Friday, 3 February 2017 to Thursday, 9 February 2017
Today was the first day we dared leave the windows open for a prolonged period of time; it was +11°C outside and forecasted to go up to +16°C, it was beautiful outside. Wow! Belgrade is truly a wonderful city in winter; I can just imagine how beautiful it must be in summer when the multitude trees carry their green mantle with pride and dignity. Maybe, just maybe, we will come back to witness that sometime.

Part of breakfast this morning was the leftover Bucko pizza – which you may remember from the previous post – that was described as “The crust was three times too thick and the toppings were three times too thin.” So you can imagine that I was not keen to face Bucko again this morning, but of course I had to, remember all the little children across the world than would give anything for a Bucko? How could we let it go to waste? Anyways, Adri made a lovely fluffy omelette which I slapped on top of that pizza piece; cheese went on there as well as fried onions. Now it was a breakfast pizza of note!

I spent most of the day working, trying to get the latest post published but, alas, I got distracted, twice, first by a shopping trip and later by supper.

It was already dark when we went shopping at Univerexport for beer, wine, coffee, tea, milk and a whole array of other stuff. The whole caboodle came to a rather affordable 2000 dinar.

And on the way there I saw an electrical shop with the unfortunate name of “Fakt” Of course I took a picture, I knew Mikey would just love this one, just like he loved the accompanying picture that I took several years back in Bruges in Belgium.

 

 

After shopping I continued working but not before opening a tin of Tuborg. Now as I explained previously, I am not a tin kind of a guy, or a tin man. I simply just don’t like my beers in tins as it invariable leaves a seemingly thin layer of pewter on ones palate. I poured the contents into a glass rather than drinking it straight from the tin and man, this one tasted like a true Tuborg to me. Maybe that’s the secret to avoid that tinny taste, don’t drink from it.

Adri had a glass of red wine, again produced by Plantaze Crnogorski but this time we tried their Cabernet which was great. Somehow I think I prefer their Merlot we had the other night, but I will have to try that again, just to make sure.

After our beer and wine and a substantial supper we were ready for a digestif. Adri wanted some of the Rakia or Rakija that we bought a bottle of a few days back. Rakia is the collective term for fruit brandy popular here in Eastern Europe, but I suspect the word brandy is used rather loosely here. It tastes nothing like the brandies that I am used to.

To me it tastes like a marriage between tequila and witblits (white lightning), the latter being an extremely potent South African spirit, often illegally distilled. Rakia is sometimes flavoured with your favourite fruit and it comes in flavours ranging from apricot, peach, pear, apple, mulberry quince, fig, cherry, herbs, honey, and damn near anything else it seems. We chose the plum and we were not disappointed, not after the third one.

Saturday we had plans to have coffee and cake at a little coffee shop the next block down from where we live, but alas, I got distracted again, by work this time, I had to get the post cleaned up and published. This was accomplished by 16:00 but by then Adri was on the phone to family, so it seems like this coffee and cake thing was not destined for us.

But maybe there’s a lesson or a warning in there for us to go on a diet. And speaking of diets, I weighed myself on our bathroom scale and the weight reported was not acceptable, but sort of acceptable. I’m sure that scale is just trying to score brownie points with me; there is no way I could have lost weight since we’ve been in Serbia… I will have to get a second opinion from the weighing scale at the pharmacy down the road.

I received feedback from Attie on my post regarding my “fake heart attack” and was reminded of the very real heart attack and subsequent bypasses he had a few years back. At the time he had obviously made a copious study on heart attacks and could probably do a well received thesis on it, should he choose to. He mentioned the main symptoms of heart attacks which I can safely say were not relevant to me… I’m hoping here, of course. But then he mentioned another few possibilities, some things that could feel like a heart attack, a hiatus hernia or severe heart burn… and the latter got me thinking.

Often plagued by heartburn previously, thankfully I have not had it since I arrived in Thailand in June 2015. But, just prior to my “fake heart attack” episode I had severe heartburn, probably due to my gluttony of course. I had to buy heartburn tablets for the first time since landing in Thailand which I made mention of in this post, where I also objected to the absurd price of the Gaviscon the pharmacist wanted to offload onto me. Be as it may, the doctor at the time of my perfect ECG speculated a pulled chest muscle explaining my discomfort, but could it have been just plain old heartburn?

It was a rather warm +11°C outside so I shed one of my skins, the inner one which is the one closest to my heart aka my long johns and t-shirt layer. It was just perfect and by the time we walked home at around 20:00 it was still comfy, the weather had turned really comfortable.

We decided on the spur of the moment to go back to the Little Bay Restaurant that we so enjoyed two weeks back. Apparently this restaurant is the only one in the world that is dedicated to classical music, a culture shrine and a patron to young musicians. Pretty cool!

When we got there we found that  the restaurant was fully booked, I was told, but I stood my ground, I wasn’t going anywhere. Through hums and haws and slowly paging back and forth through the reservation list the head waiter finally relented and offered us a table, but only until its next sitting at 19:30, it was 18:00, it was no problem.

Our waiter tonight was a lovely chap, perfect English as all the other waiting staff, with a slight Dutch accent I might add. Adri ordered a glass of the Merlot from the Vinarija Madžić, Srbija, I again ordered the Grimbergen Belgian blond beer. When we ordered the Rhapsody dish, our waiter’s face lit up with a broad smile and said “The best choice!” The Rhapsody dish is a platter for two made up of roasted pork ribs with barbecue sauce, grilled breast of chicken with blue cheese sauce, pithivier of duck confit with leeks and vegetables gratin.

No sooner had we received our drinks and the freshest bread rolls, still warm to the touch, were delivered with a small tub of finely mashed feta cheese mixed with chives and garlic. Divine.

Then the Rhapsody arrived. In ancient Greek it referred to “an epic poem – or part of it – of a suitable length for recitation at one time”. That sounded about right. As our waiter delivered the dish he suggested the way to eat it was to start with the portion at the furthest end, and work our way across the plate until there was nothing left to cross. This is what we did and man, was this an epic poem, and did we recite it at one time! The food was excellent, way past perfect.

Just before we left the waitress that served us two weeks ago came rushing over to say hello, what a lovely lass. As we left I reconsidered, backtracked into the restaurant and made a reservation for 20:00 next Sunday, our last Sunday in Belgrade had to be special.

I read an article on misophonia today. If you don’t know what that is, don’t feel bad, neither did I. According to Wiki, misophonia literally means “hatred of sound” and was proposed in 2000 as a condition in which negative emotions, thoughts, and physical reactions are triggered by specific sounds. It is also referred to as “select sound sensitivity syndrome” and “sound-rage”. Who does not get affected by nails scraping down a blackboard? Does this mean we all suffer from misophonia?

Late Sunday morning we took a walk to the Church of Saint Sava a few kilometres away. To get there we had to walk past the Saint Mark’s Church, where we spent time last week, and through the adjacent Tasmajdan Park. It was a cool +11°C out but the sun was out in all its glory… it was a truly glorious day. The park – since we saw it last – had now transformed from a snowy wonderland to a sunny playground for moms and dads and kids… no sign of any ice anywhere.

Arriving at the Church of Saint Sava we found that this was yet another building that was being restored, or so we thought. But, we were mistaken; they are still building it. Construction of the church began in 1935 but was halted in 1941 due to the Second World War and building only resumed in 1985. As of 2009, the church is mostly complete; however, work on the internal decoration of the building is still in progress, which is what we mistook for renovations. Be as it may, the Sava is a beautiful building and I would love to return when the internal decoration is complete, which I suspect would take another number of years.

After taking too many photos we went to the Intergalactic Diner – just down the road from the Sava – for a burger breakfast. This diner is all American. I had the Multiverse Burger which is a double patty, double cheese and double bacon burger. Wow, this was great! Adri had the Dark Cob salad which came with grilled chicken pieces, bacon, blue cheese, tomato, onions, lettuce, and then some. She had a filter coffee and I had a Holsten beer, it was past midday you know. Everything was just great!

Each table comes complete with a small juke box which you feed 5 Dinar to hear your choice of song. I went for Aretha Franklin’s Respect and John Lennon’s Watching The Wheels. Marvellous.

We paid the bill and walked down towards Karadordev Park and that’s when I realised that we paid far too little for our lunch/brunch… things just did not add up. I did a quick calculation and realised that we should have paid at least 1400 Dinar, not the 800 that we were requested to pay. We went back to the waiter and said “We need to pay more” explaining all that we had. They had obviously made a mistake but he waived us away with a “It’s okay, not to worry, but please come back again!” Wow, what a lovely place.

After trying to get rid of some money but not succeeding we walked through Karadordevthe Park and down one of the main roads towards Skadarlija Street, the main bohemian quarter of Belgrade which they claim is similar to Paris’ Montmartre.

This cobbled stone street had now also undergone a transformation from a wintry wonderland where everything happened inside, to where people were now starting to sit outside enjoying the crisp cool afternoon air. We could not resist, we sat outside at the Tri Sesira Restaurant where I had a Hoegaarden, in a bottle, not the watered down draught variety. Adri went for a liqueur she did not know, a shot of Gorki List Pelinkovac which tasted much like our beloved Fernet Branca but with a sweet twist. For those of you that want to but don’t like Fernet Branca, this one’s for you.

We watched a few episodes of Suits tonight, mostly to try and keep myself awake for the NFL Super Bowl LI (50). I found a live stream of the game on Fox Sports to watch, it was already past midnight here when the game started. I was rooting for the Atlanta Falcons rather than the New England Patriots, for personal reasons.

Midway through the third quarter Atlanta was leading by a whopping 28-3 and it was only a matter of time before they would be lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, or so they thought, and do did I. But, the Patriots scored the next 25 points of the game unopposed to end the game on a tie at 28, the first tie ever in Super Bowl history. In the sudden death overtime the Patriots scored a touchdown within minutes to clinch the title. Sad, so sad for Atlanta, but the way they disintegrated and/or lost concentration in the last quarter, they probably deserved to lose.

It was 04:30 when I switched off the lights

I wanted to sleep in but by 10:00 I received my first cup of coffee in bed, how could I refuse. While I was enjoying my second cup Adri went to the deli up the road for sausages, for breakfast. She returned with a small collection of different types, oh, and somehow also a tuna pâté and also one of those chocolate covered croissant type delicacies. Breakfast consisted of an omelette, toast, a multi sausage ensemble as well as chive cream cheese. This was followed by tea and that chocolate treat. I really must stop eating so much…

It was just before 15:00 when Adri went for a walk while I continued working. While working away I heard this inordinate long toot outside the apartment, a car was blocking the road. Serbians are a very considerate people and don’t often blow their car horns but when they do, they really mean it and normally only take their hand off that horn when the obstacle is cleared. This I find to be quite a strange phenomenon. As they say in the movies, strange but true.

My mind now squarely focussed on Serbian drivers, I must admit to being rather impressed that they all seem to have a high regard for pedestrians, and their crossings. In Belgrade you find pedestrian crossings at most crossings, whether there are traffic lights or not. At a traffic light crossing you have to wait for the light to turn green and pedestrians adhere to this, mostly. At crossings where there are no traffic lights you simply walk across and cars, like magic, just stop. They just stop. Rather impressive. Adri and I are still trying to wrap our heads around this one as it is not the norm in SA. If you try to pull this stunt in SA you would reach the end of your shelf life within the first step you take off your first pavement.

