SERBIA: BELGRADE & SMEDEREVO

Posted July 16, 2009 by David McGuinness

Yesterday I slept in a little before heading out to meet a Belgrade-based tour operator. The meeting lasted about an hour and they added a few details and suggestions to my proposed itinerary. They also came across well and seemed to know the country and the places on my route quite well. We agreed to meet again when I come back to Belgrade to discuss the route for future tours. After that I had the afternoon free, so I wandered through the streets of Belgrade at leisure.

The vibe of the city was both bustling and easy going. And everyone was in the street it seemed. The cafes were full of locals eating ice-cream or drinking beer or coffee. After a while I too stopped and started to read a book about Serbia I had picked up in my local library. The story followed eight very different Serbian characters: from independent journalists to rural farmers, theatre directors to priests – through the difficult years of 1999 to 2004 and explored their changing circumstances and opinions. It made compelling reading and fleshed out some more details about the important characters in Serbia’s recent history through the fall of Milosovic. I ate some dinner in a friendly local restaurant and it was time for bed. A thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable day, all in all.

This morning I met up with Snezana and we headed out to her boyfriend’s country home near to Semederevo. After an hour’s bus ride we arrived in the town where we were met by her boyfriend, Mirko, and drove to his home in a small village.

After a very hearty lunch of fried fish, mashed potatoes with vegetables and a salad we headed off to Mirko’s cousin’s field where we picked some excellent peaches. The fields abound with fruit: peaches, apples, plums, sour cherries, and there is more than enough to go around. We also tasted some delicious pears from Mirko’s own garden. When Snezana is not around to translate myself and Mirko make ourselves understood though him speaking Serbian (which I have been learning for a couple of months), my English (which he understands better that he can speak) and some pantomime but on the whole it works quite well.

Later we headed into Smederevo to see its impressive and well-preserved medieval fort overlooking the Danube. After the fort we wandered around the town after the heat had died down and it too was a hub of activity with lots of children running around, playing football, basketball or driving little carts. We sat outside one of the town’s busy cafes and drank a dark Serbian beer.

We came back to the village a little later and chatted about Serbian history and Snezana filled me in more on Milosovic and how most people found it hard to admit they had made a mistake in electing him. However she still felt as did many Serbs that the country needed a strong leader because: “If you take two Serbs you will have three opinions”! We had a cheese-filled pastry for dinner and drank some more beer and coffee.

Tomorrow morning we will drive together to see the first two monasteries on my trip, so I am quite looking forward to that.

This blog is part of an Off-The-Beaten-Track Travel Diary. Click on the links below to navigate through this journey.