My Belgrade

We woke up at 5:30 am. As we had packed and prepared everything on the previous night, we didn't have to run. So we took our time, packed the last pieces of clothing, dressed up and called the cab. I remember I was so excited I just couldn't have my breakfast, for I wasn't even feeling any hungry, at all. Anja was still asleep til the moment the cab arrived and she woke up to help us with the baggage and say goodbye. As I can remember, it was not so cold - some 4 degrees - in a still dark, early-morning Köln, while the cab drove us til the main train station. As soon as we got off the car we run to find our platform. I sat and took care of our stuff while Nara ran to buy our tickets to the Düsseldorf airport. As the time to get into the plane was getting closer, I was getting more and more excited, and kinda absent: I always get like this when something I want too bad is coming closer to finally happen. And over the past few years, I can't remember of wanting anything more than I wanted to visit Serbia.

As soon as our train arrived, Nara came back with the tickets she had just bought. We took our seats and, during the 20-30 minutes of train travel, I almost didn't say a word. Nara was busy, cursing at the rude german man she came across still on the train station and I only remember telling her to relax and forget about him, after all we were about to leave the country and - head to Belgrade! Every time me or her would mention "Belgrade" or "Serbia" we would both open big smiles without saying a word, for several seconds. We were behaving so weirdly that, thinking of it now, it probably seemed like we were on drugs or something.

As soon as we arrived to the airport we managed to make the check in and get rid of our baggage. I was thirsty and Nara hungry, so we sat for a drink and a croissant - that tasted more like margarine than anything else. As the time of the flight was approaching, I was getting more and more absent, to the point Nara asked me, while having her coffee, if I was feeling ok. "Yes, yes I am" I replied a couple of seconds after she made the question.

Standing on the line to get into the plane was exciting: people speaking serbian all around us! We had our ears 'wide-opened', trying to listen some familiar word but, at least for me, it didn't quite worked: I was far too excited and crazy to focus on anything anyone was saying, no matter what language.

The almost two-hour flight were the most torturing ones to me: I felt like standing up and walking side to side in the plane while Nara was as talkative ever and hungry like a bear, eating everything it was offered, even my meal, that I didn't feel like eating at all - not even the cookie. I turned my mp3 player on to try and relax, but it was no good: my serbian/balkan-music-only player wasn't of much help at the moment, it only made me more and more anxious. I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep or at least to get a bit more relaxed, but I was so tense I started feeling my head, neck and shoulders hurting.

When the plane finally started to descend and Nara - who had the window seat - turned to me and said "Teta, we arrived! We're in Serbia!". My body relaxed so quickly all of a sudden that I felt like a cloth dummy, without any "structure" - like if I didn't have any bones. A "melting feeling".
The "melting feeling" got even stronger as we walked out the plane and stepped in serbian soil, to get the bus from the plane to the airport building. Nara and I looked around, then to each other and then, at the very same time, we took a deep, deep breath, to feel the air. I can still remember the first "smell of Belgrade". It smelled like wind.
It was a cloudy day, around 4 or 5 degrees, but not as wet as in Germany, thank god. The dryer weather made us feel much more comfortable than in Germany and like taking off our scarfs and opening up out jackets.

We went through the customs, got our passports stamped and took our baggage. We went to the restroom to fix our messy hair and our still sleepy faces and we finally got off the arriving gate. Nara was walking before me as I remember was still feeling completely melt and then we saw Tomica waiting for us. It's weird, because I can't quite remember anything else of this meeting other than he saying "Hey, I'm Tomica". I can't possibly tell you what I said, or what Nara said, or even if he said anything else - and they most probably said plenty of things more, I just wasn't 'registering' any information at that moment.

We walked out and again, the "Belgrade smell". I took several more deep and long breathes, as we waited for the bus that was gonna take us downtown. I remember Nara asking me, kinda worried, how we were gonna do, cause we had no dinars with us. I can't remember what I replyed or even if I replied her at all - I was getting back to my conscience, but still not really able to reply anything.
The bus arrived, we took our seats, and Nara reminded me to sms Kosta, to tell him we arrived well. Toma kindly offered to send the message over his mobile, and so he did.

During the half an hour trip from the airport to downtown Belgrade, I almost didn't say a word: I was looking around, rather amazed and still not believing to be in Belgrade, noticing every single detail on everything, from the grass colours to the building's paintings and graffiti, from the huge commercial displays to the clothes people were wearing on the streets - literally, everything. As we were getting more and more close to the city center and the car traffic was getting more and more intense, I started noticing people and instruments all around: an old man with his accordion here, a bunch of guys coming out a car with their trumpets over there and so on. Later I would find out and record on my memory, forever, the sound of the city. Yes, because in Belgrade, even if there's no real music playing whatsoever, you can feel it filling in the air :)
I was finally in Belgrade.

We took off the bus at Slavija - I remember Tomica saying that place would probably be a key one for us during our staying in there. And indeed, so it became.
The ground on Slavija was kinda wet, although it wasn't raining. I had a look around, and I immediately loved that square; noise, cars, buses, trams and trolleys all over, people crossing the streets, policemen with their whistles and us and our baggage, waiting for the next bus we had to take in order to spare some walk with Hans and Klaus (the names we gave to our two "dead bodies" - aka "biggest bags", weighting more than 30 kg each)

We took another bus to our place, less then 5 minutes riding from Slavija. We got off, walked a few meters more, turned right, and then right again and voi-là: Sime Luke Lazića, the street that would be our address for the next several weeks. It was around 1pm when we were shown our room by a very sympathetic looking girl - that later became a great friend, Sanja. Toma said he would leave us for he had some stuff to do, and that he would call me a bit later, so we could plan something.


Nara and I got into our room. I took my camera and made a photo of our room's window. I was now fully conscious again, and all excited and jumping around, repeating with Nara, every 10 seconds "We're in Belgrade, we're in Belgrade!!!". Nara was looking around the room and opening her baggage while I was insisting with her that I didn't need any rest at that moment and that we should go out to explore the city right away. But I only had time to take off my jacket and boots - having in mind to put more comfortable shoes: as soon as I sat on the bed I felt asleep like a stone til 7 pm, when I woke up with Nara saying she had just made a friend in the hostel that was crazy by brazilian soap-operas; the guy from the reception saying Toma was on the phone and my complaining, empty-for-a-day stomach.


And that was my first day in Belgrade :)

Do you know where Shabla is?!

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Balkan Expedition - Part III (Final)

We got into the café.

As fast as I could I managed to take the seat on the table nearer to the entrance. I remember just "leaving" my body on the chair, like if I had no bones in it. Nara took the seat on my left, and when we were both seated, we took a deep relief breathe - Kostov was coming to "rescue" us, in only a couple of hours! Only a couple of hours...

Anyways, I noticed Nara was OK again when she said she needed a coffee - she always needs a coffee when she's fine. She stood up, looking for the waitress, when she noticed the miner looking men were inviting both of us to join their tables. Before I could say "Nara, I think we'd better stay here", she was already heading to their table.

So, on this table there were two guys only: the most miner-looking man in the whole cafe (he was wearing a full-of-holes grey wool cap, and a huge grey jacket, with some little grey beard covering his cheeks) and his younger friend (black haired, with a black jacket on). As Nara was approaching the table, she asked "Speak english?". "English? No, no, no Engleski", the older man said. "Sprachen sie Deutsch?", he asked.
"YES!!!" Nara quickly replied, and finally took a sit at the guys table, next to the older man, facing me, just a few tables away. After the introductions (of course they mistaked her name with "Nada", as usual), she started explaining them what happened to us in our way from Serbia to Bulgaria. That was when I realised the black haired guy didn't speak any other language other than bulgarian, as his friend was translating to him what Nara was telling them. But it wasn't quite working: the two guys were so damn drunk, they were asking her again and again what happened to us and what were we doing, on a Christmas eve, in that cafe in Shabla. After having the same answer from her some three times, the man gave up and started telling about him, and started asking where we were from. "I bet you can't guess where we're from! Try to guess!", Nara said. While they were trying each and every possible european country - and Nara saying "no" to every wrong try of them, I was looking at her and shaking my head like saying "Fuck Nara, don't do that! Don't tell them where we're from!". She was looking back to me with a crazy smile on her face, like if she wasn't understanding why she shouldn't do that.
I mean, we didn't know anything about those two, they were pretty drunk, we didn't speak the same languages, we were alone in Shabla and, to make it worse, everybody knows that brazilian girls have the reputation to be easy and big arsed ones. Hehe, we are not "easy", and most certainly not big arsed girls, haha. But they didn't know that.
When she said "We're from Brazil", the two men were like "Noooo, you're not, you're lying!". Although she even showed them her student card to prove it, they didn't believe her. Then they started pointing their fingers at me and asking Nara where her friend was from. When she said Brazil, again they said she was lying.

