Friday, 27 January 2017 to Thursday, 2 February 2017
I was ready for my early morning news fix but the wifi wasn’t. That circle just kept spinning around and around and around… There was no way to contact Miha from the apartment without wifi, so we would have to visit a coffee shop with wifi to accomplish this. I then noticed that Adri’s phone – with its Thailand AIS sim still in place – made a perfect connection to the local Serbian network. I sent Miha an sms and about 30 minutes later the wifi was back up, great landlord. And of course, my MTN sim card from SA was dead as a doornail, not surprisingly so, MTN never ceases to disappoint.

Having now finally caught up on my blogging schedule I was putting the final touches to the latest post for publication today but still had quite a bit to do. Adri decided she wanted to go shopping, I was hoping window shopping, she left me to my devices at around 13:00.

Although it was still -2°C outside the sun was shining brightly this morning, a welcome relief from the dark and dreary misty last few days. This weekend and into next week the weather is predicted to be warming up – if Apple’s weather app can be believed – to a high of +6°C with a low of -1°C.

Adri came back from her shopping trip with a luscious looking feeling scarf, the one she had was just not woman enough to stand up against the weather outside. It was just before 19:00 that I published the latest post called Having fun getting acquainted with a frozen Belgrade, now I was finally back on schedule, for how long remains to be seen.

Tonight we started watching a series called Suits which Andre and Thea raved about, so we wanted to find out whether the raving was justified. If I tell you that we binge watched five episodes you can probably make your own deduction, it was simply irresistible. IMDB describes it as “On the run from a drug deal gone bad, Mike Ross, a brilliant college-dropout, finds himself a job working with Harvey Specter, one of New York City’s best lawyers”. We really like this one.

We slept in Saturday morning as we only got to bed at 02:00 due to the Suits. It was still chilly outside but with the promise of a sun showing later in the day, we dressed up to the 99s and braved the cold at -5°C outside at around 13:00.

We had no specific mission, we just needed to get unbound from the house and feel some fresh arctic air on our faces. We walked in the general direction of a movie house called Tuckwood Cineplex, just to check it out for future reference, and also somewhere along the line we needed a breakfast, or brunch, or lunch or whatever.

We walked along taking in the wonderful sights and sounds and scenes and people of Belgrade. We crossed empty streets, busy streets, doubled back on some and double crossed others, we walked past the House of the National Assembly of Serbia, saw a snippet of the Saint Mark’s Church as we turned right and past the wonderful Post of Serbia building. It was just past the latter that we found the Tuckwood Cineplex.

Now we are led to believe that, unlike most movies in Thailand, all English movies in Serbia are screened in their original soundtrack but with Serbian subtitles.

The advertised movies outside the building may be English but their titles were not, so it was not easy to identify what was which. The only title though that was in English was La La Land because there is no translation for “La La” to Serbian. There is a translation for Land although they had the good sense not to name it La La земљиште. As you know, the movie received 14 Oscar nominations so we were rather keen to see it, the first showing was at 18:40, we had a few hours to kill.

On the way to the movie house I noticed the name of a hotel, prominently displayed on the wall and it immediately drew my attention, taking me back some 50 years or so. The name of the hotel was Excelsior, the same name of the farm that our family owned prior to the 1970s in Ladismith in the then Cape Province. Man, I have such fond memories growing up there but sadly we left the farm behind for the call of the bright lights big city that is Johannesburg, that would be my home for the next 50 or so years. Just for interest’s sake, the word Excelsior is late 18th century Latin and is derived from excelsus, i.e. from ex (out, beyond) and celsus (lofty). So “beyond lofty”, and for my family and I it surely was.

A Tale of Two Cities, a 1859 novel by Charles Dickens came to mind; the start of that famous book was relevant to Excelsior as well. It starts off as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”.

