Belgrade Walking tour

Our apartment in Belgrade was right next to the city centre - A two minute walk from Republic Square. Republic Square is, pretty much where it all happens. The area around Republic Square is largely pedestrian and dotted with various eateries and watering holes.

Prince Mihailo (Mihailo Obrenovic III) Monument at Republic Square- His hand is allegedly pointing towards Istanbul, as he had expelled the Turks and freed the 7 sates of Serbia in 1862 and 1867

...with the local Pied Piper at is steps.

 I'd have loved to explore the food scene (especially Cevapi - the breakfast staple of the Balkans, I'm told), but didn't want to end up with a dodgy tummy in the first country we landed up in. So off we went to Vapiano - for lunch. We'd decided to take the walking tour of Belgrade after a hearty lunch.  It was much too hot for a walk, even at 4 in the evening. But our Guide- a lovely girl named Milinie assured us she'd take it slow, even for our little 4 year old.  Miline is a born and bred Belgradian and she joked, `I've belonged to four different countries and held four different passports but never moved out of Belgrade` It gives us an indication of the unrest and conflict that prevailed in these parts not so long ago.
There`s plenty to see for the history aficionado - but the fact that you see not one single structure standing along some of the streets that`s older than the 2nd World War, reminds us of the struggle of of the common Belgradian to just survive.  While we think of history as something to be read in dusty textbooks that happened to previous generations, here was a city that is still living it.

Along the walk we heard and visited about the Bohemian quarter of the city- Skadarlija where poets and thinkers gathered over Rakija to write, create and contemplate at Kafanas. Kafanas, Milinie explained to us was an all-encompassing drinking-and-eating-and-drinking joint which served you liquor until you were under the table. And then continued to serve you under the table.

At the home of Đura Jakšić, famous Serbian Poet, Writer and Painter

And in case you`re wondering what Rakija is, it`s the local brew, manufactured by practically every family in Serbia, from fermented fruit, particularly plum. In fact looking at the abundance of plum trees growing everywhere in the city (even outside our apartment window), I'm not the least bit surprised. And speaking of the foul liquid (believe me, you cannot  have more than 3 sips of this stuff before it burns your throat), Pickwick had his first sip of Rakija, much to my consternation,  from the Baa-Lamb`s cup. Due credit to the little boy for not spitting it right back out in our faces.

Belgrade Fort - we spotted the entrance to Tito's secret bunkers here (they weren't discovered until very recently, and quite by accident)  The Bunkers are currently sealed, but will be opened to the public short, so we were told.

The confluence of the Sava and Danube

As we walked along the streets we were handed out photocopies of banknotes - where we lost count of the Zeros, and technically made each of us billionaires- a stark reminder of the hyperinflation that gripped the country for nearly a decade, and its only now that the economy is slowly limping back to normal.

The Yugo. A car seen only in erstwhile Yugoslav countries. 

What does that do for the average Belgradian? If Milinie is to be believed, it just  means that they live life larger than life, if that makes any sense. They throw themselves passionately into whatever they do, be it supporting the local football club, or getting to work at 7 in the morning or partying til the wee hours of dawn.

Victor, The statue of the naked man. Controversial but a symbol of hope nevertheless

In the evening, we decided to wander around Republic Square and soak in the atmosphere.

musicians playing at Republic Square

The quirky boutique restaurant

We stumbled upon a lovely restaurant called `boutique` where I had one of the most sinful dessert cakes I`ve ever tasted. So, this chewy- gooey cake had: Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Coconut, Almonds and a few local flavours thrown in for good measure.The cake was representative of the Serbian spirit - we don`t know what tomorrow brings, so lets make the most of it now.

Sorry. Didn't have the patience to click a snap when it was all there. It was a miracle the snap was clicked at all.

We're headed for Bosnia next. Neighbours who're not on the best of terms (wonder why that sounds oddly familiar). But that's another blog post altogether. 