That was when I decided I should join Nara at their table, to not leave her with them all alone. I sat right before her and beside the younger black haired guy that, as soon as I sat down, took my hand in his and raising his eyebrow with a drunken look he started saying in bulgarian "Your hands are so cold..."
"Fuck", that's what I thought, and as quick as I could I took my hand off his and put it inside my coat's pocket. He was staring at me moaning something that sounded like "Oh come on, give me your hand". Fuck again, I so wanted Kostov to arrive soon!

I then saw Nara was on a similar situation with the older man, haha. In a very, very 'restricted' german he was saying something like "I cook Berlin. 15 years. My mother sick. My daughter not house. I alone. Come to my place with me". Nara was pretending she didn't get what he really meant, saying "I need to stay and wait for my friend to pick me here, can't go anywhere else". And he said everything all over again, this time to me as well, and the younger one was still trying to get my hand again, and Nara saying "no" once more, and then ha! The younger guy took a note of 50 leva, placed on the table, and pushed it to our direction. On that moment, I think Nara realised she'd better really stop giving them the attention she was giving. She looked at me as who says "Dammit!", and I gave her back my "Yeah, dammit!" look.
She turned to the guys and said "What is that? What in the world is that???", pointing at the 50 leva. The older guy looked to his friend said something in a harsh tone of voice, turned back to us and said "I'm sorry, my friend is very drunk, he got confused, he just wanted to pay a coffee, he's confused".
"It's Ok, it's Ok", Nara replied.

Immediately the guy said again "So, come my house, I alone, my mother sick" and that was when we finally gave up, stood up, and got back to our table.

We were both nervous with the whole situation at this point. After making a nervous speech to Nara, pointing how she should never have started talking to them in the first place, we both started laughing, laughing so much, that we started crying, hahahaha. Laughing, crying, and pointing out to ourselves our bizarre situation and saying to ourselves "Kosta, please, come quickly!!".

After we managed to control ourselves, we agreed on speaking very low and not even looking at their direction til Kostov rescue us. So we did. But even so, the older guy - after realising we wouldn't go back to their table - came to us, kneelled down next to our table and started saying a bunch of things in Bulgarian. Nara was getting kinda pissed, telling me, in portuguese "I told him I only speak german, why is he still talking in bulgarian, dammit! I can't get a word!".
As soon as she said that, he stood up right away, and said "Romanian! Romania!!!" and started saying a whooooole lot of things in romanian, hahahaha. We completely forgot how much portuguese sounds like romanian and how close to the romanian border we were, dammit! Nara looked at me like who says "It doesn't matter what I say or in what language, he just won't stop". Yes, indeed he looked like he wasn't gonna stop, hehe. After a minute speaking romanian to us, he stoped, with a thoughtful look on his face, glazing at our table. That was when he saw my notebook, full of russian stuff written on it's cover. When I noticed he was staring at my notebook's cover, it was already too late: he turned to me and started speaking russian, hahahaha. I just couldn't believe that was happening, that guy was unstoppable, completely!!! The most annoying thing is that, actually, I could get quite some stuff of what he was saying, but I was holding myself back to not answer anything, or then heaven knew what could happen, haha.

Nara and I stayed completely mute, staring at the table, and after a while he gave up and got back to his table.
Thank God!

