Zemun and the House of Flowers

21-5-11

Hotel Royal, Belgrade

We started out this morning with a tour of the Serbian National Theatre near Republic Square.  It was an interesting experience as the tour is actually given in Serbian and to a large tour group.  Luckily for us, one of the ushers happened to speak fairly fluent English and so joined the tour as a translator.  For the tours, ushers are actually dressed in costumes, so she spent the entire time in a white Victorian era dress.

The theatre was very classical and reserved, with gold gilt and bas relief abound.  The most interesting part of the theatre to me was how deep the stage was.  The National Theatre’s is a typical large house proscenium, approximately forty feet across and twenty-six feet high – the stage was at least as deep as it was wide.  At least. 

At the end of the regular tour, we were again invited to join the theatre for a performance that evening, free of charge.  However, we already had dinner plans with Zorica and so had to, unfortunately, decline.  However, we were taken “off the beaten path” and were able to visit the theatre’s cantina.  The cantina is a bar dedicated specifically to those who work in the theatre – actors, directors, techies, administration, etc.  They, and their guests, are the only ones allowed into the cantina.  We were offered the chance to sit and have a drink on the house, but we had plans to meet Katie in New Belgrade soon.

We left the theatre and got on a bus to New Belgrade.  We were going to go visit what is known as the House of Flowers.  The House of Flowers is Josef Broz Tito’s final resting place.  While he was alive, it was his personal office complex.  In the House of Flowers houses Tito’s tomb and a collection of Youth Batons that had been used throughout the years for the Youth Rally.

Each May 25^th, Tito’s birthday, there was a large relay and rally that ended in the Stadium in New Belgrade in honor of Tito.  People of all ages and groups from across Yugoslavia would make batons and send them to Tito.  Often, they would have a hollowed out compartment in which a letter to Tito would be housed.

On the same property, but in a different complex, is a museum dedicated to preserving the various gifts that Tito was given as the Head of State in the former Yugoslavia.  Amongst them are traditional weapons of all shapes and size, national costumes, the “knife” of a tribal chief, and a Turtle-shell shield.  It was a really interesting museum, but what I found most enlightening about it was how much it clarified my feelings towards war and weapons.

On this trip I have had some very strong emotions concerning military weaponry that has led me to a deeper understanding and coming to terms with my pacifistic belief system.  What I find most interesting is not that I am entirely pacifistic.  What I am is against modern warfare and modern combative techniques.  I find ancient warfare to be a much less disgusting concept.  In fact, I find it quite interesting.  There is something deeply personal about hand to hand combat.  You know exactly what you’ve done.  You have to empathize.  You have to experience – first hand – the look in your enemy’s eyes as they pass away.  There is nothing similar in modern warfare.  In modern warfare we have the ability to kill from over a mile away.  Hell, we have the ability to kill from over half the world away. There is nothing personal about shooting a gun.  Anyone could kill with a gun.

I don’t know…honestly I don’t know why the concept of modern warfare disgusts me while the ancient does not.  There are brutalities in both.  There are heartless massacres in both. But somehow, the concept of ancient warfare doesn’t offend me – doesn’t wrench my stomach until I feel sick enough to hurl.  I don’t know why.

After the House of Flowers, most of us went back to the Hotel until we were to meet with Zorica for the evening.  We met her in Zemun and she showed us around the city for a while.  Interesting to note, up until Tito’s construction of New Belgrade (which started in the 1940’s), Zemun was an entirely separate city from Belgrade.  We walked along beautiful cobblestone streets, pathways strangled down to a single car’s width.  After about a twenty minute hike, we came to a large tower overlooking the town.  For a small fee, we were allowed to climb up to the terrace and get a wonderful view of the three cities (the first level was actually the proprietor’s personal photo gallery).

The first thing I noticed while looking over the city is the vast difference in architecture between Zemun and New Belgrade.  Zemun was one of the boarder towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, which more often than not was Belgrade.  You can actually see Kalemegdan very easily in parts of Zemun from anyway above roof-line – a task much easier than it sounds when you remember that the old city is built on a hill.

After Zorica expounded upon some history of the area, I couldn’t catch most of it due to the wind and small width of the terrace, we returned down the hill and walked towards the restaurant.  We ate that night at nice little Austrian restaurant – as always when we have a sit-down meal, entirely too much food.  For the first time though, we had an actually vegetarian entrée.  There was a wonderful fish – whole fish…they cook them and serve them whole usually – and a very rich dish that Zorica recommended.  I never actually caught the name of it, but it was damn tasty.  Unfortunately dinner was quite late – the main entrée didn’t come until nine or so – and many of us were ravenous and ate too many the appetizers before the main dish came.

What was more delightful than the dinner though was the company Zorica brought.  Normally she brings her husband, Goran, but he was on a 48-hour shift for the hospital and was unable to join us.  She invited a fellow professor from the University, Jonathan, to join us in his stead.  Jonathan is a poet by trade and actually has no permanent residence.   He spends his time flirting between Belgrade and Vienna teaching.  He was joined that night by a beautiful young Hungarian girl, Sutši who he had met some years previous while in Vienna. 

 When we finally left the restaurant around midnight, a couple of us decided to walk back to the Hotel rather than take a taxi.  For what Dennis said, it should have taken an hour…But I’m not sure how he made that time without running.  It would have taken us an hour-and-a-half at a brisk pace, but it wasn’t until after two that we arrived…Jonathan walks fairly slowly.  Molasses might be a good comparison.

However, I didn’t mind the slow walk as I spent the entire time chatting with Sutši. On conversation often centered upon an aspect of culture and how Americans handle education of the subject.  Topics ranged from alcohol to drugs to sex to gender and sexual identity to religion.  It was a extremely interesting conversation, though slightly frustrating at times.  Lynnette joined us about halfway through the walk and while she like to talk and make conversation, she sometimes takes her experiences and the only way Americans think or act in and during situations…there were more than a few times I disagreed with her only for her to respond with “While that’s how it is where I grew up,”…which just happens to be small-town conservative Minnesota.  Eh, but by the end she stopped making claims and started to preface statements with “Where I’m from…”  Maybe she’s learning.

I got back to the hotel and proceed to pass-out on the bed.  Lucas did the same.