Belgrade

10.08.2018 - 10.11.2018 70 °F

Never trust your first impression when visiting a new city. After checking into my Airbnb, I needed to buy my bus pass for my next adventure. The bus/train station was a 10 minute walk from my Airbnb and the area was dirty, ugly and just plain sad looking. The train station looked desolate, with weeds growing on the tracks and windows broken. When contemplating taking the train or the bus, the answer was easy, the bus. It was a shorter ride and the departure times were more convenient. The first day (first impression) was disappointing, but then everything turned around on the second day. Belgrade has a beautiful pedestrian walkway (Prince Michael Street) filled with stores and restaurants that is fun during the day but really comes alive after sunset. Walking is the best way to see this city with its old beautiful architecture, glorious fountains and yummy bakeries. The neighborhoods are safe, clean and bustling with energy (just not around the immediate area of the train/bus station). Belgrade is a big city that is in transition and I believe that in 5 years, this will be a great tourist spot. They are building luxury apartment/hotels by the waterfront, fixing neglected neighborhoods and investing in infrastructure. One of the highlights was seeing the Sava River flow into the Danube from the Belgrade Fortress - It’s just something special to see.

On a political note, our airport driver told us that the people of Belgrade were literally dancing in the street when 45 was elected. Of course, Serbia also sides with Russia so there you go.

Baggage carousel at the Belgrade Airport

First Impressions

Busy Bus stop

Museum - Nikola Tesla, an inventor and engineer who is perhaps most famous for his work related to the modern alternating current electricity system.

General Post Office is one of the most representative buildings of the most important state institution for postal traffic and services. It was constructed in the period from 1935 to 1938 as the palace of the Post Office Savings Bank, the Main Post Office and the Main Telegraph

Chess anyone?

Church of St. Mark is a Serbian Orthodox churc

The Church of Saint Sava is a Serbian Orthodox Church. It is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world and ranks among the largest church buildings in the world.

The church's foundation had been completed, and the walls erected. After the 1941 bombing of Belgrade, work ceased altogether. The occupying German army used the unfinished church as Wehrmacht's parking lot, while in 1944 the Red Army, and later the Yugoslav People's Army used it for the same purpose. After that, it was used for storage by various companies. The Society for Building of the Church ceased to exist and has not been revived. Children who grew up in the vicinity, including the future President of Serbia Boris Tadić, didn't know the intended purpose of the unfinished construction, so they played inside thinking it was a ruin of some old castle.

Construction of the building began again on 12 August 1985.

After the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, the works were halted again but resumed in 2001. As of 2017, the exterior of the church is complete.

The church is 299 ft long from east to west, and 266 ft from north to south. It is 230 ft tall, with the main gold-plated cross extending for 39 ft more. Its domes have 18 more gold-plated crosses of various sizes, while the bell towers have 49 bells of the Austrian Bell Foundry Grassmayr.

Saint Sava Church Crypt is the only part open to the public.

This monument Of Jaksic who was a famous writer and painter, rebellious, freedom-loving, passionate and with impetuous imagination. He wrote poems about freedom and verses of lyric confessions, full of deep pain.