Belgrade Power Walk

Alright, so prepare to be amazed:

I was able to wake up today at 8:30am today!!! I wasn't super dead either. I don't know what is going on at all. I don't know what to think! I was able to get out the door quite early with Indre, Nebojsa's roommate from Lithuania. She showed me to the bus stop to get into the city, and walked down the main street with me until her Uni. It felt weird to be awake in the early morning, but it made for sufficient lighting for photos:



of course, I ended up taking pictures of graffiti (can't help myself):







I walked towards the Fortress first. I was told it was really pleasant by a few people by then so I went straight for it :) I saw some big guns:



a tower and and such:



More guns:



I wasn't sure what these were, so I took a photo. Fake windows? Fountains? What do you think?



I liked the look of this



and here it is but looking the other way hehe



I walked down to a pillar which I read was well known here. I was thinking that it had a phallus on a phallus like thing. I am oh so mature:



I really liked the watermelon seat, but I think it was too wet to sit on it. I just took a photo instead. I was pretty walking around this area :)



As you can see, these people are risking their lives! I went over there too though, and it turns out it's not a big drop over the other side, so it didn't really feel life threatening at all. I think it's meant for drunk people at night since there are clubs around. And for liability of course.



This looked very fortressy to me:



but then it looked way more so when I looked from the other side:



I walked down to this Church and went inside. It was small and simple, but it didn't allow photos so there are none of it. This second one reminded me of the monastery I saw in Macedonia, but it was also Orthodox:



The inside of that church was totally all mosiac. I've never seen that before. It was actually really cool looking, especially the shiny ones :) I didn't know if I could take photos or not though, so I didn't. I sat down outside the church and looked at a book Hogar had given me on "how to conquer Serbia". I read up on history and sights a bit, then decided on going down into the city center again. I reached Republic square again after being slightly lost...



You see, the maps show the names of streets in latin for tourists, but the streets are all labeled in Cyrillic. Soooo you can't read anything still.

I eventually found the "bohemian quarter", which is really a bohemian street. It was cobbled and full of cafes where the artist and poets of Belgrade used to hang out in older times. It was pleasant enough:



There are a lot of buildings here with character for sure:



These buildings are painted to make them less boring I guess...



This reminded me of Sarajevo!



This was across the street... Here I bought some ice cream for 80 cents. It was 40 a scoop! So cheap :)



I should mention that one thing I was seeing an awful lot of was Police in these areas. I wasn't sure why there were so many but I knew that on Sunday, the day that I was supposed to take the train in, there was a "gay pride parade" in the city center with about 800 people and 5000 police protecting it. Some people started getting physical and a ton of police were injured, cars burned, buildings maimed etc.

I suppose it's a good thing I did end up going drinking that night and missing my subsequent train. Would have been odd getting out to chaos and fire. Well anyway, I was seeing a lot of them around and I didn't know why.

I made it back to this main square:



I was on my way south towards a big famous church. I think it's supposed to be the biggest eastern Orthodox church in Europe or something. I passed this ugly building but I thought it was still interesting so I took a photo:



So it was quite a walk but I made it:



turns out the thing is under construction! I went inside, but the inside is mostly grey cement with the odd embellishment finished. Everyone was kissing things and making cross movements with their fingers so it was feeling a little culty. I seemed to be the only one not kissing photos and making cross motions though so I left.

I was approached by these three young guys wanting people to buy little kid's books for a euro to help children in need in Belgrade. I thought it was odd, but not a bad thing. I decided to give them some Hungarian money I could no longer get rid of easily (I faked not having dinars yet) so they actually got 3-4 euros worth if they could find somewhere to change it, and I got rid of Hungarian money. We both win. I had a strange children's book about God in Cyrillic though.

I came back along a different street and passed by this playground. I thought I could do an effect like make the yellow the only colour, but I don't know how to do that with Photoscape, so hopefully it is already doing that unedited:



I came to a park, with another church. This one also had the same thing, so I was brief inside but I liked the outside!



I walked by a little demonstration. It was mostly just that sign and the two pictures. I had no idea what it said or what it was about, so I took a photo. Turns out it's some small political party about Russia. Again, lots of police there.



By now I had walked an awful lot. I was thinking of walking home after eating, but I realized it was still early since I had started so early! I thought "okay, I can check out a couple more things then, so I started to turn away and saw this:



I walked up the hill and ran into what I *think* is an former Princesses residence? It was either this building or another close by. Either way this one was nice:



This pornographic graffiti reminded me of Madame Cleo, the old rub n' tug in Vancouver that used to be painted all provocatively. I don't know what this building was used for, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a massage parlour.



This seemed to be the land of graffiti! I had been told there was an area where people were allowed to spray, so I wondered if this was it...



I bought some food and started to go over the bridge to eat in the park. When I looked back, that area had one more thing for me to take a picture of:



Belgrade has a lot of bars and restaurants and clubs on their two rivers, here are some:



I sat and ate my food on the riverside, and was happy to feel warm enough to do so :) I had texted Indre and knew that she was now home, so I could make my way through the park towards the apartment after eating. There is a park along the river all the way up to Hogar's house so I was listening to my German recording and walking through the park. I encountered this pillar:



Now I don't know why I took a picture of this thing and not the nice green riverside park! I will have to snap one today... The park was long so I began to wonder if I was going the right way. Eventually I passed this abandoned hotel and I knew I was in the right place. I got home and rested my feet and started typing this up :) Hogar came back and had to work a bit, so I continued typing typing typing until around 10. Hogar had Portuguese classes and Indre had invited me out with her friend to see someone play a fusion of electronic and guitar/drums.

We left but stopped for food along the way (I was starving again). I finally had something really filling! We waited for her friend at Republic Square and were hit on by two Greek tourists until the friend showed up and they started speaking Lithuanian. The boys couldn't understand anything so they left hehe :) We found the bar with the help of some nice people, and sat down for a beer.

Hogar showed up not long afterward, and the four of us chilled until Indre's friend took off. Then the three of us made up new names for cocktails/shots for a while, and enjoyed the chill out music. It got packed for a random Tuesday night! The guy that was helping us find the place had said Tuesday was the best night to be there, and he seemed to be correct. Eventually it was time to leave though, so we came back and watched some clips from Monty Python (we had been talking about it before and Indre had never seen it) before going to sleep at around 4.

Now I woke up at 11am so I broke the early morning spell, but I don't feel like it would be hard to get back to doing that. Strange!

Today I think I will walk to a new part of town, and if the weather is crap then I'll go to the Nicola Tesla museum.