Day 14 - Our time in Belgrade, Serbia is quickly approaching an end. We have stayed three nights in the Sky Hotel and have just tonight remaining. We knew it was going to be hot today. In fact, the local meteorological department issued a warning that it was going to be over 35C.
It has been hot but not terribly difficult. We have ensured we stay hydrated. I count my beers as helping with that. We had breakfast and asked for a way to walk up to the Belgrade Fortress without a lot uphill walking. The receptionist at the hotel suggested taking tram #2. It was a downhill walk to the tram stop and the trip included a route around the city. Free sightseeing! We jumped off at the top of the hill right next to the promenade.
Belgrade is located at the confluence of two rivers. Time to guess. If you assumed the Danube is one, you were correct. The city is situated where the Sava river joins it.
We sat quite a lot when we found park benches covered by the shade of trees. We watched people and their animals out on a fantastically bright Sunday. The promenade continues right along the pedestrian only section of the city where all the restaurants and shopping is. We walked into a shopping mall near that end and bought a larger bottle of sports drink to share. When it got to be 1:30 pm, we went for lunch at a restaurant we'd seen yesterday. Jay noticed online there is a Sri Lankan restaurant called Curry Souls.
We've been on the trip for two weeks today. I can't say food in the Balkans has much other than salt and pepper as seasonings. So, today's lunch was really satisfying. Unlike fairly uniform Indian food, Sri Lankan cuisine has mouthfuls of complex flavours. Jay spoke with the cooks as they were right behind a glass wall that allowed viewing of the preparation. The three member 'day shift' fellows were all from Sri Lanka. The food too is delivered from the island. Just the wait staff were locals. The experience was nice.
We just returned from our final walk uptown. We are leaving for Sophia, Bulgaria tomorrow by bus. Although the elegant Orient Express once travelled between these great, old European cities, now that is not possible. We were a bit surprised to only find one direct bus between Belgrade and Sofia. We booked seats on its 2:30 pm departure. Unfortunately, that puts us into the Sophia bus station at 11:00 pm.
That's not a problem for we're retired and on vacation! We planned night by night up to this point in our itinerary. We were clever enough to leave more than a week open after Sophia and before our final stay in Bucharest, Romania. So, we've extended Sophia by a couple of days already. This is because we noticed that their gay pride parade is on the Saturday, the 14th. As long as we were so close, we messaged the hotel for another two nights making a total of six. We will have free nights after that to decide just how we'll get to our departure city of Bucharest.
Jay and I began travelling together 40 years ago this year. In the years before the Internet we travelled differently. Of course being able to breeze into a European or Asian city and find accommodation 'on the fly' is a skill less required nowadays. However, beginning that way has ensured that we don't sweat the small details ...