We began our day with a walking tour in Belgrade. It was not long into the tour when we quickly realized we had crossed into Pro Putin territory. The street vendors even sold coffee cups with Putin's face on them. Past Putin, our walking tour of the city did provide us some historical background and sights. We soon came upon Kalemegdan which the oldest part of the city. There we would walk across a vast park that encompasses Belgrade’s history from Roman times onwards. This is where we encountered the Belgrade Fortress. For centuries, the city population was concentrated only within the walls of the fortress, thus the history of the fortress, until most recent times, reflects the history of Belgrade itself. Throughout our walk to the fortress our guide shared with us many aspects of the history in Belgrade.
Belgrade is the Capital City of Serbia. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was home to the Vinca culture which flourished from 5500 to 4000 BC. It was conquered by the Romans in the mid-2nd century. Was ruled by various kings and later was frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918 to its dissolution in 2006.
During WWII the Germans carried out several massacres of Belgrade citizens; in particular, members of the Jewish community. Belgrade became the first city in Europe to be declared by the Nazi occupation forces to be cleansed of Jews. When the war ended, Belgrade became the capital of Socialist Yugoslavia and remained so until 2003. In 2003-2006, Belgrade was the unofficial capital of the confederal union of the two states of Serbia and Montenegro. In 2006, Serbia became an independent state.
After much historical discussion we reached a lookout point where we could take in the vast view of the entire city before walking back through the various Putin wares being sold by vendors to get on our bus to head to our next location. Our next location was the beautiful Church of St. Salva.
The Church of St. Salva is a Serbian Orthodox church. It is said to be built upon the gave of St. Salva. It is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches and it ranks among the largest churches in the world. Its interior cladding with 130,000 sq ft of gold mosaics is nearing completion. This church is incredibly impressive. While at this church we learned that most of the Orthodox churches we would visit on this trip share the same tradition of having no pews and people huddled and standing throughout the entire service. And those services can be as long as 2 hours long. That is a lot of standing.
Lunch was on the ship and later we were headed out once more to have an authentic Bohemian dinner. While the dinner was delicious and the place was fun, I had to wonder if our tour guides were enjoying the evening even more than us. You decide by watching the video.
A bit exhausted, we got back to the ship from our dinner in time to catch the Boeheim dancers that were performing on the ship.
            
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