Day 25 Belgrade Serbia: 4 July

We had a morning bus and walking tour of Belgrade in the morning and free time on board in the afternoon.

Our guide in Belgrade was excellent. He had a great sense of humour, laced with irony, but was able to provide context to many of the characteristics of Serbia and the Balkans more generally.

I quite liked Belgrade but must admit it is not as picturesque as Bucharest.

The above are all government buildings of various kinds

This is the Moscow Hotel. They evidently make some kind of cherry cake that is a signature dish of Belgrade.

This bombed out building is in the central government district but the government can’t make up its mind what to do about it. I’d suggest demolition but they are currently keeping it as a symbol of liberation. Go figure.

One thing that has come through from all of our Balkan guides, who are mainly in their 30s I’d guess, is that the people have no regard for their politicians, their local government or their central government. The most common theme is that their politicians are completely incompetent and do very little for their money. It’s clearly not a role for young, competent people to aspire to.

After a short drive around the city centre we walked to the Orthodox Church of St Sava.

It was completed 2 years ago and took about 60 years to build. It was paid for by donations. It’s pretty amazing inside.

Unlike the Bulgarian church with its hand painted frescoes, these are done with plenty of gold leaf.

This is right next door. They built it in about 9 months and it was the temporary place of worship.

Our guide gave an excellent explanation of the Orthodox Church beliefs and the frescoes inside St Sava. There are no seats inside Orthodox churches, apart from for disabled folk, as you stand before god. Another guide suggested it also makes falling asleep more difficult, but her brother has evidently demonstrated that it is still possible. Also they have no musical instruments other than chanting, which makes me instantly sleepy!

Then we had a walk through the pedestrianised centre, had some free time for a coffee and bathroom stop, then walked through a park to a fortress. There were excellent views out over the Sava river to the other side of Belgrade.

One of the few original Ottoman buildings surviving in Belgrade

The port is on the Sava river which begins in the mountains of western Croatia and Belgrade is at the confluence of the Danube and Sava. We essentially had to do turn around to get back onto the Danube.

The naked guy on the plinth has become the symbol of Belgrade. Depending on the ruling regime he’s meant to symbolise various things. He’s got a nice butt!

After lunch we chilled out on the sky deck all afternoon and it was very pleasant indeed.