Sunday, September 23
The day started with another trip to Tennis Center Novak. This was the third time in two weeks that I was on the court and my timing had finally come back. I was striking the ball with authority and even managed to pretend that I could move my feet properly. The coach was very impressed. He said that if I could improve that much in a few days he would love to see what I could do after a month. I’d like to know that too.
He decided that instead of just swatting the ball back and forth he would try to teach me something so he concentrated on footwork. I laughed as he explained the proper way to step across and push off. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard a million times from my coaches in New York. Footwork has always been my achilles heel.
After the session he invited me to play with some of his other students but I had to decline as this was my last day in town. We exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch. He was a lot to fun to listen to and to play with. I will miss him.
(Photo-bombed)
In the afternoon we had planned one last tour of the city. It was the Mysterious Belgrade Walking Tour. This was a paid tour that cost $12.00 per person and was supposed to explore some of the places (and stories) that most tourists don’t get to see. Unfortunately, Deborah was just too tired to go so I went by myself.
The guide turned out to be Ana – the same guide that we had done our very first tour in Belgrade with. She remembered me well. While we waited for the others to arrive we talked about all the things Deborah and I had seen and done in the past two weeks. We’d covered a lot of ground.
For the most part the tour covered many of the places that we’d already been to but we did see a few new things. We entered the Roman Well which, as she said, was neither Roman nor a well. It was a large cistern for collecting rain water at the top of Kalemegdan hill and provided water for the garrisons. Apparently it was one of Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite places in the city. It wasn’t that creepy.
Next we went to a place that I wasn’t sure existed or was just a rumor. It was Tito’s underground bunker. Built at the top of Kalemegdan hill it was a series of passages beneath ground that was meant to protect him and his wife. Tito had angered Stalin and feared an attack by the Soviet Union. It was also rumored that Stalin had tried to have Tito assassinated. Fortunately for Tito Stalin died in 1953.
The third new place we saw was the Gunpowder Tower. It had been a place to store weapons and materials but was now used to house many artifacts from the Roman period. In communist times the tower had been used for rock band concerts and the vibrations caused one of the passages to collapse. The outer courtyard area is still used for live performances but the inside is now used only for lectures and academic gatherings.
(Roman Artifacts in the Gunpowder Tower)
Distance walked: 8.5 miles