Serbia 2013

HIGHLIGHTS:
- visiting Josip Broz Tito's grave. "Benevolent" Yugoslavian dictator from 1945 -- 1980. One part villain (ruled with an iron fist) one part BAMF (stood up to USSR + US)
- staying at a fancy shmancy hotel with famous guests!
- exploring the many areas of the city which still are scarred by the war
- meeting with staff at the OSCE's (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission to Serbia and discussing their goals.
- standing on the very hill where clashes between Western and Eastern Empires occurred

Finally getting some use out of my passport pages! In the European Union and Schengen visa areas they rarely stamp your passport. But Serbia is not EU so I finally got a stamp! Although nothing will beat the border agent in Croatia who gave me the stamper and let me mark my own passport! #BestBorderCrossingEver

Damage from NATO bombings in 1999 to the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry Building ^^

Our Hotel's famous guests! A dictator, an opera singer, and.. Brad Pitt!! Be still my beating heart! 

Funny story of the trip: I was alone in the hotel room at 1am when I hear tons of glass shattering against the pavement, the sound continues for a full two minutes and I breifly wonder whether a bomb has gone off across the street and blown out the glass window. Turns out it was just the recycling truck dumping a bin full of glass into its truck bed. I laughed it off. But then the next night at 1am again the same thing happens!! A) who thought it would be a good idea to do an ear shatteringly loud task at 1am every night? B) how is there that much glass to be recycled every night? C) why did I so naturally assume it was a bomb?

#Serbia