But let me explain. Farmers were suffering under the severe drought of the 1960s. Rain was scarce, water was scarce, crops were scarce, money was scarce, the Klein (Little) Karoo was suffering. To try and make ends meet my father – bless his soul – in addition to running the farm, took over the local BP garage, selling petrol and diesel and fixing cars and trucks and tractors in his workshop. As can be expected in a farming community, most of my dad’s customers were obviously farmers; all of them of course, were also struggling. I’m sure it’s not that the people did not want to pay their bills, they could not, but my father also had his bills to pay. And that’s when the bright lights big city called, it was 1970, and we never looked back.

Back to the future, it was now 14:00 and we had not yet had anything to eat. We found a little restaurant called The Family Restaurant which obviously had an Italian/Mafiosi theme; there was even a poster of The Godfather on one of the walls. I had the breakfast which came with three eggs (yes, three), three pieces of toast (naturally), crispy fried smoked pancetta, potato wedges and cream cheese. Adri ordered the thick bean soup with smoked pork ribs with a side of bread and also a slight variation on saurkraut for a salad. All was wow!

With tummies topped up we walked around that hood and entered a type of a department store and inspected all that was on offer on the various levels. At the basement level there is a wonderful Idea supermarket, dare I say, even better than Woollies back in SA? Yes, I dare.

We had another hour to kill which I did with a Jelen draught at a pub where the waitress was more interested to socialise with her buddies than interact with her real clients. The wifi allowed me one search after which it froze up on me. I was getting irritable so decided to concentrate on my beer. Ah, I was feeling so much better!

 

And while I was doing this concentrating thing I noticed that Adri was all fluffed up, like a goose. That luscious looking feeling scarf she bought yesterday ended up being a fluff thrower, not sure what material it is made of, but man, can this thing fluff! We saw another scarf today which Adri was contemplating falling in love with, I fear I might inherit the fluffing scarf and become the fluffed upon.

We arrived at the movie house, and would you believe, the tickets for La La Land were sold out. We weren’t about to stick around for the 22:15 show so attempted to buy tickets for tomorrow’s show. No can do, they sell movie tickets only on the day of the showing. Oh well, we’ll have to be back then, won’t we.

It was long past dark when we started our lovely walk home; Belgrade really is a wonderful city. Because we had a mid afternoon meal we were not hungry but bought some oatmeal cookies on the way to have with tea, Adri was craving those. My craving was created once I had my first one, lovely stuff.

 

We started watching Suites but after the third episode Adri’s eyes were looking south so we called it a night, we called it Saturday night.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 06:30… again, as it has for the last three Sundays. Yes, that’s the time we got up that Sunday we left Koh Samui, the alarm was never reset. I switched off the alarm and could not really get back to sleep; I was not a happy camper.

It was -9°C and misty outside, again. My murky mind made a connection to that wonderful jazz classic of yesteryear called Misty. Below I have included a version of Misty by country and pop singer Ray Stevens which I suspect brought the song to the attention of a wider audience. I have also included a jazzy version for comparison.

We watched the Australian Open Final between Federer and Nadal and what a match it was with Federer winning in a nail biting fifth and final set.  I was not about to continue with this nail biting stuff so opened a Laško beer. We all know how sometimes you see or feel or taste something that takes you back to a place and time in the past? Well this is exactly what happened when I took the first sip of my Laško Zlatorog. I was back in Croatia in the beautiful Saplunara Bay on the island of Miljet with Adri, Marc and Sandy. We were having lunch and a Zlatorog at a restaurant overlooking the bay where our chartered yacht lay, ever so still at anchor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was around 15:00 when we took a stroll back to the movie house to book our tickets for La La Land, this time we were successful. We had a few hours to slay so we walked around the hood and ended up at the Saint Mark’s Church. We did not see it in all its glory as they were busy renovating parts of it, still well worth to see.

 

From there we stopped off at the Polet Restaurant for coffee. They played wonderful music ranging from English, to Serbian, to French, old and new mixed together, I could have spent the rest of the day there. One particular song caught my attention, a song I have not heard in decades; it was Lady in Black by Uriah Heep.

Another one that caught my attention was Why by Annie Lennox.

