Beograd

Back before I was planning to move to Germany, when people asked me what I was going to do after finishing my PhD, I said I was going to move east, like Indiana. So Germany's just a little farther east, but I wonder if I went far enough. I love Eastern Europe. Love it. Beograd is such a cool place. Of all the places I've been, they have the weakest currency/economy, and you can see that, but they're fighting to improve. I get the impression that Serbians, at least those in the capitol, are in a hurry to improve, but stuck with what they have for now. I think that's why they honk their horns so much. Like constantly. But in Beograd, anything goes if it increases traffic flow. Like driving on the tram tracks to get to the right turn lane. Or parking in a no parking spot as long as you get out of the street.

The "castle" in Beograd is more like a heavily fortified park. Even back before it was heavily damaged, the idea was to have the whole of this hilltop protected and available to mount a defense. I enjoyed the couple hours I spent wandering this area. Then the hours wandering the pedestrian area that starts next to it and extends to the main square downtown. Beograd has the large impressive buildings you expect from a capitol city, and churches that are fantastic. Like the one at the fortress that is clearly a soldier's church, complete with chandeliers made of bullets and sabers. Taking the "beating your swords into [chandeliers]" scripture literally.

It's hard for me to explain, but I just loved the feel of Beograd. I loved walking across the main bridge, feeling it shake as the buses passed over the expansion joints. I loved the Bohemian Quarter with the building painted with a realistic looking facade. I loved the pizza from the little shack Mara in the main square. I didn't plan this city much better than I had Venice, but I got a great, informative tourist map in English. The only problem is that when they transliterate everything to the Roman alphabet, finding where you are when the street signs are in Cyrillic characters is a little tricky.