Next was the white, wounded city: Beograd. We ended our holiday with a two-night stay in Belgrade, former capital of Yugoslavia, and now the proud capital of Serbia. It is in all meanings an exciting and bustling Eastern Europe capital and definitely a recommended place to visit. Belgrade, meaning the “White City,” was heavily under attack during the Balkan wars in the late 1990s, and almost as some kind of souvenir and reminder, some of the city center buildings are (kept) in a destructed state, giving a most surreal view and feeling when you are walking up and down the big lanes.
Definitely recommended in the city is the Kalemegdan Fortress, boasting a park and big green open area in the center of the city, but also a military museum amongst others. We visited it all with much enthusiasm, and got to understand and hold a quite more subtle view on all the emotions of living in Serbia and the Balkan, and even an understanding for the Serbs who were hammered for years in history by the Turks.
We look back upon this holiday with a lot of happiness because of the very unique experiences it brought us in the combination of off-roading, a lot of local culture and foods from friendly people, a rich cultural heritage, and a truly deeper understanding of some of the everlasting emotions fueling politics and relationships in this part of Eastern Europe.
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