Belgrade by tequila - part 2

SHAKESPEARE, BELT AND NEW FRIENDS (continued, p.2) The next day, when I woke, the rain was even stronger, but he could not lift my little walk. I walked around downtown, looking at shops, churches and municipal buildings. Two buildings bear the scars of recent bombings. I did not ask, but I think this is a result of NATO bombing, which occurred in the 90 years. The buildings are still standing, apparently as some sort of symbol or a monument. At the end of one of the main streets is a big church - the church of St. Sava. Judging by its dome can be concluded that this is the Orthodox Church. On the territory of the church is a fountain. When I came closer, it became clear that a substantial part of it is closed for restoration. I went back to the other main street on which the parliament building. This is a great building, decorated with copper domes and two statues in the form of people who are trying to reassure frisky horses. Parliament also was on the restoration, and forest hide most of it. Church of St. Sava When I returned to the hotel, it turned out that besides me there is nobody there. More precisely, except for employees of the hotel, there was nobody there. At the place was just Marco, he watched broadcast of the Open Championship in tennis, which took place at that time in Paris. Soon I also became interested in the game. We talked about football and other sports, then just talked about different topics. I told him that in Paris, I learned about the fact that there exists a special commission for the protection of French culture. This is a group of people who are different objects new names if they feel that the current French words and terms sound too in English. They also invented the iPod sex of the brand. Marco smiled and said that something like this once happened in Croatia, as well as in France, people often listen to the advice of this group. True, some Croatians sometimes just laugh at unlucky "inventors of the terms." Marco told several funny stories about a group of defenders of the Croatian language, which has decided to invent a new word for belt. Serbian and Croatian languages ??are very similar, so many of these innovations have contributed to the separation of these two languages. He told me how in Serbian will strap, this simple monosyllable. But the Croatian team, it seemed too Serb, and they decided to invent a new word. Notation that they came up with a literal translation sounds like "object, which covers the waist and supports pants." And now the belt represent a surprisingly long word. And of course, when a group of "pseudo-philology" inform the public about the fact that now everyone will have to use it excessively long word, all just laughed at them. Now it's just a joke and yet another reason for the Serbs to laugh at the Croats. And not fall for a long time that night, I followed the advice of another Mark and went to a restaurant called "Question Mark". During the meal I had unwittingly overheard a conversation at the next table. There were people around my age and spoke in English. I laughed a little when they started telling each other the same story about the belt, which I just described. In their conversation, I realized that they, too, recently arrived in Belgrade. I thought that I could communicate with them, approached their table and introduced himself. I was invited to join, and I told them about his travels, and how to get here. So I met with Helen and her friends Arseny and Leila. Elena studied in the last year of medical school at the local university, and from time to time to visit the United States. She worked with Leila on the island of Martha's Vineyard, not far from Boston, and Leila came to Belgrade for the first time. We are well communicated and exchanged contact information, to meet again later. Helen, Leila, and Arseny, of course, a few days later we met and went for a walk around the city. We again went to the park Kalemegadan, which I learned a lot. We also visited the Military Museum, where Arseniy told me many interesting things about the history of the capital of Serbia. It turned out that Belgrade was long occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Territory north of the Danube, however, belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which ruled by the Habsburgs. Modern Serbia covers an area to the north and south of the Danube. The Turks were very cruel to the local population, they put the people at the stake and even decorated them with the skulls of their homes. Soon after the invention of firearms of Serbia withdrew from the control of the Ottoman Empire. Shortly before the Second World War, Serbia, along with Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia. Each of the republics had its own emblem and the emblem of Yugoslavia, was depicted a flame, kindled by six torches. During the Second World War, Serbia was occupied by the Nazis, and eventually was freed by Soviet troops. Tips brought to power by President Tito, who became the communist leader of Yugoslavia and ruled the country for very long. Many loved Tito, and still consider him an outstanding personality. However, his supporters among my fellow passengers were not. I knew something about the country's recent history, the fall of the communist regime, soon followed by the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Most of the hostilities have ended, but a small region of Serbia known as Kosovo, is still trying to become an independent state. Despite not that many Serbs have left Kosovo because of the influx of immigrants, the area still has great importance for Serbia and its history. That is why Serbia does not want to leave Kosovo. After leaving the military history museum, we went for a walk through the fortress and went into a restaurant which is located on a rocky river bank, and a small church. Before we disperse, we agreed to meet later that evening. Start material: Completion of material: