24 hours in Serbia

First of all, I am sure many are questioning why I am even in Serbia. It wasn't on my itinerary, and it was certainly not one of my priority destinations, but as I have learned on this Journey you have to expect the unexpected. I was blessed by being first introduced to the Italian train system and they set my expectations HIGH and I figured all train systems were that fabulous.....no, not even close. Let just say my railway adventure the past few weeks has been very VERY interesting...dead ends, missing train depots, changed routes...which leads me to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

 At first I thought I will just catch another train in Croatia and be on my way, connecting on the border and passing through, but that connecting train was nonexistent. CHANGE OF PLANS, so I embraced it and then I thought, no I need a day to rest, unwind, plan Greece, relax, and not be traveling (ironic right). So the next big city I could stop in on my path to Greece was...Belgrade, meh.  I did what I always do, googled and Pinterest things to do and surprisingly not that much was happening but I realized I was in a foodies heaven -not good for this bikini body, and appetite of porky the pig. Found a place on Airbnb but chose a Hostel, notified the embassy, made sure I had the map pulled up of Belgrade, pin where I was staying and directions from the train station, before I don't have WIFI anymore, so I am not a stranded, dumb, American girl wandering around LOST in a new city....Mom you should be proud!!!

 Arrive at 6 am, and Welcome to...

Belgrade, Serbia

Walk out of the train station, and I am a bit confused because this city feels very American like. The traffic lanes, the buildings, the city, something feels like home.

Maybe it was the Ada bridge, because it reminds me of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas...

Maybe it was the cute McDonald's, and other fast food joints on every corner...

Or, maybe it was just the thought of a chill day of doing nothing, and relaxing (which is very rare these days...believe it or not)

Made my way to my hostel, checked in way too early (if you know me, you know I am never early) so I had time to make friends with the receptionist, and grab breakfast. Breakfast in Belgrade, what does one eat? I ask my friend, and he grabs my hand and we go down to the bakery at the corner, and OH MY Carb Loving God. He introduced me to the oh-so-amazing B U R E K

.
I really can't describe it except it is a flaky, greasy, cheese and spinach stuffed pastry, that is so good that it makes your forget all the grease running down your fingers. It can also be stuffed with apples, and with minced meat. I was trying to convince myself that it was healthy -yeah right- if I stuck to the one stuffed with cheese and spinach, mind over matter, spinach is a vegetable and veggies are healthy, even with this pound of pastry its wrapped in. Me and my new friend made small talk, and I realized that I have made a friend for life, because he had me laughing to the point of crying with all of his 'American' impressions.

Now it's time for me to go explore the few sites of the city before I come back to unwind, relax, and plan my Greece adventure.

I saw the Saint Sava Church, and its beauty speaks for itself...

I ate tradional Serbian food...

I got lost (no way, right), oops. I came upon what I thought was the slumps of the city, but I soon realized it was an area, a time period, the people of Serbia choose to forget about. People were quite here, people all walked with their head down, like they saw a dead body, and it just had this weird uncomforting feel to the block. I had stumbled upon the site from the NATO bombings in 1999. And of course like any tourist, I took pictures, and I got looks that felt like they burning through my soul.

NATO bombings in 1999...I was in middle school with bad bangs, Dr. Martins, and a polo shirt with matching ribbon in my hair. Who in the world is NATO and why did they bomb these people? Oh, the USA is part of  NATO, and we bombed them, oh. I remember hearing about this and remember my mom and grandfather talking about it, but I was too busy being a preteen to care about world affairs or what was going on. I want to know more, so maybe I will ask later when I get back.

-Note to self, ask friend about NATO.-

Later that night we all sat around talking, cooking, laughing, and (trying) to sing Adele, and having a very lovely night. I forgot to ask about NATO, so I will ask before I leave. Wake up, my friend is awake, along with others from last night and they want to take me to breakfast, like a goodbye meal. We go to breakfast, and I get one bite of burek down, and I ask "so where were you all when the bombings happened, do you remember all of that"? You would of thought I just slayed someone's pet. Everyone looked down, and or away, then the mood got really tense.

 CAMI SHUT UP NOW

First response to break the ice, "thanks for bombing us by the way". I quickly apologized for bringing up something that was going to turn the mood around so quickly. They reassured me they were not mad, or upset, but it is just something they don't talk about. After about an hour and a half conversation I can understand why they don't talk about it.

I learned that they were formally Yugoslavia, under the rule of Slobodan Milošević in 1999, during the Kosovo War. A year when the internet was not everyone's main source of news, no social media, and when their leader was allegedly having a holocaust, genocide like cleansing of the Albanian people in Kosovo. NATO urged the country to stop, Milošević did not comply and so we stepped in, and then bombed the shit out of them until June 10th, 1999. People of Serbia also ironically describe the airstrikes as the 'Merciful Angel', yes an angel that came down and destroyed their city.

I don't know what it is like to live in fear with war on the home front. What it is like for a government to control what I read, what I watch, what information is given to people, and what information is kept from me. I've never really seen war first hand, but on big screens, the front page of newspapers and history books. This morning at breakfast I got to hear stories about how Milošević withheld information such as bomb threats from NATO, how the phone lines mysteriously stopped working the night before the bombings, when really he didn't want the people to catch wind of the warnings from the US and start an uproar, and how he hid what he was really doing to the Albanian people in Kosovo, which were these peoples friends and neighbors. I got to hear how the bombs started becoming such a daily thing, that when you heard a plane, you would run and hide. How it all came as a total surprise to this now Serbian country, but a surprise that changed their

way of life for the better.

I am not an advocate of war tourism for spectator value, but more for understanding and a visual experience to help put history into perspective. I have seen the sites of Tyrants throughout Europe and where many battles were fought, but it is hard to visualize that from ruins, and without getting acquainted with those who lived it.

I am grateful for the this unexpected pit stop, history lesson, and experience.
Thank you Belgrade, Serbia.

❤