Adri was supposed to go for a walk but she actually went shopping. I know this now because she returned with supper goodies from Maxis Supermarket. Thanks to that we had penne pasta with bolognaise, meatballs and a Serbian sauerkraut type salad for supper. Wonderful !

Tonight I had the pleasure of not drinking with Johan, but drinking Johan. I found a beer the other day called Johan which I tried out tonight, and may I say it was pretty good. Unfortunately I could not have nog ‘n enetjie (another one), I only had the one Johan, pity. I am in no doubt that Johan would have tasted even better if I had it with Johan. Perhaps next time.

Tuesday the weather turned a bit sullen again, it was dark and dreary, cloudy and raining in +2°C dampness, it was easy to turn over and continue sleeping. Most of the day was spent reading, relaxing and fortunately also a fair amount of admin was handled.

We were not really feeling hungry this morning so skipped breakfast but went for an early lunch instead. And I am not ashamed to say, we had lunch of coffee and cake… yea man! We found this lovely little coffee shop down the road that have a wonderful collection of cakes, making it very difficult to choose a winner for your plate. A combo of coffee and cake costs a mere 250 dinar per person, so it was not going to break the bank but could break the scale later on. After a lengthy deliberation with myself I chose the chocolaty mousse cake that had a thick layer of chocolate on the top, Adri had the chocolate cheesecake with berries. Oh, and the coffee and wifi were great as well.

We had not yet made a decision on our Montenegro accommodation although we had a shortlist of 16 properties on Airbnb in the wider Budva area, which included areas such as Bečići and Rafailovici. Over coffee and cake we whittled these down to eight and from those we selected an apartment in the centre of Budva situated about 300 metres from the beach. We often rely on reviews to nudge us in a direction and this property seemed to be pretty much what we were looking for. We requested to book the apartment and by the time we got home the landlord had already accepted it.

An article noted that it was the 40^th anniversary of that incredible Fleetwood Mac album called Rumours, and listed 10 little-known stories about its creation, a rather interesting read. This is an album that I grew up on and it will remain one of my most favourite, and I am not alone, it is the ninth bestselling album of all time.

Early evening we were ready to start the next season of Suits. As I selected Season 3 I realized that all the episodes already had a tick mark next to them. Holy crap, we had already binged on three seasons, we were ready for the fourth and still loving it. And by the way, the series has a very catchy theme song, a snippet taken from the song called Greenback Boogie by Ima Robot.

Wednesday morning Adri went out to get fresh bread rolls… she came back with fresh beds rolls… as well as a potato type salad and also a very smooth and creamy white cheese. That, together with a freshly made omelette and sausages constituted breakfast.

Our main aim today was to visit a few of the NATO bombed buildings in Belgrade which have been left in its derelict bombed state after the war in 1999. Some people believe that these buildings are left in its ruinous state as a memorial or a reminder to the devastation caused by war, any war. Others believe it is merely due to financial constraints that renovations have not yet started. Be as it may, these building are a stark reminder of the wastages of war.

The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was the military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. There are so many different points of view on whether the war was justified or not, and whether it was legal or not, but I will leave that up to the reader to decide. One only has to read one article on the web – any article – on the subject and its related comments to realize that the feelings regarding the war on both sides of the aisle run deep and dark.

The NATO air strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav armed forces from Kosovo and the establishment of the UN Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), a UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

There are two sites that we knew of which we intended to visit today and we reached the first one where there are two buildings across the road from each other. One of the buildings used to be the Yugoslav Ministry of Defence and the one across the road was probably collateral damage during the attack. If you follow the link above you will notice that it is a protected monument, although there have been talks about turning it into a luxurious hotel by The Trump Organization. I have no words.

The second compound of buildings – six blocks further down – were also extensively bombed and I could not help but wonder what the intended target was. When I checked our position on maps.me I noticed that right behind the bombed buildings is a huge hospital complex. Surely that was not the intended target!? And what happened next proved that it was not… But please allow me to explain.

