the train ride was 15 hours on the way there and 12 on the way back. it was a lot yes but it was so nice just to sit and not be able to do anything except read, sleep, and stare.
we rode through fyrom in order to get to serbia. both countries are very poor as a whole. i like the austerity of this picture.
the little villages along the way were very different from those of greece. it seemed that every house had a substantial garden and each village was completely independent of those surrounding it.
belgrade!!! pigeons are pigeons.
though a lot of old aspects and definitely eastern european mentality; belgrade was a super nice city and reminded me more of a western european capital than anything else.
there were a bunch of really cool posters and painting throughout the city. i have posted most of the ones i liked best.
eleftheria spotted this construction site from the top of a set of stairs. she immediately recognized that it was not a traditional building project and became super curious about what was going on. so we went up the the construction workers there and they explained that they were working on a movie set. the building would be only temporary.
even in the wealthy areas of belgrade there are these back allies, dingy and dirty but fun to walk through. we concluded that the apartments inside must be very nice compared to the outside.
cool drawings. that would be a scary cow, but who knows what pollution could do.
all i could think of was how tame every yard machine i had ever seen is/was in comparison. this thing was like a motorized rake. the issue was that it looked like it had been pieced together out of spare parts and the middle band had a bunch of whip like pieces to move the leaves. super scary.
the outside of the fortress.
one of my serious knocks on the head must have made me forget that i hate zoos. the architecture was super cool though, it was built right into the wall of the old castle/fortress; however, i doubt that bears, or any of the other many many animals there were there, really care about architecture. 
these were really cool though. they were inlaid on the outside of the wall and i would guess that there were 30+ of these panels with the smaller panels being maybe a foot squared each.
we were super impressed with how cheap the baked goods were. i mean super cheap. it was awesome and they were fantastic.
how lonely can it get?
this was done with a stencil that someone had made. just a super cool idea, very creative.
while walking down a random street, eleftheria said, "wait, look, is that what i think it is? yeah, it's a climbing wall!" she had been looking through little window on the street and her eagle eyes caught a glimpse of this place. we instantly ran into the building, not paying attention to what it was, and ran around trying to find a way in. when we could not find anything, we went back out to the street, we stayed in the window for a couple of minutes and a guy inside came over. so we called down to him and he told us to go around back to the playground, yes it was a school, and go through the covered entrance in the back. so we ended up spending about two hours making friends, climbing (they loaned us climbing shoes and chalk) and genuinely feeling pleased with ourselves.
this is a really cool picture of an interesting concept. it was a sidewalk fish pet-shop. it was a super cool idea and the fish were beautiful (dad if i could have gotten you a fish, i would have). it was just what you would think, a few people sitting and selling fish, tanks, lights, and filters.
this building is a theater. the actual is pretty old and then sometime, relatively recently, it was covered in class. it makes for a really cool looking space.
i like this picture. the trees were beautifully colored and i really like what the glass did to it.
What do you see, beside eleftheria and i?
no, we did not talk to ourselves.
ok, so belgrade is the capital of serbia, and serbia was the center of military conflict for a good portion of the mid 90's. now the majority of the city is in good condition but they have left a section of buildings on a single block in the government section of the city. it was really weird to see and very shocking. i have never had any experience with war, a couple of riots yes, but bombs and blown up buildings, only in the news. eleftheria and i followed this with a discussion, what the best way to remember something like this was, to knock down, rebuild and put up a memorial (world trade center) or to leave it as is (downtown belgrade)? this seemed very effective.
find the market. if you travel in europe, find the market. we found a huge one in belgrade. it was so beautiful, packed, colorful, and loud.
this is for you mom.
in the park that surrounded the fortress there were all kinds of people doing all kinds of things. i just like this pick. i have a picture of what would have been the moat and the cool part of that was that in it there were clay tennis courts, basketball courts and a cafe.
new and old.
i like 1) all of the cable car cables and 2) the building in the background. the old reflected in the new.
in this time of water shortages and fears of contamination, it amazes me that we still you fountains. this one is pretty cool.
we stayed in the sun hostel, a 15 minute walk from city center, where the beds were 7 euros per night. it was super cool, clean, and quiet. all over the walls were these great picture. it turns out that the owner of the hostel had been to africa and had really enjoyed it and so he painted all of these beautiful pictures. there were tons of them be these were my favorites.
walking around at night before we got back on the train we found this super cool underground market; clothes, electronics, and a bunny.we had a great trip and i would recommend a trip to belgrade to anyone interested. the people there are honestly some of the nicest i have ever met, crazy. can't wait to see everyone at christmas.
