Original subtitles

I'm Laura and I'm here in Belgrade the capital of Serbia. Serbia is in the heart

of the Balkans just a two and a half hour flight time from the UK where East

meets West. I'm on a journey of rich history and varied culture and to find out

why Serbia is the fastest growing tourist destination in Europe.

Hello and welcome to Serbia.

In this series we'll be exploring this beautiful European country,

to discover its rich history, unique culture and of course its modern-day offerings.

Serbia is situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, in the heart of the Balkans.

The country enjoys a warm humid continental climate, with cold winters and warm dry summers.

Once part of the former Yugoslavia, 20 years on Serbia is a fresh vibrant destination with lovely

people, fine cuisine and plenty to see and do.

The starting point for our journey is the capital city Belgrade. It's the largest city in Serbia and is

located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.

It has a rich history dating back to before Roman times, so let's start there.

I'm here with one of the most popular destinations in Serbia, it's the Belgrade fortress

and there was actually a site here back in the Roman times.

This is dating back to the 18th century, the one I'm stood on right now,

and you can see why it works so well with the panoramic views, you've got the confluence of two

rivers, the Danube and also the Sava coming from the West

and behind me is very interestingly a nature reserve, an island right in the middle of Belgrade,

with protected species on, it's absolutely incredible.

The fortress was declared a ‘monument of culture of exceptional importance’ in1979

and it stands 125 meters high with fabulous views.

More than 2 million people visit the fortress every year and best of all it's free.

Travellers come here from all over the world to either explore its history, enjoy time with friends

or simply to soak up the view. I grabbed a guide to give me a little bit more information.

This fortress is the main tourist spot of Belgrade maybe even Serbia.

It is the oldest part of the city, it is actually where old Belgrade used to be.

Belgrade got the name white city Belgrade, 'Belgrad' from the, from the fortress actually, because

fortress was founded by some Celtic tribes, and when they made it they made it white with white stones.

And that's why Belgrade was known as white city and that's how it got its today's name.

Something really cool about it there's a church in here isn't there? That people don't know about?

Yes there is a church called the Rouge Itza it can be translated like Church of Rose, Church of Roses,

it is on the other side of the fortress and people usually don't see it because they enter the fortress on the,

from the side over here. It is considered to be the oldest Church of the city, nobody knows how and when

it was built, but it really can't be seen even from that side, you can see only a cross and you have to go down

to see it and if you go down and see it, you will really enjoy it because it's really,

it is a really special, really something to see.

and how about tourists? You know, what are they sort of most enjoying about coming here?

They enjoy the stories about the fortress, they enjoyed the large Kalemegdan park,

which is really nicely decorated, which has a lot of statues and which is actually a oasis.

When there is weather like this it becomes a refreshing oasis for the tourists and it is open constantly,

the park is open constantly for the visitors, and in the evening you can see young people sitting here

enjoying music and drinks, it's really nice.

This fortress is truly a stunning sight and well worth a visit,

and as stunning sights go, Belgrade itself has so much more to reveal.

I'm at Saint Sava church, it's one of the largest Orthodox Church’s in the world

and it's the largest in the Balkans as well.

So I'm really excited to find out what all the fuss is about. I'm gonna go inside and see.

The church of Saint Sava, also known as the temple of Saint Salva, ranks amongst the largest church buildings

in the world literally built on the ashes of Saint Sava the father of the Serbian orthodox church.

You'd be hard-pressed to find something as opulent as this building.

It's not just a grand exterior either, inside is just as impressive.

I've arranged to meet a guide in the church crypts, which are also surprisingly glamorous.

Gold ceilings, marble floors, paintings and chandeliers, and everything has a story.

Okay we're standing in front of this amazing scene here, can you explain it a little bit to us?

Of course this scene, in regards to holy assembly of Serbian people, those who are recognised by the

Serbian Orthodox church as being Saints, as being holy in front of God.

Here leads the image of Saint Sava who is actually the patron of the cathedral itself,

and who is one of the major characters in Serbian history.

Born in 1175 as a member of royal family in Serbia and Saint Sava is celebrated for that fact,

to become the first archbishop of Serbia, and to have that large impact on the life serving community.

By raising organization of Serbian Orthodox Church and also to raise all those fundamental institutions of civil

society, such as hospitals, schools and so on that were you will find in Serbia a number of these institutions

which carry his name.

I'm so in awe with this place. I feel the need to ask about everything down here.

Every archway is home to another painting and there's so much gold I don't think I've ever seen so much.

I'm so happy to be speaking to Father Dragon, it's so nice to meet you, thank you for having us.

You're welcome

Now tell us a little bit about the history of the church?

You're now in the Middle Temple of the Saint Sava, our temple was started to build in 1936 and it was a built

until 1941, when started the Second World War.

We start to get with building into 1985.

We start again at 1991 when start of the wars in the former Yugoslavian Republic from 1991 to 1996.

We have a small works on the temple and we start again at 2000 and it's still working

and we hope that about 70/80 % of the works will be finished next year.

We have a big celebration, 800 years of Independence of Serbian Orthodox Church

and we hope that we will finish that.

Amazing and it's just so special when you come here and actually look at it the fact that,

for example the, the dome ceiling weighs hundreds of tons I understand. It's really, really heavy?

Yes the couple is weight about 40,000 tons in the mosaic on the couple we finish the mosaic this year,

that was 40 tons. The mosaic is a donation of the, the Russian federation, Russian Orthodox church and company Gazprom. It is, it was about 4 million Euros.

And what does, I was gonna ask, what does Saint Sava mean to the Serbian people?

Because apparently a lot of the schools are named for example.

Yes Saint Sava for our people means everything. He is the, the start of the the Serbian people.

When we forget Saint Sava it would be the the ending of all the Serbian people.

His life, his fight for the Serbian people, for the Serbian Orthodox Church is the way how we Serbian people

need to live in this life.

Amazing! Well listen, thank you so much, I know you've got a lot of work to do in the next twelve months,

but thank you so much for your time father dragon.

Really what an incredible building, and it's not even finished yet! I'll have to come back soon.

Having seen some of Belgrade's historical offerings, I decided it was time to see something from more recent

times and representing a significant part of Serbia's modern day culture.

Josip Broz Tito, beloved president of Yugoslavia is buried here in Belgrade.

And his tomb is held with high regard and receives regular visitors from all over the world.

Tito was a popular figure both in Yugoslavia and in the international community,

and is still viewed here as a unifying symbol, successfully ruling over the peaceful coexistence

of the nations of the Yugoslav Federation.

I've come here to see Tito's memorial at the house of flowers and learn more about this world-famous leader.

I'm standing in front of the tomb of Tito, he died in 1980, his wife actually is to the side of me just here.

She died in 2013 and this is the house of flowers, somewhere that he used to come to reflect and

actually it would've looked very, very, different back then. You wouldn't have had a roof up here as

there is now, standing here would have actually been a fountain and off to the side would have been the rooms

that Tito and also his wife would have gone to. And this is a place where people, as you can hear,

from all different nations come from around the world, to reflect on how Yugoslavia was then

and how Serbia is now.

and it certainly is a place to reflect.

Tito's funeral was one of the most state visited funerals in history,

with representatives from nearly every country in the world attending.

The memorial has displays of photographs, artefacts and relay batons from the annual relay of youth race

that took place from 1945 to Tito's death in 1980.

Tito was even visited by our own Queen Elizabeth on multiple occasions.

So short walk from the house of flowers brings us here to the grounds of the Museum of Yugoslavia,

and actually I want to find out a little bit more about it, so I've come here to meet Sara.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you, welcome to the museum of Yugoslavia.

Thank you, and could you talk us through a little bit more to do with the heritage of it?

Yeah well actually, you just mentioned that you've been to House a Flowers,

which is actually one of the three venues within the Museum of Yugoslavia.

So except Museum of Mausoleum of Tito, which is in House a Flowers, we also have the

so-called old Museum, which is the building that we're standing in front of.

And that's actually the building that we are working on the permanent exhibition about the whole history

of Yugoslavia, and we have the main building which is called Museum 25th, it was actually Tito's birthday.

