Today I risked my life!!
As promised yesterday, this morning I went back to Kalemegdan to take pictures. Here is what Kalemegdan looks like on a small scale:
I knew it was big but honestly, every single time I thought "ok this is it I've seen it all" I was turning somewhere and poof another big wall that I hadn't seen before popped in front of me, going as far as a 100 meters. It's quite nice, there is a big park inside the walls. The reason for the warning of course is because some parts of the fortress don't have anything to protect you from a potentially fatal fall, so you are of course required to be very careful. I'm glad my mother was not around today (sorry!) because she would have had a heart attack since I walked very close to the wall limits to take nice pictures.
Here is a medley of pictures from Kalemegdan:
I am really smart (or really stupid it depends which point of view you take). I realized that my phone was set to take low resolution pictures so everything I took so far is on a very small scale, but I discovered that I can change those settings!! So now that I set my phone properly (I looked in my luggage and my camera battery is definitely lost forever), look how big my pictures are!!
Much better! I'm glad to have found out 4 days into my trip instead of 4 days from the end...
I'm very happy today because I received an e-mail from my serbian colleague, she is reading my blog every day and she is enjoying spending virtual time with me in Belgrade. However she informed me that I explained what Serbian yogurt is the wrong way. It is not made from "milk passed expiration date" as I said before but from "fermented milk", so I apologize to any yogurt lover I may have offended! I still don't like it regardless what it's made from haha so I decided to be very unique today and I ordered my burek with milk instead. Everyday I'm thinking that I have to take a picture of my Pekara but I keep forgetting! Must be because I'm too hungry by the time I get there.
Going to the washroom turns out to be an adventure in Belgrade. I'm shy to go in any coffee places like that just to use the washroom... I know it's not a very interesting topic but the reason I'm bringing it up is because today I stumbled upon a McDonald's and I thought this was the perfect location for a little washroom break. I'm used to those, I use McDonald's for that reason in Ottawa all the time haha. Well, I don't know if all the McDonald's in Serbia are like this one but I was so impressed! It almost looks like a 5-star restaurant, nothing like our McDonald's!
Just thought this could be something of interest for my readers! :)
Lunch was very interesting today!! I decided to go to the restaurant called "Dva jelena" which is located on the cute cobbled street Skadarska, remember I mentionned it a few days ago? It's ok me too I have a hard time remembering Serbian street names :) So I sat outside on the terrasse because today was another very warm day, I ordered and then I saw that the girl sitting at the other table in front of me was also alone and ordering to her waiter in English. When both waiters left, I decided to get up and to talk to her, I said that since she was eating on her own as well she was welcome to join me at my table and share lunch with me. I figured if she says no then my ego will be slightly hurt but at least I won't ever see her again so it's no big deal... but she said yes! She is from England, her name is Anna and she is crazier than me! She left England last Friday, she went to Buddapest and she arrived in Belgrade today morning (she took a night train so that she doesn't have to pay a hostel). Her plan was to leave Belgrade tonight and head to Sofia. She's going like this through many many places (I don't remember everything) until she gets to Australia in August where she will start a new job. Her plan was to take no planes at all from England to Australia... I'm impressed!
After lunch I had not made much plans again (apprently not learning from my mistakes here!) There is still one area of Belgrade that I want to see (Zemun) but I think I will see it with Jelena later this week (not too sure though) and I was also planning to bike around Ada Ciganlija but I made plans to do that with Adrijana. Therefore, my Serbian life is starting to become exactly like my Ottawa life, trying to juggle what I want to do with the commitments I made haha. No wonder I feel at home here.
So anyways, I read in a guide that there was the biggest market in Belgrade at a walking distance from downtown (approximately 20 minutes walk I think?) so I headed in that direction. It became even longer than 20 minutes because I ALWAYS manage to get lost in Belgrade :( No big deal, I often discover nice buildings by being so inefficient at going where I want to go. But anyways I reached the market at around 3:45 PM but it closes at 4 so it wasn't as crowded and full of life as what I would have liked.
I ended up buying strawberries. Seems like a detail to you for now but you will see, it becomes important in the story of my day later!
Looking at my guide again, they were talking about a big cemetary with lots of nice looking graves, sculptures, etc. I thought maybe it's a little weird to visit a cemetary but I had nothing better to do and it was close by so why not. At first I was hesitant to take pictures because I didn't know if that could be offensive or maybe bad luck, but I decided what the heck, since I spent many hours learning Serbian, I'm sure any dead person I have offended today by taking a picture of their grave will forgive me (hopefully!)
I've been pretty much walking almost non-stop for 4 days now. After the cemetary, I was exhausted. And I thought what a great opportunity to be extremely lazy and take the bus instead of walk back. I looked at the bus plan at the bus stop and found out that #27 was going all the way to Trg Republike which is closer to my hostel than the cemetary. I had been told that taking a bus in Belgrade on a weekday was an experience in itself because people are crazy and pushing each other around to get inside the overcrowded bus, etc. Sounded like lots of fun to me! Unfortunately my bus was not even that full and I found a place to sit. Luckily, I took advantage of this moment to do another illegal act! I didn't pay to get on the bus! Someone informed me (not going to give any name here) that trying to get on the bus for free is the national sport in Serbia, and by now you should know that I HAD to try the national sport, right? Also, if you get caught you have to pay 3000 dinars (the equivalent of approximately 35 dollars). I thought it was worth the risk, but I do apologize to Belgrade for not investing my money in their transport system. But who knows, maybe my blog full of nice pictures and crazy adventures will convince 3-4 of my friends to go to Belgrade too, so in a way I am contributing in a different way to bring revenue to Serbia , I hope it balances out!
As mentionned, the bus dropped me at Trg Republike where I walked two seconds and decided to stop to look at my map (an activity I do approximately every 30 seconds). I saw a bunch of Asian tourists sitting on benches so I took place next to them (I don't know why, I guess I got attracted to them because they were tourists too, we stick together!) So the lady next to me looked at me and saw the strawberries I was holding back from the market and said in complete amazement "Oh, strawberries!! Where did you find those?" So I showed her on the map and somehow the word spread amongst the Asian folks that I was holding strawberries and 5 or 6 of them came to see them. It looked as though it was the first time they saw strawberries in their whole life! So I started chatting with the Asian lady next to me, they were actually from Philipines and we had a 10 minutes chat about Belgrade and where they were heading next and Canada, etc. It's so much fun here I always end up talking to so many people :)
So those were the excitements of the day! I hope you're not bored yet, here are some more random pictures from my day, enjoy and I will talk to you guys tomorrow!
Serbian menu :)
After the Serbian Waldo, today we have the Serbian Lucky Luke!!
I often see very interesting buildings, but Serbians don't seem to think it's necessary to identify their buildings. So I have no idea what that is...
In case you would like to know what your day would be like in Serbia, here is your Serbian horoscope. I discovered that I am a "strelac"
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