Belgrade, Serbia

Thursday, I took the long train ride from Vranje to Belgrade. The buses for long distance travel between cities are often quite good and are always faster. However, I prefer the adventurous feeling of the trains and the chance to see different parts of the countryside. Besides, then you can stand and stretch anytime you want :)

Belgrade is a large change from Vranje, Skopje, and even Sofia. It is the most Western European city I have been to yet, despite the fact that many buildings bombed by NATO are still left as is. It has a larger variety of older (Austro-Hungarian influenced) architecture than Sofia, the next biggest city I have visited on this trip. Along the main pedestrian promenade, you could be in any another city in W. Europe. (Here, they say that Zagreb is much more beautiful, but I did not get a chance to go there on this trip). Overall, the architectural styles are mixed, of course, with new buildings built after the bombings and older more traditional buildings. In fact, to my astonishment, Belgrade even has its own china-town. It seems there is a significant amount of immigration here, as in Bulgaria, from China.

This morning I went to Avala, a hill just outside Belgrade with a monument to 'I think', unknown soldiers/heroes, from the former countries in Yugoslavia. It looks like a large mausoleum built of granite with 6 women carved into the traditional costumes shapes representing 6 regions in ex-Yugoslavia. Dubravka, the girl I met in Seattle through Radost, my dance troupe, and I went there in the morning and then I went on to Ada, a man-made lake taken from part of the Sava river, while she came back to prepare for work.

Last night, we went to a concert downtown. It was, in fact, the reason i came on these dates as one band I like, Belo Platno, was performing. They were fantastic. And, it turned out to be a collection of musicians because we also heard Spasoje Jovnch, a frula player, Pavle Aksentnjevnch, a famous orthodox church music singer, Svetlana Stevich-Vukosavlevich, a traditional folk music solo singer, and lastly, an ensemble from Spain which sings Serbian music. The crowd was quite impressed that a group from elsewhere, with non-serbian musicians, quite liked their traditional music. That, of course, made me smile. Tonight is the second half of the 'festival' and I'll get to see two famous twin brothers who sing Serbian music, the Teofilivich brothers, Vasilija Radojchich, another singer, and a dance ensemble. I'm really looking forward to it!

Ok, there is so much more to write but I can't stay on the Internet for so long. I'll try to fill in some more information later...like going from the calm, educated, philosophical company of my friends in Vranje, to the 19 year-old energetic, freshman college drama queen I'm visiting now. Yet, everyone has been most hospitable and caring for me, no matter what their personalities!!! It is great fun!