Short visit to Serbia

Serbia is the only ex-Yugoslavian country where Dora was wanted so far, so we went.

The places worth visiting for our short visit to Serbia were all located north of the country. This was quite convenient for us, as we were driving up to Hungary.

Last night was incredibly peaceful, we had found an old abandoned bridge. We were surrounded by fields. The birds were singing, the frogs croaking. Bee-eaters were perched on the telephone cables

Today, it was a clear morning and we were off to a new country.

To date, we have had no programme to follow. We might have an idea of where we want to go and what we want to see, but we change depending on ours moods. That is starting to change as we are near the end of trip. We need to be back in the UK by the end of September. The 24th to be exact. This is when Dora’s MOT runs out.

There are many countries for us still to see, many things we want to accomplish, so, over the last few days we have put a programme together, working out how long we have left and how much time we have to spend in each country.

We have been conservative, so hopefully we will still have contingency days.

This has been quite sad. A realisation that the trip must eventually come to an end.

But today, we can put that behind us. It is a new day and a new country. We are heading into the centre of the Balkans, Serbia.

For some reason, presumably something to do with how close countries are to joining the EU or various other organisations and agreements, we have been able to get full insurance and therefore a green card, for entering Serbia.

It wasn’t without its difficulties. Our insurance was due to run out halfway through Serbia, so we have had to renew, a relatively painless process. We have been really happy with the Service at Safeguard, and really good value, just wish they would cover a few more countries in the Balkans.

So we head for the Romanian and Serbian border and cross with no issues whatsoever,

they don’t even request to see the Green card, which was digital and we had not printed it out!

First impressions; flat and agricultural

and just like Romania, although we are back to a Cyrillic language, which makes map reading quite a challenge.

We drive straight to Beograd which is only about 120km from last nights stop.

The parking here is a nightmare.

It is not that the parking itself is difficult. We head straight for a place near the zoo and the castle that we believe tolerates overnight stays in motorhomes. Finding it is easy.

The difficulty is paying for it. You only seem to be able to pay by SMS. This is not good for a tourist. Our phone won’t send the text! Apparently we can also buy a ticket, but no one knows from where!

Somebody kindly offers to text for us, pay for an hour, so kind but we want the whole day. Eventually we change some money and persuade a minibus driver who is hanging out in the car park to text for us and we give him the money.

Many, many thanks.Why make it so difficult!

We climb the small hill on top of which sits the fortress, with a commanding view over guess which river?

The Danube of course.

This river keeps cropping up! Beograd sits on the confluence with the Sava and seems surrounded by water.

But this is the quiet side, the city proper must be the other way.

The fortress is vast with lots of people milling about. We make our way to the military museum.

And then wanderer around the surrounding gardens

The town is really bustling.

The streets are packed with cafes and bars all doing a fine trade.

But now I have writers block for this post so am handing over to Susu.

 

Beograd is a pretty capital.

full of majestic buildings to admire

clean, well maintained

packed with old-world culture for history lovers

with stylish fountains for a quick stopover to freshen up and

feed the pigeons

but Beograd’s old-world culture is only reflected on the buildings. A new-world life has developed since the opening up to capitalism.

Beograd’s streets are sparkling with people there and about, consuming, socialising…

The cafe culture seems to be at its peak in Beograd. Numerous coffee shops line the streets, a few metres apart. All trendily decorated, playing new age music, all with comfy seats outside. They seem to compete with each other to offer the most fashionable, chic and stylish ambience. And people buy into it. From here, they look so cool in their ray ban sunglasses, with their cigarette in their hand, laughing, chatting, so frivolously…

It is interesting being an spectator of a culture which I once belonged to. Perhaps we will join them later.

We come across an exhibition of what they look those creepy Japanese cars that can turn into human shapes.

We never got to see what cars these robots were once. They had already unfolded when we got here.

In any case, people seem to be fascinated taking photos of them, and I was one of them.

But like any capital, Beograd also has scuzzy areas. Areas whose buildings are not worth either repairing or maintaining, as they are too far out from the eye of the tourist. Maybe they are just letting them die to develop the new, residential Beograd outside the city centre.

Wandering back to Dora, we walk down Skadarska, a cobbled street full of restaurants and coffee shops. Once upon a time, the favourite place of artists, writers and intellectuals to meet.

Now, turned into tourist hell.

There is just nothing left of what was presumably the ambience of the past. Bricks and mortar yes, conversions to restaurants and bars, but nothing else left, just a sign! GDR

with restaurant staff assaulting you every two minutes persuading you to have anything at their premises. We are looking for coffee shop to have a drink and feel a bit more engaged with that cafe culture. But maybe away from here.

At the end of the street, a quirky, brief description of what the meaning of this street in the history of Beograd.

We reverse Dora back into the corner where it will be a bit more peaceful and have a pretty quiet night.

So the next day and you are back with me writing the blog.

We cannot be bothered to try and obtain another parking permit so we take Dora off into Beograd where she pretends to be a tram!