Supper was planned to be at The Family Restaurant but it was closed by the time we got there, so we decided to have a banana instead… seriously, we would get supper after movies.

After watching La La Land we strolled home discussing the movie. Adri loved it, I thought it was okay, but did not quite get it. Probably had something to do with my feeble mind, but I just did not get it. I realize it’s supposed to be a fantastical romantic musical but at least the scenes and story must fit together and make some sense.

The acting was not all bad; the singing was not all good, maybe it was the editing that let the movie down. Sometimes it seemed as if they used out of sequence scenes as fillers where they probably ran out of ideas. But that’s just me. Be as it may, I checked the reviews on IMDb and Adri and my different take on the movie was proved quite normal, reviewers either give it a 10, or a one. Seems like people either love or hate the movie, there’s no in-between.

We got chow at our local 24/7 takeaway, this time from a grumpy lady, unlike the sweet old soul that served us a few nights ago. This particular lady had only a smattering of English which was not an issue, but not something to get grumpy about. She could not tell us what anything was, so we went on looks. Supper was a mixed mass of moussaka, mince in a cabbage leaf, mashed potato, and dessert was a kind of a rolled up pancake with pumpkin, we think. All was great though.

Monday we spent cooped up inside for most of the day, it was a chilly high of -6°C. I did some admin which was woefully behind schedule, I really should not let this happen. But, when you’re having fun, it’s tough to get to the mundane stuff. Unfortunately I did not make much of a dent, although there seemed to be a dimple in there somewhere.

The sun was shining brightly Tuesday morning at 0°C. We have been pining for a sunny day to go to the Belgrade Fortress which was built in 535 (535) and is situated in old Belgrade at the confluence of the Sava River and Danube rivers. At 11:00 we left and 20 minutes later we reached our destination which is a rather large area at roughly one square kilometre, at a guess.

We walked amongst the ruins, visited the various gates to the fortress, the Statue of the Victor, and marvelled at the lovely views down below towards the Danube and Sava rivers, as well as the Great War Island, a wonderful experience.

Although the various attractions are properly signposted when you get to it I must admit that I was rather disappointed that there were no signposts on how to get to it. And I thought it was just non-Serbians that may get confused but I was proved wrong when a Serb came to me and asked, in perfect English, where the Military Museum was. I was at that very moment trying to determine the exact same thing on maps.me so pointed him, and us, in the right general direction.

We finally found the Military Museum, and like all countries, there have been various wars throughout their history up to the establishment of their current borders. There was ample information about ancient and old wars, the 1^st and 2^nd world wars, but weirdly nothing on the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and early 2000s. Maybe they just ran out of museum real estate?

On the way home we felt a tad peckish and entered the first bakery shop we found. We needed a burek, the long thin type. They had beef, cheese and a chicken cheese with béchamel sauce. After the lady gave us a taster of the latter  it was to be the one, the one we had as a snack as we settled in on a wooden bench just off from the Knez Mihailova pedestrian zone.

We then bought soup ingredients from the Maxi Supermarket right there and by now we were in dire need of a coffee. As we entered the Boutique Cafe/Restaurant I noticed just in time that I had a hand stuck in my face which I correctly interpreted as “Do not enter”. Both levels of the restaurant were chock-a-block, there was not a space for a muis (mouse). We backtracked 50 metres or so and settled at the Monument Centre Restaurant for a cappuccino which was not great, but okay.

The public transport in Belgrade is very good but rather confusing, so much so that our landlord Miha proclaimed that he could not explain it to us as he still does not understand it after living here for 12 years. This was borne out when we went to the tourist information office and requested a public transport route map… there was none. The friendly lady explained that all Serbians just know how to use the system but she did give us at least one good pointer. Buy a BusPlus card for 250 Dinar which is valid for 24 hours of unlimited travel (3 and 7 days also available) on the bus, trolleybus and tram network. “Just try it” she said, “I promise, you won’t get too lost” And that’s just what we planned to do on Thursday.

