Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Current Events 40: The House of Flowers
April 08, 2021
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Nowhere was the Serbian nation's devotion to its former leader more evident than at Marshal Tito's tomb. Tito was released from his earthly office in 1980. His mausoleum was set in a sculpture garden atop a wooded, meticulously landscaped hill. The lush greensward rose towards a rectangular edifice with glass walls. It was two stories tall, with a...
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Current Events 39: Cramped Quarters
October 17, 2019
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Belgrade had the worst traffic that we had encountered. The city's population was over a million and a half, and there seemed to be at least as many motor vehicles. Sofia, our local guide, explained that Belgrade had buses, trams and trolleys, but no subway. The congestion on the roads, however, was less problematic than parking. There were simply...
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Current Events 38: The City of Dogs
October 10, 2019
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Belgrade is a city of dogs. In Kalemegdan Park, they were everywhere we went. Some were leashed, while others trotted, unrestrained, ahead of their masters. Almost all of the dogs that were accompanied by their owners were purebred. I saw mostly hunting and guard dogs, with more than a few exotic breeds represented. And there were many stray dogs,...
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Current Events 37: The Victor
October 03, 2019
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Exploring beautiful Kalemegdan Park in its entirety would have taken all of the time that our tour had allotted for Belgrade. In addition to the Upper and Lower Towns of the fortress, the park contained a zoo, an art gallery, a Roman well, a clock tower, medieval ruins and modern monuments. Stone staircases connected the terraces, where shade trees...
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Current Events 36: The Fortress of Kalemegdan, Belgrade
September 26, 2019
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No one is certain how much of the Kalemegdan fortress is below ground, as the network of tunnels has not been mapped completely. The walls and towers that do show are most impressive. The bulwarks and cannons seemed even more massive than those at Petrovaradin. The doors were clad in iron, affixed with symmetrical rows of crude bolts. They added to...
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Current Events 35: Entering the White City
September 19, 2019
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We docked at Belgrade after cruising overnight from Novi Sad. We were in Serbia's capital for the hottest day of our journey until that point. As it was the last day of September, we should have called it Indian Summer, before our vocabularies were purged of inaccurate terms for the Western Hemisphere's indigenes. The crew and guides all were in bu...
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Current Events 34: Vegetarians at Salas 137
September 12, 2019
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I suppose that HL and I could not have been the first vegetarians to dine at Salas 137, but there cannot have been many. After our tour guide conferred with a burly, white-shirted manager, HL and I were given a grain-based dish. It was palatable, if quite heavy. By the time that we received our special entrees, we had partaken of the salads and oth...
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Current Events 33: Salas 137
September 05, 2019
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From Novi Sad, the tour group traveled by bus to a traditional Serbian restaurant for dinner. During the ride, there was still adequate daylight for us to see the harvested fields and orchards. As happened often in Eastern Europe, we drove into the past when we left the city. When we reached Salas 137, the illusion of moving backwards in time was c...
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Current Events 32: Beneath Petrovaradin
August 29, 2019
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After the guides from our ship gave us our tickets, they delivered us into the care of an official Petrovaradin tour guide. We surmised that the tour company was loath to assume direct responsibility for our safety in the tunnels. The Austrians had enlarged the conquered Ottoman stronghold so that, by the end of the Eighteenth Century, it enclosed...
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Current Events 31: The Eyes of Petrovaradin
August 22, 2019
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We were given a choice of activities in Novi Sad, and we elected to ascend the hill to Petrovaradin. Two of the guides, Irina and Stefan, conducted those who wished to tour the fortress through a shabby section of town. The guides said that in Novi Sad were many people who were unemployed and displaced by war. They had crowded into the houses in a...
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