Ellis and Jodie's Bulgarian Adventure

A free concert given by M-Tel, one of the largest mobile phone companies in Bulgaria, and it just happened to be taking place in the park down the street from our house. Jodie was very tired and stayed at home, but I joined some 30,000 young Bulgarians to see Enrique. First to perform was British singer and disc jockey Sonique. After her set there was a long intermission with M-Tel commercials shown on the huge screens around the park. Finally Enrique took to the stage. I must say, he was a real mensch. He spoke to the crowd in Bulgarian, frequently interjected "Sofia" into his talking and even once into his lyrics. At one point he invited two Bulgarian youths onto the stage and interviewed them, and during the encore he invited a young girl onto the stage and sang his hit "Hero" to her. And afterwards there was an amazing fireworks display. Jodie heard everything from our apartment, both from our porch and even while reading in bed. I was glad that I was part of th...

The picture below shows the double rainbow we saw as we drove back from Belgrade to Sofia.

On our last day in Belgrade we went to see the Salvador Dali exhibition at the Museum 25th of May. Divine Works contains two of the largest suites of Dali's graphic works: Biblia Sacra (biblical scenes) and Dante's Divine Comedy . The Museum 25th of May, now known as the Museum of Yugoslav History, is also the resting spot of Josip Broz Tito , leader of Yugoslavia's partisans in World War Two and supreme ruler of the country until his death in 1980. Interesting to see at the museum were all the relay race batons presented over the years to Tito by youth groups and municipalities on the 25th of May, which was Tito's birthday. Apparently there are some 20,000 batons in the museum's collection.

We enjoy walking through open markets, and this time we visited the Bajloni Open Market in Belgrade.

Skadarlija Street is a vintage street, possibly the most famous street in Belgrade. The area is considered the city's bohemian quarter. Below is the bakery where we had lunch. Look carefully below. How much of this is real, and how much is a painting on the wall?

Dancing in Trg Republike Square in central Belgrade.

The Natural History Museum of Belgrade had an exhibition on Sky Hunters at the fortress so we stopped in to see the birds.

Kalemegdan overlooks where the Sava River meets the Danube River. We had seen the Danube in Budapest, and now we saw it in Belgrade as it makes its way towards Bulgaria, where it will serve as the border with Romania before spilling into the Black Sea. The Danube River is the second longest river in Europe.

We visited Belgrade, capital of Serbia. On Saturday morning we took a taxi from our hotel to Kalemegdan , the Belgrade Fortress. The fortress, which overlooks the spot where the Sava and Danube Rivers meet, was originally built in Roman times, but was rebuilt many times over the centuries.