We entered the rather dilapidated site and we were taking pictures of this collection of NATO bombed buildings when I noticed damage to a building further along the little dirt track of which I wanted a picture. Following the track around a corner, and just about to take that picture, I was yanked back to my senses when I heard a rasping but booming voice behind me say ”No!”.

I spun around on my heels hoping that Adri had not developed a sudden severe bout of laryngitis. She had not. Staring back at me was a huge fellow dressed in a huge blue uniform. He sternly advised, and I use the word “advised” loosely here, that we should backtrack the way we came. Like immediately, you know, back to the main road. He started marching back, turning around every few steps to make sure we were following him. I was doing the same making sure that Adri was following me. Adri was doing the same, I’m still not sure why.

I gave three steps to his one and we were doing the same speed. I quickened my step to four to one and eventually caught up to him, not sure why I wanted to do that. As I came alongside him I tried to make jovial small talk in an attempt to diffuse the situation but he would have none of it. I asked “So we cannot go beyond that bend in the road?” The short and gruff answer was “No!” “But can we take pictures?” “No!” “So we’re not allowed in here at all?” ”No!” This line of questioning was going nowhere so I decided to quit while I was still ahead.

Between his “No’s” he ordered that we delete all the pictures we had taken. I started fiddling with my phone with no intention to delete anything. Any photo that I had taken could be taken from the main road, thus with a decent zoom you would be able to get the exact same shots.

As we reached the entrance to the open parking area he pointed to the porous boom area and said “Military!” Uhm, and I thought this was a tourist sight, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but maybe they should then place a guard at that rickety boom. Be as it may, if you’re ever in Belgrade and at this particular site, don’t go past the boom into the parking area unless you want a blue uniform marching you straight back to where you came from.

From there we meandered up towards the central train station to check schedules for a possible train ride to Montenegro next week. There is a daily train between Belgrade and Bar but it unfortunately does not pass through Budva. We then went to the central bus station next door where we bought two tickets for next Thursday on the 08:30 bus to Budva, arriving there at 19:30 in the evening. It’s gonna be a long day.

On the way back home we had a cappuccino at the Boutique Coffee Shop, and although it was flavourful and robust and all, it was rather cool to the touch… I hate a cool-ish cappuccino. From there we bought food from our local 24/7 takeaway and settled in for an evening of watching Suits, with a rakija to finish it off with… the takeaway, not Suits.

 

Thursday was cloudy and cold so we opted to stay inside for most of the day. It was past lunchtime, we had not yet had breakfast, so we decided to go for a coffee and cake where we were a few days back. The lovely lass there welcomed us back with a huge bubbly smile; her little shop was abuzz and busy. I chose a slice of the Oreo chocolate cake and Adri the apple pie. Man, this place is great. Adri asked her whether she baked the cakes herself and, after not finding the correct English word, she said “My cousin’s mother bakes it for me”. Her aunt sure can bake!

You may remember that I mentioned in last week’s post that Montenegro is keen to join NATO and this morning there was an article with an update to this developing story. It states that “National security adviser Michael Flynn will recommend that President Donald Trump support allowing the small Balkan nation of Montenegro to join NATO, POLITICO has learned — despite strong opposition from Russia.” So we’ll see, but maybe it will be best that this decision is taken only once we leave Montenegro?

Because we did not have breakfast we had breakfast for supper. Or put another way, breakfast stuff was all that was left in the bare boned cupboards, and it was too cold to face the weather outside. So, supper consisted of scrambled eggs, French toast, a big toasted bread roll with thick creamy white cheese smacked on it, as well as slices of a flavourful Maasdam cheese. Man, was that good!

We continued watching Suits and persisted until we ran out of episodes at around 02:00 in the morning. Wow, we really did enjoy that. Although Season 6 is already out it is not yet available on Netflix in Serbia, but we sure are eagerly awaiting it. Thank you Andre and Thea for insisting that we watch this, it was most enjoyable.

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