Belgrade Proper

*Travel*

I did and didn't spend too long at the hotel this morning. I scarcely got out before midday, but I got my hotel for Sofia booked and I was out and about right until my train at 9pm, anyway.

Taxi to the train station to put my stuff in left luggage. The locker fee in coins in Zagreb would be in notes in Belgrade, so how would that be handled? Left luggage turned out to be a building round the side with a hole in the wall and guys inside. I tried to get taxi drivers from the rank to agree to take me to my next destination by showing them a picture on my printout, but they wouldn't take me on the meter - only quoting a fixed price similar to that for the whole distance to my hotel outside town. I walked round the corner and hailed a passing cab. Due to the route and awful traffic, the fare actually came out slightly higher, but I felt OK.

The best sight I saw today was the first, St. Sava Church, a new Eastern Orthodox cathedral being built from scratch to be the biggest EO church in the world! How would modern man go about building a cathedral? From concrete of course. So they've made this huge building with domes and everything, cast in concrete and then they're cladding it in something like marble (hand carved, I checked). They've clad the outside, and very impressive it looks too, and they've started on the inside. You can go in to look and take pictures. You can pray and light a candle. I don't know what happens when they need to do something noisy...

I caught one of the trams passing (7L), using one of the tickets I bought but didn't use yesterday. Someone had to show me how to punch the ticket. It took me straight back to the station! Am I doomed to be stuck there forever? I caught another tram (2) that took me straight to the Kalemegdan fortress (OK, I went too far and had to walk back up the hill;).

Fortresses might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I like them. The site dates back a long way, but what's there now is quite a late design, with at least three defensive rings, overlapping fields of fire, etc. Between the first and second walls are now tennis and basketball courts. Between the second and third walls is a collection of first and second world war tanks (AFVs) and guns (anti-tank, howitzers and a 300mm mortar).

If fortresses don't float your boat, you might prefer the panoramic views from the park in the middle, which overlooks the confluence of the rivers Danube and Sava and I photographed them to death.

I had a great pizza for late lunch just outside the fortress. When I was full I stashed away the last two big slices, which became supper and breakfast respectively on the train.

That was the best of Belgrade. I walked past the rest of the obligatory sights, high-gloss pedestrianised shopping centre, government buildings and churches with domes, the world's ugliest palace.

*MHO (my humble opinion)*

I did like Split, and I think I'd recommend Zagreb (although there's a lot of places I'd recommend more highly for a new traveller). I don't think I'd recommend Belgrade.

Belgrade is a big city with a big city feel, maybe sized to be capital of Yugoslavia rather than Serbia. The old part isn't very old or pretty. I feel it's stuck in the middle of the range of cities, neither one thing nor the other. Tito kept it more open than the Soviet Empire, so I didn't see awful rows of low-quality blocks, or neglectful decay. But it doesn't have classic architecture like half of Italy.

I didn't feel I found its heart (in either sense). Trying to be fair, I kept wondering how a new visitor would find central London.

Also, after an extensive survey, I have to opine that Croatian girls are prettier than Serbian girls (though Bulgarian girls have something of a reputation).

I kept thinking that I must read up on the recent Balkan wars. My recollection was that the Serbs were the (worst) baddies, with the Bosnian Serbs the worst of the worst.

I had this theory that western wealth would provide enough disincentive for people from going to war and risking it, but Yugoslavia blew a hole through that. I know that Tito sat on years of stewing history within Yugoslavia (e.g. Partisans Vs Cetniks), as the Russians did in the USSR and Warsaw Pact, but all the same...

I spend my last hour in Belgrade at an Irish Pub - the Three Carrots. It's pretty "authentic" and the main thing removing it from Dublin is the people smoking inside! I ask the barmaid "Which brewery does your Guinness come from?" It matters, as I never liked the output of the now-closed Park Royal brewery in London, whilst the biggest Guinness brewery outside Dublin is apparently in Nigeria and I had an utterly undrinkable pint once in New Zealand. Her reply: "Which size, large or small?"

I meet Irishman Paul, and learn the bar was set up by three red-headed Irish lads. He also tells me I shouldn't be going to Sofia by train, that there's nothing to see in Sofia and I'd be better off going to Varna on the coast instead. Ah well!