Belgrade - Day Trip to Zemun and Departing For Sofia

Me at the Tower in Zemun

Today we decided to take a short trip outside of old Belgrade.  From the fortress in old Belgrade, you can see, in the distance, past the "brutalist" (communist architecture) buildings of New Belgrade, the faint shape of an architecturally-odd tower.  This tower, Gardos, marks the small town of Zemun.  Zemun, 6 km north of Belgrade, is the southernmost point of the Austro-Hungarian empire.  The town is very distinct from the surrounding area because of the clear Hungarian influence and style.

First we took a bus to New Belgrade and disembarked at the Hotel Jugoslavija, what used to be a very nice hotel but is now just a skeleton of what it used to be.  From there we walked along the riverfront past many of the bar/restaurant floats.  When you reach Zemun, it's clear.  On one side of the street is a grey, drab, communist-era building and on the opposite side of the street is a Hungarian-style house with a reddish-orange sloped roof.  After walking through the local market and getting lost in the back streets of Zemun, we made our way up the hill to the Gardos.  It's an odd tower because it stands alone but looks as if there should be several similar towers, connected by large city walls.  We also stopped in the Church of Sv. Nikola, a very cool Orthodox Church with some impressive iconography inside.

Afterwards we made our way back toward the Hotel Jugoslavija and stopped for lunch on one of the floats, the Yachtsmen's Club.  The food was mediocre but the coolest part of the float was that it was two stories with a pool on the top deck with a slide into a larger pool on the lower floor.  Then we made it back to Old Belgrade and stopped by the oldest bakery in the city, in the bohemian quarter, but were sadly disappointed because nothing looked overly appetizing.

At the moment, it's about 5:00 p.m. and we're relaxing around the hostel.  We're taking the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria tonight.  It leaves at 9:15 and arrives at 7:30.  Unfortunately, all of the sleeper cars were booked so we had to settle for regular coach seats.  It should be a trying night of poor sleeping, but at least we'll make it to Sofia.  This is the first night train either of us has taken and I'm a little anxious about making sure shady characters don't wander into our cabin while we're sleeping and steal all of our stuff, but I'm sure it will be fine.  We're just killing time before heading up to the fortress to grab a bite and catch the sunset before making our way to the train station.  Wish me luck,  Kati never has problems sleeping while we travel but I definitely don't sleep well on trains or without a bed.  We'll catch you in Bulgaria.