Getting tubby in Belgrade - 9.14.06

Nikola and I before leaving for airport

The trip to Belgrade, Serbia was a bit of a nightmare. Check in and customs at Ataturk airport (the other one in istanbul) was a breeze. I got to my gate very quickly, pulled out my book and waited for the bus to take me from the gate to the plane. I was flying JAT airlines which was the former Yugoslavian airline which Serbia has taken over. The electronic sign above the gate said to "wait in lounge" so i did. After a few minutes it said "now boarding", yet there was no bus, no JAT airline representative to check my boarding pass and only a few people at the gate. I figured we were delayed so i continued reading. The sign then changed to "last call"....errrr beginning to get a a wee bit worried. I looked around and the other passengers were getting edgy as well. At this point the flight was about to take off and the sign just went blank...SHIT did i miss my plane? after my experience in switzerland getting on the wrong train i thought that maybe i had gone to the wrong gate or something cause clearly JAT airlines would be an organized outfit. Turns out they are not. About 5 minutes later a severely disheveled woman with a JAT uniform came running down the hallway, got to the gate and announced that it was time to board. We all got on the bus including one man who asked the person next to me which flight this was and when hearing belgrade, panicked and jumped off the bus...rookie (not making this up). We drove to our plane in subzero air conditioned temperature and then had to wait about 20 minutes for some sort of "celebrity" to get on. The plane was the sort that you see in an Indiana Jones movies, the one with wing going over top of the plane with engines hanging by the windows. Everyone boarded from the back, so first class was in the back, except the seats were the same. They did have a curtain separating them from the rest of the plane but since it was only one row of seats you got the feeling that they were traveling in one of those photo taking booths you have in train stations. I did not travel first class. the rest of the flight was uneventful as i passed out before we took off. I will say this though, that the 2 smoothest landings i've ever experienced were in turkey and belgrade...these pilots were very good.

I landed in belgrade, had some ATM issues (apparently warning bells had gone off with B of A when i had taken money out in turkey and they put the ka bosh on my account when i tried to take money at the belgrade, airport) but a quick phone call later and everything was sorted out. I finally got to the Monster Hostel at 1am where Emily from New York was waiting. She was on her way to Budapest and figured why not check out Belgrade as well. The Monster had the feeling of hanging out in your friends apartment. The sort of friend who right out of college had scored a 70's style penthouse, with a hot tub in the bathroom and many loft like rooms. They had decorated it with huge posters of comic book characters, had gotten their furniture from their parents and covered them with tapestries and as soon as you walked in the owner hands you a beer...SWEET. I was hungry so i went downstairs and got a Burek which is pretty standard here in belgrade. Its a meat pastry dish filled with "stuff" and is SOOO good.

The next day after sleeping in, Emily and i decided to just walk around (after stopping at a cafe for breakfast). We walked toward the riverfront and along the Sava river. On the opposite side were all these barges which look kind of abandoned during the day but at night turn into raging nightclubs where famous DJs spin to all hours of the morning. We stopped at a riverfront restaurant where the Sava runs into the Danube and had lunch. I ate a capresa salad and a ham and cheese pancake (feel like Bea here as i'm describing what i ate) but this was like no other pancake i had. it was more like a fried burrito with cheese on top. IT WAS AMAZING. After lunch wondering why serbians weren't all roly poly instead of young, hot and fit (Nikola did warn me that women here were beautiful...turns out that's an understatement) we walked to Kalemegdan Fortress. I could spend days in this fortress/park. There are so many places to explore, take naps in, beautiful views and just laze about in. Oddly they have converted what might have been moats into tennis and basketball courts and fitness complexes (this answers my roly poly question). Occasionally you come across a gigantic surface to air missile launcher or atank but that's just to remind you that you're near the military museum.

Odd looking abandoned cafe

Where the Sava meets the Danube

View from Kalemegdan Fortress

Emily on big gun. Pose is a shout out to Brian

After ambling around we strolled down the main shopping street Kneza Mihailova(super fancy) and sat down and grabbed a beer and espresso. More ambling later we decided to do one of my favorite activities and that's to view the "main touristy buildings" by night. I like this cause it always less crowded and they are always lit up in spectacular fashion. Outside St Marks Church we had another drink and decided to find some dinner. Another reason i like belgrade is that the restaurants are open late here too. We seemed to have strolled into the non restaurant district of belgrade. After several blocks we came across a "fast food" place which served Serbian quickie food and pizza. Emily got a small pizza but i was feeling adventurous. There was a picture of some meaty/salady looking dish on the wall with a name attached to it (which seemed easy enough to pronounce). It actually looked super tasty, so with my best serbian accent i told the waitress what i wanted. This immediately elicited some giggles from the waitress who proceeded to tell her friend working behind the counter...but being used to being laughed at i just shrugged my shoulders and went outside with emily (you could only get it to go). Our food was ready and we went to the park to eat. Turns out and i'm not sure why but instead of a meaty/salady dish covered in all sorts of exciting looking sauces i had ordered chocolate crepes with whipped cream. Now this really wasn't much of a let down as they were delicious but i could have sworn i had pronounced the dish i wanted correctly...oh well.

After dinner we realized that we really had no idea where we were in the city (ambling can do that to you) and took a cab ride home and went to bed.

St Marks Church

St Marks Church