Belgrade, Just Because

A few weeks ago (that seems to be a theme, maybe I will catch up one day!), we we took a random trip to Belgrade, Serbia. Belgrade is just a 4 hour drive, and going to Serbia seemed like a good adventure. We had a little too much adventure when we hit the Serbian border, in the dark, and the GPS said "limited route information." Oops. Fortunately, it was a straight shot to Belgrade. Once there, we found a McDonalds, which meant wifi.  Once we got wifi, we could locate the hotel on our phones and we found it.

We were greeted at the hotel by security personnel with metal detectors. That was a first! We also saw the police come by once with bomb - sniffing dogs.  Other than those things, we felt like we were in any other European city. Belgrade was lovely, with a huge fortress overlooking the Danube.

We were blessed with great weather for exploring! A large pedestrian street led the way to the fortress. The kids loved running around and exploring these tanks. Chelsea was greatly amused that the statues were naked....there are plenty of naked statues in Budapest, but I guess she is just beginning to notice these things.

On our second day, our first stop was the Cathedral of St. Sava, which is the largest Orthodox church in the world. It is beautiful on the outside but has not been completed on the inside. 

Our next stop was to visit the Museum of Josip Tito, the former dictator of Yugoslavia. Interestingly, his wife died a few days prior to our visit, so the only portion of the grounds that was open was the museum housing gifts Tito had received from other countries during his reign. We found this belt sign interesting - never knew that was the reason for colds.

After visiting Tito, we headed back to the city center. Along the way, we passed this building which was bombed by NATO in 1999. Not something you see every day! 

Our last stop of the day was Skadarlija street. It is a cute cobblestone street full of cafes and galleries, and is known as the bohemian area of Belgrade. I just loved the flowers of the above restaurant! 

We ate at another cute sidewalk cafe, and all was well except for my order. I ordered the Gourmet Cheeseburger, which I really should know not to order in Eastern Europe.  What I got was not exactly what I had in mind, but living abroad I've learned to go with the flow and laugh at things that are lost in translation. 

After 2 fun filled days, we said goodbye to Serbia - thankful for another fun adventure!