Sue's Travels: Danube Trip - 4 September 2011

We are scheduled to arrive in Belgrade early and we did. The buses were ready to pull out at 8:30am for the city tour of Belgrade. Our first stop was the Belgrade fortress which is now part of a park. The Kalemegdan fortress was built in the 18^th Century by the Austrians. When a peace treaty was signed between the Austrians and Turks, the Austrians attempted to tear it down, but they could not undo in six months that which they had worked on for thirty years. When the Turks took over, they attempted to rebuild, but they didn’t have the resources. When you look at the walls, that which is red brick was built by the Austrians and that which is white stone was built by the Turks. In the park is a mausoleum of Ali Pasha who died as a result of wounds received in the battle of Novi Sad. The battle which took place on 5 August 1715 when there was a snow storm. Prince Eugene of Savoy was familiar with snow, but the Turkish army was not and it frightened them

I was surprised by the animosity towards the Turks that still exists. It has been almost a hundred years since the Turks have moved out of Europe.

The site of Belgrade has been inhabited for about 2,300 years. The first settlers appear to have been Celts. They were displaced by the Romans. After Rome fell, the Slavs moved in. For about 500 years the city changed hands between the Turks and the Austrians with some frequency. The city of Belgrade is located at the intersection of the Danube and Sava Rivers and has a population of about 2 million.

Education in Serbia is free. Children start at the age of 7 and attend primary school for 8 years. They have a choice of three types of high schools; namely, medical, technical or classical. The classical track does not prepare the student for a career and they student needs to go on to university for appropriate training. The other two tracks enable a student to obtain a low level job.

We were driven around the city and then we stopped at the St Sala Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, which is still not complete even though it is under construction for 100 year. Two world wars and a communist dictator slowed things down. It is named for Sala who was a 12^th century prince who brought Christianity and literacy to Serbia. Apparently there was a rebellion against the Turks. In retaliation, the Turks burnt the body of Sala at the sight that the Serbians are now building the cathedral.

After leaving the cathedral, we were taken to the pedestrian mall, where we wandered around for about an hour. I found a toy for Avi and we saw a wedding festival. I heard this loud band marching through the pedestrian mall. The bride wore red and people were dancing around her. We also had ice cream in one of the sidewalk cafes.

At 1:00pm we boarded the bus again to head for the village of Jarak (pronounced Yari, I think) for our “Authentic Serbian Village Peasant Feast”. It was an hour ride to the village. We passed fields of dried corn stalks. For the most part I slept on the way. We arrived at the village where we were handed a glass of Slivovitz and bread and salt, which is a middle European custom indicating welcome. We then sat down while Grandpa Tosa made a toast of welcome. I checked with our guide Nicola who checked and informed me that all of the meat was pork, which meant I became a vegetarian for the meal. It was no problem as there were abundant and excellent salads available. I was able to fill a dinner plate with a little of this and little of that all vegetarian. There was beer and wine on the table. The grandson and others played the piano accordion, guitar and bass fiddle, which helped enliven things. I visited their little shop in which they sold mostly embroidery and looked for a table cloth for Marla, but I didn’t find anything that I really liked. I asked for a received a glass of white wine, which I sat in the garden sipping. Our tour guide announced that it was time to leave and I was mildly disappointed as I was enjoying the wine. The food was excellent. They also had watermelon and plums. There was coffee of which I drank a cup. It was worth whatever I paid!

We returned to the ship. I showered and did some laundry before I headed into the bar to use the single internet station. After dinner, we enjoyed a folklore show by the Talija group. Both Bette and I found it enjoyable.