First visit to Belgrade (Serbia)

We are in March 2023. Since Rome, we’re flying to Belgrade. It always feels good to get into a lounge and have something to snack on before the flight, especially when lounge access is free (included with JB’s Amex card).

Belgrade is a magic word. It’s a city name that sounds so exotic to me that I can’t even imagine what it could look like. If I saw an elephant in Belgrade, I wouldn’t even be surprised, because that’s how exotic this name sounds to me! Like in “In Search of Lost Time,” sometimes the names of places paint a completely different picture in our minds. For JB, Belgrade brings back memories of news broadcasts from his childhood, which talked about the Balkan War.

But when we first set foot in the airport, and then in the city, I thought, “no, it just feels like the Balkans.” I don’t know how to explain it, but the shape of the buildings, the width of the streets, the sidewalks… are enough to place the city in roughly the right geographic area.

We grab a taxi from the airport – which doesn’t try to rip us off, for once. We’re warmly welcomed by our Airbnb host. It’s becoming more and more common for Airbnbs to have self check-in, so it’s always nice to have a real person to talk to and to be able to ask them questions about the city. Our host tells us that the best thing about Belgrade is its residents. He assures us it’s super safe, and that we shouldn’t hesitate to explore different neighborhoods at any time of day or night. Anyway, our long stay works out for him: he takes the opportunity to go skiing… in France. He’s going to take a 16-hour bus ride to ski in the Alps. What dedication, when there are plenty of ski resorts in the Balkans.

Reassured, we try the restaurant almost right across from the Airbnb, and it’s super, super good. I’m surprised to see that everyone is very discreet. Despite our tourist faces, there are no curious stares. I’m used to people actually turning around to stare at me because I’m with JB and they’re curious to hear what language I’m speaking to him; or people giving me dirty looks for fear that I might be carrying Covid… but here, nobody pays us any mind, nobody is shocked to see us. I think nobody likes being stared at because of their differences.

March 2023: a time in my life when I wasn’t feeling well, I was losing my memory, not sleeping well. The only positive side was my rapid progress in astrology; I even managed to find my own method for astrological forecasts. To save my memory, I read from morning to night and summarize books. So for several weeks, the only times I went out were to go grocery shopping and back to the Airbnb. We’re in a residential neighborhood with lots of villas and a few embassies; it’s very posh, but also quite quiet, with a few restaurants here and there, so it motivates me even less to go out.

We finally visit the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, capable of holding up to 15,000 people. It’s modeled after Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during Justinian’s time. We know Hagia Sophia in Istanbul very well, but apart from the exterior (except for the absence of minarets) being somewhat similar, the interior feels much more spacious and brighter.

The golden mosaics are very impressive and give us an idea of what other old churches with golden mosaics might have looked like at the beginning of their existence. Here, you can’t see the passage of time yet, so the gold color is still vibrant. The dome depicting Christ Pantocrator covers 1,230 square meters, weighs 40 tons, and took a year to complete.

You can go down to the basement; it’s less pretty but still very impressive.

Despite the risks associated with Covid, the faithful queue up to kiss these images, the most beautiful I’ve seen in an Orthodox church, gilded with gold leaf, a bit like illuminated manuscripts. Of course, the images are protected by a glass panel.

We head to the city center to check out the shops and find nice spots to relax or do some shopping. The selection is pretty limited, but I did spot a few clothing brands with very nice pieces, unfortunately super expensive 🙁

On our street is the Tesla Museum. There’s always a crowd outside. It’s only when visiting that you realize it’s due to the visiting hours; they let tourists in every 30 minutes because there’s a film to watch and a guide who will operate the machines.

The film is in English with Russian subtitles because most of the tourists are Russian speakers. There are quite a few technical terms, and I didn’t understand everything. There are a few machines on site, and the guide quickly explains how they work and operates them right before our eyes. Among other things, there’s the Tesla coil that produces artificial lightning. It made a loud noise in the room; it was impressive. Next to it is a machine for getting a slight electric shock, like in Japanese onsen baths :D. We’re told that Tesla imagines and improves his inventions in 3D in his head, so when he draws the object, it’s already perfect. It’s a bit like composers who hear in their heads the music they want to compose, and when they write the score, it’s almost like musical dictation.

This kind of exceptional visual memory is also found in Elon Musk, who memorizes a page at a time, like a photo. Since I’m losing my memory, I asked someone with an excellent memory how to activate photographic memory. He told me that with age, it becomes more difficult, but you can break it down into several parts and retain the main idea. I started losing my memory after JB’s emergency surgery. For example, if someone asks me what I did yesterday, it takes me several minutes to recall. In Belgrade, I took the TOEIC test for work. It’s just a formality since I speak English fluently, but this test posed two difficulties for me: (1) I realized that during the listening section, the text is only played once, but my mind wandered and I wasn’t even listening—it happened twice during the test (2) there are written texts that I understand 100%: for example, a lady writes an email to complain that she was sent this shoe model instead of that one, and the question is “what does she want? a refund or an exchange?” I had to reread the text 3 times, even though I understood every word, without being able to grasp the subtext. That’s when I thought it was serious—either I’m overthinking, or I’m autistic, or I’ve dumbed myself down. Spoiler: after a year of intensive reading (over 100 books in one year), I got my memory back. It’s like a muscle that needs training, that’s all. But the good news is that after this episode, I can now better control my memory and delete insignificant details, whereas before I retained everything, even useless things.

Our attempts to find a bakery with good desserts fail miserably. It looks appetizing like this, but in reality, it’s inedible!

Serbian food is pretty OK, but there are no memorable dishes that make me want to come back. And yet, the price of organic products in Serbia is very low. It’s one of the main suppliers of organic products for Europe. The reason is simple: for nearly a decade, farmers couldn’t afford to buy fertilizers or insecticides due to international sanctions on their country. So their land hasn’t been exposed to pesticides for decades. That’s why we prefer to buy ingredients at the supermarket and cook at home, simply, but it’s good and organic.

St. Mark’s Church, right next to it, contains a sarcophagus with relics of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan. The neo-Byzantine style reminds me of medieval Orthodox churches, even though it was built in the 1930s. It’s large compared to a standard church, but it suffers in comparison with the Church of Saint Sava, obviously! Outside, as everywhere, there’s a spot where worshippers can light a candle without blackening the church.

We go from embassies to government buildings, then big companies. The neighborhood is really nice for a long walk.

We go a bit further, toward St. Michael’s Cathedral in Belgrade. We’re at the edge of a branch of the Danube; we would have liked to go all the way to New Belgrade (the other side of the river), but fatigue got the better of me, so we headed back.