Belgrade, Day 1 - Kalemegdon Fortress and Zoo

Our trip to Belgrade was nothing short of fascinating and we returned so exhausted last night that everyone slept until 8:30 this morning.  As we said, we had a “personal tour guide,” Mirko, who we connected with through a mutual friend.  Mirko spent the better part of three days with us and has to be one of the most gracious, hospitable people we have ever met.

On our first day there, we walked from our apartment near Saint Sava Cathedral about two miles to the Kalemegdan Fortress on the hill where the Sava and Danube meet.  The entire walk, Mirko gave us quite an education on the history of Serbia, Belgrade, and the Serbian Orthodox Church.  It is a tough history to relate to…for instance, Mirko’s grandmother was originally Austrian, then Croatian, then Yugoslav, despite living in the same house her entire life.  Listening to Mirko talk about Yugoslavia and recent Serbian history was amazing, a very different perspective from anything we had ever heard.

Along the way, we saw Pionirski Park, which is dedicated to Serbia’s only Nobel Prize winner, Ivan Andrić (Mirko insisted on buying us two of his favorite books written by Andrić), the Serbian National Assembly, the Serbian Parliament, the walking district along Knez Mihailova, the Orthodox Cathedral where Mirko was baptized, and several sites of bombings in World War II and in the 1990’s.  We spent our afternoon at Kalemedgon Park, walking around the Fortress and finally the Belgrade Zoo as a reward to the kiddos for putting up with all of the sightseeing.  The zoo was as interesting as everything else we saw, given that it was located inside the fortress and some of the exhibits allow you to get unnervingly close to the animals (picture a 10-foot chain-link fence separating you from a lion, along with a sign reading “Stay away from the fence, these animals are dangerous,” and your three-year-old son deciding to put a stick through the fence…needless to say, we didn’t look at the lions very long).

The best part of the day though was how enjoyable it was spending time with Mirko.  He adopted us as though we were longtime friends and was fantastic with the kiddos.  In fact, he got many compliments on his “grandchildren” from people we passed on the street.