included, but which was rather yummy. Check out that huge clump of garlic, Vicki! Shame there was a bit too much salt. I ate about half of it.

I forgot to take a picture of my dinner, but wish I had because it was hilarious. Like at lunch in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, I ordered the bacon wrapped chicken, completely missing that it was actually ham wrapped in chicken wrapped in bacon! I was so glad I’d done the grown up thing and asked to substitute cooked vegetables for the potatoes! The veggies were just frozen carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli, but perfectly tasty. The meal was nothing special, to be honest, but it satisfied my need for some meat and veggies.

After dinner, I ambled down Skadarlija Street to the other end. It’s a very short street! It was still rather early (about 7:30), so music and other entertainment were just starting.

I found another one of those helpful directional signs!

At the end of Skadarlija, I turned left to do a loop back to my place. I passed a hardware store, which fascinated me for some reason.

It was dark, but there were actually a lot of people milling about. Most shops were closed, but there were a lot of fast food places open.

Not the best shot, but it shows one of many buildings, including my own, with blinds on the outside of the building. I find that a mixed blessing in that I have tons of privacy, but they block some of the light.

I popped into a convenience store for an ice cream and got a sandwich. I burst out laughing when I opened it. I found an amazing ice cream sandwich in Mexico where half has the wafer and the other half is chocolate covered. Guess what I bought tonight? It wasn’t quite as good (not as chocolately), but still yummy!

I’m really pleased with how my day turned out. While I did stick to familiar streets, I started to venture outside my comfort zone a bit now that I’m better orientated.

Most tourist attractions are closed on Mondays, so tomorrow will be an ambling day as I don’t expect any work. I will have at least a little bit of work the rest of the week, so I’ll probably just go out in the afternoons. I have to check out on Friday, so I’ll definitely have to come up with my next move in the next day or two. I am debating whether going to another Serbian destination or heading straight for Sarajevo. I have a lot of research to do!

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Religious Sites/Cemeteries

A Walking Tour of Sarajevo

An Afternoon Wandering Around Sarajevo

A Belgradian Miscellany

Across the Sava to the Shores of the Danube

A Mexican Themed Second Day in Belgrade