The next stop on our Danube river cruise is Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. We’ll take a half-day tour, then we’ll be on our own. We don’t quite know what to expect.
Just as we did in Budapest, we started our visit to Belgrade with a half-day tour. The local guides on these tours have done a great job so far, and our guide in Belgrade was no exception.
Belgrade Fortress
Our first stop was at Belgrade Fortress. One thing’s for sure – the designation of “fortress” is appropriate. The walls look like they’re fifty feet thick.
This fortress and its predecessors have seen more action than most. Romans threw out the Celts here. Attila the Hun threw out the Romans. Goths moved in until the Slavs defeated them.
Slavs, Hungarians, and Bulgarians fought, won, and lost this place multiple times. Ottoman Turks attacked multiple times until they finally took control. Serbs, after multiple attempts, eventually threw out the Turks. That’s a lot of action – and we didn’t even get to the 20th century.
Our next stop was at the Museum of Yugoslavia, a large part of which is dedicated to Yugoslavia’s leader, Josip Broz Tito.
Josip Broz Tito
Tito was an amazing guy. At the end of WW II, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed and Josip Tito named prime minister. He ran Yugoslavia for the next 40+ years.
When leaders stay in power for that long, bad things usually happen. But in Tito’s case, conditions in Yugoslavia probably couldn’t have been much better.
Tito ran a communist country in the Eastern Bloc, but he didn’t cooperate with the Soviets. Stalin tried to have him assassinated more than once. Tito managed to embrace the West while remaining communist. He walked a fine line.
Tito died in 1980. After his death, Yugoslavia went downhill, ending with a very messy break-up in 1992.
Quiet Time on the Bus
Back in downtown Belgrade, our tour took us past a scary sight – the wreckage of a building that has purposely been left in tact. It was bombed by NATO bombers in 1999. Whoa. That was us.
At the time, the Yugoslav government, led by Slobodan Milošević, had been carrying out attacks on non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.
Nato bombed Yugoslav infrastructure and military targets to get Milošević to stop. The wrecked building we drove past had housed Yugoslavia’s Ministry of Defense.
Why has the wreckage been left in tact, more or less on display? Our tour guide, aware that he was speaking mostly to Americans, tactfully provided a rather obscure answer. The bus ride was quiet for a while after that.
Rakija
We spent most of our free time at an outdoor café on Belgrade’s Knez Mihailova Street. It’s a lively pedestrian zone in a shopping district. Great for people-watching.
We couldn’t leave Belgrade without trying Serbia’s national drink – rakija. It’s plum brandy. It’s produced commercially in varying qualities and proofs, and as I understand it, it’s often made at home, too.
I think we might have had some of the home-made stuff. Whoa.
To be continued…
Photo of Belgrade’s historic city center at the top of this post, credit: Vladographer/istockphoto
