Belgrade Walkabout – Day 3

I got a relatively early start to my morning on Monday, getting out of the house before 11 am.  Unfortunately, Monday is not a good day to sightsee in Belgrade as most of the museums were closed.  I was disappointed at the National Museum, which is actually closed due to renovations until next year but probably would have been closed anyway on account of it being Monday, as well as at the preserved former residence of some Serbian princess and at the Ethnographic Museum.  I did get lucky at a museum I had no real interest in seeing, but which I visited opportunistically as I was passing by it – the Serbian Pedagogical Museum.  It was closed, but the courtyard leading to it was open.  I walked in and one of the employees told me it was closed, but he would open it and let me walk around myself if I wanted to.  Can you imagine?!  It was a tiny museum devoted to a very dry topic – the preservation of educational history and methods in Serbia – but I had the place all to myself, and that was pretty cool.

Afterward, I popped into a coffee shop to enjoy a coffee and a sit before continuing on my way.  From there, it was on to San Marina Chocolate & Pralines to treat myself to some gourmet Serbian chocolates.

The next stop was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  I had stopped by the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral (full name The Cathedral Church of the Holy Archangel Michael) earlier in the morning, before the pedagogical museum, and the contrast between the two churches was stark.  The cathedral was quite dark inside, with lots of religious decoration.  The Nevsky church, on the other hand, was all white on the inside, with white pillars, white walls, and a white marble iconostasis.  The icons in the iconostasis were quite dark, which made for a beautiful contrast against the bright white marble.  The walls were unadorned, and the only decoration were stain glass windows and the painted dome of the ceiling.  Photos aren’t allowed inside the churches or I would have some for you.  It was my favorite church I’ve seen here in Belgrade.  I just read that the architect was Jelisaveta Načić, who was the first female architect in Serbia and whose name also appeared in the Pedagogical Museum as being the architect for an elementary school located near the Cathedral Church in Belgrade.

After the Nevsky church, I made a quick detour back to Skadarlija to snap some pics of the muraled walls before meandering over to the botanical gardens.

The botanical garden was small but pleasant, with a tiny but lovely Japanese garden and a wonderful collection of cacti I’ve never seen before in their greenhouse.  The garden was extra nice today because it was all but empty on account of the deary weather.  There were some apartment buildings located immediately adjacent to the gardens, with only a low wall (maybe 6-10 feet) separating them from the gardens, so that the people living there had a view of the gardens alone from their windows and balconies.  How wonderful would it be to see only a botanical garden when you looked out your window each morning?

The cacti were FASCINATING!

Some looked like aliens…

…or coral…

…or worms…

I was just as fascinated by the inadvertent fungus as I was by the plants themselves:

I really enjoyed just walking around the city, taking in the architecture and the feel of the streets.  Belgrade feels a lot like Budapest (though not nearly as beautiful – sorry, Belgrade!), with ornate and often crumbling exteriors and winding cobblestone streets.  It was a lovely walkabout.  Here are a few of the random sights from the city:

Belgrade has a street art (and graffiti) scene to rival Rio de Janiero’s.  Here are a few of the works I managed to snap:

These portraits are amazing:

TL;DR:  Just look at the pics.