And actually all of the venues that you're visiting today and this park of sculpture, was actually part of the

residential space of your super city. So he actually lived here and use all of the these venues while he lived here.

Only Museum of 25th May, which was actually museum even back then.

And then when he died all of the objects that he used were turned to Memorial Center yoseob or Seto,

and it was during the 80s, and a lot of people were coming back then the state delegation,

but also people from Yugoslavia because you can imagine it was one of the things that you have to do,

especially within the educational system.

So nowadays when you're visiting our museum you can actually see all of those amazing gifts that he received

during his lifetime, and you cannot imagine what kind of items we have here,

from the piece of Moon that we received from the American President Nixon.

A piece of the Moon?

Yeah actually piece of the Moon yeah, to I don't know, wool socks from some part of Yugoslavia.

So variety of items on one side and on the other side collection of museum revolve revolution,

which is one really hard core historical collection, chronologically made and so on.

So what we're trying to do now is to make fun with that collection,

actually to present of course, the history of whole Yugoslavia.

So not just socialistic period, but also the kingdom and socialistic period, and the desolation.

Because that's the most frequent question that people are asking when they're coming,

especially the foreigners. What happened with that? When and how the whole war happened?

So we're actually trying to give answer on that, and also to make temporary exhibition that are about variety

of different phenomenon’s, like graphic design or advertising or movies and so on and so on.

Well Sara sounds like you've got an absolute amazing job and also sounds like there's so many reasons for

people to want to come here and it's forever moving so thank you so much Sarah.

Thank you for coming.

I've travelled an hour from Belgrade, this is Tapola Royal grounds and apparently it's where the father,

and the grandfather, of the Crown Prince are actually buried here, at the mausoleum of Karageorgevich.

I want to find out a little bit more so I'm off to meet a man called Dragon,

he's actually the manager here of the Royal grounds, and he's gonna tell me a little bit more.

Hello are you Dragon?

Hello I'm Dragon

Laura nice to meet you, Dragon tell me exactly what you do here?

I'm a principal of the foundation of the King Peter the first,

so Foundation is a very big on this area, this is the central part of the Serbia.

This is the hill of Oplenac and this is the nucleus of the modern Serbian state,

so all the story of Serbian histories in this one place.

So we have five Museums and of course we have the main, the Church of the St George,

the mausoleum of the family of Karageorgevich.

And what is inside here?

This is a mausoleum and we have buried five Royals from dynastic Karageorgevich,

which the last ruler of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

And you've got a mosaic that’s quite large haven’t you?

Yes, this is the one of the most biggest surface area in the world, made from the Italian Murano glass.

Our mosaic is now about 40 million little pieces.

40 Million?

Yes, made by the hand,

and it's got about 15,000 different colours and everything that you see

from the yellow colour is of gold, the real world 70 carats.

Wow I'm really excited I don't know about you, but let's go inside.

So who’s this then on the top?

This is a composition of the St. George but the artist, the famous artist Paja Jovanović took the face from

the Karageorge. From the father of the family Karageorgevich in putting this composition here.

And that’s Gold that I can see?

Yes, yes, this is from Murano glass.

And there you can see also the archer, the signature of the family of Karageorgevich,

and in it's one sentence it says "The guard is my first hope".

Shall we go and find out a little bit more?

Look at this decoration.

So opulent.

And we're talking about on the mosaic with the Murano glass?

Yes, yes this is all

Just look at this face. There's just so much to take in isn't there. Of 40 million of these mosaic tiles?

Yes 40 million little pieces from Italian Murano glass.

I mean it's so it's so kind of huge uh, so, so much to take in.

So many different colours in here as well but this tomb is just unbelievable isn't it?

Quite excited about going down here, it looks a lot darker.

Yes, that's not, this is a crypt and this is the second part of the Mausoleum.

And it's make like Orthodox cross and by the each side it's half about 88 tombs,

and this is the place where we buried 3 Royals of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

It’s incredibly cold down here isn't it?

yes.

It's a real change of atmosphere.

yes very, very, very different than the upstairs.

It really is so what should we look at here first of all?

First of all you can see this is the up, the first floor of the church is the same church, the Protector of the

St. George and the Crypt is the Protector of the St. Peter and Paul.