Nara and I could then start a conversation without being interrupted at every second. We were making some random drawings on my notebook, while talking about how funny it would be telling about that whole situation to our friends, hehe. All during our talk, Nara was staring at every single car that was passing before the cafe, believing it could be Kosta coming to save us, haha.
The older guy still made one last try to please us: he gave, to each one of us, an orange, a huuuge one, hahaha. And got back to his table. I remember even the waitress was laughing like crazy when he gave us the oranges, hahaha.

I was so tired, I didn't even have forces to be scared of nervous anymore, hehe. I wasn't even anxious for Kostov to come. I was simply absent. And Nara was still staring at the glass windows, hoping that each car passing by would be Kostov's.

Then, at one point, she stood up and started heading to the glass door, saying "I think it's him... It's... Yeah!! It's him, it's Kosta now!!!". And I was like "I bet it isn't. It's probably the 10th car passing by that you say it's him for sure, Nara..."
But this time she was (finally!) right: it WAS Kosta, and with his brother! Nara ran to the glass door and tried to open it, but it was locked, hahaha. She shook the door a bit, but it didn't work so she just stood at the door, with her hands and her face glued to the glass, watching Kosta and Martin approaching to the cafe. The waitress came and unlocked the door and ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! We held Kosta as strongly as we could, the four of us lauging a lot as we grabbed our things and headed to his car.

After an almost two hours trip back to Varna, we arrived at his house, met his parents, and had the coolest Christmas eve of the last years :)))))))))

Needless to say, this "Shabla adventure" became the_joke among all Kostov's friend in Bulgaria, haha. I guess we will be forever remebered as the "Shabla girls", like they named us.

Transporte

Acho que de varios aspectos, um dos que achei mais interessantes aqui em Belgrado foi o transporte publico. No Rio soh temos onibus. Onibus esses que colocam a "cereja no sorvete" do jah estragado transito carioca.

Pois entao, aqui em Belgrado eles tem onibus, micro-onibus, bondes e onibus eletricos. E sim, caso voces estejam se peguntando, eles tambem sao a "cereja no sorvete" do transito caotico aqui de Belgrado, hehehe. Mas eu amo o transito caotico daqui.

Slavija: provavelmente o cruzamento mais caotico de Belgrado: onibus, trolleys, trams e carros vindos de 5 ruas diferentes, e dando a volta na praca central. Eh tambem um dos meus pontos de encontro preferidos :)

Como diria Jack, o Estripador, vamos por partes:


Onibus - a.k.a. autobus, ou bus

Os onibus aqui em Belgrado sao muito diferentes dos do Rio. Obviamente eles nao tem a carroceria absurdamente alta como os cariocas: sao mais largos e o espaco interno eh bem mais otimizado, pois soh algumas cadeiras sao em pares. Sobra entao bem mais espaco pro povo se movimentar (quando o onibus nao estah cheio) e, obviamente, bem mais espaco pra entulhar passageiros (nos horarios de hush. Ou nao).

Mas o mais inteligente dos onibus daqui, comparando com os do Rio, eh que eles tem sempre, no minimo, 3 portas duplas e todos, sem excessao, tem espaco pra usuarios de cadeira de rodas. Achei o maximo isso.

Os onibus aqui se subdividem em 2 categorias: os normais, compostos de 1 carro soh (que podem ser do tipo "sucatao iugoslavo" ou novos)...


... e os duplos (tambem na modalidade sucata e novo), que sao compostos por dois carros, "emendados" por uma ligacao sanfonada.

Duplo e sucata

Duplos novos

Eu gosto desses.
Na verdade, o mais divertido desses onibus duplos sanfonados eh viajar no meio deles, bem na "sanfonacao", hehehe. Eh como viajar na emenda de vagoes do U-Bahn, na Alemanha: tem uma especie de plataforma giratoria - que eh o que permite que o onibus duplo faca as curvas - e viajar em peh sobre essa plataforma eh garantia de viagem emocionante

Sanfona

Diferentemente dos onibus do Rio, os onibus aqui nao param em todos os pontos, mas soh nos pontos que realmente fazem parte do roteiro de cada linha. E aqui voce nao faz sinal pro onibus: eles obrigatoriamente param nos pontos, mesmo que ninguem queira entrar ou sair.