She likes this…!

We shudder to think what could have caused this amount of damage.

The first stop of the day a museum celebrating the scientist Nikola Tesla. Now I knew nothing of Nikola except that an electromagnetic force is named after him, I was designing a project around electrical sub-stations so got to learn a lot about micro-teslas, permit levels and how to dissipate them. Now to learn about the man!

(I really hope this is the case and the connection!)

Well this geezer was a bit of a genius and pretty much is responsible for the electric motor, DC current and all sorts of other things. The nice little film was great, but the exhibition, with all these lovely models which said ‘Don’t turn on’.

So much for interactive displays!

Apparently the guy that was allowed to play with them was late, couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed. What a shame.

The first half of the exhibition seemed to be mainly about his publicist, very strange.

And to cap it all, he emigrated to America when quite young and only visited Beograd once in his lifetime, but they tenuously try and own him.

Next stop, the cathedral.

Now this is a bit different. It is still under construction.

So you look back in history and see all the amazing advances that were made in engineering and architecture to produce places of worship.

Getting closer to God, elegant arches, mystical light, stained glass windows, vertical expressions of fluted columns.

What we have here is a modern sop lazily built in concrete which could do so much more, be much more elegant, much more efficient. It is the equivalent of asking a thoroughbred racehorse to walk children up and down the beach.

(actually, like this, I have to admit, it looks quite cool, but not for much longer!)

They have yet to apply the veneer that makes it look like what people expect a church to look like. They will apply a facade to make it look old.

The crime.

A lot of modern technology will go into this building. This is not hand carved, this is water jet technology. But it is just copying from the past. Why not see what water jet technology can really do, take it to the limits of beauty, of creativity.

The lazy choice, copy, be safe, give ‘em what they have always known, look backwards, not forwards, regressions, not progression.

This is the fundamental ethos of religion.

They almost went modernist on the exterior, just take it further.

This has to be one of the blandest, laziest, excuses of a compromised building I have yet to see complete.

If I were Howard Roake, this would be first on my list for demolition, for sheer mediocrity.

Next stop Tito’s pad, so back to Susu.

I wouldn’t miss out Tito’s grave. Our guide agrees, it classifies it as ‘a must’.

Tito was the the president of Yugoslavia from the end of the WWII until he died in 1980. I remember him from my history lessons. His name used to come up often on the papers. He must have been one of the most charismatic leaders of the Ex-soviet union. I am hoping to remember and find out more about him.

Tito was buried in the House of Flowers, an amazing memorial on top of a hill, on the way out of Beograd. His grave is indoors, though, surrounded by tropical plants. Here, it feels hot and sticky, as if we were inside a greenhouse.

Two rooms each side of his grave hold small exhibitions. The one on the right is full of messages of condolence and recognition that hundreds of international leaders sent after his death.

The messages written on the visitors book have been digitalised.

The room on the left hand side of the grave displays a collection of gifts from all over the world. They better find a bigger place soon, they are running out of space!

Tito’s wife had also the honour of being buried in such a grandiose place.

So, it is all very well that Tito is so well considered outside internationally.

But what has he done to deserve to be remembered like this? What do people think about him now?

Well, apparently, the Balkan countries enjoyed the most stable and peaceful times of their history when he was in power. Charismatic, fighter and a strong defender of socialism, he gained the respect of his people.

Yeap, it is all very well. But I bet it wasn’t all roses. Yugoslavia collapsed after his death. All countries found themselves in a financial mess. Their hatred for each other never disappeared, and once Tito was out the way, they went to war again in the 1990’s.

It is interesting how sometimes, a famous person is venerated after they are dead. And that whoever dares to challenge that respect, that person almost becomes a heretic.

Anyway, it has been an interesting visit to the capital of the ex-Yugoslavia. It is now time to move on to the next place: Novi Sad.

Over the impressive river. We decide to drive around the new Beograd.

The city here is not different from any other city.

Hundreds of block apartments line up along big avenues.

The city is becoming larger and larger. As we mentioned earlier, they don’t seem to renovate the old buildings but building new ones outside the centre.

These ones I actually find quite splendid, yes they are badly looked after and poorly maintained, but they have strong forms. The cascading down in size creates large balconies that are used as gardens in the sky. They just need a bit of TLC. GDR

The new blocks have kept their linear, rectangular communist style. But fortunately, they have lost their grey colour to give way bright yellows and greens.

And it is true in London to. We may have put the sixties tower block behind us, but we are still building them, just brighter, bolder and with videophones and secure access system, and people want to live in them, rather than being told they will live in them, big difference. GDR

Although they could do with improving the roads to access to the buildings.

Annoyingly, we get lost in these neighbourhoods and have to trace back our steps.

On a not much better road we head north to Novi Sad, described by our guide as a mini Beograd.

We will be the judge of that.

Is that snow? No way, we are in the middle of June!

It is a hill of rubbish, left untreated to decompose. Amazing.

GDR & SM