And you can see this is the tomb of the King Alexander

and the King Alexander the First was the first king of Yugoslavia.

and next to him we’ve got?

And next to him is the Queen Mary. She was a Romanian Princess and she was the wife

of the King Alexander. They have three sons, the King Peter the Second,

the father of the Crown Prince, Prince Tomislav and Prince Andrew.

And we've already seen Peter the Second, haven’t we, upstairs and his tomb?

This is the King Peter the First

Oh King Peter the First.

Now we are going to see the tomb of King Peter the Second.

Excellent.

Let’s have a little look.

It's really special actually, the way that the lights so dim, but actually all of these are sparkling.

Yes, all of this is very similar, many wonderful, oh this, this part is a very similar of this composition like

in mausoleum of Galla Placidia in the Ravenna.

So

this is the, this is the tomb of the king Peter the Second and the Queen Alexandra.

They was the father and mother of the King, of the Crown Prince Alexander.

and how often would the Crown Prince come here?

Very often, very, yes

He comes down to see his Mother and Father?

Yes ,yes, yes it's big emotional

and as it sort of a private event or is it often with people around?

With people you know.

Yeah?

He's always with his people.

Because I was gonna say, I mean, this is, this means such a lot to Serbian people as well doesn’t it?

Incredibly respectful.

Yes of course, yes.

On the grounds of the Mausoleum is a winery, so it'd be a shame not to sample some royal wine whilst I'm here.

I enjoy Dragons company so much that we've decided to come to the Royal Winery,

how many Hector's around here?

Today we have the 12 hectares, but in the future we have 40 Hector's here,

and we hope you know to recognise that, all the old King Winery.

So it is a big, big place and what's the oldest bottle of wine that’s here?

This is the King wine from 1921.

Can I try some of the wine?

But not sold

Okay, so I can't try this one but let's go enjoy the rest of them?

Okay.

I like it let's go

Inside there are some historical winemaking artefacts, but I'm ready for the wine itself.

So this, these are all the wines in front of us?

Yes this is the our two-day production.

Okay

Our oldest wine in our store is from the vintage 1921, and this is the vintage from 2016, and this is a

Pinot Blanc we can now taste?

Yep?

Mmmm.

It's really refreshing but it's quite, strangely enough for white wine it's quite warming on the palate,

which is actually really nice.

Yes, this is the Chardonnay,

Okay.

You can see this is a Chardonnay from 2016

Oh that is absolutely lovely!

You like it?

Yeah, that actually tastes kind of it's great infusion isn't it? Of the…

It’s like exciting, this is the cava wine and this is very exciting wine and we are very proud yes.

Yeah I'm not surprised by the taste of it, so what’s this one we’re moving onto?

This is the Sauvignon Blanc, this is our Admiral Ship, that's what I like to call, you know of our winery.

Again that’s got a slightly, it's got quite a sweet, dry taste to go in with. But then it comes with sort of

a second note of kind of bitter, it’s slightly bitter as well isn’t it?

And you'll see how it's too long you know, stay in the, in the, in the throat you know.

Yeah that is really nice.

It’s a dry wine you know

You know what I really fancy trying this red as well.

That's a really good balance and this is Cabernet Sauvignon we call it Sauveren which means…

One for you

It’s not gentlemen but you are close I'm sorry

Živeli

Oh that’s lovely you know what? I'm just thinking we've got one, two, three, this will be fourth one,

that is actually one of the smoothest wines I’ve tasted.

In actual fact I don't know if it's because I've had three others, because you can’t taste the alcohol at all.

It's like it's that smooth that it's just…

Very, very elegant this is a very elegant wine.

Well thank you so much Dragon, for showing me around here. It's just been an incredible experience

and quite frankly, I think what we should do is get some dishes in and finish off the wine.

Okay

So erm, Živeli to that!

Živeli

Živeli

I'm in Belgrade and having explored some of its history,

I'm now enjoying the modern outdoor activities this city has to offer.

It's hard to believe that this leafy, beautiful, picturesque place is right in the middle of Belgrade.

This is Ada, and there's so much to do here. There's a man-made lake where you can go on jet skis,

you can even hire Pedalo’s, and there's lots of things to do including a safari as well.