Micro-onibus

Os micro onibus sao coisa bem recente em Belgrado. Foram implantados a pouco tempo, e a frota ainda eh bem pequena, basicamente soh pra cobrir um ou outro buraquinho do servico dos onibus normais.

Eles parecem vans, na verdade, vans bem grandinhas, com uma fileira dupla de assentos de um lado, e uma fileira de assentos "solo" do outro. Nesses nao tem como "entrar pela janela", porque voce paga diretamente pro motorista no momento em que voce entra nele.
Por isso soh peguei micro onibus uma vez, hehehe.


Bonde - a.k.a. tram, tramvaj ("tramvai")

Sim, Belgrado tem bondes!
Os bondes sao deliciosas sucatas dos tempos socialistas, haha. Provavelmente sao os principais responsaveis pelo trafico caotico aqui de Belgrado. Talvez seja por isso que eu goste tanto deles. E por causa da barulheira que as maquinas fazem quando os trams vao fazer a curva, haha. Adoro.

Os trams sao bem mais estreitos do que os onibus, normalmente com a carroceria pintada de vermelho ou entao semi-cobertos com anuncios e propagandas. O chao eh de borracha surrada e os assentos (de plastico surrado) sao vermelhos, cinza ou branco/creme. Nao consegui decifrar a ordem (se eh que realmente existe alguma) da arrumacao dos assentos dentro dos trams, mas isso nao eh relevante. Os trams sao sempre sanfonados, pois sao compostos de dois vagoes, com 2 pares de portas duplas (e ultra-barulhentas e brutas!) cada.

Os trams passam praticamente por todas as ruas principais da cidade. Diferente dos onibus, os eles param em todos os pontos - isto eh, todos os pontos que sao pontos de tram, eh claro. Eh o esquema eh o mesmo, voce nao tem que fazer sinal, eles sempre param onde devem. E dah pra "entrar pela janela" tambem.


Onibus eletrico - a.k.a. trolleybus

Os trolley me deixam em duvida quanto a minha preferencia pelos trams, hehe. Tanto os novos quanto os antigos sao legais embora, eh claro, os surrados e sucateados tenham um charme especial.

Eles sao meio que uma mistura dos trams com os onibus: espaco interno de bus, com assentos e visual de tram. E a brutalidade das portas dos modelos mais senior tambem eh exatamente como nos trams, hehe.
Alguns anos atras carros novos de trolleys comecaram a circular. Esses sao bem simpaticos tambem, e as portas sao mais sutis.

Trolley novo

O destaque nos trams eh quando o guia sai dos fios eletricos. e a coisa toda para: o motorista tem que sair do trolley, ir pra traseira do carro e puxar os fios da guia com o peso dele, tentando localizar a guia de volta nos fios eletricos, hahaha. E aih eh caos mesmo, porque os carros atras comecam a businar, os onibus que querem parar no mesmo ponto entulham toda a rua, as pessoas comecam a atravessar fora das faixas de seguranca - aproveitando o transito em suspensao - e por aih vai. Eh bem como naquele episodio do desenho animado sovietico "Nu, Pogodi", quando o lobo tenta perseguir o coelho num trolley, hahaha. No wonder, jah que todos os trolleys daqui de Belgrado sao fabricados na Russia :)

Pontos - a.k.a. stanica

Entao, quando voce chega em um ponto de onibus - aqui chamados "stanica" - voce tem que ver o que o cartaz diz: quais as linhas de onibus, micro onibus, bonde e/ou onibus eletricos que param ali. Alguns pontos dizem de quanto em quanto tempo um determinado tram, trolley ou onibus passam por ali. Embora nao seja saudavel se guiar muito por esses horarios nao, porque o transporte publico aqui nunca funciona na hora.



Algumas stanica ainda tem linhas de onibus noturnos (nos quais nao tem como "entrar pela janela", porque tem sempre cobrador). Soh peguei onibus noturno uma vez, voltando da ilha de Ada Ciganlija taaaarde da noite.

O forte dos pontos aqui certamente nao eh o design funcional. Os mais antigos tem bancos metalicos - que no inverno ninguem se arrisca a usar - e os mais novos e modernos tem o teto transparente - que no verao de 40 graus daqui com sol a pino, eh tortura garantida.


