Yugoslavia No More

---

Geo: 44.8048, 20.4781

Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and the former capital of Yugoslavia.

Our morning tour takes us around the capital stopping first at the Kalemegdan Fortress. Our guide for the morning, Mileksa, talked about her apathy toward politics now. She is probably close to fifty years old, based on the things she talked about, and has seen the government change several times. She lived through the bombings as recently as eleven years ago. She was working in a building just a few blocks from the Chinese embassy when it was "bombed by NATO". Her husband was watching the news and called her at work to tell her to get away from the windows, because of the flying glass after the bombs fell. She related this story just as matter-of-factly as if it were an ordinary day for her. It is so hard to imagine that people were suffering here as much as they were just as recently as that.

Mileksa is also very happy to point out the statue of Viktor, the symbol of Belgrade, and explained that he is on display at the Fortress since it would have been scandalous to put a “naked man statue” in a prominent spot in town at the time it was finished. The statue faces away from the fortress out to the river.

We visited the Church of St. Sava (Hram svetog Save), the largest Orthodox church in the world, which can hold 12,000 people. Members of the Orthodox congregations stand during the service unless they are physically unable, so there are only a few hard, wooden seats lining the edges of the church. The people come and go as they choose during the service, too. Neither arriving on time nor staying until it is over are necessary. The church is actually not finished yet, lacking the mosaics that are to completely cover the walls and ceilings.

In the evening, we went back into Belgrade into the Skadarlija neighborhood for dinner at the Restaurant Ima Dana. Only a dozen or so went to the restaurant, but it was a nice time out trying more new regional dishes while strolling musicians played American hits from the 50s and 60s.

The time here is eight hours ahead of Mountain Daylight Time and tonight we lose another hour as we move into Bulgaria and Romania.

---

Photos

Orthodox Church
Largest one in the world.