I'm on my bike right now, that I've just hired here, you can also go on rollerblades. I think I might be trying

those a little bit later on and this is an oasis in the middle of Belgrade, it's amazing!

Situated on the Sava river, Ada is Belgrade's biggest sports and recreational complex.

This artificial lake is the most popular destination for Belgraders during the city's hot summers.

Aside from cycling you can also play golf, football, tennis, go paintballing, water skiing and more.

There are seven kilometres of beaches to just relax in the sun, and as you can see, it's bustling with people.

I'm taking a bit of a breather now. I’ve got to be honest, I haven't done a spin class in a long time and

believe me, it's actually harder than it looks.

That's my excuse anyway.

Away from the edge of the lake there are numerous tracks to follow for walking, jogging, cycling

and roller-skating.

It's a beautiful day to go for a ride and I've soon got the hang of it

I haven't been riding a bike since I was about four years old I don't think, and I'm pretty wobbly.

But because it's so opulent, so serene around here, and I think the atmosphere is really cosmopolitan

everyone's so friendly, that it makes it so much easier.

It's a great thing to do but there's so many more activities to try, so I think I'm gonna try my next one,

actually rollerblading’s my thing I reckon.

I'm ready

Oh

Okay so maybe I'm not quite as good as I thought, I'm still gonna keep on practicing.

Look at me go (screams).

I’m fine.

Okay.

Let's take it slow.

You can do this, you can do this Laura

I really hope no one comes near me

Hi

So this girl’s just showing off clearly.

I’m much better on this.

I’m top of the world.

This is tough, really tough, but you know what? I think I’m getting better now

Might be to do with the fact I can see some food and drink in sight.

My salvation.

You know what?

I’m going to pull over here, I think I’ve worked really hard for today so you know I think I might take a

minute, take a breather and get myself in here for some food and drink.

I think I’ve earned it.

Along the lake edge are a variety of restaurants and bars to escape the sun,

enjoy delicious food or to simply relax.

I'm having lunch at the Sunset 1999, a lakeside restaurant that serves a variety of sweet and

savoury specialities, both local and from abroad.

It has live music events regularly and whilst an oasis in the summer, during colder months,

the restaurant becomes a warm winter house.

It has a relaxing atmosphere with families; couples and business meetings taking place all around.

The lake itself is so serene with people enjoying the water in any way they can.

With my lunch all finished I'm eager to get into the water myself, and I think I know exactly where to go.

On the other side of the lake is a cable waterskiing complex called Aqua Ski,

offering wakeboarding, wake skating and slalom waterskiing.

So I've had a massive lunch in Belgrade and I decided, you know, what could be possibly a better idea

than coming to Aqua Ski in Belgrade? So Marko, say hi Marko.

Hi I’m Marko.

And I just want to ask you, I’ve seen you skating around here you got any tips for me as a beginner?

Well you know the first thing to know, if you wanna do wave board, you have to crouch down,

be on your back foot, put your arms to your hips, and just when the spring pulls you have to pull.

Also you have to give it like a slingshot, will act like a slingshot to their strength so that's, that's all.

And that is all?

I mean and when you go to the corners you, you have to go far right and don't be afraid of, for falling,

is just water it's not too cold so, it's cool

But I was gonna say I mean I've just seen you do all these jumps you can see behind me.

Oh it comes it comes with mileage you know, you have to practice and yeah more you practice,

you're getting better like everything in life.

Have you been doing it long?

I know I've been here for two years

Two years and you do it constantly right?

Oh yeah every season, every day, because I'm a software developer so I do remote job from here,

so I can Ski all day.

So what did you start off when you first, very first did it?

Think back to like how I'm gonna feel, how were you? Were you rubbish?

Oh yeah well I was like falling for 50 times for ya really, really,

for like five hours of constant falling and falling. And misery but at last I got off and Ski so

Amazing so basically it's probably really bad idea for me to do, I've just had lunch,

I'm gonna fall like I don't know how many times.

No, no, no, it's cool dude, whatever you want I mean it doesn't matter, the main thing is you have to be

persistent. You have to just try and try so you'll get there.

