Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
44° 49' N 20° 28' E
Apr 08, 2008 00:33
Distance 198km

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Balkanization

Belgrade, Tuesday, April 8th.

Took a 6 hour bus ride from Sarejevo ( that actually took 8 hours ), and got into Belgrade at 5 PM on Monday night. The guide book warned me that there was not a lot to do in Belgrade useless you like clubbing it, and for that I am too old. My hotel is right in the centre of the old part of the city, across from the Moscow Hotel and a lot of 8 story grey, drab, cement buildings built by the Soviets. Got good value for money, only $60 for a bed and warm water shower. Learned that I could catch a 10 PM bus on Wednesday night to Pristina, Kosovo, so planned my Tuesday accordingly.

Early breakfast and walked down the hill to the bus station for tickets. I also put my luggage in a locker. My test for the day was to see if I could see all the sights using maps, and to ask lots of questions. At the end of a long pedestrian boulevard near where I am staying, in the old part of Belgrade, is Kalemegdan Citadel. This fortress is set into a park. The fortress has been the site of 115 battles, and has been leveled 44 times in the past 2300 years. When you see the site, you understand its strategic position and the relatively easy way it can be defended (being situated on top of a hill, with cliffs on two sides). The park also has a Museum of Military Weapons. Outside of the musuem are several tanks from WWII. Armies and war are a big part of the Serbian psyche, seeing children walking around with toy machine guns and swords was common and disturbing.

Walked along the Danube River until I got to the area where the government buildings are. As you walk up the hill, you see a building that looks bombed out. It was!! In 1999, when the Serbs where chasing the Albanians out of Kosovo (850,000 fled to Albania), NATO stepped in and over 78 days bombed the Serbs in Kosovo, including a few bombing runs to Belgrade. The destroyed building was the Ministry of Defence building. NATO also accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The Chinese in China love to bring that up, alleging it was a deliberate attack of the US against China. Eventually, Serbia stopped the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and the Albanians returned. The Serbs are still fuming over this NATO intervention and will easily bring it up.

Next, a long walk to Sveti Sava, the largest Orthodox Church in the world. And it is indeed large, but not yet finished after work started in 1935. It is expected to take another 20 years to complete the interior artwork. Then to Sveti (Saint) Mark Eastern Orthodox church, and then back to the square in the centre of the city where I was staying. Must have been a 10 K plus day, but do not know the exact distance, as I have lost my trusty pedometer which told me the distance I walked.

So, so far I have seen three parts of the former Yugoslavia, being: Croatia (population 4.50M), Bosnia-Herzegovina (population 3.85M), Serbia (population 7.50M) and tomorrow I will go thru to visit Kosovo (population 1.9M) and Macedonia (population 2.050 M). I will not see Slovenia (population 2.00M) or Montenegro (population .720M). Total population of these countries is 22.520M. What was once one country is now seven. This process of countries or things breaking into smaller dis-harmonious entities is called balkanization, like the name of this area which is called the Balkans.

Seeing how peoples can become so disagreeable and violent to one another is a good example (of a bad example) of what I hope the world avoids. We need fewer countries, more togetherness, more tolerance, less focus on our differences. In too many places we see evidence of balkanization of countries and people. The net overall outcome of this breaking down into smaller parts causes much hardship, lose of personal freedoms and economic opportunity/prosperity. Seeing what the EU seeks to achieve is a wonderful example of how the world should learn to get along. Coming from Canada, where we are a mosaic of so many different cultures (one could argue there is no such thing as a true Canadian, other than the Native Indians), makes me realize how fortunate I am to live in a country that does not know the violence that is so much a part of other areas of the world. I am learning this lesson all too well and have seen far too many times how much hatred there is, or was, in other parts of the world.

Photos / videos of "Balkanization":

The trip between Sarajevo and Belgrade on the bus. This was the common method of farming. There was limited machinery used and the farms looked very primitive in BH, but not so in Serbia The road through BH had to climb mountains and go down the other side. The roads were full of sharp turns and many tunnels Distant mountainside with farms in the valley. Some of the mountains had ski lifts, rather rope tows on them. More countryside in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Once you got to Serbia the land was mostly flat. The statute of French-Serbian friendship. The French & Russians have traditionally been allies of the Serbs. The German and Austrian have been allies of the Croatians.It was these coalitions that caused WWI & the difficulties of resolving the problems in the break up of the former Yugoslavia Parts of the ramparts of the fortress at the edge of the old part of Belgrade. Note the many fortifications. This site has seen 115 battles over the past 2300 years. The site has been razed or leveled 44 times by different conquerors. The fortress is otherwise called Kalemegdan Citadel. Reminds me of the fort just outside the port in Helsinki. Part of the rampart. This is seriously thick. You can see on the edge of the photo another rampart. The fortress has multiple ramparts or walls and some very deep moats. Before planes this was a hard site to conquer by invaders. In the middle of the park that includes the fortress is a Military Equipment Museum. Here we see larger tanks captured during WWII plus an American one. These tanks are seriously large and the steel exterior must be 2 CM thick. More tanks. These were much smaller, some no larger than for one person to be inside. In 1999 NATO went to war to protect the Albanians that were being force to leave Kosovo. 850,000 Albanians living in Kosovo were forced to flee as part of the ethnic cleansing that Slobodan Milosevic instituted. For 78 days NATO bombed Serbian troop in Kosovo until the Serbs gave in. Interior of an Eastern Orthodox church. No chairs. And the murals on the wall have a different style and context than that of RC or western protestant painters. In the old part of Belgrade there are many beautiful buildings constructed during the periods when Serbia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1999 NATO bombed the Military Defense Headquarters in Belgrade. This building was next to one of the parliament buildings. I asked a passing Serbian what had happened here and he said, and I quote, "The fascist NATO army bombed the building." Sveti Sava, the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world. Started in 1935, stopped for WWII, communism and now still being finished. This church is huge. Similar in design to the Saint Sophia church in Istanbul. This a work in progress. All the structural work is completed but it could take up to another 20 years to complete all the art work and other details according to an artist I talked to at the site. One of the mosaics that will be part of the church. Close up of the mosaic. This is very detailed work. Saint Mark's Eastern Orthodox church Interior of Saint Mark's church, no chairs again Dome of Saint Mark's church.
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