Drobeta Tunru Severin and the road to Belgrade

This was an epic tour of sorts for us. We'd never travelled to any of the countries we were going before, we'd never been on a road trip this long and we certainly hadn't crossed these many borders in a single trip before. So, our itinerary was to cover part of the Balkans on a round trip from Bucharest and back.
Before we get to the actual trip, a bit about the packing. Each of us carried just enough to fit into a had luggage. Apart from that, there was a document bag and spares bag (the spares for the car, not for us). Food was to be made/ bought/ eaten/ cooked along the away- which might not seem like a big deal for most people, but considering we eat a vegetarian diet, and the Mum in law doesn't have any garlic - and we refused to listen to her suggestion that she turn Fruitarian during the course of the trip, we had our work cut out for us.
We left Bucharest early in the morning, to avoid the afternoon- evening traffic on the highways. Come weekend, no on seems to want to stay back in Bucharest anymore. The highways are packed with motorist either heading for the hills or the sea. We'd intended to stop at Pitesti and Cryova for a coffee and lunch break respectively before we hit out final destination for the night - Drobeta- Turnu Severin.
Lunch in Cryova was at this lovely joint called Trevi - lovely because they custom made our pizzas and Pastas (although the décor was a tad OTT, with everything from the Leaning tower of Pisa to the Fontana being featured in the restaurant), and the full flavours and the genuinely nice service staff made for a great lunch.
We made it to Drobeta by evening, and were in no condition to do anything apart from collapse in a heap in the air conditioned comfort of our room. The mercury had touched a blistering 40 on our ride over.  But dinner needed having. and a town, albeit small, needed seeing.

So, Drobeta TS, a small-ish town with a vibrant city centre. It has a series of lit fountains along the main city buildings. There were, of course, remnants of the communist era, like a residential/ commercial block with a worryingly massive crack running along the entire length of the building. But I seemed to be the only one losing any sleep over it. The townsfolk seemed completely oblivious to it, so clearly, I was overreacting. For a border town I've never heard of, It was pretty active with a surprising number of children running about.

The next morning we headed out to the border after an early breakfast (in an attempt to once again beat the weekend queues. Little did I know that would become our mantra for the rest of the trip)

The Route from Drobeta TS to Belgrage

The Iron gates bridge- the border from Romania into Serbia

We were greeted by perfectly pleasant Border Security Ladies who seemed slightly confused about the Indian Passport travelling with rest of the family, but otherwise waived us through. The road from the border of Serbia to Belgrade follows the Danube upstream and is one of remarkable beauty. You have the vast Danube flowing to your right, and you're flanked by mountains to your left.

The lovely Danube

 You make your way through a number of tunnels and nowhere on the road, despite constant signs warning you of potential landslides and a steady stream of traffic, do you feel unsafe - or maybe that was just my confidence in the baa-lamb's driving (okay, all of you who know the baa-lamb first hand can stop laughing now).

We would have gotten to Belgrade sooner, but the journey was so picturesque, we decided to stop at several places just to drink in the beauty. 

The Danube Delta

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Yeah, Dickens could very easily have been describing our trip to the Danube Delta. It was the May bank holiday weekend, and just like England, the weather was wonderfully sunny throughout the previous week, but come weekend, there seemed to be a thunderstorm in the offing.
Nevertheless, it takes stronger stuff than the presence of a few thunder clouds to throw us off our plans and we set off in the morning, stuffing the car boot with suitcases and miscellaneous junk.
It took us about five hours or so to reach our destination - the quaint village of Murighiol. Which is very close to the Delta but very, very far from anything else. Knowing the husband's penchant for looking up the places we visit on the net, doing his research and only then booking destinations, I was surprised to find his choice of accommodation. This wasn't the usual run of the mill service apartment. This was a proper family- run B & B (and by family run I mean we were literally living out of two spare rooms in the family house). Ah. Slightly surprised there. But the family were a very nice couple who between the two of then spoke exactly 3 words in English. Oh. Still, soldiering on, we decided we would make do with our smattering of Romanian and a whole lot of sign language and shrugs and grins.
On the bright side however, we discovered that the house owner himself was a boatman who would be happy to take us on the delta cruise. Perfect. We had just enough time to smother the kids with Mosquito cream and for me to grab my camera and off we went with our chappie in his boat.
The delta was beautiful, with the landscape and ecosystem changing every few kilometres.