I will give it a go anyway thank you so much for your time I'll let you get on.

Do you have a wetsuit for me?

For you? I don’t think you’ll need it.

Okay.

It's not that cold.

Okay cool, everyone else has got one

Breathe in

Wish me luck, I am very scared I’ll be honest.

It's such an adrenaline rush and I think I'm doing really well,

but then it all goes horribly wrong.

That was my first go in Belgrade at wakeboarding, cable skiing, whatever you wanna call it.

Actually think I did pretty well.

Only thing they don't tell you is, you pay for half an hour and I got caught, I did pretty well

and literally got caught about half-mile down there. So I’ve been swimming back for the last 20 minutes,

I feel knackered. But believe me even for 30 seconds on the board it was amazing.

I think I’m gonna carry on swimming back to shore then, here we go.

Oh I can stand.

Heading away from the lake, I'm about to visit another sporting venue.

This time the home to the Red Star football team.

So I'm here at the Red Star stadium with the lovely Tatiana from PR what an amazing job?

Yeah very interesting, very dynamic job, we're here we have a lot of victories here actually, in this stadium,

so it is really exciting to be part of it.

And tell us the capacity of the amount of people that can actually be in here ?

It's a fifty one thousand then a little bit more,

Amazing!

Yeah, it is and for the big European games it's

always full, and the atmosphere is just the thing that makes it so amazing.

and you've got an incredible museum at the top here as well, and it's a really popular one isn't it?

What kind of things can fans find in that?

Yeah the museum is very, very popular. Most people in Belgrade come to, to see it, also the tourists

and everyone because we have a really big trophies there. Because Reds are won the world,

become world champion and European champion in 1991 and there's the meeting that you can see when,

when you enter it and that's why that room is so full of trophies .

Wow! And you know if you've got people coming here that are sort of thinking of coming to Serbia, and

possibly considering coming to the stadium, what would you say to them? Why should they come here?

They should come here to feel the extraordinary atmosphere. To meet the

people who really love football and who live for it and to meet the best players that we have.

Amazing! Listen Tatiana thank you so, so much for sharing your passion with us.

You’re welcome I hope you enjoyed the Red Star.

The stadium is one of the most feared in the world and by chance I bump into some

British travellers visiting this infamous venue.

I'm not the best at football I’ll be honest, but I've just met some fellow Brits out here,

and they've kind of been helping me out actually,

so welcome to Simon Andrew and Tom I’ve got that right haven’t I lads?

yes, yes, yes

Excellent,

now boys tell us your story of why you're here because you've got a really cool thing that you've been doing?

It's all started with us following Chelsea I mean we, we started doing like European away events like 10 - 15

years ago. We've been to some interesting places like Slovakia for example, and we were like well we're

going all these places to watch football we might as well go to the ones that Chelsea’s

probably not gonna play in.

Although saying that, we’re here at Red Star Belgrade and they're in the European League this year ,

we're gonna be in it next year so maybe we’ll be back.

Amazing and what would you say about Serbia in particular that really draws you here

and what differentiates it from other places?

It's nice weather, like most of the most the time and Andrew’s brother, his colleague, is from here so it

was nice to come out here and see him as well. So we just come out here just experience the culture like

you know go to the pubs and the bars and stuff and yeah but we're all like really keen football fans so we

wanted to come here and go to Partisan’s Football Stadium as well or just have a look around really.

So the whole place is buzzing and the nightlife in Belgrade is fantastic.

It’s brilliant it's like we haven't had any trouble out here.

As you know the people are really friendly the beers cheap,

yeah,

that's always a winner.

Good point. We will not delay you anymore thank you so much for chatting with us

and have an amazing rest of your stay.

Thank you

It's certainly been a long day and I'm ready to check into my accommodation for the night

the famous Hotel Moscow.

Built in 1906, the Moscow is a classic example of Russian art deco and this is where I’m staying tonight.

Built in the style of Russian secession, the hotel is one of the most important architectural gems of Belgrade.

Hello my name is Leonarda great pleasure meeting you welcome to Hotel Moscow.

Thank you, so tell me a little bit about this place?

