Hi friends and family, esteemed relatives, romans and countrymen! Last week was Thanksgiving week, and before this whole adventure started I knew that week in particular was going to be the hardest. I love Thanksgiving, it's one of my favorite holidays, and the thought of being alone that day was distressing. Luckily, I have the absolute best dad in the whole entire world. He flew out and we spent the whole week exploring, drinking Serbian coffee, and having a downright blast.
The very first thing we did when he landed was, naturally, get a cup of Serbian coffee on the main street, Knez Miholova. Serbian coffee goes by many names: Greek coffee, Turkish coffee, Domestic coffee. It really depends on who you ask. But it's all delicious and packed with enough caffeine to raise Prince Lazar's army from the dead. Plus, if you know how to read it you can see the future in the coffee grounds at the bottom of your cup! But I didn't need a fortune teller to let me know that I was about to have a good week.
One of the local museums we went to was the residence of Princess Ljubica (pronounced like L-you-bee-tsa). It was built in 1830 during the Obrenovic dynasty to serve as a private residence for the royal family. It's a gorgeous building with three floors. It's architecturally significant to Belgrade as it combines both eastern and western styles of architecture, representing in a physical form the melding of cultures the Serbs went through in the mid-1800s between Turkish influence and Western ideals.
We ate well all week! From excellent Greek food down the street, to desserts at the famous Hotel Moscow, to pan-asian cuisine with the cousins on Thanksgiving day! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our Thanksgiving meal, but I think it was memorable enough :)
One of my favorite parts of the week was our day trip outside of Belgrade. We visited a few locations that were about an hour outside the city. The first one was the Smederevo Fortress. This was a cool fortress because of its unique shape. Situated at the crux of two rivers joining, the fortress takes on a triangular shape. I love walking through structures that are really old. I like the feeling of walking up the same stairs that people did hundreds of times hundreds of years ago (even if the height of each step was like a foot tall!)
After Smederevo, we went to the ancient archaeological site of Viminacium. Viminacium was a major Roman city that dates back to around the first century. That's right. It's old old. It's also huge. They think only about 3 or 4% of Viminacium has been unearthed. While we explored the old Roman town archaeologist were on the scene, digging as our tour guide showed us around. It was cool to be in the middle of all the action! We saw up close and personal some tombs (with real life 1st century skeletons out on display!) and some well preserved mosaics above the tombs. We had to crawl a bit, but the experience was absolutely worth it. Then we got to check out the Roman baths, and they had heated tiles way back in the first century! They would send hot air under the bath houses to warm up the tiles so when moving from bath to bath your feet weren't assaulted by freezing temperatures! I was so fascinated with everything about this tour it was so so so cool. We also got to see mammoth bones! They weren't part of the ancient Roman city, but they were found like a mile away so they thought "why not display them here!" and honestly, it was the right call. Very cool. 10/10. We also got to visit their museum (built in the style of a Roman building and pictured in the middle of the third row below) and see the site's recreation of the Roman stadium where they would host games and entertainment!
(And of course there was an Archeologi-CAT! She's pictured above next to the model of their best prediction of what the layout of the city looked like)
Dad and I spent a lot of time with the cousins here which was so fun. It was great practice for my Serbian too, my listening comprehension skills have gone up quite a bit if I do say so myself! They were really put to the test at the theatre though. Dad and I went and saw a show at the little theatre across the street from my apartment on Tuesday night. It was called Jedan Pikaso, or in English, A Picasso. It was a two person play, and followed the story of the famous painter Picasso and a Nazi officer going back and forth about the validity of certain Picasso paintings. It was well done and pretty interesting. I'd say I understood maybe 18% of it, which I thought was not too shabby.
It was a jam packed week and I had the best time. I am the most grateful for my dad for coming out for Thanksgiving and spending his time with me. It was the bomb.
And last but not least, I dyed my hair! It's not perfect because I did it myself, but I really love the color! I feel like Ginny Weasley, or Merida from Brave! It's new for me, but now I can say I've tried all the hair colors :)
