Belgrade Day 2!

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The next day we woke up to try to go to the Nikola Tesla Museum which opened at 10am. First, and now we knew better, we got burek for breakfast and then set off. We went a new route, but it was also very rainy and wet today. When we arrived at the museum. there was a children’s tour group. They told us that at 12pm there would be an English language tour, if we wanted to wait. We decided to go get a coffee/look at buying souvenirs until the museum was “opened.” Lizzie didn’t want to go look at souvenirs so she spilt off from Jen and I. Jen and I couldn’t find the shop, it didn’t exist! So we went back to a coffee shop and drank coffee/read magazines! Then at 12 we met back up with Lizzie and toured the museum. There was a video about what Tesla did for about 20-30 minutes, then he showed us some of his cool things he developed. I want to link you to this infographic about Tesla that I found after visiting the museum: click here! ) Did you know that Tesla invented wireless communication? And that he had devised a way for free international service and internet/calling? And he did this all in the early 1900s?

We decided to go back finish buying souvenirs and then go get lunch! We ate at a nice, Communist style decorated Serbian food location in the center of town! There was a slight misunderstanding with the ordering that was eventually worked out (When I ask what’s in the tomato salad, and you answer ONLY tomatoes and then try to serve me tomatoes AND onions, it is not ONLY tomatoes in the salad!). I also had a vegetable soup that was basically pureed veggies. After a leisurely lunch, we went to find a café for Lizzie and Jen to sit in because they were tired of exploring Belgrade. I however, was not! So after dropping them off I tried to go to the pedagogical museum which was supposed to be open on Sundays but clearly was not. Since nothing else was supposed to be open I was forced to head back and do nothing. Since I had nothing to read or do, I stopped off in a bookstore and got a book for really cheap. It ended up being a good read and interesting, but I don’t think I will go out of my way to get that author again. So after busing myself and finding new books I want to read when I get back to the US/buy on my nook, I ended up back in the café with Jen and Lizzie. I proceeded to order cake and tea and sit there with them for 3 hours. We then went to get dinner, and ended up with Chinese. Yummy Chinese food that we could take to go! Then it was back to the hostel to finish gathering our stuff and head to the train. Luckily we got there when we did because we got the last cabin together, the noisy one on the end, but man, if we had been any later, there wouldn’t have been any space for us! As it was, the guy had to make the top bunk up for me to sleep on. We had an uneventful border crossing at 5am. And an uneventful ride, this train was much more annoying than the last one- we would go really fast and then stop for 30-40 minutes rather than a slower pace with less stopping. And the top bunk rocks a whole lot more! Which means that I got less sleep than my last adventure through Belgrade! We arrived safe in Skopje again and Jen headed straight to Tetovo while Lizzie hung out until she could catch the train to Bitola in the afternoon.

Belgrade Day 1!

ACCOMPANYING PICTURES can be found on facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306436829435521.71344.301683946577476&type=1&l=574867b87d)

We decided to take the night train to Belgrade for a few reason. Even though the locals tell you it is horrible and one should never take the night train (they are wrong). It was cheaper than renting a car (even though we could have explored the countryside which (spoilers) would have been nice on Sunday) and it involved sleep rather than the bus. So after dinner with the Pout Family, we went back to the apartment to grab our stuff and headed to the train station. We had a bit of fear when we get there and the train to Belgrade isn’t on the list of departing trains! But it was actually leaving that night at 8:10, so who knows. We purchased our tickets and headed up to the platform. We had to pick the compartment (pictures are wonderful helpful hints, by the way) and we walked up to the train car. Then the train compartment manager (is there a word for this in English) came in and told us to go forward because those ones were better. We kept telling him for the three of us, but he kept trying to put us in one with other people. So we kept walking until there was a totally empty compartment that had three beds pulled out. What was interesting was that this was a different compartment than the other one I had taken. This one had 6 beds and they weren’t as nice. But both were considered 2^nd class. I have no idea why! We were able to just sit and talk for a bit as we waited for the train to start (and the hour and a half it took for the train to get to the border, actually).  After the border, we just made our beds and fell asleep!

