Belgrade - Day 2

18213 Steps on my Polar watch!  The day began with a visit to the tourist info centre to find out about a boat tour on the Danube and to ask about the possibility of a trip to an old Austrian town called Zemun located across the river.  

We found out that both were possible.  But first a stop at the post office and then off to the bank to fill our wallets with Dinars.  Jean wanted to check out a green market, it was conveniently located right near the bus stop we needed to take to Zemun.  The market was full of beautiful fresh veg and fruits, such a vast variety.  There was a section for smoked meats and cheese, the heavy smokey odour that permeated the area reminded us that we are in fact in Eastern Europe!  We don’t have a place to store or cook any of the delectable offerings so I just bought some delicious dried fruit and almonds for an emergency stash.  The bus was right there when we came out of the market so we jumped on, tried to pay the fare and were waved to our seats by the driver.  After a 15 minute ride on a very crowded bus I looked up and the driver was calling to me that we were at our stop!  

We walked down and very rough cobble stone street and came upon a sign for hand weaving.  Of course I had to go and see what was available!  Inside was a small room with two large looms and stacks of colourful yarns in every corner.  The weaver showed us many lovely creations, I chose a gorgeous shawl in lilac tones made from cashmere and wool.  It may be one of the most beautiful things I own.  I am very happy!

Just a couple of doors down we arrived at the Danube River.  The water front was lined with coffee shops and bars.  The one we stopped at is run by a young woman who, with her sister, have converted their family home into a pub.  On the water side you can have cocktails, beer, or coffee - delicious coffee, I might add, on the street side they offer light meals.  It was a nice interlude in our busy day.  

The important place to visit in Zemun is a tower which is the remnant of a medieval fortress.  It is on top of a hill that we reached by walking up a steep cobbled street lined with lovely old houses.  From the top of the tower we saw the convergence of the Danube with the Sava River.  In the fore ground the red tiled roofs of the town underlined the view perfectly.

Before we walked back into the town we took a few minutes to explore an huge ancient graveyard across the street from the tower.  It would have been nice to have spent more time there but we needed to catch the bus back to our part of town so we could get to our next adventure!  Once again the driver would not take our money - must have been free Friday!

Back at the hotel we all needed a little break to put our feet up and our heads down! Forty minutes later we were walking towards the waterfront to catch the “turtle” boat for our tour of the two rivers.  Just finding our way to the boat became and adventure itself.  It was clear on the map where we needed to go and we were pretty familiar with some of the streets but we ended up in a construction site with sidewalks replaced with wooden planks!  All ended well and we arrived in time to find good seats on the boat before it filled with other tourists.  It was the final voyage of the year, this being September 30.  I guess we may find that a number of the touristy things will be over for the season.   The ninety minute trip took us from the Sava to the Danube, around an island called War Island, back down the Sava as the sun was setting and then returning up the Sava to the port.  War Island received the name because of the fact that one side of the river was occupied by the Ottoman and the other side was part of the Austrian Hungry Empire and they were constantly fighting over this island.  We also sailed passed a memorial to over 50,000 concentration camp victims.  This part of the world has such a tragic history.

 The skipper of the boat was a scruffy looking older man but he turned the boat over to a handsome young man part way through the trip.  It turns out that the young man is a police officer who is friends with the skipper’s son.  I asked him to recommend a place for dinner along the waterfront that served traditional Serbian food. The place he recommended turned out to be a little bit more upmarket than the places we have been going to but we thought we’d splurge for our last night in Belgrade.  The server decided that he would serve us what he thought we would enjoy.  I wish I could remember all the fantastic food, I’ll just say that we had about 6 or 7 different dishes that we shared, we each had either a beer or glass of wine.  The final cost was about 2000 Dinars each - the equivalent of about $24.00 and that included a generous tip!