Belgrade

my train ride was a bit of a pain, but it was my fault, i kind of left my run to the train a bit late and i didn't get to buy some food for the train trip. at first i didn't think it would be a problem, sometimes there is a food carriage where you can buy stuff, but unfortunately for me, not on this one. the train to Belgrade was meant to take about 6 hours but it ended up being about 8, i was STARVING by the end of it. the trip to Belgrade was a real eye opener, not because of the lack of food, but what i saw out my window. its nothing to see a shell of a car or a old washing machine left to rust on the side of the road, not to mention the amount of litter, it was like a rubbish dump. but the most disturbing part was seeing the shanty towns. they were so many little make shift houses. it was pretty sad to see people living in those conditions, especially the little kids who were waving at the train as it went by, they were probably about the same age as my niece and nephew and they were dirty and had runny noses. it was really sad and put a lot into perspective for me. especially when i saw a great big billboard above them. for people that don't know, when im not traveling, my day to day job is being an art director at an advertising agency. seeing that billboard about all those shanty houses made me think, i help brands make millions of dollars by selling product to target markets, but what i really should be doing is using my smarts to give back to people rather than become a statistic in an annual review. i mean, to buy that advertising space for a few weeks would be enough to send quite a few kids to school.

Belgrade is an interesting place, it didn't take me long before i came across a couple of buildings that had been bombed. it was pretty strange to see them, i found out later that they had been bombed by NATO back in 1999, which when you think about it wasn't that long ago. the reason they hadn't been torn down and built over was because they are kind of a tourist attraction, which in itself was weird, and because the government created a law saying that if you buy the land that was bombed, the building that stood there had to be rebuilt, this one in particular because it was done by a famous Architect. so, imagine being me for a second, i just got off the train from seeing all the shanty towns and then i see all of these bombed buildings, all before i have even got to my hostel. i felt like i walked into a 3rd world country. it was pretty crazy.
the guy at the hostel told me to check out a couple more bombed building just up the road from the ones i saw. you could look inside these ones (well, through the windows, not actually inside them), there were still books in the offices and bits and pieces of furniture.

while i was here i went an checked out the National bank of Serbia, sounds pretty boring huh, but one of the best things about traveling outside of the EU is checking out the designs on the money (because all you use is EURO when your in the EU), the currency they use here is called Dinar and some of the notes are pretty cool. but that wasn't the only reason i went there. Serbia was effected by hyperinflation in the early to mid nineties, so they had some notes there that were 5,000,000,000,000 Dinars, which is absolutely crazy. i spoke to the woman that worked there and was asking about them, she said for Serbs, they are times they would rather forget, so i didn't asked her too many questions. its funny, in the exhibition they had coins, but i have not been given a coin the whole time I've been here, only notes, and the notes they use here are still really high numbers so, if your ever here, take money out of the bank and get a receipt, for most people its the only time you'll be a millionaire on paper. they also had an exhibition on forgery which was pretty interesting, i could hardly tell the difference between the real stuff and the fake stuff. something cool that was there was you can get your face put on a Dinar note, so i got one done, its pretty funny, the photo of me was pretty bad so it looks like a criminal on a bank note.

something im really enjoying here is there alphabet, i find it really interesting, mainly from a font perspective. the letters are really sharp and sometimes they don't have tales then sometimes they have extra tails, for instance 'Belgrade' in the native alphabet turns out looking like 'Београд'. even though you can kind of make out what it says, it does make it a little tricky to get around, mainly because the map you get when you arrive here is written with the english letters, so when you walk around the street and try to find signs to get your bearings, you cant compare the two. but i managed.

i wouldn't say Belgrade is a beautiful city, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it would be, but its not all bad, occasionally you see a nice building or a park to wander through. theres a place called Kalemegdan which has a garden and the remains of a castle and a big fortress which is quite nice, its pretty old and like most things in Europe, was added to over time. its worth a look. i think they have a military museum in there too, but i wasn't interested so i gave it a miss. supposedly the night life here is quite good but i didn't witness any of it, I'm boring.
i took a bus across the river to an old town called Zemum, it was a bit different compared to the rest of Belgrade mainly because, it used to be owned by Austria but after the war became part of Belgrade. it was a small little place with a market selling, well, rubbish really, nothing worth buying. but it had a cool tower thing amongst the poky little, colourfully painted homes, in its own way it was really cute. a good thing about Zemum is its built right along the Danube river so it had a bit of a view as i walked back, its nothing spectacular, most of the boats looked like they were more likely to sink than float, but the sun was shining so i made the most of it. something i found interesting while i was out was the amount of people walking around, i was here during the week and people were just shopping, having lunch, doing coffee, it was like no one had a job and no one cared less.

where i was staying was pretty good, the people here were really friendly and extremely helpful, pointing out things on the map for me to check out and giving me a brief run down of what it is and its history. also the breakfast that was included had home made jams made by the guys mum and other local foods, really nice. but the best thing about staying there was they had a guitar. i hadn't played in months and i was pretty rusty, but it was great to have a play for a while. the only off putting thing was i went to get a drink of water from the tap, when i looked at the glass, i found the water was REALLY cloudy, i could hardly see through it! i asked the guy if it was ok to drink and he said it was, and he took a sip, come to think of it, i haven't seen that guy since... not really, i'm only kidding! but i decided to pass of drinking the water. my hostel was right near a giant church which ended up being really handy because you could see the church wherever you are in Belgrade so it was easy to find home. if you've been reading the blog you would've noticed that i'm not a huge fan of the church, i think it might have been the 13 years of catholic education that might have done it, but thats another story. there was something i did like about this church, was the chime the bells made. it was pretty crazy, it sounded exactly what a church in a communist country would sound like, i don't know how to describe it maybe like something straight from a propaganda film or something. pretty funny.

Belgrade's a bit dirty at times, but its been through a fair bit, bombs, hyperinflation, all mainly because of Milošević, i did a wikipedia search of him while i was here, geez, he sounds like a nasty piece of work and thats putting it lightly, one of his past times seemed to be kidnapping political opponents just for kicks! but i felt quite safe here and the people here are great, while i was here i ate at a little shop around the corner from the hostel, i got talking to the people that worked there and the customers and they were all really lovely.
i think if i was going to describe Belgrade i would like to think of it as a pair of old shoes, you know they have holes in them, but they are really comfortable, so you don't throw them away. i dunno if that makes sense, but i know what i mean. its been an interesting stay, originally when i was planning this trip, Belgrade wasn't on the list, but when we couldn't get a ferry across to Dubrovnik from Bari i had to rethink what i was going to do, it kind of threw my plans up in the air BIG time. i hate saying this because its so cliche but, i guess everything happens for a reason. I've seen another side of Europe, and in a way, another side of life. anyway, next is Sarajevo.