The boatman told us he'd spotted a colony of Pelicans nesting that morning, so that's where we were headed. En route we spotted quite a few Cormorants:

The Cormorant in flight...

...cleaning its feathers...

...giving us the stink-eye

... and finally flying away in disgust.

Swans:

shy things

Poetry in motion... this is the same swan captured in flight...

 and Egrets:

Finally, we spot the Pelican Colony and the Boat explodes into a frenzy of frantic clicking (we had another family accompanying us for the delta ride). I have to shamefacedly admit that we kind of Papp-ed the Pelicans. They (the Pelicans) seemed to take all this in their stride as they were near a marshy piece of land where there was such an abundance of frogs that we couldn't hear ourselves talk over the croaky din. Yup. Pelicans are the 'Anything-for-free-food' sorts of the bird kingdom.

That's the 'watch out! Too close!!' look

'Yes, there's only so much we can take before we decide to take off until the blooming tourists disappear!'

We also spotted a few other birds, some of which I could capture, some I couldn't. 

The Mallard

Seagulls adding to the cacophony

That's either a Tern or a Kingfisher. Not sure. 

The common tern

The Ferruginous Duck (or geese, as the boatman called it)

The Delta also had a lot of local colour, with the fishermen, the unique modes of transport and quaint cabins

All in all, a most productive three hours, I'd say. The kids of course, were famished by the end of the ride and were classing everything we spotted purely as 'Can or can we not we eat this'. Once we got off the boat, we set off in search of dinner.  Dinner wasn't as easy as it sounded in this village at the back of beyond. For the vegetarians, we had the wonderful option of mamaliga (with or without the Smantana) and Potatoes in various forms. Still. We were hungry enough to gobble it all down and even ask for seconds.
Once we got back, exhaustion got the better of us and all of us crashed out - but not before Arun was invited to sample the Palinka personally brewed by our host. A mere sniff of which, Arun assures me would have been enough to knock out a bull elephant in his prime. After having about 3 sips of the stuff, Arun made his polite excuses and weaved his way back to our room. Thank God we weren't intending to drive out anywhere early next morning.
Morning arrived and we realised that we have seen all there is to see in this little town of Murighiol and we made a snap decision to depart a day early to Bucharest. The kids were reluctantly pried away from their new best friends the Guest House's two dogs, Teddy and Oli. Oli was, erm, how shall a put it... quite amorous towards all things living and non-living and making things quite annoying for Teddy and very amusing for the grown-ups.

Oli and Teddy

 En route we would cover the archaeological ruins of the Halmyris monastery and probably stop for lunch at Tulcea.
Halmyris, like all on-going archaeological digs didn't have much to offer in terms of the site, but had plenty of history, both Greek and Roman. 

Pickwick was quite intrigued to learn that some of these structures could date back to 600 BC

 Tulcea was a much bigger town which housed the Danube delta Museum and Aquarium and had the kids really excited for the first time in this trip (Well that and the dogs at our guest house was the highlight of the trip for the kids). You know what else was great about Tulcea? Food! Stone baked Pizzas and fresh brewed coffee and Ice-creams! Yay! (Now you know why we never have camping trips. Not enough ice-cream shops!)
We also stopped on the way at Enisala, which is the site of a medieval fortress. The elder child and the husband had great fun clambering up and down the ruins, nearly giving the Mother-in-law a cardiac arrest.

The fortress. We didn't exactly have the best weather.

The view from the fortress. Would have been splendid on a clear day

The landscape of this country never ceases to amaze me, and this time we came across miles and miles of mustard fields and meadows. Beautiful.

Well, we got back home in time for dinner. And just in time for the miserable weather. Bloody brilliant. But at least we weren't stuck with Mamaliga and potatoes. Gah!