Serbia Day 3 - Sports Island, Escape Games, and Belgrade Fortress

September 6th

Today we wandered around sports island or Ada Ciganlija, completed two Escape Games, and went wandering around the Fortress.

First up, Ada Ciganlija!

Ada Ciganlija or Ada is an island in Belgrade that has various sports fields, courts, and arenas, as well as recreation areas and restaurants.

It's a giant mentos and coke bottle.  Or that's what it looks like at least.

er......Stone Henge?

Mentos fountain from another angle.

These owls are mascots for an energy drink called Guarana.  I thought they were kind of funny.

The park had these weird structures around it randomly.  We're not sure what they're for.

We decided to stop and get something to drink and sit for a bit.  

Ada also has "beaches" to hang out on during the summer.

This little guy hung out with us while we had our drinks.  He hopped around quite a bit.

Apparently there is a water-skiing track at the one end of Ada.

The water-ski track.  There were four bars that hung from a rotating scaffold which you would grad and it would pull you around on your skis. 

Some of the beaches and two of the weird structures I mentioned earlier.  

Before the water-ski track was an area for nude bathing.

We thought our punny friends would appreciate this one.

We left Ada and headed out to explore some of the local markets. 

The first market was more clothing and household goods.

Bathing suits! 

Veggies and people!

These onions and beans were so nicely arranged. 

We left the markets to head over to try our hand at some Belgrade Escape Games.  

We found some art!

We wanted to get something to eat before going to the Escape Games, but were having a hard time finding open restaurants.  We eventually found a random generic Asian restaurant.  We were quite hungry so I'm not sure if the food was actually fine or if I was just that hungry.

We scarfed down our food and headed to the Escape Games.

Alright, we signed up for Adrenalin Escape Games's Tito room.  The idea was that Tito's wife Jovanka thinks he's cheating on her and we have to find who Tito really loves and the code to get out of Tito's secret office. 

 We escaped!  With 17 minutes and 27 seconds left - we started with 60 minutes.  Turns out Tito loves Jovanka.  Tito was a Yugoslavian dictator during the Golden Age. 

We had so much fun with Tito's room, and we had the time, so we decided to try the other escape room Adrenalin had - Tesla's Mind.  The goal of this one is to escape Tesla's mind before you go insane.

We escaped!  We had 9 minutes and 33 seconds left of our 60 minute time limit.  

It was very different from the other room we have done, but we had a great time.  

Tesla was a famous scientist who is well known for his work in alternating current.

After the escape games we went out walking to the Belgrade Fortress.

We got to the fortress via the pedestrian mall.

I found some street art:

Chicken!

The Belgrade Fortress in the daylight:

I don't know who these people are.  

I think they're heroes of the Communist Revolution, but....don't quote me on that.

From the fortress looking out to the Sava river.

Looking down the fortress walls to the road and the river.

Here's where the Danube and Sava rivers join.

I found a clock tower we could climb!  Dan was thrilled.

Michael was happy enough to climb the tower.

Views from the tower:

Look!  I was there!

It was not a very tall or difficult climb, but the views were pretty.

We wandered off to find a Geocache and passed this amusing sign.

And this pretty view of the side of the fortress.

The cache was originally hidden around the cannons, but had been moved to a wall location about 30 feet to the right.  We managed to find it.  

After all the adventuring we had today, we decided it was time to go home and relax.

This concludes our adventure for today.

Serbia: Day 2 - Countryside and Rain

September 5th

Today we adventured out into the countryside.  To a town called Sremski Karlovci.

Stopping at a fruit and rakija stand.

Rakija is the national drink of Serbia, and common throughout the Balkans.  It is a fruit brandy.  

It's kind of like Italian grappa, but less like turpentine.

Stand owner George Washington.  Or that's what he says his Serbian name would translate as.

We arrived at Mirko's house where his wife treated us to apple cake and walnut rakija.  We then grabbed some veggies and meat from the grocer and headed up into the hills.   And then drove through a field.  To Mirko's rakija distillery house.

I'm not sure we're not in Italy.

I mean, I had not preconceived conceptions about what Serbia would be like, but I wasn't expecting rolling countryside covered in vineyards.

I mean, would you be able to tell where this was?

Jose starts to tackle the task of grilling all the meat.  

Jose is from Venezuela and a teacher with Daws.

The Men Only Safe House.  They made an exception for me.  I think it's because apparently, Maura or Mara, is a Serbian name and the name of one guy's grandmother and another guy's wife.   Or something like that.   I've discovered that English speaking nationals have trouble with my name.  Apparently the rest of the world does not have trouble with it.

Thistles!

Look!  There we are in Serbia! 

Look!  A tractor made in Yugoslavia!

At some point I needed to a use a restroom.  They had an outhouse.  I was fine but I did have to shoo several spiders off of the toilet paper roll.  One of the Serbian guys was concerned if I was okay after using the outhouse.  Daws told him I was fine, that I'm tough.

We had finished eating at this point.  There was soooo much food.  It was delicious.  

Dan had had a lot of wine and rakija by this point, we all had, but he seemed to have had more.  We went for a walk.  Dan pretty much immediately fell in a hole.  He was fine, but it was pretty funny.

Look!  Now we're in Iowa.  The house on the horizon is our distillery. 

We found a pond!

Dan really wanted a piggyback ride.  Daws graciously agreed.

Serbian diving board?  

Dan started dancing and Daws didn't want him to dance alone.  So he joined in.
We started walking back to the house when Dan revealed that he pulled off the world's greatest con by getting me to marry him.  When pressed for details all Dan would say is "I'm in it for the long con."  No one knows what this means.  I imagine in our 80's Dan will look at me and go "HAH!  You spent your life with me.  Suuuuucka!"  I guess we'll have to wait and see,

Dan also fell into a ditch and tripped over a stump, despite being warned about the stump.  He was still okay and it was still funny.  We piled into the car and drove back to Daws's place.  Dan was pretty much done for the day, but I was still up for adventures.

Daws took me down to a pedestrian mall called.
It was nice for about 10 minutes, and then it started to rain.

I jinxed us by saying it would only be a few minutes of downpour and then stop.

It let up for a bit and we continued to walk around.

We wandered over to the Belgrade Fortress.

The original parts of Belgrade Fortress date back to the 6th century.  However the area inhabited by the fortress has been settled in some form or another since the 3rd century BC.

Out in the black are where the Danube and Sava rivers meet.

Somewhere around here we met a pack of drunk highschoolers.  They were very excited when they found out Daws teaches math.  They wanted math help.

And the rains came down again.

Hiding in a gateway waiting for the rain to stop.

Umbrellas in a line.  

The Sava river.

The Sava divides old and new Belgrade.

Rainy night time tower poking through the trees!

The oldest street in Belgrade!

On our way to Daws's favorite bar we found a Robin Williams tribute.

Squirrela!

And a pretty lady.

Two more beers to finish the night off.  Kabinet BrrKaaa (5%) and Citre Pale Ale (4.5 %).  I felt both were bitter with the BrrKaaa being fairly hoppy.  The Citre Pale Ale was somewhat tart in flavor.  Both were light.

At this point we decided to call it a night and headed back to the apartment.

This concludes our adventures for today.