Friday March 11

First full day - Today was spent learning about breakfast in Belgrade. Most people seemed to have some form of eggs; scrambled or boiled, with white bread accompanied by butter, marmalade, honey and feta cheese. They serve a small can of strong, thick coffee with an equal amount of steamed milk and also tea or juice. (I just re-read this and will point out that not everyone was drinking coffee:-) Everyone seemed to be reasonably well rested.

Today we did a long walking tour and viewed the bombed out Foreign Ministry building and a bombed former television station.

We spent some time in a large Serbian orthodox cathedral where several candles were lit by group members. It was a very contemplative environment... Then back to the hotel for some free time. Students are travelling within a prescribed area in groups of 5 and seem very mature and self reliant taking note of landmarks and sticking closely to assigned regrouping times... plenty of adults are travelling with them.

Many went off to see the Serbian national hockey team this evening and then will skate for a while. Some of us are off to a concert of world music by a Roma band this evening. We'll travel by cab.

The streets are extremely safe. People are polite, reasonably friendly and very curious. I haven't noticed any other tourists at all.

We are hoping the weather forecast of +10 degrees will unfold, as it's a bit cool to spend the day walking. I hope to figure out how to get some photos posted sometime soon, but it might have to wait until we are back.

More later....
Cheers!
John