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A Surprisingly Nice City29 Apr 2009
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From Bus
Looking Across the River
Bombed Building
Today we made our way into Belgrade, Serbia. As we drove into the city, we were told about the areas troubled past. Serbia has constantly been fought over by other nations, and has probably been under control by 20 different powers throughout its troubled past. The Serbs actually sparked World War I, when a nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
The first thing we saw when we drove into the city was a large building missing the outer wall, as it was completely blown away by a bomb. I wondered how long it had been sitting there like that, probably a long time. We took a drive around the city and saw some of the important buildings. We were then dropped off and took a walk around the Belgrade Fortress. It was a large fortress overlooking the river, built originally by the Romans and later by a Byzantine czar. There were tons of replicas of (our actual old) cannons, guns, and tanks, so we stopped by and took a bunch of pictures with them. Inside the fortress was pretty much a beautiful park, with flowers and trees and everything. It must have been quite the romantic place, because everywhere people were making out. After we walked past some tiny little kiosk shops (where I bought a shot glass and mug), and onto the main walking street. There were quite a lot of people walking around, and there were all the brand name stores on both sides. We walked by the house old house of a princess, and up to a cool metallic monument tower. We then met back up with the rest of the group.
As we arrived at our hotel, which was located on a New York City like square (with McDonalds and large signs and all), I reflected on two things. One, I was surprised at how nice Belgrade was. It was actually a really pretty and happening city to walk through. And two, how cheap everything was. People who had gone out and had beers at a pub for about 50 U.S. cents,..and even the hotels we were now staying in were so much more nice. Definitely somewhere I wouldn't mind living. In fact, we had seen an old 100 million note for sale for about 3 dollars. Serbia had to start over with their currency at one point, because inflation had made their money useless.
After eating dinner, a bunch of us met up in the lobby and decided to head out. We tried to get in a casino, but a couple people hadn't brought their ID's, so we had to go somewhere else. We found this place on the water with music and a comfy sofa to lounge on. We chilled out their the night, then took a taxi back to our hotel and went. off to bed
