expat blogger

living in Serbia

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Part 3 of our Christmas Trip to NS and BG ,"Three Museums in Belgrade"

Milan posing beside a painting of Milos' battle against the Turks.
Before exiting the city of Beograd to go back to our sleepy little town, we made a few pit stops at the Museum of African art, the Konak of Milos, and the Red Star Stadium and museum.


The Museum of African Art was really nice. Many wooden carvings of animals dominated the main large room. One special Monkey was especially cute.

The bathroom there was the probably the best in Serbia I have seen so far! Clean, with TP, and nice! I have told people this, and the response is always the same, "No one goes there, that is why". It is a shame, Serbians have no idea how good they have it. Many things are not behind glass.  Looking at Art and Sculptures is much easier and fun here. I really enjoyed all the museums.

I was curious where all these cool African pieces came from and Milan supposes that Tito may have collected them on his hunting trips to Africa. He was the Communist ruler dictator from 1945 til he died in 1980.

The Konak (House) of Prince Milos was the next treat for the day. Milos is awarded the distinguishment of ridding Serbia of the Turks after their long unwelcome stay. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  This place was breath taking.

This is a sitting room completely surrounded but windows overlooking the largest Plantanus tree in Europe. I would love to invite all my friends to have coffee and chat there... but it would be a long commute for coffee. :)

If you were sitting in this second story window nook and gazed out this would be the view, mostly tree and branches.



Here is the tree and the view of the house behind it:

There were loads of cool rooms in this mansion, but I will leave you with just one more. all the colors are like candy.
There is one story attached to this house that really makes me laugh. Milos, this "great" man  was found to be cheating by his wife, and he was kicked out of his home. I think they had a few houses, so I am not sure if this was the one or not, but it is amusing and encouraging that even though women appear to have their hands tied a bit here, women in history have stood up for themselves.

Below is the wikipedia site for the house if you want a bit more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Milo%C5%A1%27s_Residence

The next Museum we went to was the Red Star Stadium and Museum. Cervena Zvezda or Red Star is Milan's favorite team. He has been to many games there and was so excited to show me, and I really enjoyed it. We got to look over the vast, snow covered stadium, and beyond to the city.
The pic above is of the stadium, and the Serbians beloved Sveti Sava Church in the background.

The gift shop was open and we went in for a quick look around.



There is so much to learn from every aspect of the society. Although the Symbol of this team is a Red star, something we all associate with communism, this team and its supporters had a large part in politics and ending communism in Serbia.

The Circle with a line through it is an 'F' that stands for Futbal. The 'K' stands for Klub.

I learned a lot on this trip and wish I could share more, but I always fear I will bore you with all the history.

On our way home, we stopped for a wonderful dinner in Svrlig, at Kamiondzije and ate only one half of the 2 half portions we ordered. One half portion is like half a pig!


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Across the street from the Museum of African Art was the most fairytale-ish house I have ever seen. I thought Runzel, or Snow white might come walking out. Milan said this area is like the Beverly hills area of BG called Dedinje. Dedinje means it something that belonged to grandfathers.  I believe it. There were some really nice places.
or maybe it is Santa's house...

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