Thursday, December 04, 2008

Belgrade

From Nis,


Two days of riding and a night of muddy camping in a field by the highway,


brought me to the doorstep of Belgrade.


Belgrade is the first city i've been too where you can get your face printed on a note at the National Bank of Serbia for free! Seriously fantastic. As well as that, the two national foods of this country are pljeskavica (hamburgers) and Burek (a bit like a massive puff pastry sausage roll with cheese). Brilliant.


Two days in this town and it's a struggle to tear myself away. Especially since the roads are wet and the skies cloudy. Belgrade is the kind of town with a warm cafe on every street and plenty of people out at any time of the day or night. It's another one of those cities that's been blown to smithereens on more occasionas than anyone can remember and rebuilt again every time. More recently they've kept better records of their struggles, the military museum in Belgrade has a huge American Humvy parked out the front from the front from their last tussle with NATO in 1999.



Another thing that Serbia does well is religion. There are huge and relatively new churches sprinkled all around the city, and they are attended with a vigour and dedication that I haven't seen else where. As you walk around Belgrade, you might notice that peoples right arms are slightly larger than their lefts. This is because during each service, the participants cross themselves with great vigour about 460 times and after several years of sincere worship, you will graciously be endowed with a divinely ordained enlarged bicep.

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