Belgrade Walkabout – Day 2

Sunday started off even slower and later than Saturday, with me not even getting out of the apartment until about 1 pm.  I grabbed breakfast/lunch at a cozy cafe with a shabby chic decor, Smokvica – where I had delicious zucchini fritters served with a lebne-type cheese – before setting off for my first sightseeing destination, the Bajrakli Mosque.

Serbia is a Christian Orthodox country, but was once part of the Ottoman empire and still has a substantial Muslim population, like much of the Balkans.  This particular mosque is over 400 years old and is the last remaining mosque of the original 273 in the country during the time of Ottoman rule.  It was converted into a church at one point, but is a mosque once more.  I didn’t go in, just looked in from the doorway.  I didn’t want to risk inadvertently offending anyone by violating some rule I didn’t know about.  The interior was very sparsely decorated.  I stayed maybe a minute before heading for my next destination – Kalemegdan Fortress.

Kalemegdan Fortress is the oldest part of Belgrade, situated on the peninsula where the Sava and Danube rivers converge.  Parts of it are over 500 years old, and the entire city used to be housed within its walls.  Nearly all that’s left of the fortress today are its walls and the remnants of a few other structures.  The fortress is surrounded by a park, and low, arching pine branches hung just overhead along many parts of the path leading up to it.  Dante met me here and we spent a couple hours taking in the interesting sights and views before wandering off to find some dinner.  The rain seemed to keep many people away, so it was easy to enjoy the fortress without too many other annoying tourists.

We grabbed a basic meal at a modern eatery on Knez Mihailova street, a pedestrian shopping street near where we were both staying.  Afterward, we zigzagged our way through streets and pedestrian walkways and staircases to the bus station.  This was the first time I actually saw Syrian refugees.

I had mixed feelings about snapping these photos.  On the one hand, I don’t want to turn their tragedy into my tourist attraction; on the other hand, I want you see to see what I saw first hand.  There are a couple small parks adjacent to the bus and train stations where the refugees had set up tents.  Some of the tents indicated the residents as UNHCR refugees, which you can see in some of the photos.  There were also groups of refugees who were camped out in the bus station itself.  The bus station, aside from the ticket office and few cafes there, is outdoors, covered by an awning that extends to the wall that separates the bus platforms from the station itself.  This basically creates a long, covered, outdoor hallway, and it was along both walls the refugees had spread out blankets to live, basically.  I don’t know how the refugees were getting by in terms of bathrooms, showers, laundry, or even getting money for food.  I saw nothing set up that looked like it was intended to administer aid to the refugees.  I hear many of them are having friends and family wire them small amounts of money from time to time wherever they are, though I have no idea whether that’s true.  In any case, I saw no violence or begging or anything to suggest desperation or severe lack from the refugees.  The families that set up in the bus station really made out from sympathetic tourists, who kept pressing food on them; these refugees were smiling and grateful and looked neither angry, nor sad, nor bitter, nor anything but simply biding their time.

We grabbed a cup of coffee from one of the cafes in the station, then it was time to send Dante on his way.  I wished him well as he boarded a bus for warmer climes – the southern Croatian coast.

I was really looking forward to watching the lunar eclipse on Sunday night.  It would have been viewable from 2 – 6 am.  I was so tired by the time I went to sleep that I forgot to set my alarm, but it wouldn’t have mattered – the clouds and rain prevented any view at all.

TL;DR:  Belgrade walkabout day 2 was a mix of wonderfully pleasant, drearily peaceful, sad, and thought-provoking.