Beograd, Trifon Zarezan, and Midterms

Hello dear readers:

It's getting harder to update this in a timely fashion as the semester gets busier and busier, but I'm trying...

The Danube and the Sava Rivers in Belgrade

I made it back safely from a great weekend in Belgrade, Serbia (aka Beograd). We left before dawn on Friday morning, which was a little bit of a struggle. Several of us had gone out to karaoke night at the Piano Bar on Thursday night, and had only gotten back around 3am. I took a little nap, but we had to leave at five. Kerri went around to everyone's room to make sure they were awake, but she had to send me in as reinforcements to get everyone at the last second. Max was still in his room at like 5:10 (we were supposed to leave at 5) and Kyle was still in bed. We managed to get everyone in the van though, and didn't leave too far off schedule. The general transportation plan was to take an AUBG van from Blagoevgrad to Sofia, then a bus from Sofia to Belgrade (with a change in Niš, a city in southern Serbia).

We made it to the Sofia bus station in time for our 7:30 bus and we reached the Serbian border around 9. The border crossing was uneventful. We had to get off the bus on the Bulgarian side and go through individually, but going into Serbia an official just came onto the bus, collected everyone's passports, took them away for like 10 minutes, then brought them back.

Trg Republike

The bus drive through Serbia was scenic...I slept for about 40 minutes, but I was awake for most of the time. We got to Belgrade at around 3 pm and the first matter of business was figuring out how to get to the hostel. This was more difficult than it should have been since Kyle didn't bring the Eastern Europe guide book that I lent him. I asked for directions at the information desk (in Serbian) but it was too hard to hear the woman in the glass booth, so I was trying to read her lips. I could sort of figure out where we needed to go, but I decided instead to just ask where to buy a map. Luckily I had some U.S. dollars to change, because the exchange place wouldn't accept Bulgarian leva. So I got some dinara (the currency in Serbia) and bought a map. That combined with asking for directions a few times from people on the street and we were able to make it to the Republic Square (Trg Republike). Our hostel was right off of the square on a little pedestrian street and it was easy to find.

After we dropped our stuff off (there were 9 of us traveling, btw...all American exchange students), we headed to a nearby bank to withdraw some dinara since we couldn't change our leva. Kerri was the last one to use the atm, so the rest of us were waiting outside when she came out and yelled for me to come help her. The machine had given the money out, but then sucked it back in before she took it. But it gave her a receipt. So she was panicking (a lot), and the guard, who saw that there was an issue, directed us into the bank. I was unneeded, though, because the teller he sent us to spoke English. So I mainly was just needed for moral support. We had to wait for an hour and a half while the teller tried to get it sorted out, but in the end Kerri didn't get the money. She has to settle things with her bank in the U.S. when she gets back.

pljeskavica 

At that point, we were all starving, so we headed to a restaurant our hostel recommended on Skardarska street (a really neat cobblestone street) called Šešir Moj (my hat). It seemed like it catered to tourists wanting an "authentic" Serbian meal, but we were actually the only people who looked like tourists there (maybe since it's the off-season). But the food was delicious; I had pljeskavica sa kajmakom, a meat patty type dish with a creamy dairy product. It's hard to describe, but it was really good. The restaurant had a little folk quartet that came and played several songs for our table (particularly Chelsea, who at least two different musicians personally serenaded).

After dinner we went back to the hostel and I took a shower. I was pretty tired from the stress of traveling (especially in such a big group), but one of the hostel employees, Natalia, offered to take us for a night out on the town, so I decided to rally. We went to a couple of bars with her, but most of them were really crowded (like too packed to move), so some of us came back relatively early. Belgrade is known for its nightlife, but I wanted to get a decent night's sleep so I could sightsee on Saturday and since I was already tired.

Me, at the fortress, being a dork

On Saturday, I insisted that we split up into two groups of five and four so that it would be easier to get around. It was just too draining to be traveling in such an enormous group. So I led my group of both Abbys, Jaron, and Kyle. Max, the second most competent, was selected to lead the other group of Heather, Chelsea, and Kerri.

My group decided to head first to Tito's mausoleum, which was the only thing that we wanted to see that required bus travel rather than walking. We found the bus stop and got on, but we hadn't bought our tickets at a kiosk (thinking that we could buy them on the bus), but then we couldn't. At this point, we were riding the bus illegally and we decided that we would hop off if the man who checks tickets got on.  I was a little trigger happy, though, and insisted that we get off only like a stop later when a man who looked official got on.

Bombed Building

It ended up being fortuitous, though, because we were right across from something that we wanted to see: the old military headquarters that was bombed during the Kosovo conflict by NATO/the U.S. in 1999. One of the hostel employees told us to take pictures from the opposite side of the street, because there are military police outside of the buildings and they would have made us delete them from our cameras. It was weird to see the damage from U.S. bombings. A friend from Serbia told us that the reason why they haven't repaired or torn down the buildings is because of their location. The street that they're on is where most of the foreign embassies in Belgrade are located and also where the foreign ministry building is. The idea, then, is that all of the foreign diplomats and important international visitors will be reminded visually of Serbia's suffering....This is just what one person told me, though.

