Thursday, April 13, 2023

After leftover burek for breakfast, we started our day with the usual walk along the Knez for coffee etc. This was probably the nicest day we're going to see on this trip, with highs approaching 70f.  

Then we walked through the fortress, and went to the zoo. Belgrade Zoo is quite large, with a wide variety of animals. But all zoos are kind of sad, and city zoos especially so.  The animals simply don't have much room to move and have nothing to do in their boring lives. 

The cheetahs probably looked the healthiest. They had the largest enclosures and paced endlessly.

One artic wolf had a separate cage from the rest of the pack.  They must have rejected him.

We actually got hot walking in the sunshine, so stopped for refreshment at the zoo concession stand.  It was surprising to see the zoo has a "strong drinks" section. I guess this is so dad can have a couple stiff shots of Jack Daniels or Johnnie Walker while the kids are running around. We opted for Coke Zero (they don't have Diet Coke in Serbia, which would be Yelena's first choice).

After the zoo, we walked down to Nebojša Tower. It is a museum on its use as a dungeon by the Ottomans, the first Serbian uprising, and the beginnings of the Serbian state. It was a violent time.

Then we hiked back up the slope to Kalemagdan, pausing for a photo at the river-facing gate.

We were pretty tired by this time (a very steep slope!), so we stopped for refreshment at the roof top bar of the shopping mall. The bar was called  "Mama's Shelter." It has a nice view over both the city and Kalemagdan.

I find the rooftops of Belgrade fascinating. Some of them look to be in very poor condition, even if they cover trendy western shops in the Knez. On them, you can find the history of heating, ventilation, electricity and communication, over the last hundred years.  There is the philosophy shown here of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." As well as "If it is broke, just leave it where it is." It's a very pragmatic approach to things.

more walking and then we had dinner at "Via del Gusto," recommended by a friend. Very good food, as usual. I wanted to see the Serbian approach to a burger and wasn't disappointed.  It was different then an American hamburger though, very densely packed, with some additional spices in the mix.

We closed the evening with a visit to Jovana's and Zoran's, where we tried out some domestic wine, made by a friend of Zoran's.  It was terrific red wine, with a tangy, zingy element on the tongue.