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Serbian Unity Congress
Tuesday, 08/16/2005
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By Len Boselovic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Kalemegdan Fortress is the dominant landmark in this Balkan city of 1.6 million, commanding the northern heights of the city where the Sava River flows into the Danube, Europe's second-longest river.
Kalemegdan's troubled past -- a long list of invaders that included the Romans, Austrians, Turks and Germans have seized ownership of the high ground -- gave the region its reputation as a crossroads between East and West.
A few years removed from the region's most recent blood-shedding, there are peaceful indications that Belgrade's reputation, like Kalemegdan, still stands. I saw one on a humid evening in May at one of the fortress' many gates: a guitar player standing sentinel singing Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in Serbian.
Belgrade is a city of mystifying contrasts.
Walking along Kneza Mihajlova, the crowded pedestrian "walking street" leading from downtown Belgrade to Kalemegdan, I found scant evidence of Serbia's pervasive economic and political problems. Sidewalk cafes are full of animated Serbs sipping espresso, Serbian beer or something stronger such as slivovica, a potent plum brandy available here in a more refined form than my grandfather concocted in his basement. Without an apparent care in the world, they idly talk of life, love and, invariably, politics, or passively observe pedestrians, including fashionably dressed females out for the time-honored social ritual of being seen.
Drinking or walking, the throng looks more fit and less concerned than the people on any crowded American urban landscape, although most of their dogs would benefit from a healthier lifestyle. The genial cafe society makes you wonder how the Balkans ever came to be known as the powder keg of Europe.
But evidence of that is not far away. On Kneza Milosa, just a few blocks from the U.S. Embassy, stands the former Yugoslav Defense Ministry buildings damaged by NATO's three-month bombing in 1999, part of the West's campaign to pressure President Slobodan Milosevic to halt aggression against Albanians in Kosovo. Scars from the attacks, the first time Belgrade was bombed since the end of World War II, are evident elsewhere downtown and across the Sava in New Belgrade, where NATO bombs fell on the Chinese embassy. The bombing and accompanying economic sanctions crippled Serbia's economy.
Milosevic was ousted in the 2000 elections. Since then, the country has made halting progress in its effort to become part of the European community. There have been setbacks, such as the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003. However, slowly but surely, the economic revival progresses, aided by investments by U.S. Steel, Philip Morris and other Western companies.
International tourists spent $220 million in Serbia last year, up from $43 million in 2001, according to the National Bank of Serbia. Belgrade hotels had 464,000 visitors in 2004, 58 percent of them Serbs and about 70 percent of them business travelers. Tourists accounted for only 15 percent of the traffic according to a recent study by the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency.
Serbia is attempting to entice more tourists, most of whom arrive by large tourist boats that cruise the Danube. It's a tough sell. Belgrade doesn't leap to mind the way Vienna or Budapest do when you think Danube River vacation. Then there's the blood spilled in the region in the 1990s.
Furthermore, Belgrade doesn't offer the spectacular, familiar landmarks most conventional Europe-bound travelers are looking for. There's no Eiffel Tower, no St. Peter's Basilica, no Tower of London or Leaning Tower of Pisa. Send someone a postcard from Belgrade, and they probably won't even know where you've been. Travelers whose European vacation plans extend as far east as what used to be Yugoslavia probably won't make it past Croatia's spectacular Dalmatian coast.
However, if you're adventurous and want your European experience to come with a lower price tag and spiced with a touch of the vibrant and the exotic, Belgrade won't disappoint. You won't find throngs of tourists and the inflated prices they encourage. A grand meal -- appetizers, drinks, dinner and dessert -- can be had for $20 per person. A $4 cab ride will get you most places you'll want to go. The tram is even cheaper.
If you're from Pittsburgh or of Slavic extraction, Belgrade's confluence of two rivers, hills, humidity and cuisine will make you feel at home. If you get homesick, there's a U.S. Steel mill 40 miles southeast in Smederevo, another Danube River town that served as Serbia's medieval capital.
Like every major European city, Belgrade offers museums and churches. In Belgrade, it's St. Sava, which has been a work in progress since 1894, when, according to the city's Web site, planning began. The cornerstone wasn't laid until 1939, and World War II brought construction to a halt. Incompatibilities between Communism and religion being what they are, the state didn't give the OK to resume work until 1985. Thirty years later, construction continues.
"Whatever government comes into power, they say they're going to finish it," Zarko Sakan, an advertising agency executive, says with Balkan nonchalance.
But don't worry about the unfinished church not having room for you. Even uncompleted it seats 12,000.
Belgrade's main tourist attraction is Kalemegdan, which takes its name from the Turkish words for "field" and "battle." The sprawling complex, composed of Kalemegdan Park and the Belgrade Fortress, offers evidence of Roman ramparts dating to the fourth century. The Huns, then the Byzantines replaced them until the Serbs claimed Kalemegdan in the seventh century and named the city Beograd, which means "white town" or "white fortress." When Serbia's Despot Stefan Lazarevic (despite the name, Serbs viewed Stefan as a good guy) devised plans in the early 15th century to stop Ottoman hordes, he moved the nation's capital to Belgrade and strengthened Kalemegdan's fortifications. His efforts prevailed until 1521, when the Turks moved in.
They kept the fortress for most of the next three and a half centuries, although the Austrians and Serbs took it off their hands for brief periods. The Turks left for good in 1867, when Ottoman commander Ali Friza Pasha surrendered the city to Prince Mihajlo Obrenovic, who was assassinated a year later.
Since the end of World War II, Kalemegdan has been occupied mostly by tourists, locals out for a stroll or picnic, and vendors who sell ice cream, lace, other crafts and souvenirs, including multibillion-denominated dinar notes that Milosevic issued in the early 1990s to pay for his unsuccessful war to bring Croatia and other former republics back into the Yugoslav fold.
