Summer Trip Day 12: Belgrade

Twelfth day of the trip. Wow, it's our last day already!! We will conclude the trip from Belgrade. The entire day was meant for sightseeing inside Belgrade. :) We departed from the hotel after breakfast, around 9 AM and went straight to our first destination, St. Sava Church.

Frederic & Hogan are very exciting to see Belgrade

Passing Hotel Moscow, the paint and the architecture

of the hotel look very unique

Beautiful park in the city

Art gallery

We're approaching St. Sava,

you can see it from the window

St. Sava Church, we arrived.. :D

St. Sava Church is the biggest orthodox church in Belgrade, or maybe in the world. It was still under construction but the outer part had finished completely. The church was used for service only during Christmas and Easter celebration. I think it will become a magnificent church when the construction is finished. :)

Going to the entrance of the church

'Big' St. Sava and 'Little' St. Sava Church,

the smaller church is used for daily service until the bigger one is finished. 

We left St. Sava Church to go to our next destination, Tito Mausoleum. This is the museum dedicated to Josip Broz Tito, the former Yugoslavia President. He was famous for his charisma that unite Yugoslavia in the past. There were several parts in the Mausoleum, a museum for Tito's goods, an etnographical museum (displayed all the gifts that Tito received from his friends around the world) and Tito's cemetery (the sarcophagus where Tito was buried and the display of the batons during Youth Day).

On the way to Tito Mausoleum

Here we are, walking up towards the museum

The museum dedicated to Tito,

when we were there the exhibits were

Tito's and his wife's fashion styles, include clothes and shoes

Frederic loves the design of these batons,

portraying the people from each Yugoslavia countries

Closer look at the batons

Hogan also loves these batons,

another representation of each Yugoslavia countries

The massive collection of the Youth Day batons

Inside the etnographical museum,

we found the gift from Indonesia: a traditional instrument called Angklung

Hogan and Frederic pose with the statue

of Marshal Tito

Inside the museum displaying Tito's clothes,

these are the pictures taken when Tito and his wife

met foreign ambassadors.

Collection of Tito's suits

Not sure why the piano was here,

but we love piano so much that we wanted to take a shot with it :)

The visit to Tito Mausoleum was very historical. It gave some new knowledges about the past. :) And now, towards our last destination of the day -> Belgrade Castle and Kalemegdan Park.

The parliament building of Belgrade,

used to be the parliament building of Yugoslavia

Walking in Kalemegdan Park along Sava River

Enjoy the city view of 'new' Belgrade from Kalemegdan

The busts of the communist leaders in Yugoslavian era

Statue of Victory, located in Belgrade Castle

The meeting point of Sava River and Danube River,

sadly the color contrast didn't appear in the picture :(

The miniature of Belgrade Castle

Frederic with some of the military plane replicas

Hogan with some of the cannon replicas

Leaving Belgrade Castle

The sightseeing was finished for the day. We left Belgrade Castle and Kalemegdan Park, and enjoyed free time for about 1.5 hours but eventually the shop closed early on Sunday. Thus, we waited for 30 minutes till the free time ended. :D

The city hall building near Kalemegdan Park

So, that wrapped up our summer trip to the Balkans. Actually, we spent another night in Belgrade and left the next day, but we didn't take any pictures before going to the airport so the 12th day is considered as the last day of the trip (with pics). :D Hope you enjoy our summer vacation pictures. This is the end of the story. :) -FIN-

Summer Trip Day 10: Dubrovnik - Medjugorje - Sarajevo. Summer Trip Day 11: Sarajevo - Belgrade

Today's post is special because we will directly present two days of the trip at once. The reason for this is actually we are lacking photos for Day 10. When leaving Dubrovnik, we are leaving Croatia at the same time and heading towards Bosnia Herzegovina. This is a very long drive, almost take the whole day from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo. So, almost no pictures are taken. :( That's why we combined Day 10 and Day 11 together. Enjoy!! :)

We stopped by Medjugorje for lunch. It is a small village in Bosnia known for the apparition of Virgin Mary. Since then, it has become one of the pilgrimage site for Christians around the world. All of us in the group are Christians, thus we were very happy to have the chance to visit Medjugorje. After lunch, we climbed the Apparition Hill, where Virgin Mary was said to appear in front of 6 children in 1981. 

Medjugorje village from the Apparition Hill

A rocky climb towards the top of the Apparition Hill

After descending from the hill, we visited St. James Church, the first church built in Medjugorje. The church that we saw was actually the new church, built after the ground underneath the first church began to sink.

Milo and Croco in the piazza

of St. James Church

We left Medjugorje soon after to continue the trip to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Actually, compared to Croatia and Serbia (which is our last destination), Bosnia is a bit left behind after the war in 1991. It's a bit shocking to see Sararjevo a while later.

Towards Sarajevo, not many road signs available

Almost reaching Sarajevo, it's almost dinner time

We had dinner in Bosnian style restaurant. The taste was quite similar to Croatian style. :) We finished the day afterwards, but before that we took some pictures of the Federal Building and Latin Bridge.

Latin Bridge, crossing after dinner

The on-construction ex Federal Building,

destructed in the bombing during the war

After having a good night rest in Sarajevo, it was time to continue the journey to Serbia. We only stayed in Bosnia for 1 day, since not many places could be seen. We did the sightseeing inside Sarajevo in the morning before driving towards Belgrade, Serbia.

Sebilj, a fountain used as water source

for Sarajevo people in Ottoman era

The oldest orthodox church in Sarajevo

The beautiful icon inside the church

The entrance door is very short,

meant to make people bow in order to

show their respect when entering the church

Icon of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus

We moved on to Sultan Mosque,

one of the biggest mosque in Sarajevo

The mosque tower, usually used to

announce time to pray for the Moslems

Entrance of the Sultan Mosque

After the mosque, we went to see the corner where

Franz Ferdinand was killed. The bridge is then called Gavrilo Princip's Bridge,
after the name of the assassin.

Looking back at the tragic corner once again

Hotel Europe, the witness of the tragic history in Sarajevo.

Franz Ferdinand was on the way to the hotel

when he was shot.

In front of the first goldsmith in Sarajevo,

if I remembered correctly :p

Cathedral of Jesus' Heart

The entrance of the cathedral,

we didn't have time to go inside

After the sightseeing inside Sarajevo, it's time to waive goodbye to Bosnia and continue the trip to Serbia. We stopped by a city called Zvornik, near the border, to have our lunch. It was a beautiful little village in the middle of the mountain. We then crossed the border and arrived at our last destination, Serbia.

Welcome to the Republic of Serbia!

The shot was taken from the bus since we're not allowed to go down.

Moving towards Belgrade (or Beograd),

around 2 - 2.5 hours drive

The highway towards Belgrade,

we're almost there

Finally, exiting the highway to enter Belgrade

Some cityscapes in front..

Yayy...

We passed by a cute Pet Centre with a balloon dog on top,

before entering the city centre of Belgrade

We reached Belgrade at dinner time. The traffic was very bad, we were stuck around 30 minutes before reaching the hotel. We had dinner in the hotel and relaxed to prepare for the last day tomorrow. ;) We're ending the trip soon...