Sore feet and other hazards of globe trotting

I had a pretty good weekend here in БЕОГРАД (Belgrade written in Cyrillic).  I walked a ton yesterday, pleasantly getting lost and exploring the city.  I figured out how to walk from Novi Belgrade to City Center via one of the 3 bridges that crosses the Sava River.  I went into a nice little church (temple) that was quite beautiful.  There were even roses growing outside even though we had snow earlier in the week. 

I also took a few pictures of the grittier side of Belgrade.  It is a major city with relatively little crime, but it is still very poor from the wars of the 1990's. 

The first photo was taken near the bridge from New Belgrade to Old Belgrade on the NB side.  The second photo is just over the bridge in OB.  There is a lot of good graffiti throughout the city.

This is a small Roma (Gypsy) settlement.  The Romas are prevalent all over SE Europe and Turkey.  They are well tolerated in Belgrade, though there is still some discrimination.  Another time, I will share photos of the settlement that is near my office.  They live in poverty in shacks made from recycled materials.  Romas also are the city's recyclers.  They pick through the trash for cardboard, metal, and plastic, and this is how they make their living.

These two pictures show the growth and poverty in Belgrade.  There are some very rundown buildings all over that are abandoned or boarded up.  But then brand new luxury apartment buildings are going up right next to them.

Here is a typical middle income apartment building.  Even though this is in Old Belgrade near the City Center, it looks like it is a post war (WWII) Communist style building.  Style is an ironic term to use.

Here was  a lot that was covered in a kudzu type plant.  I'm sure that someone will clean it out and put up something here within the next few years.

And finally, I walked to a cemetery.  It was very busy, with Serbs showing their respect with flowers and prayer candles.  It was a cloudy and foggy day and it was near sunset when I stumbled across this cemetery.  Many of the stones are large and made from black polished stone.  The names are all written in Cyrillic, and many of them have small pictures of the deceased.  In addition to this, there were several trees that are losing their leaves or have lost their leaves and there were several flocks of large black birds.  You know how I LOVE birds.  Anyway, the whole effect was very spooky.

You can see the birds in the tops of the trees!

I ended up walking over to my potential new neighborhood too.  You are probably wondering which apartment I chose.  You will have to wait until I have it confirmed! 

All in all, I walked for about 10 hours.  I probably took 45 min for a coffee, 2 hours for dinner, 15 min at a small shop, so that is 7 hours of walking.  If I averaged 2mph, that is 14 miles and if I averaged 3 mph that is 21 miles.  My feet were very sore when I made it back in the fog and rain to the hotel.

On Sunday (today), I got up early and went for a run along the Sava and Danube Rivers.  Yesterday, I noticed a nice path running along the rivers, so I thought I would check it out.  I didn't take any photos because it was raining pretty hard and I didn't want to take my camera on the run.  But it was very nice.  I ended up running to a small town called Zemun.  Zemun is older than Belgrade, and was part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire.  The Danube marks the border of the AH Empire and the Ottoman Empire.  So Zemun has different architecture and a different feel than Belgrade.  I ended up stopping and going to a big street market.  I bought some water, wandered around, and then ran back to the hotel.  I have been running for about 7 years, and I have never gotten so many strange looks as I did today.  Everyone was bundled up with winter coats and hats and umbrellas and I had on shorts, my NCSU technical short sleeve running shirt with a Walt Disney Marathon long sleeve technical shirt on top.  Lots of strange looks and I felt very foreign.  Running doesn't seem to be very popular here.  I only saw 2 other people running, and I was along a very nice running path.  The path goes from Croatia to Bulgaria along the Danube.  You can follow it for about 700km!  That would be a great bike ride/camping trip.  I only went about 4 miles down and back + 2 miles to and from the path to the hotel. 

Back to the title of the post...my feet (and legs and back from carrying my pack yesterday) are sore!  I went anywhere from 24-31 miles on foot this weekend.  Let the Serbian diet begin.