Tito's tomb

After that, we actually purchased bus tickets and got back on to go to Tito's mausoleum. We overshot it a little bit, so we just crossed the street and took the bus back in the other direction. There's three main parts to Tito's resting place: the museum of Yugoslav history, the old museum, and the house of flowers (where the actual tomb is). Walking up towards the museum, it looked sort of bleak. The weather wasn't too cheery over the weekend...it was cold and cloudy and drab. I think that in the warm weather it would be beautiful, but it felt very austere on an overcast day. We skipped the main museum and headed to the house of flowers, which was actually really cool. In the center, surrounded by plants, was Tito's marble tomb and some of the surrounding rooms contained different exhibits. It had some info about Tito's life, especially the festivities around Youth Day, an annual celebration that he held in May in Yugoslavia.

After that we checked out the old museum, which contains some gifts given to Tito from foreign dignitaries and also some exhibitions on loan from an ethnographic museum, if I understood correctly. It had some neat folk costumes and amusing captions, which we enjoyed. Afterwards, we headed back to the city center and had lunch at a restaurant we found tucked back away from the main road. We had been looking for a different one, but our map was wrong, so we sort of stumbled upon the one we ended up eating at. It was another fortuitous mishap, though, because the restaurant we ate in was excellent. They didn't have an English menu, so I was trying to translate things for my friends, but eventually some of them just had me pick a dish out for them. I tried sarma this time, another traditional Serbian dish. It was sort of cabbage stuffed with meat and other things. Whatever was in it, it was delicious. I sampled some of my companions' food too, and it was all wonderful.

After lunch, we headed to Strahinjica Bana street, which is in Dorćol, the bohemian quarter of town. We wandered around and took pictures then headed back up through the Student Park to Knez Mihailova street, the big pedestrian walkway. We actually wandered into the middle of a band playing music in the street; like a full marching band. I have no idea what the occasion was, but we stopped to listen for a while. We walked down that until we got to the entrance to Kalemegdan Park. There was a really cool view of the city from the Monument of the Victor (commemorating Serbia's victories in the First Balkan War and World War I). Also, there's a fortress there that is basically situated on a cliff overlooking the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers. As part of the military museum located there, there were a bunch of replicas of weapons (like tanks, etc.) around the fortress. We enjoyed scampering around and playing for awhile and exploring the fortress. Actually, I think that the fortress was my favorite place in Belgrade.

Kalemegdan Fortress

Afterwards, we did some shopping on Knez Mihailova street until dinner, where we went to a restaurant near the old Saborna Church. The restaurant was called Question Mark (as in, it doesn't have a name, just a question mark on a sign outside). The food was good, of course. I tried ljutenica, a red pepper dish that is like ajvar, but hotter. The highlight of dinner was a little boy at the table near us who spent most of the evening milling around the restaurant pretending to be a velociraptor. After dinner we went back to Kalemegdan Park to see the view at night, which was stunning.

ljutenica

We headed back to the hostel after that, and Natalia took us out again. This night we went to two places with live music, which was really cool. I was worn out from such a full day of sightseeing, though, so we didn't stay out too late. The next morning we got our act together and headed to the bus station. We had some added stress when they didn't accept card and we had to scramble to find an atm, but it all worked out. On the bus ride back, I mostly slept and ignored my schoolwork looming ominously on the horizon.

Ulica Knez Mihailova

My overall impressions of Serbia were good. The people there are very kind. Not that Bulgarians aren't nice, but I felt like there was a warmth to Serbians that stood out to me. A lot of interactions (like the bank, asking for directions, etc.) could have been a source of inconvenience to them, but the Serbians I met were very patient and friendly. Of course, this interpretation may be biased by the fact that I actually could speak the language.

Until I went to Serbia, I thought I was doing alright here in Bulgaria (in terms of the language). I can pick up on some words and I've been able to manage in restaurants and the like. But going to Serbia, I could actually understand people (and they could understand me!). It seemed like most people in Belgrade spoke English, so there wasn't too great of a need, but I really enjoyed at least getting to practice. And some actually told me that I speak well! So I was happy.

The Belgrade group at Kalemegdan at night

Coming back to classes was stressful. I had my first midterm last week right before we left for Belgrade, then I had a presentation on Monday and a history midterm on Wednesday. The presentation went alright considering the amount of stress it caused me (I don't like public speaking). Monday was Valentine's Day for those of you in the States (and here too), but more importantly it was Sveti Trifon Zarezan day. He's the patron saint of gardeners and winegrowers, and people here celebrate his feast day with the standard eat-drink-be merry combo (specifically, wine, since he's the saint of winegrowers). My Bulgarian suitemates/roommates invited me to come with them to a mehana that night. They had a table with about 25 people, but just four of us were exchange students. There was live music playing (Bulgarian Folk Music!) and I even danced a horo. My roommate helped me learn on the spot, but once you pick up on the basic step, it's not too hard since it's the same thing over and over. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The mehana was packed, and all of the Bulgarians were having so much fun. It was really cool to see my roommates let loose, too, since usually I see them when we're (ok, they're) studying. I had a great time...so great that I accidentally slept through my nine am class on Tuesday. One class isn't too big of a deal.

I've spent the rest of the week studying for various midterms and attempting to plan my spring break trip. Spring break starts in one week! Or, for me, less than a week; I'm actually leaving a little early. I'm officially going to Croatia, and obviously I'm incredibly excited. I still have a test and a paper to do before I leave, though, so I need to get some work done.

I'll check in one more time before spring break and I should have a more definite itinerary then.