Day 66 Footslog to the Fortress

Saturday 26/05/2018 Apartment Danube Tadeuša Košćuška 62b/1, Stari Grad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, Beograd, RS

Today we again had no major plan other than going to see the fortress. Good choice after all...as we headed there we could see people streaming in from near and far, up every street and gate as we approached the Fortress... once we got closer we had stopped for a cuppa at a overly garden cafe in a park not far from it and could see big groups of teenagers and younger students heading in with teachers.... the thing is it is Saturday so go figure... we knew it must be something big once we had our cuppa and headed on seeing heaps of grandparents with little ones, and then heaps of mums and dad.... we had read that Serbia was on the decline with baby numbers dropping, but after today I really very much doubt it.... the place was crawling with young families, babes in arms and little children everywhere....
As we get closer around the walls of the fort we could people everywhere, but to the side of the fortress walls was all this military hardware... I could see John was in his element, so a wander around, the. He wanted to go to the Military Museum, so I decided to go to the Medieval torture display...
So we parted for awhile... as I was paying to go in, I asked the girl on the door whatever’s happening here today with so many people.... turned out it’s a tourism fair.... so I wander around the very difficult to see medieval torture display, it didn’t take that long and to be honest I didn’t take too long, as I started to read what each instrument was used for and how, it became evident just how gruesome the medieval era really was.... horrible human beings to the core.... where it was displayed was in the fortress Bowels so to speak, it would have been more interesting to see the inside of the fortress but there didn’t seem as if there was a tour for that here.......

So waiting for John you could hear bands warming up, that was the other thing we noticed as we came into the cells of the fortress there were different places being set up for big bands.... by then end of the day we countered about 5 sites being set up.... once John came out if the Military Museum we headed in the big gates towards all the people, once inside it was a full blown fair happening... little white tent city, children everywhere, activities happening, food, markets, travel displays, wine and beer 🍺 areas...
The activities were like you would see at an old fashioned fair just fantastic... plus local children’s groups doing traditional dancing, magicians, genie’s, girls on stilts, archery fir big ones and little ones and Roman soldiers and peasants having swords fights..l. So much happening... the beer garden thing had craft beers from all over Serbia, food from different areas, cheese and wine.... to be honest it was one if the best fairs we have ever been too... no electronic games, toys at all.... it was good old fashion fun... and the kids were having a ball... we did the rounds had some lunch and John had a beer.... the wine was in another area. We had just earlier seen a group of teenagers giving a traction al dance concert... then where we sat fir lunch was a band playing.... there were a huge group of teens in organs shirts wandering around, some one would blow a whistle and they would all go into a pose....this went in all day... they did well to keep it up... they were advertising their area....
Some of the brochures we picked up about places to visit in Serbia 🇷🇸 looked unreal... plus they were featuring neighbouring countries... the same as our travel expo but much more pitched at families.... very well done...

The sad reality of the day and we did enjoy it, was it was in the fortress walls, but it had, had no cleaning up pre the event no mown weeds, no rubbished or broken glass cleaned and differently no hiding the graffiti at all..... they seem to accept this us how they live, a wonderful,social time but no thought to the longevity of their surroundings and buildings etc....

As we were leaving noticing the huge crack in the fortress wall, it was huge and again very sad..... John had said earlier the Military Museum was one if the best collections of medieval equipment he has ever seen and there was so much WWII items but just all thrown into a cupboard and never been back to sort it out... like in the medieval torture display many of the cabinets were glass and absolutely filthy with dust, hard to see in or take ours due to the amount of dust... they all had staff there and all the staff just sat outside and smoked until they wanted to take your money.... just lack of motivation and how do you give a nation motivation..... hopefully not by characters like hitter he got his nation motivated but for the wrong reason... you need to motivate a nation for the right reason or is it instilled in us? That’s the big question....

While having a look on the outer towers, which by the way was filled with broken glass, rubbish and neglected stones that looked like they needed repairs... and the walkway over the motte area the under stone legs were crumbling only a matter of time and if a big group stand on it together it would give way..... no work place health and safety here at all..... anyway back to my point, we could see a chapel and a great cafe bar in a roof top that looked very inviting so that’s what we did, set off to have a drink at the roof top bar... on the way looking over the fortress wall we could see at the chapel which I had planned to visit, there were at least 2 weddings we could see, I am sure there were 3 brides could be wrong... the women Guests were dressed impeccably in gorgeous outfits....
So having looked at them we went to the bar and sat with everyone else enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.... and that’s what Serbians do well,relax and socialise... John read it’s called LOAFing.... where you relax, get together and drink and smoke.... as most do! Interesting concept, but it sure suits what they are great at.... the cafe culture here is unreal. I have been to many countries now and seen many cafes and I think, Sydney and Melbourne do it well, even Bali had an unreal cafe culture, but not as good as here and the cafes are simple but very tastefully decorated... very trendy in theme and welcome atmosphere as you walk by.... I love it 😍 but you can’t go to them all.....
Having had a drink we wander around the rest of the outer fort to see what’s there... some fantastic views over the city and Danube, interesting marble Stairs outer parks, filled with families... all LOAFing the new word to get going with your friends.... ask them to come LOAFing with you see how that goes....

We wandered into a upper city area, found a big modern supermarket p, got some stores, then headed back to the cafe in the park for afternoon LOAFing, some beer and Mojitos... I had had one at the roof top bar that was really good, so this place offered a whole litre for 990rsd, that was $12 Aust fir the litre pretty good hey, so I thought until it came very weak compared to my one drink before had been watered down well and truly, and a litre for me to finish hmmmmm bigger eyes 👀 than tummy... so John who had had a litre of beera, helped out until he couldn’t anymore... and no we weren’t drunk 😵 to weak for that I am afraid.....

So home we head that was the last event to do here in Belgrade, if we had any plans to do anything else the fair took our day, but it was a great day so we are happy not to go anywhere else.... no we haven’t done anything touristy here just walked the streets as we do in most places to get a feel for their character..... and we found Belgrade’s character in the cafe culture and LOAFing......Read more