The next morning we arrived about an hour before we were supposed to. But we were able to find the hostel pretty easy. The directions were “walk out of the side entrance, cross the street and you are there.” While it was a little more complicated than that (there were no cross walks), but it was pretty simple.  We brushed our teeth and just got ready for a bit as we looked up stuff to do. (spoilers) Supposedly Tito’s grave opened at 9am, we decided to grab a bite to eat and walk towards Tito’s grave. We skipped the breakfast at the bottom of the stairs because we thought there would be tons of food on the way and I don’t really know why else. We started walking and found no food and no directions and the map was a bit wrong. But 45 minutes later, we arrived there after asking directions from people who had no idea where the “park with Tito” was. Like really? No one knows where Tito is buried? Seriously people? It’s like a major tourist attraction. I mean I didn’t know what to call “grave,” we tried in English and Polish and a possible Macedonian word. But no luck. We did enjoy our nap. There was a dog that didn’t like Lizzie sitting on His Grass, but just barked until she moved. The security guy didn’t really understand what we were doing—he kept walking and looking at us and standing there and looking. The grave/mausoleum was very well done. Very relaxing and pretty. They had a history of the non-aligned movement (can Cuba be a part of this? Isn’t Cuba communist, and thus not allowed to be non-aligned? Apparently they were a part of it.) along one side and a display of the relay batons that kids had given to Tito. As well as some of the letters that people had wrote to Tito (or embroidered). After this we went to this little museum that was specially designed to house some artifacts from around the world that were given to Tito.  At one point there was this group of older Serbian guys there who wanted to take a picture with me. I thought they wanted me to take a picture of them, but nope, I was to be in it. That was a little odd- I mean I’ve been around the black guy, the Korean guy, and the red head, but never the white brown haired girl getting the picture taken. Made me laugh. 

After this, we decided to go to the 25^th of May Museum but it wasn’t open until 12pm. So off to the Sv. Save church which is supposedly the largest Orthodox church in the world. But we were looking for food along the way. After going down this really steep hill, we found a restaurant that had vegetarian food (this is odd in the area)! And made it to the church. There was an exhibit in the National Library near the church that has a “Ours or Alien?” exhibit I think it was about fairy tales or something. This church was totally unfinished- I looked it up a bit and it was apparently bombed during something (either WW2 or NATO bombing) and is being rebuilt after this. We decide to walk to the center and the fortress and passed by this gaming card trading gathering. We went up to Kalmagean (which always made me think of fortress-mageaden). There is a military museum up there that I wanted to see- it showed the history of Serbia through the military. It is decently quick to go through if you don’t understand Serbian. However, there were a lot of maps and a lot of things to see! So many ages of history and conquests and being conquered. The most interesting part, to me, was how they covered the NATO bombing of Serbia. Serbia had shot down a fighter pilot that was a US citizen. They had pieces of his plane and his uniform there just hanging around. They were very proud of this fact. Then there was a giant map showing the NATO aggression against Serbia.

Since we were already up this hill and at the fortress, we decided to go to the edge and look over the river. For some reason the walking was killing Jen. So we all just laid down on the grass and rested for about 45 minutes. Sometimes talking sometimes sleeping, until we needed to go see what time we were meeting for dinner with the other Fulbright researchers. So we go back to the hostel to shower (did I mention it was hot all day and we were icky nasty sweaty?). We knew there were reservations at 8pm but not where, so we started walking towards the center, figuring that is where they were. Luckily we were right, and they were down at the river at some Spanish restaurant. The prices were outrageous! And there was only salads as the options for vegetarians. And wine! Wine is so expensive compared to Macedonia! But we sat and ate dinner and enjoyed talking about research, adjusting to life abroad, and what they like to read, etc. I was so tired and there was really loud music so I mostly just watched the interactions that were going on. We were so tired and our feet were so sore that we decided to just go back and go to sleep rather than go out dancing or to another bar.

Road Trip Day 4: The Long Drive Home!

The final day of our road trip got off to a really slow start. Justin didn’t want to leave until 11am for our 13 hour journey home. But hey, he was the driver. Sadly this was just early enough to not get to go see another museum :( But it started off again with burek! And French fries. Don’t ask, but they were yummy! We drove north towards Croatia, hoping to avoid the bad roads that we encountered on our way here, and shorten the time (only worked by 2 hours, but we saw something different).  On our way out of the city, we pasted the site of the 1984 winter Olympics!
It was cool to drive by.

On the way out of the country we also saw something not cool- signs warning us to stay out of the mountains because of mines. We even saw a team de-mining an area. Just another reminder of the war. But beautiful countryside none the less. We were able to stop for lunch before we left Bosnia, but this was an adventure in itself. We tried about 4-5 different places advertising food before we actually found food. Yummy food, but just the same thing we’d been eating all four days- salad and fried stuff nothing too fancy.

warning us to stay out of the woods

 

Then we were in Croatia, to jump on the interstate (I use this instead of highway because it was a legit interstate! or in this case intercountry?). Then we were in Serbia. No it was really that quick. Serbia looked a lot different than what we had been seeing when we drove the rest of the time- it was pretty flat! We drove through Belgrade and Nis on our way to Skopje, but didn’t really stop anywhere. We did buy gas, and I found a CD of a singer I had been looking for that is Croatian! There were no real funny stories to make this part of the trip more interesting, sorry guys. Just a normal day on the road! We got back to Skopje at about 12 am  and Jen, Justin and Lizzie decided to keep driving to Tetovo and spend the night there. I tried to find food, but failing, just went home and ate some cereal.

See you around the globe!