Overlooking Belgrade
Today we’re in Belgrade, Serbia. We started at an important old fort high above the place where the Danube and the Sava Rivers meet. There was a nice display of tiny Italian tanks from WWII and other modern arms, which seesm like a major interest of the Serbs.
Our local guide was a sophisticated historian whose father had fought alongside Tito against the Nazi’s in WWII. He gave a very positive recounting of Yugoslavia in the Tito era, which ended in 1980, while he led us through around Belgrade and to the impressive Tito memorial.
Belgrade, which is a very modern city, still shows some of the effects of the NATO bombing in the 90’s. NATO bombers took out the Chinese Embassy, apparently by mistake, as well as seemingly every government and military office building we drove by. Most had been rebuilt – but not every one. Our guide covered that recent history with a very pro-Serbian spin, as you might expect. Still interesting to hear.
