Our first morning in Belgrade (11/7), we were very slow to get started. Hanna had made friends with Nevenka, a Serbian girl visiting Stockholm, through common acquaintances a couple of weeks back and when Nevenka heard that Hanna was going to Belgrade with two friends, she offered us to stay her apartment. She and her room mate were going to the Exit festival in Novi Sad that weekend anyway, so their apartment would be empty. It was a lovely apartment pretty close to downtown Belgrade, and that first morning we spent saying goodbye to Nevenka and just slowly getting ready to leave.
Eventually we did get out, though, and found a café where we had sandwiches and pancakes and coffee and then just spent another hour relaxing.
Just by the breakfast café, this huge Orthodox temple was completely dominating the cityscape. Sveti Sava is what it’s called, and it’s supposed to be the largest Christian Orthodox temple in the world. And really, it is huge.
But not finished. Due to lack of funding, the work on the interior goes slowly (think decades), and right now it’s mostly a huge white shell of a temple. But still pretty cool, both figuratively and litterally. The massive concrete made the temperature inside several degrees lower – a very welcome change to the heat outside.
This first morning, we didn’t make it further than to the Sava temple. Then we had to walk back to the apartment and start getting ready for the bachelorette party (!!).
Katja Malmborg 