We bought tickets for the Swan Lake ballet and that’s where we were heading just past 19:00, to the Belgrade National Theatre. I had never seen Swan Lake but have always had a yearning to. The reason? My mother – bless her soul – loved Swan Lake and it was her heart’s desire to see it performed live but sadly she never did get the chance.

 

 

Throughout my life I remember being looked down upon by a print of Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Swan Lake painting every time I entered the lounge, kitsch and complete with an elaborate gilded frame – unlike the picture – but my mother loved it! The painting, which features the renowned Alicia Markova of the English National Ballet was completed in 1951 and it depicts Markova posing gracefully with a swan enveloping her.

 

The ballet was fantastic, the dancers were amazing, graceful and so light on their feet. Man, I really wished my mother was there to see it… and who knows, maybe she was…

 

 

 

Wednesday morning was the first time since we’ve been in Belgrade that we saw positive temperatures, it was a coldish cool +6°C outside. We dressed as per our by now normal multi-layer dress code and must admit that by the time I got home it felt that I could have shed at least one layer before we left. But it was actually very pleasant out. We took a stroll to the Dom Omladine Youth Centre to purchase tickets for a show mid February. Once done and on our way home Adri had a window-shopping need, I had no such need so we went our separate ways. I got home and worked a bit, read a bit, snoozed a bit and by 16:00 Adri was home, thankfully without bags of window-shopping.

If you have been following this blog you will probably know that we are planning to go to Montenegro mid February. Now Montenegro has been keen to join NATO for many years, and to become its 29th member. Currently the ratification of their accession protocol remains stuck in the US Senate which was supposed to vote on it towards the end of last year, but never did. In the past it was seen as a formality for the US senate to give its blessing. But, with Trump having called NATO obsolete in the recent past, and also cosying up to Russia, which is obviously against NATO expansion, nobody’s so sure anymore whether this ratification will in fact be a mere formality.

So, why am I chewing this over? Well, as SA citizens we require a visa to visit Montenegro, which we don’t have, so we anticipate using our US visa, as we did to gain entry into Serbia. If you allow my mind to wander for a bit, let’s say the US senate vote against the accession protocol before mid February, could it be possible that in retaliation, Montenegro will refuse me entry to their country when trying to use my US visa? This may sound farfetched, but believe me, nowadays nothing holds true under that label.

We spent most of the day reading and relaxing. For supper Adri made us a wonderful beef and vegetable soup which we devoured in front if the television, it just happened to have another episode of Suits on it. We watched only two episodes, we had to get an early night; tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Thursday arrived, the day that we scheduled to face Belgrade’s public transport. By 11:00 we were at the ticket kiosk in front of Student Park and ordered two BusPlus tickets, valid for 24 hours, across both Zone 1 and 2 which essentially covers the whole city.

We had identified the number 41 bus line which would take us to the Museum of Yugoslav History so headed across the road to the bus stop that had a 41 specified on it. As we got onto the number 41 bus we were required to validate our tickets by holding them against an electronic device, of which there is one to the right of each entrance to the bus. The first ticket was recognised without a problem, the second one however refused to be recognised, it wanted to travel incognito, so we let it.

After getting off at the appropriate bus stop we walked up to the Museum of Yugoslav History which consists of the Museum May 25th, the House of Flowers and the Old Museum. After paying an entrance fee of 400 Dinar per person we first watched a short documentary on Josip Broz Tito who served Yugoslavia in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. We then proceeded upstairs to the main exhibition centre which covers mainly stories of the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) and refers to the foreign or migrant workers, particularly those who had moved to West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s.

We then proceeded up the park like setting to the House of Flowers which is the resting place of Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), the President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and his wife Jovanka Broz (1924–2013). The caretaker there was a very friendly fellow who knew his stuff. We were looking at a picture of the attendees to Tito’s funeral in 1980 and he pointed out all the dignitaries for us. Questioning where we were from, he immediately noted that SA was not officially represented at the funeral but that a delegation of, as he put it, “Mandela’s people” was there. While we were looking at Tito’s tomb he noted that it was one piece of marble weighing 9 tons, wow!