Apesar de todos os "tropecos" do transporte publico de Belgrado, o mais maravilhoso de tudo eh que funciona. Eh praticamente de graca (jah que 90% da populacao realmente "entra pela janela") e leva a gente de qualquer ponto pra qualquer ponto da cidade. Quase na hora :)

CURIOSODADES

Vou comecar agora a postar sobre curiosidades e fatos interessantes aqui de Belgrado, e dos outros lugares que visitei. Minutinho que o 1o. post jah vem ;)

+ 6 days in Beograd :))))))))

10 graus e solzinho em Belgrado. Tem sido assim nos ultimos 6-7 dias. Sinto falta da neve, mas sol com friozinho de leve eh o que ha!
E consegui, depois de alguns instantes de tensao, remarcar minha volta a Alemanha e esticar uns diazinhos aqui em Belgrado: eu ia embora amanha, e agora soh me vou pra Alemanha dia 21. Uhuuuuuu :)))))))))))


10 degrees and sun in Belgrade. It's been like this for the past 6-7 days. I miss the snow, but sunny-cold days are just great too!
And, after several minutes of tension, I made it to postpone my coming back to Germany and stay a few days more here in Belgrade: I was gonna leave tomorrow, and now I'm only back to Germany on the 21st. Yay :)))))))))))

E a boa noticia? No final de junho/inicio de julho, tem mais Balkan Spedicija pra mim \o/

Quem vem comigo da proxima vez?

And the good news? By the end of june/early july, there's more Balkan Spedicija for me \o/

Who's coming with me next time?

Intermission III (Animated!)

Fequinho and I in Kalemegdan

...e a Teta encheu a cara...

Haha, como o Kostov vivia me dizendo que iria acontecer, aconteceu: os Balkans fizeram eu me render ao alcool. Sim, sim: Teta, que nunca, nunca bebe sequer uma gotinhazinha de alcool, agora bebe. Muitas goticulas, hehehe.

O Pai do Kostov eh o culpado - ficou lah, me seduzindo em russo (ele soh falava em russo ou ingles com a gente, haha), dizendo "chut-chut, chut-chut" (significa "soh um pouquinho, soh um pouquinho", em russo) e pah: bebi vinho no Natal, bolas.

De volta pra Belgrado, a coisa foi ficando intensa: no primeiro dia de kafana com a Fecula, o Rodrigo em Belgrado, eu fiquei consideravelmente altinha, haha. E no ano novo, a coisa desandou bonito: entornei, sozinha, uma garrafa inteira de vinho, bebendo no gargalo, hahahaha. Fiquei torta como nunca. A unica coisa que me lembro bem dessa noite eh de mim e do Tomica, 6 da manha, parados no meio de um cruzamento vaziiiiio, debaixo de neve pesada, rindo feito dois pamonhas de nada e esperando por um taxi que nao veio, hahahahahahaha. Lembro tambem da minha odisseia pra subir a ladeira coberta por 20 cm de neve, as 7 da manha, sem escorregar, hehehe.

Depois disso a coisa ficou frenetica, vinho todo dia, soh pra constar. E o segundo porre fenomenal foi no ultimo dia de Kafana antes da Fecula e do Rodrigo irem embora: litro e meio de vinho, kolo, acordeon, Titos rodopiando na parede, festa de rock, casacos perdidos, hamburguer as 4 e meia da matina, cartazes (lindamente) vandalizados pela Fequinho com neve, crises de riso e festa no albergue, ateh de manha. E eh claro, uma dor de cabeca filadaputa dia seguinte, olheiras, cara amassada e por aih vai.

E o pior? Eh que eh bom, hahahaha.
Amo muito tudo isso.

Belgrade photo tour :)

Fotos da ultima semana, quando a Fecula e o Rodrigo chegaram aqui em Belgrado
Photos of the last week, when Fecula and Rodrigo arrived here in Belgrade

Nossa primeira caminhada pela cidade com a Fecula e o Rodrigo, assim que eles chegaram. Ao fundo voces (quase) podem ver a cupula de St. Sava, coberta de neve

Our first walk around town with Fecula and Rodrigo, when they arrived. On the background you can (almost) see the dome of St. Sava, covered in snow

Karadjordjev Park, que fica logo ao lado da St. Sava
Karadjordjev Park, right beside St. Sava

St. Sava, finalmente!
St. Sava, finally!

