With a freshly renewed pain in my heart for the people of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, we headed to Belgrade. Trying to keep an open mind wasn't going to be easy after seeing the devastation up close in Mostar and Sarajevo, meeting some of the wonderful people, and hearing about their personal tragedies during the war. The train trip to Belgrade was long and through mostly farmland of corn and sunflowers. The only other person in our compartment was a Serbian man who threw a fit when he discovered that the Bosnian exit stamp in his passport was actually legible (a majority of passport stamps are impossible to decipher). I have no idea what that was all about. The only other excitement was when two young men who had been on our train were arrested at the Serbian border.

Found a decent hostel near the train station. Not the best location but the hostel had a cat so it got points for that. Found a local restaurant and had a great meal of shredded cabbage salad, bread, goulash, mashed potatoes, soup, and beer. The food is wonderful in Serbia! Took a free city tour the next morning that started off with a shot of Rakija (80-proof brandy) for all 25 of us. If they think for one minute that they're going to change my mind about Serbia with free booze well...

The guide was excellent and the tour covered Kalemegdan (Belgrade Fortress and Park), Mihajlova Street (main shopping/pedestrian area), Skadarlija (Bohemian Quarter), "Silicon Valley" (street where the rich hang out and show off their beautiful faces, bodies and cars), Republic Square, the National Theatre, the Danube and Sava Rivers, Old and New Belgrade, and several bridges joining the new and old parts of the city. The guide mentioned that several of the bridges over the Sava River were havens for civilians during the NATO bombing of Belgrade that ended the war in Kosovo. She never mentioned the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Not once!

We hit Lake Ada the next day for some relief from the scorching sun. Belgrade is not a shady city and the sun is brutal. Lake Ada turned out to be a man-made rectangle of dirty water filled with thousand of swimmers. The beach was crowded and no shade was available so we took a couple of quick dips in the murky, sun tan lotion-smelling water and headed back by bus to the city.

Spent the last couple of days checking out the Brutalist, Modernist, Neo-Byzantine and Art Nouveau styles of architecture in Belgrade. It's really a mixed bag here. Shopping occupied us for awhile but the place was way overpriced, not in our price range. We treated ourselves to another fabulous meal of local food and drink. Time to go.