No Hablo Español: August 2012

After we got back from Novi Sad we only had a few days left in Belgrade and then it was time to head home. The last few days were bitter sweet and we tried to fit in all of our last souvenir shopping, museum visits and one last group outing on a boat curse.

First we visited the Museum of Yugoslavia that exemplified the growth of technology in Yugoslavia. There were many graphs that showed the growth of the use of radios, televisions and vehicles over the years. The second part of the museum displayed Olympic history and articles from the 1984 Olympics that took place in Sarajevo, BiH which was then Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

The outside of the Museum of Yugoslavia.

Time line of the Olympics!

Tito's Grave!

Tesla Museum. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian inventor mostly in the areas of electricity. He is best know for his contribution to modern alternating current (AC). Tesla also lived in the United States for a while where he invented the first remote controlled boat!

The remote controlled boat.

Electricity!

Lastly we went to the Belgrade Military Museum, which was located at the Fortress!

The white T-shirt team at the museum!

A Serbian Toilet!

USA Army Uniform in the Serbian Military Museum!

Before the boat cruise we said farewell to our Serbian friends at the Mexican Restaurant that we frequently visited.

Our final night on the boat cruise was a great way to wrap up our trip!

For our last weekend in Serbia we took a trip to Novi Sad. Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, however, it still maintains the feeling of a quaint small European city. Many of the streets in downtown Novi Sad are pedestrian only streets, which makes the city feel more relaxed and old fashioned. Novi Sad is also home to the Petrovaradin Fortress that looks over Danube River. On Sunday we took a walking tour around Novi Sad and to the Fortress!

The square in Novi Sad.

The window in the center is built out because women were not allowed to leave their houses so they would sit by the window and look at the men and throw their handkerchiefs out the window at men that they liked. The men would then go home and give the handkerchief to their father and the father of the young man and woman would set up a date for their children.

We happened to walk by the filming of a Greek movie! Novi Sad is very picturesque and has many pedestrian roads making it perfect to film movies so there is virtually always something being filmed in Novi Sad.

On our way to Novi Sad we stopped at a small community that still practices religious traditions from Serb communities in Southern Croatia. These unique Serb communities were forced to flee their homes in Croatia during the 1991-1995 Croatian war. The community from Croatia has now nearly permanently settled in a town about 45 minutes outside of Belgrade where they still continue practices of their old traditions, which include these outfits, that one of our group member got to test out…

Below is Matt (one of the other students in my group) dressed in the traditional clothes along with is new family! :)

Professor lovely testing out one of the rifle.

Matt and I

When the Serbs moved to Serbia from Croatia they could really only bring what they could each carry. These outfits are so important to them that over a dozen people brought their traditional clothes with them.