Ok, voces jah conhecem essa, mas como eu gosto muito, lah vai denovo. Estavamos brincando no parquinho, em frente a St. Sava :)

Ok, you've probably already seen this one, but as I like it a lot, here it is again. We were playing in the park, right before St. Sava :)

Lah vamos nos, entrando em St. Sava. Nao sei se a foto faz jus ao tamanho desse templo "ao vivo"... Parece ateh pequeno olhando agora, comparando com a visao dele ao vivo.
There we go, getting into St. Sava. I don't know if the photo make justice to the "real" size of this temple... It looks kinda small in the picture, if compared to it's "live" view.

Interior de St. Sava - nao sei se voces sabem, mas St. Sava - que comecou a ser contruida no iniciozinho do seculo XX - nunca chegou nem perto de ser terminada. Devido as guerras mundiais e, mais tarde, ao regime de Tito, sua construcao foi interrompida por decadas e decadas. Visitando o templo durante o dia, a gente pode ver os artesaos trabalhando non-stop nas esculturas de pedra...
Inside St. Sava - I don't know if you know it, but St. Sava - that started being built in the early 20th century - was never even close to be finished. Due to the world wars and, later, to Tito's regime, it's construction was interrupted for decades and decades. If you visit the temple during the day, you can see people working non-stop on the stone sculptures...

Essa eh a capela que fica ao lado de St. Sava. Eh pequenininha, mas estah completamente terminada ha tempos jah. E as iluminuras em estilo bizantino foram feitas por artesaos russos - nao tem 1 pedacinho de parede ou teto que nao seja pintado :)

Mais pinturas no interior da capela...

Fequinho encoxando o monumento da Praca da Republika, hahahaha
Ps.: esse monumento, essa praca em geral, eh o ponto de encontro mor de Belgrado.
Fequinho "humping" the monument at the Republik Square, hahahaha
Ps.: this monument, the whole square, is the_meeting_point in Belgrade.

A ciganada tocando na rua. Depois vou dar upload no video que fizemos disso e postar aqui - foram os piores metais que jah vi ciganos tocando por aqui, hahahaha
A bunch of gypsies playing on the street. Later I'll upload a video I recorded on that day and post it here - those were the worse played metals I've ever heard around here, hahahaha

Knez Mihailova, uma das ruas mais famosas de Belgrado :)
Knez Mihailova, one of the most famous streets in Belgrade :)

Chegando em Kalemegdan
Getting to Kalemegdan

Kalemegdan

Peculinho :)

Voces nao tem ideia de como eu sempre quis ver esse lugar, e especialmente assim, forrado de neve. Exatamente como na foto do topo desse blog :)))))
You have no idea of how much I always wanted to see this place, and specially like this, covered in snow. Just like in the picture on the header of this blog :)))))

Ahh, eu e o meu fraco por cidades com rios...
Ohh, me and my weekness for cities with rivers...

No parquinho
In the kid's park

Encoxando em Kalemegdan
Humping in Kalemegdan

"Te porro!"

Haha, estamos parecendo criancinhas nessa foto
Haha, we look like such kids in this photo

Papai Noel marrentao na sessao de bebidas do mercado. Soh em Belgrado...
Tough Santa Klaus in the drink section of the market. Only in Belgrade...

...

Neve!
Snow!

Eu e Fecu, de madrugada, abobadas na neve. Chorar de rir abaixo de zero nao eh legal nao. O rosto fica congelado, hahaha
Me and Fecu, laaaate at night, being silly in the snow. Laughing til you cry when it's below zero it's not cool. Your face gets freezing, hahaha

E o boneco de neve mais hediondo de todos os tempos: "Coco Noel"
And the most hideous snow man of all times: "Coco Noel" (something like "Crappy Klaus", in portuguese)
Конец!

Intermission II

Snow :)