Were the hell is Serbia?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Belgrade, Serbia

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Serbia.

How many of us haven even thought of Serbia?  It really hasn’t made headlines since the start of World War I.  Today would give us a chance to look at the “other side” of the coin that we saw yesterday.   Monday we had a chance to witness the destruction and hear about the death that took place during the 1991 war for Croatia’s War for Independence.  Today we would see and hear from the Serbians, their opponents in this war.

Belgrade, the former capital of Yugoslavia, is a city of 1.5 million people located on a hill overlooking the Danube and one of its tributaries.  It is the first hill we have seen since leaving Budapest, all of the rest of Danube plain is a flat as Kansas.  There language is identical to the Croats, but they use both the regular and Cyrillic alphabet and are Orthodox Catholics, rather than Roman Catholics.

We had a great bus ride of the city and the great fortress that the Turks build during their 500 year occupation of the city.  There is still much in the way of hard feelings all over the Balkans and Central Europe about the Turkish invasion, even though it took place in the late Middle Ages!

We also got the chance to walk to the Sephardic synagogue in Belgrade. The woman who lives on the grounds invited us in to see the inside and it was very nice. Even though we didn’t speak each other’s language, we were able to learn that there are only 2000 Jews in this large city and that this is the only synagogue in Belgrade. It was a nice experience for us and the Israeli couple that we walked with after seeing so many churches.

We also witnessed bomb damage from NATO air strikes during the Bosnian conflicts, but the bombs were precision strikes that hit only the army headquarters and the ministry of the interior, which held Milosavic’s secret police. 

We also had a (mandatory) church stop, although the new Orthodox cathedral, still under construction after being started in the 1800s.  It is absolutely enormous and will not be completed in our lifetimes.

We had a chance to do some shopping and went to the ATM to get about $30 changed into dinars, the Serbian currency, as dollars and euros are not accepted most places.

Every day of this cruise has been an exciting learning experience.  The lecturers and entertainers that the ship provided really kept us informed.  There is no bingo, casino or stupid games onboard our ship (boat?).  We were also surprised how many other tour boats are on the river.  Twice, now, we have had to “raft” as dock space is quite limited on the river. We are usually docked with at least 4 other river boats. It is surprising that the guests from the other ships just use our lobby to walk right through to their boat as there is no security check or id required to board each time.

After learning so much about wars, won and lost, I have put together a new rule: Rule #12: If your country wins a war, it is due to the determination and bravery of your people.  If you lose a war, it is due to greedy and corrupt leaders.