Belgrade part 2

laracoe (50)in #travel • 7 years ago (edited)

Dear Steemers,

it took me more time than I had planned to write further about my previous adventures in Belgrade and Slovenia. I have just started a new job and a 6-week evening course at the Growth Tribe Academy in Amsterdam. So, pretty busy with fun and interesting stuff! I also have to do homework again. Interesting to see how my stress-reflexes are chill towards homework now. 5 years ago I would be in social quarantine, keeping myself energized with crackers and instant soup. I guess ageing makes life also easier sometimes.

But anyway, here goes the writing. My last post was about our first day in Belgrade and I have to say, day two in Belgrade was a whole lot better. First of all, we had more time to see the city and grasp how big it actually is. Did you know Belgrade is the biggest city in the Balkans? Well, now you do.

One of the main shopping streets in Belgrade

And second of all, in the evening we got to know D's whole family, that are all living in the same neighbourhood (block 24), and they could speak English super well, which made me feel at home in an instant.

We started our day with an early breakfast at the family's house. Having no debating power to defend my own eating habits, because it was simply too early for it, I was only allowed to start eating after I had my first shot of homemade nut-liquor from a crystal horse. Great how Balkan aunties can push you to drink and eat far beyond your own comfortable boundaries. I do have to admit I felt pretty happy the rest of the morning.

Further breakfast consisted of sweet tea, burek, drinking yoghurt, pizza, bread and cookies.
Behold the breakfast table (left to the napkins you can see the silhouette of the crystal horse, which in my opinion is definitely worth mentioning when talking about Belgrade from now on):

After breakfast, we went straight to the Nikola Tesla museum. I could best describe our visit there as such: for me – with no technical knowledge or interest because I just don't get it – it was like being back in physics-class, I had seriously no idea how all the machines worked, even not after attending the tour that was made for kids. Yes, the kids seem to understand more of it than me – isn't it great when that happens? D, on the other hand, was behaving like a kid in a candy store himself – touching and trying every machine-handle he could find.

Electricity tests with high voltage

It was an interesting experience, and it pretty much showed how much you can differ from the person you are having a relationship with. Which is OK. The whole visit was ok. I did find the video that was shown to us at the beginning of the tour in the museum very interesting because it explained how Nikola Tesla's life had been. This is a humbling story on its own and made the whole visit a little less spaceship-py, and a bit more 'human' – if you know what I mean.

After the museum, we went to a cafe called Endorfine that was pretty close. I had found it on Tripadvisor and it had delicious food on the pics. I craved a bit for normal food – OK, western hipster food. Alright, I'm guilty, the cultural shock thus far had just been a little intense, so I just needed an avocado sandwich with poached eggs.

Then we walked a bit more through Belgrade and visited the Orthodox church, that was being renovated at the time. And then we went for coffee and cake at the Moskou-hotel.

Somer further images to get a sense of Belgrade as a city:

Some people compare this area with Montmartre

Somewhere in Belgrade

Hotel Moskou

In the evening the daughters of D's aunt and uncle came to visit with all of their families. We had pancakes and a family-picture was made. It was so great! Just because they could speak English so well I could finally experience how chill and laidback Serbian people are famous for. They were really super nice, explained me everything about Serbia and Belgrade, and I couldn't remember afterwards what I was so uncomfortable about to begin with.

See here the result: