I'm back and not typing on a phone keyboard. On day 2 in Belgrade (I kept referring to it as Baghdad, no idea why) we went to the fortress first thing in the morning since the weather was cooperating. It's huge and has lots of armaments such as tanks and rocket launchers placed around the fort. There is also a war museum in the fortress but we decided it wasn't interesting to us. Amazing views of the Danube and Sava rivers. We killed most of the morning wandering, taking pictures and being awed at something as old as this place was even though we have seen may other fortresses, they still are amazing.

The moat of the fortress now has clay tennis courts and basketball courts in it.

We walked to see St Michaels cathedral, another ABC. Across the road from the church is Princess Ljubica's palace. It's a bit run down but still an impressive building.

Next on the list was St Marks church, a bit of a hike to the other side of the centre of town but not really that far. We saw this huge building with a great dome and a cross on top. In front were 2 massive statues of gladiators fighting with horses. There was a grand stair case leading to a pair of gigantic wooden doors standing wide open. Up we went, this is the church, get the camera ready. Not so fast, you have to leave, this is the parliament building of Bulgaria, no tourists allowed. St Mark's is around the corner. We stopped to take a couple of photos of the statues and were once again told we weren't allowed.

St marks is an amazing ABC but no pictures. I took a few shots with my camera at my waist to have a memory of what it looks like. It was worth the walk.

Skadarlia Street was the bohemian neighbour hood of Belgrade. It is a short rough, narrow, cobble stone street full of over-priced restaurants for tourists. Of course, we had dinner there. It was our most expensive dinner so far, $28.

We ventured from our hotel after dark on to Republic Square, right in front of our hotel. It was about 2000 and the square was packed. People milling about, standing talking, window shopping etc. It was impressive and we were jealous that this doesn't happen in Calgary. We did the touristy thing, took a few pictures, had ice cream and went to bed.

There is a subdivision of Belgrade called Zemun. It used to be a small town but was absorbed by the big city, sort of like Bowness. We took a cab out there on our last day in Belgrade. Cabs are so cheap; it was about a 30 minute ride and cost $9.00. You can't get in a cab for $9.00 in Calgary. There is a tower there built by the Hungarians in the 1400's. We climbed it. Since the town is right on the river, there is a really nice walking path with lots of restaurants and bars. We were planning on walking along there, stopping for coffee and making our way into the downtown section of Zemun. As we were having coffee and tea a storm blew in and I mean a storm. It just poured rain. We finally decided to get a cab and go back to Belgrade. The server in the restaurant spoke very good English and told us we had no hope of getting a cab. "When it rains in Belgrade every cab is busy".

The rain abated a bit so we hiked 300 metres into the downtown square to catch a bus back to Belgrade and boy were we lucky, there as an idle cab sitting waiting for business. Another $9.00 and we were back warm and dry in our hotel room.

Stuff

I may have mentioned every hotel we stayed in gave us an official document that proved we stayed at the hotel and for how many nights. Everyone said it was for the government so you could prove where you were. Communism days are over.

I was never nervous or worried in Serbia, I was just careful. I was careful in my blog not to be controversial or critical. Just not sure of the political environment. With these hotel forms we wondered what the exit from Serbia would be like. It turned out we never needed the forms and the exit was nothing. Get the passport stamped, go thru normal airport security and get on the airplane.

The average wage in Serbia is under 500 Euros per month (approx. $650)

We were getting off the train in Suboptica and a man carried Kitty's suitcase for her.

Books are sold everywhere. In Sofia, along Vitosha Street, the main pedestrian artery, there must have been 50 kiosks all selling books. It is not uncommon to see a car parked on the street loaded with books for sale. I don't know if they are fiction or non fiction but there are lots of them.

In the Tesla museum I sat beside a young couple that want to move to Canada. He is an Engineer. All I knew was to point him to the Government of Canada web site. I told him if he started his application now, it would likely take 3 years.

We had a waiter whose parents are Serbian and were transferred to Switzerland. This waiter was born in Switzerland and lived that for 5 years before his dad was transferred back to Serbia. He cannot get a passport; Switzerland requires residency for 8 years and since he was not born in Serbia, he cannot get a Serbian passport. He's looking for an American to marry so she can sponsor him to the US.

Stop signs are a suggestion.

Every one that works in a bus terminal hates their job.

Why are washrooms in Europe never on the ground floor? They are either upstairs or downstairs.

I may have mentioned this but the attitude towards terrorism in Europe is different than what I interpret it to be in Canada. It seems to be "when" not "if".

That's it for Serbia and Bulgaria. Interesting countries, not a lot of WOW moments but still really interesting (Petra was a WOW moment; Iguacu Falls were a WOW moment).

This trip was a little more difficult than some trips, partially due to language issues and partially due to infrastructure issues. Nothing we couldn't overcome and nothing that detracted from the enjoyment, interest and education of the trip.

One more entry….London and I still have to share the surprise that enhanced our visit there so much.

Hippies Out