Belgrade

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Just had to stop and write a quick entry while I sit in front of the biggest and most incredible church I’ve ever seen - the St. Sava Orthodox Cathedral. I always wanted to see the Taj Mahal; now I don’t know if it’s necessary! This thing totally blew my mind. It’s white with green domes and gold crosses, very simple but astoundingly huge. It’s under construction so it’s basically empty inside, with dark, cold stone (it’s freezing inside). But there’s music playing and people praying and bowing and lighting candles amid the scaffolding. Wow!

So, once again, everything changed in a matter of hours last night. I went out to dinner and had a delicious meal (chicken and broccoli tagliatelle), then considered staying out for one more drink but wasn’t really in the mood anyway, so I went back to the hostel, planning to just go to bed. When I arrived, the girl who works there (Jasna) and her beautiful, black-haired friend, were sitting in the lounge room watching a Coke documentary, so I joined them. The girls told me that a very popular Macedonian singer named Tose Proeski was killed in a car crash yesterday. He was really young and they were both almost in tears.

An Aussie guy named Mike came in at around 10pm after having gone to buy pizza, and he and I started to chat. He’s a really cool guy, and it turns out we’re travelling to exactly the same places, ending up in Romania for Halloween. So we’re going to stick together for the rest of the journey. Isn’t it totally amazing how things work out? An hour earlier, I was planning to leave that hostel, and then I found a travel partner for the rest of my trip. We stayed up until 2am talking (the latest I’ve stayed up in ages!).

I got up this morning at 9:30 (I had a brutal shower, and actually had a brutal sleep as well, but the hostel is starting to grow on me). I chatted with Jasna and Mike while I drank a tea, then set out for the day. I bought some snacks for lunch, then went to St. Mark’s Cathedral (which HAD impressed me before I saw the church of my life). The street signs and the map are impossible, I’m amazed I made it anywhere other than just walking around in circles.

I decided to have a look at Tito’s Mausoleum, but if I’d known the ordeal it would become I never would’ve bothered. I had to cross to the other side of the major highway (a mission in itself!), and the whole area stunk of exhaust fumes and big-city-grossness (not a lovely smell like my London). I had no idea where I was, which street I was on, or where that bastard Tito was buried; at one point, I walked past a horrible shantytown and felt really nervous in a Sherman McCoy type of way. I nearly gave up and went back to the centre, but when I spotted a couple of security guards, I asked them the way and they helped me. I arrived at 15:10 - it closed at 15:00. Awesome.

It took me forever to walk back into town; I can’t believe I’m still completely turned around here, even though I’ve been walking for two days straight, and I have a map! I usually hate to pull out the map and mark myself with a big T for tourist, but in Belgrade I never put it away (not that it helps!). I’m having dinner with Mike tonight: a real, live human being!

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