We're Serbin it up in Belgrade

Dobar dan!

We are here at our hostel in Belgrade using a painfully slow email server...so please just ignore any typos or oddities. 

So far we have seen the leaning tower of Pisa, the highlights of Florence and Venice, and made it fine through the 4 border stops through Slovenia, Croatia, and into Serbia.  The flight to Pisa really set the mood for our time in Italy as it was almost full of Italian high school students who weren't shy to express their opinion, especially about the pilot's landing skills.  Parrucca!

Pisa was little more than a quick photo op near the tower, then we were off to Florence.  We started our Sunday off with a trip to the Baptistry.  With its mosaics and gold backgrounds, it set the foundation from which the Renaissance sprung.  And it sprung in the Uffizi.   There we saw the influential pieces that marked the 1300-1500's shift from a spiritually focused worldview, to a man/earthly centered view.  One thing that we both noticed was the change in the way the angels were portrayed - from larger than life, masculine images into baby like cherubs who could barely get their arms around a guitar.  We saw a few more sites, and retired back to our lovely hotel room (even though it did smell like Mary King's Close...).

Monday we boarded our train for Venice and who else did we find not only on our train, but in our car??  Our friends Heidi and Maggie whom we hosted last week! I only noticed Maggie by her earings, but glad we did as we were able to catch up on their eventful travels so far.  Unfortunately we decided to part ways once in Venice as we only had a few hours between trains and didn't feel up for paying the exorbitant fee of 26Euro to ride the vaperetto over to St. Mark's square.   We headed off on foot and actually had a great time exploring the back roads to the main sites.  Then we found the Rialto bridge and we feel into Dante's 6th level of hell, tourism in St. Mark's square.  We decided it was basically Europe's answer to the American theme park.  It costs a fortune to get in, there is tons of crap to buy once you get there, and you have to wait hours in line for a 10min thrill.

We had our thrill and headed back to the train station to catch our 4 hour connection to Ljubljana and then it was onto the night train to Serbia.  I have to admit, it was a bit daunting to see it at first as it really was shelves hanging down from the wall, but we only had to share with a really considerate Swedish couple, so it wasn't bad.  We were woken up 4 times by the kind border guards, but it wasn't terrible and we made it here safe, on time, rested, and only a little sweaty.  Our massive 1 1/2 hour walk/bus ride to the hostel though helped make sure were were really sweaty by the time we truly arrived.

Today we have seen St. Sava, the largest Orthodox church in the world which is currently being renovated.  Next we walked around town and saw the Nicola Tesla museum which was ok, but I was really only impressed when dead florescent light bulbs lit up from across the room and when Sander went through and really explained what they were doing (the translated commentaries were less than expressive).

Now we're off for a nap as we know the next two nights on trains will be a bit tiring for us.  So far all our travel plans have gone splendidly and we have arrived safe and sound at the right time everywhere we've gone.

Hvala,

Sander and Whitney