Sightseeing in the Mindfields
Current Events 43: The Cathedral of Saint Sava/ Hram Svetog Save, Part 2
June 11, 2021
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The secular creed of Communism had not eradicated Serbian Orthodoxy; rather, it was Communism that had been a temporary imposition. There were large icons with heavily gilded backgrounds set on tables around the circumference of the ground floor, and there were people: business as usual during alterations. Some of the icons were centuries old. The...
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Current Events 42: The Cathedral of Saint Sava/ Hram Svetog Save, Part 1
June 04, 2021
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One might have thought that Tito's memorial would be Belgrade's premier tourist attraction. That distinction, however, belonged to the Temple of Saint Saba, the grandest Serbian Orthodox church in The Balkans. Saint Sava, a medieval prince, had been the first Serbian archbishop. After canonization, he became the national saint. His importance incre...
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Current Events 41: The Veterans
May 27, 2021
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Radi, our guide, was determined that her tour group should have contact with natives wherever we went. She had arranged for us to hear a local Serb express his feelings about Tito and “The Communism”. He met us outside Tito’s mausoleum. He was a grey-haired man in his seventies named Vasilije Kirkovič. He had spoken to groups led by Radi in the pas...
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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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