VOLUNTEERS DIARY

Greeting  Maple Leaf

I met my dear guests, Canadians from Ottawa, Janice and Nelson Miller, on the 21st June in front of The Cervantes Institute in Knez Mihajlova street at 17h, sharp. I was surprised they where so enthusiastic to walk in the rain, but they explained me that it was a common thing in Canada and they were used to it. Immediately after, with a smile on my face, I took them to the fortress. It was the third day of their stay in Belgrade, they decided to walk along Belgrade’s Kalemegdan fortress accompanied by a Greeter. They were dominantly interested in history and cultural heritage but they had already seen from the plane how green and spread the city was. Visual contours of the city and the whole ambience were especially interesting for Nelson, who is an architect by profession. Given that museums do not work on Mondays, we used the time to tour the Upper and Lower Town of Belgrade Fortress, paying a particular attention to the Ruzica church and St. Petka Church, what delighted them. All the time I was guiding them, telling them about the history of the fortress and the city and answering their questions. We had luck, because the rain soon stopped, and we visited the open sky exhibition along the Sava river walkways, which attracted their attention, and pictured of Serbia exhibited helped them choose the place for a next trip. I advised them to visit Fruska Gora and Sremski Karlovci with a nice dinner in Novi Sad.

Since we were hungry at certain point, we decided to move slowly to the Supermarket concept store in Višnjićeva street to eat one of their interesting dishes. On the way there, I took them to the building of the French Embassy to explain that it was supposed to be located in Algeria, but due to “a small” human error the French Embassy in Algiers, is the one designed for Belgrade, and we got a Mediterranean beauty in the midst of the Balkans. I succeeded in making them delay dinner a bit, in order to show them Kosančićev venac, the oldest serbian part of the town... and they did not regret it. We stopped at the place where, before the Nazi bombing, the amazing library with enormous and forever lost library funds. We heard music coming from the direction of Topličin venac, so we walked up there and attended the appearance of a very good local Regge and that is how we celebrated the International Day of music. After that, we were starving so we hurried to Dorcol. They were totally fascinated by the ambient of Supermarket and very grateful for that choice. Finally they told me to hope that we will “greet me back” in Ottawa, if I decide to visit. They promised that they would convey only the best impressions of Belgrade and Greeters, and I have no doubts about it, judging by the sincere smile on their faces.

Srdjan Petrovic

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Welcome to Belgrade, welcome to Serbia,

Were the first words that I spoke proudly  through a wide smile as  I welcomed guests from the far continent, from the city of New York on the 8th July. I must admit that I immediately felt a great warmth and wish of our guests, Alexander and Amy, to get to know the capital of Serbia. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that two of them have chosen to visit our city that lies at the edge of the southern and central Europe because of the history that glorifies our country and people. They were very informed about Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, knew a lot of stories related to national history, admitted that they were attracted because of Belgrade-way-of-life  which is enjoyed by its citizens among all the problems which carries a modern society. Just  at our meeting , they were very interested about  Belgrade rafts and nightlife for which, believe it or not, Belgrade is well-known.

At 10h in the morning we met at the Hotel Excelsior in the vicinity of the city Council, then we visited the church of St. Markus in which we stayed for long time because that was the first encounter of our guests with the Orthodox Christian religion. They wanted to know  what makes it different from the religion that is most common in their country - Catholic, what are our customs, why we count time on one calendar, and on the other we celebrate the holidays and we respect our saints days ,.... I was  very glad that there was such a interest for the life of people in Serbia, so I tried answer to each question briefly, which was, of course,  impossible, and explain how we respect the days of fasting, how and why we cross ourselves with three fingers, why our churches are not as decorated with gold and precious stones, how to paint the church, how we celebrate Saint Patron’s Day, moreover , how to prepare local Serbian dishes and host the guests, how to create a Serbian brandy, cook Turkish coffee, stretch crust for pie called gibanica, to churne smashed meat in the lief of grapevine for  sarma, and how our grandmothers make the best bread in the world we call pogača, that goes well with cream cheese from  Zlatibor, and  typical salted ham - pršuta, how people in the south make smoked meat, we talked about the taste of jam, which is made from plums from the heart of the Balkans that we put on pancakes, then about the  smell of Serbian baked beans, how to prepare grill from Leskovac and cook meat , ... after such a long story about Serbian cuisine I suggested a few restaurants where they could try the aforementioned foods, in their insistence.For the evening or the walk for the next day I suggested, Boulevard Kralja Aleksandra informing them in advance about the monument of Vuk Stafanović Karadžić, 'the Belgrade Metro'and colleges situated in the most beautiful boulevard in the city.Then we visited the building of the Parliament of Serbia and Belgrade and the Serbian presidency. Here the young people from New York took a lot of photos and asked me to tell how was it here in the nineties because they have recognized the beautiful buildings that were in flames which was presented to them via media such as CNN or BBC. However, history is something that can not be deleted, nor changed, so that the past time serves as a lesson for the future ... or even better as advertising, because that sight has made Alexander and Amy visit Belgrade. Alexander has always been fascinated by the story of Yugoslavia, so he planned to, when in Europe, in addition to Paris and London come and visit Belgrade.Hence we had passed near the square Ivo Andrić, and went to the street Kralja Milana from where we could enjoy a beautiful view of the Temple of Saint Sava. I mentioned the name of that great writer famous for the novel ‘’The bridge on Drina’’ for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Then I was asked a question: 'Why did not Tesla receive the Nobel Prize?', It was a pleasure to answer and pointed in the direction of the museum dedicated to the scientist.

The weather was pleasant, sunny and warm, so the temple looked magnificent that morning. I recounted the history of the founding of the Serbian church, all stories of St. Sava, to whom the second largest Orthodox church in the world is dedicated, I said a lot about building and liturgies which are served in the church, the religious people who go to churches,
They were particularly interested in culture and architecture. We walked beside Beograđanka tower and then returned to the Square of Nikola Pasić and went to the Terazije.

Time was literally flying with all the story about each of those squares, sightseeing places and prominent buildings of the famous pedestrian zone - the street of Knez Mihajlo, for the moment we found ourselves at the Republic Square, in front of the National Museum, National Theatre and of course a favorite place for meeting in Belgrade, the monument of Knez Mihajlo on the horse.
The guests have visited the famous bohemian quarter – Skadarska Street so along with the story of that famous street we made our way to the heart of our capital - to Kalemegdan Park and Belgrade Fortress.
Impressed by the fact that Belgrade is more than six millennia old, and that the history, wars and conquests occurred in the area of the fortress, where they stood. They specifically were interested in the symbolism of the Belgrade coat of arms, the Serbian flag, the famous Serbian showing of three fingers, the old Yugoslav money with maaaaaaany zeros ,.....
Fortunately, and the open air exhibition of Serbia Kalemegdan fortress was functioning which the inspirited  and gave them an extra desire to explore  the city and country. They asked what are the customs during the wedding, what are our national instruments, is there a difference between people from the south and north,  life on the mountain and plain, they liked the Serbian villages which were presented in pictures ...The best moment was when we were looking over the confluence of the Sava and Danube, by the monument ‘’The Winner’’,...
Filled with beautiful pictures and enjoying their stay in by all ‘’different’’ town where lies the hidden beauty for every human being, in front of the church Ružica, and while existing the curch Sveta Petka, looking at the Belgrade fortress Zindan towers tourists admitted that they had been glad to have chosen Belgrade and that they were lucky to have someone to show them that hidden parts of this town in the heart of the Balkans.
We continued to visit the Cathedral, the Belgrade Patriarchate and the old Kosančić circle...
The difference in the architecture of neighboring buildings in the center of them was delighting...Then we proceed to the street of Knez Milos, entered Nemanjina Street where I showed the guests the seat of government and partly because of their interest to picture the ruins of General Staff building....
From there, over Slavija square, with pleasant conversation, in their insistence we extended the tour to the temple of Saint Sava. After extensive explanations of how to manage and what to see the next day in New Belgrade and Zemun and how to visit the Beli Dvor and the House Flowers we said our goodbyes at 16h.

Janko Ignjatović

Belgrade Greeters