Conflict occasionally erupts, but it is seldom of typical Balkan proportions. Professional tourist guide Maya Stemenkovic, who escorted me through the park, recalls that in the 1960s a man enjoying a quiet interlude with his mistress in one of the park's cafes was attacked by his wife, who was armed with a small pair of scissors. After several thrusts found their mark, the man ran in panic and eventually escaped by falling into the bear cage in Belgrade's zoo, located below the fortress. Incidentally, Belgrade's zoo has 2,000 animals and is open year-round.
Travelers who come to Belgrade for a Balkan experience can easily spend the better part of a day in Kalemegdan, relaxing along the wall and looking across the river to New Belgrade, exploring the fortress, or observing the natives. At dusk, heavy petting is more prevalent among young couples in the park than it is in the zoo.
Be sure to peek inside Ruzica, or the Church of the Holy Mother of God, built on the site of a 15th-century church constructed by Despot Stefan. The Turks destroyed that earlier version and used the current chapel as a place to store gunpowder. Reverted to religious purposes after the Turks left, it was damaged in World War I and rebuilt in the mid-1920s in the Old Byzantine style. Taking pictures inside is prohibited, but you won't forget the chandelier made from swords and bullets. St. Petka's Chapel nearby is also worth a stop.
Any pang of hunger or thirst is sufficient excuse to sample something at the Kalemegdan Terrace restaurant, which overlooks the rivers. While the locals insist the food falls short of the best the city has to offer, my 1,300 dinars (about $20) meal of appetizers, drinks, and ham and veal over noodles in a stroganoff-like sauce was great. The scenery and music provided by a string quartet made the experience memorable even without the influence of one drop of slivovica.
Leave Kalemegdan through the park and pick up Kneza Mihajlova, which offers an intense urban vitality Pittsburgh would die for -- at all hours of day or night. You haven't been to Belgrade if you haven't lingered on what locals call the Walking Street, so don't be in a hurry. Stop at one of Kneza Mihajlova's many sidewalk cafes, enjoy the street performers, shop at the countless boutiques or pick up some trinkets for the folks back home.
At the end of Kneza Mihajlova is Trg Republike, a broad square built on the site of the Stambol Gate, the terminus of the road that led to Istanbul. When the Turks occupied Belgrade, they were fond of executing non-Muslims in front of the gate by impaling them on stakes. It is also the place were Vasa Carapic, one of the leaders of the Serbian uprising against the Turks in 1806, was fatally wounded. Memories of death are always underfoot in Belgrade.
The city is making a concerted effort to put those days behind. One Western diplomat I spoke with said there are lingering perceptions the United States is not Serbia's friend, but they are able to separate the government, which supported NATO's aggression, from the U.S. people. Individual Americans are typically warmly received, the diplomat said.
The city's two rivers, the Sava and the Danube, offer countless opportunities for sightseeing, dining and exercising. Try taking a Sava riverboat to Ada Ciganlija, a spacious island park that features hiking and bike paths, as well as a nine-hole golf course. Rest assured the beer at the 10th hole will have more character -- and cost considerably less -- than your favorite adult beverage at the 19th hole back home.
If you have time to venture outside Belgrade, Serbia's other attractions include monasteries, national parks with breathtaking scenery and vineyards, not necessarily in that order. You will find that your debilitated U.S. dollar will take you just as far there.
If you go: Belgrade
Getting there: Belgrade Airport, which handled 1.9 million passengers last year, is served by 17 airlines. I took U.S. Airways and Lufthansa through Philadelphia and Frankfurt. A round-trip ticket with a Saturday stay currently costs about $960. Leaving Pittsburgh at 6 p.m. put me in Belgrade at 5 the following afternoon.
Visas: You don't need a visa to visit Serbia, just your passport.
Money: Serbia's currency is the dinar, currently worth about 1.5 cents. ATMs are located throughout Belgrade, and most of the restaurants where I ate accepted credit cards.
Transportation: I stayed in New Belgrade, across the Sava River from downtown Belgrade. A round-trip cab fare cost $5 or $6. Many other trips will cost the same or less.
Hotels: The Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency says that as of 2003, Belgrade had 36 hotels, including nine five-star and four four-star hotels.
The rated hotels affiliated with Western chains are the five-star Hyatt and the four-star Best Western.
The Hyatt ($235 to $330, for a single) is in New Belgrade. The $4 can of Coke from its minibar compares unfavorably to the 75 cents or $1 you'll pay in most places for a local beer.
The Best Western ($57 to $111) is about three miles south of the city center.
Other options include the Belgrade International (about $214) and the Hotel Moskva in central Belgrade (about $67).
Dining: What better way to win over tourists than with food and drink? Try Langouste (Kosancicev Venac 29, www.langouste.net), which overlooks the Sava and specializes in seafood. Most of the entries run between 1,000 and 1,250 dinars ($15 to $19), although the half-dozen items that involve truffles will cost you twice as much. Be sure to sample the black, white and yellow risotto.
There's also Daka, which has a restaurant downtown as well as Zemun, a fashionable nightlife neighborhood on the west bank of the Danube just north of Kalemegdan. I tried the one downtown (Dure Danicica 4), which is tucked away in a quiet, nondescript neighborhood a few blocks from Trg Republike. My host called ahead to order sarma, which was truly a treat, nothing like the ground meat stuffed inside cabbage leaves in a thin broth my grandmother made. Daka makes the dish with grape leaves and surrounds the flavorful rolls in a thick, peppery sauce. I tried the plum pie for dessert. It's really a strudel.
Useful Web sites: www.beograd.org.yu; www.tob.co.yu.
Len Boselovic can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
