Beer Fest!

Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016--Belgrade

It being a hot day with rain forecast for the next two days, we knew we needed to get out early and see what we could see before coming inside from the heat.  (Fortunately, our apartment has an air conditioner.)  We wandered down the major walking street where people were shopping on a Sunday and sitting at sidewalk cafes.  We tried to go to St. Michael's Cathedral (Serbian Orthodox), but they wouldn't let us in because we were wearing shorts.  (This will become more and more of a problem as I head south where people are more and more conservative.)  We went to the Fortress which is at a point where the Sava and the Danube Rivers come together.  From the viewing point there, we could see the line of two different colors of water where they met.  The Fortress grounds today are really a very popular large park with facilities for sports, or relaxing, etc.  Besides the view of the two rivers, it also provides views across parts of the city.

Leaving there, we headed back to the center of town on a different street lined with more exclusive shops.  Then we went the opposite direction from the center of town seeing some massive government buildings--the City Hall, the Presidential Palace (where see saw the guard change), and the National Assembly (where the legislature meets).  We would have gone further to see more sights, but by then it was 14:00 and getting very hot.  We returned to the apartment for the afternoon.

The evening was the last night of the Belgrade Beer Fest which runs 4 evenings and is one of the largest festivals in Europe now with over 600,000 in attendance.  We walked from our apartment across the bridge to the park where the festival was occurring.  Tonight was an interesting night to be there, because it was also the night of the basketball game between Serbia and the US for the gold medal at the Olympics.  There were bands playing on the stages, but there were also big screen projections of the basketball game.  The festival grounds have lots of beer counters, but they also have food counters, people handing out samples, games, etc.  Among the games were beer pong, a green-screen television acting situation using helmets and weapons to create a film of them within the already-recorded action, a limbo-type game where a person puts on antlers and tries to pass under danging beer cans without touching any, etc.

We heard two bands--Svremenasi (a group of older men playing Serbian music) and Massimo Savic (a Croatian pop singer with a David-Bowie-type sound).  We watched the ball game which was exciting for the Serbians at first because the US was playing so badly most of the first quarter causing a close score.  We watched people trying the games.  It was so warm and humid, though, that we were uncomfortable.  Then the music became so loud that it bothered us.  So we returned home around 22:00.