Throughout the Museum of Yugoslav History you will find many batons, each one of unique design, that were presented to Tito over the years. These batons essentially relate to the yearly Relay of Youth which culminated on Youth Day, which is celebrated on May 25. In the weeks preceding the date, youth ran a relay around the country and on his birthday, Tito was ceremonially presented with the baton. The baton, which had passed through all major cities, contained a symbolic birthday message, ostensibly from the youth of the whole country.

We then wandered over to what is referred to as the Old Museum where you can find a display of official gifts given to Tito from heads of state around the world as well as many of his personal items. Once we reached the end of this wander we were wondering what had happened to breakfast. It was now after 14:00 and we have had only one cup of coffee at home this morning… that’s it. Breakfast could wait, but coffee was now foremost on our minds.

Down the way from the museum we found a really beautiful English inspired restaurant called, not surprisingly, Hyde Park, which was rather hoity toity. And they make wonderful cappuccinos and Americanos there.

Have BusPlus ticket, can and will travel, so at the bus station we decided to get back on the number 41 bus line and head back to where we came from. From there we planned to head to Zemun which is situated on the same side of the Sava River as new Belgrade. But, we found that trolleybus 41 had lost its power and that we would have to walk to the next bus stop, about 500 metres down the road. So, I had to use my personal public transport, my number 9 Hush Puppy line.

On the way there we passed a water tank with two hose handlers behind it, spraying down the road, clearing it of snow and debris. A car stopped by, gave a hoot, turned to the one side and the hose handlers hosed down his car, an instant free carwash!

We wanted to go to Zemun, a historical town and one of the 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade. Before 1934 it was a town separate from Belgrade but the development of New Belgrade in the late 20th century, joined them together in a continuous urban area. We finally found the bus stop for the number 17 bus line that would take us there, and 15 minutes later we disembarked in Zemun.

We walked around there for a while, then boarded a bus again back into new Belgrade in search of a snack, which we found in a potato burek. From there we walked along the Danube – which was still totally frozen over – while the sun was busy withdrawing its rays from this part of earth.

And that’s when we saw Swan Lake… again, the real one. There was a flock of swans bathing in a small pond where the ice had started to melt, beautiful creatures. And then, one by one, they crept out of their little lake and started running fiercely, head over heels, until it was time for liftoff and they would retract their feet close to their bodies… just like an airplane, and off they flew to some unknown destination.

 

Sadly, it was closer to Swan Lake than what we sought. To our right there was a dearly departed swan that somehow got stuck in the snow and could not make the journey its fellow feathered friends made. Sad, but I guess that’s nature… and life.

 

 

 

We then had a beer at the Brener Restaurant, a lovely spot just opposite the road from the Danube. I asked for two Jelen beers and the friendly waiter asked “Sorry, you want gin?” After repeating it and pointing to the item on the drinks menu he exclaimed “Ah, Jelen!” which he pronounced as “Yellen”. I won’t get that one wrong again.

 

 

We then took a bus back into old Belgrade but on the way we passed the Usce Shopping Centre and Adri wondered whether that would be a good place to go for supper. Wonder no more. After the bus completed its journey we went back in the opposite direction and found the shopping centre where we had left it 20 minutes before. The shopping centre is great but we did not find any restaurant that tickled our particular fancy tonight.

 

After taking a bus in the wrong direction we corrected that error with another bus in the opposite direction, and by chance, by a huge chance that is, we ended up on bus line 22 that took us straight to Student Park… where we started our journey some 12 hours previously.

Walking the 500 metres or so home we decided to try the Bucko takeaway shop on the way which is truly just a hole in the wall, and looks quite quaint. You stand on the sidewalk, order your pizza or pizza slice through the hole and wait there until your order is passed back to you, through the hole. This place is always abuzz so we decided to order a pizza and by the way, you have no choice, they only make a cheese, ham and mushroom. It looked delicious but I am sad to say… it was not, not

by a long shot. The crust was three times too thick and the toppings were three times too thin. Never again, not there.

 

 

 

 

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