Much of Serbia’s population, up to 85%, follows the Orthodox religion, which is why Slobo was successful in stirring up hate against the other minorities.
A new experience
I have never attended an Orthodox service before, but it was something to behold.
The priests actually sing the service. Not a word is spoken.
Great stuff.
It made me want to go again.
Dedicated to Nikole Pisca, this small park garden and water feature plays host to local bands, PA’s and whatnots.
A mobile phone company were using it when I went past.
This is a view from the square of Nikole Pisca facing toward the houses of parliament.
Located next to the houses of parliament, when I visit, St. Marks has a wedding party in attendance.
I am surprised by the number of reasonable looking Serbian women.
Comfort in Cash
Obviously they don’t have the same problems with comfort eating as we do in the UK.
east vs west
The church of St. Marks with it’s domed spires is a mish mash of east and western influence. I was lucky, the wedding had moved all the pews giving an impression of floor space.
I could move around to get the right pictures.
Perched up on a hill, Caste Kalemegdan has a great view down on the river below.
The castle started it’ s existence in the 14th century. ‘Kale’ means castle.
It’s surrounded by a park ‘megdan‘ which has exhibits from artists writers and poets year round.
In addition, there are some large guns, remnants of the old days used to launch assaults on the German bombers in WWII.
There’s some good little panzers.
If you’re into cannons or bombs, or a bit of a war buff, you will surely find this exciting.
Atop the complex is a picture of Victor the Victorious, dedicated to Serbian victories in the Balkans conflict 1930-2.
Center of Belgrades touristy pedestrian zone where all seems normal and westernised.
Buses are free in Belgrade and most of them lead here.
History
There is some history about the square. I’ve no doubt read it and forgot it, so I’m not going to bore you with it.
If you want to shop this is the place to start.
Belgrade was settled in th 4th Century by Celts and has been invaded ever since.
On the confluence of two rivers, one of which is the Danube, it holds some significance for it’s fortress purched where the two rivers meet.
Most recently Serbia bore witness to Slobodan Milosovic. Who must still have some popular support as I saw someone walking down the high street with a t-shirt printed up with him and his name on it.
His policy of ethnic cleansing saw Belgrade turned into a war zone with the UN commencing bombing raids for attrocities against the Kovovans located in the south of the country.
Since then things have calmed down a little and town is getting back to normal.
Kosovo has it’s own capital in the south, Pristina, which I may not be visiting due to complications in border crossings etc. Things are still not that settled down there.
So we’re sticking to Serbia at the moment.
Attractions
For my first day in the city, I took in some of the attactions, as outlined by my travel guides.
I have 4 travel guides for this journey:-
Hands on –
Lonely Planet –
Thomas Cooks –
Michelin Map –
The michelin map doesn’t really count but its got some good advice on the back.
Toward the end, I might tell you which one to ditch or try and sell you the others, or give them out as prizes.
Fixed a number of problems with the blog. The map icons show the right icons, not the sherry glass for all, and the captions and pictures have been sorted to the right widths.
I built a console to cut and paste information via database onto the map rather the doing each map marker by hand which was fairly rudimentary and time consuming.
Many of the smaller problems are gone and I can begin in earnest.
FTP
Some some reason the FTP is not working on Dreamweaver. This happened once in China.
I can only assume it has something to do with the hotel protocols.
Orthodox Church
Square of Nikole Pisca
St. Marks Church – Belgrade
St. Marks Church – Belgrade
St. Marks Church – Belgrade
Square Republica – Belgrade