Day 1 - Thursday, March 23
Packed until 2am (hubby worked until almost 3am). Alarm woke us up at 4:30a, and we were on our way to the airport by shuttle at 5:10a. The first leg of the trip was uneventful - 4.5 hours from SF to Chicago. Lucky, I had bought this wonderful little Archos digital video recorder recently and downloaded a bunch of shows we had recorded but didn't get to watch yet. At the Chicago airport, I must say that Terminal 4 sucks. The food court is located before the security check points - so if you want to eat, you have to do it before you go in. Otherwise, you'll have to go through security all over again. Our plane was also delayed an hour, but British airlines gave us food vouchers for $15 each! Who does that? Totally not complaining, but that has never happened to me before, and it was greatly appreciated - especially for two tired and grumpy travelers. Bravo British Airlines!
An hour and a half later, we were on our flight from Chicago to Zurich, Switzerland. This was going to be the 8.5 hour portion of it. Good thing was that each seat had it's own monitor and game/movie controller. Bad thing is, the controller is extremely user 'unfriendly'. Very poorly designed. I ended up watching cartoons - because the movie selection sucked!!! Played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and Blackjack most of the time. We had also recharged the Archos at the Chicago airport, so we had another set of TV shows to watch.
Here's a view from our plane as we neared Zurich. Beautiful, isn't it?
The airport in Zurich is very cold and 'modern', but wow - it's got a shopping mall! I didn't get to go into the mall because of our delayed arrival, but we passed Hermes, Bvlgari, and several other designer stores on the way to our next gate (never seen stores like that at an airport before). At this point, my hubby realized that he forgot his book on the last plane. After going back and forth between the gate and security check point three times, British Airlines managed to find the book - and all was well. Again, bravo British Airlines!
Last part of the trip, a 1.5 hour flight from Zurich to Belgrade, Serbia. By the time we arrived in Belgrade, we had been awake for almost 24 hours. My husband's cousin Anica picked us up at the airport, and we were on our way. At first, I was a bit disappointed because, as Anica explained, Belgrade is trying to renew itself and build more highrises and modern buildings (you know it's been bombed 4 times in the last 100 years? Most recently by NATO in 1999 for 78 days). There were apartment complexes everywhere. I was looking for the historical buildings! Where were they? Relief set in as I realized that all the modern buildings are on one side of the Sava River, and as we crossed the bridge, you saw right away that the history has been preserved on the other side - and we were heading into the heart of it. Yea!
We stayed at the Palace Hotel and wouldn't you know it, there was a Caesar's Palace casino attached. Very weird!
Our hotel was within walking distance to most of Old Belgrade and it was fantastic. We walked everywhere we could. Anica's family lived just a 15 minute walk from us - so that night, after a few hours rest, Anica's husband, Bogdan, came to get us and we walk to their house and had the most wonderful homemade mussaka I've ever had.
Days 2 - 4 Wednesday, March 24 - 27
The next few days were spent sightseeing with Anica, Bogdan, and our friend Paul (who had come over with my hubby's dad). We walked all around the city saw the Belgrade Fortress, various churches and cathedrals, and dined on the most delicious foods.
These are various pictures of the city, the Belgrade Fortress and surrounding areas. The 'water' shots are of the Sava and Danube rivers.
Here are a couple of pictures of Kneza Mihaila Street - it's kind of the main street that runs through old Belgrade. It's packed with all kinds of stores (from clothing to pharmacies) and some restaurants. It is also the first named street in the city (1870). EVERYONE hangs out here. Starting from around 11am until late at night, the place is packed. I mean, packed!!! You see pictures of an average New York street filled with people - yep, it's the same here. Except people aren't going anywhere, there all just hanging out. These pictures were taken around 9:30a when we ventured out on our own for some breakfast, so it was still empty.
One thing I must point out... there are a lot of tall people there! I noticed the women specifically. I'm 5'8" and that's above average in the states. I felt so small compared to some of these women I saw walking around. I think average in Belgrade is probably 5'10". I saw many women who were easily over 6 feet.
There are two churches in particular that I must introduce you to. The first one is the church of St.Djordje, in a city called Topola - and hour's drive from Belgrade.
From the outside, it's an all white marble structure with five domes and is pretty plain looking - but on the inside...
Isn't it gorgeous? Mosaic tiles cover almost every inch of wall and ceiling (almost 3,500 meters). It's absolutely stunning. We weren't supposed to take pictures and this woman actually followed us around in the beginning because she saw I had a camera - but I managed a few shots anyway. With my new camera, there's a feature that uses the available light, no flash - and it worked perfectly.
It was literally freezing inside the church. It was about 50 degrees outside, and as soon as you walked in, you could see your breath.
This is a picture in the crypt downstairs. Again, all mosaic tiles and beautiful marble throughout. Kind of sad though - we saw several tombs for small children, from 1 year to 6 years old.
The ceiling of the crypt.
That same day, we visited the unfinished Saint Sava Memorial Cathedral. This place was MASSIVE! I mean, I can't describe how insignificant you feel when you're standing inside this place. It's construction began in 1935, stopped in 1941. Restarted in 1985, don't know when it stopped, but then it restarted in 2000 again. The outside is completed, but the inside is still an empty skeleton.
This place is made entirely of white marble, donated from Greece. Again, it was warm outside, but completely freezing inside. Can you imagine how this place will look when it's completed? Maybe my great-grand children will get to enjoy it. I don't have the specs, but I estimate this cathedral is about 4 times bigger than the church of St.Djordje.
The rest of the day, Bogdan drove us around the city of old Belgrade. It's was very interesting to see how there were some very old buildings right next to newly build modern structures. It's all meshed in together in that small part of town. We saw several buildings that were damaged by the NATO bombings in 1999. Huge structures with a gaping hole in the middle of it. The city doesn't have the money to tear them down. One building still has two live rockets in it. No one had defused them yet. Scary! It's amazing how such a small city survived being bombed four times in the last century. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for Anica and the family (they have three children - the oldest is 14 now).
All I can say is that Anica and Bogdan are the best hosts ever. They really showed us their city and we had a blast enjoying it together. They also fulfilled all our culinary wishes and we had the best food every day (homemade and restaurant - it was all delicious). I miss them already.
Bogdan had to work on the Monday we left, but Anica and her father came to wish us farewell at our hotel. They had arranged for the cab to take us to the airport. It was a wonderful 4 days, and it was sad to say goodbye - but I think we will go back there again some day.
Next stop, our one night in London before heading off to Paris...
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