So this place dates back to 1908 when it was open for the first time by the King Peter the First,

and since then we welcomed a lot of famous guests, and this year pretty much we are

celebrating our 110th birthday.

Wow congratulations

Thank you

And tell me a little bit about the rooms here

So we have 123 rooms in total and there is a, out of which eight are apartments,

we have of course our presidential suites,

then we have a suite where the Olympic Committee of Serbia first was established.

Besides that we have 42 duplexes, that is something that we are famous for, so nobody else in the region,

no other hotel has duplex apartments.

That means that they’re like basically two floor apartments and our guests love it.

Amazing and I've heard about this hotel is really special because it's actually

survived like two wars is that correct?

That is correct first the World War and the Second World War.

The only time that actually hotel wasn't working through this 110 years

was the time when this building was turned into Germans Gestapo base.

But even then because Germans are very good at business right, even then they kept the restaurant

and our other café opened because it was gathering Belgrade’s and even the regional elite.

And you know what? I'm staying here tonight, I’m really lucky, I'm so pleased you've had me here.

Can I actually see my room?

Absolutely, if you're ready let's roll

Let's go

So this is my room?

Yes it is, that's the one

Excellent

Look at that,

Do you like this?

Gosh it’s huge, I love it.

Wow I love all the decoration as well

Beautiful thank you so much.

It is so nice.

This is gonna be a standard double room.

Okay well you know what? I can not wait to relax in here.

Perfect then I'm gonna leave you to enjoy and we're gonna have your suitcases sent up in a few moments,

That sounds absolutely brilliant.

Thank you very much it was a great pleasure hosting you.

It’s a pleasure being here.

Enjoy your time

So tonight we've decided to come to dinner at place that fuses Serbian with Italian food,

and by the looks of things it looks pretty quirky, so let's go in.

Just from looking at the outside you know that this is a restaurant with a difference,

and the interior doesn't disappoint.

Oh thank you very much that looks lovely

There are random film decorations littered everywhere, and artistic pieces that are just bizarre.

And the food is pretty good too.

So I’m here with Sasha from the restaurant Lorenzo and Kakalamba,

thank you so much for having us.

It's my pleasure, anyway good evening and welcome to our place, welcome to Serbia.

Thank you

And this place has been open like since 2010,

for last four years we are in top 12 restaurants here in Belgrade.

Wow

Yeah and more or less like that, that's it. I mean the name of Lorenzo in Kakalamba,

Lorenzo is because of Lorenzo Medici, he was Duke of Florence I think in 15th century,

sort of I'm not really sure, I think it is 15,

and the Kakalamba is the nickname of the owners family here in Serbia.

The nickname basically it means dirty land.

That is brilliant

Thank you

So basically it's a very unique name no one else is going to have?

It is actually, even Serbian’s when they're coming here they cannot pronounce that the, the Kakalamba

So I did well?

Excellent job yeah.

I like this, so tell me the story about all of these quirky things we can see behind us.

I don't know if you can see at the moment but the table’s got fresh apples in there, there’s a violin

and there's all these lamps around here there's a pig outside.

Well to be honest with you the owner, he was in the movies industry you know.

When he finished all that story part of his life let's say,

he just was thinking of what he can do with all that stuff. From the, you know, the movies.

He decide to open the restaurant you know, and he put all these things together.

You get what you see and I think he did nice job you know.

Somebody said shoot the Kitsch, how you can say that it sells the things you know. I mean as you see tonight,

okay Saturday night, but actually even Tuesday, Thursday, whatever, any day we are full by we're full

Wow

We are full, yeah? We have tourists, a lot of tourists here; we have local people that are coming and

so far so good. Touch wood.

and it, it sort of merges the Italian and the Serbian together and,

and I've just had a beautiful meal it's stunning.

Okay that the connection between Florence and Pirot, actually Italy and Serbia, the owner's wife she studied

in Florence, in Florenza, and that how they got the idea to mix Serbian cuisine and Italian.

Actually Pirot and Florence because to be honest, with you Pirot is done south, south part of Serbia,

Yeah

and over there it's very famous dishes. Probably some of them you've had tonight and I hope that you enjoy it.

Thank you so much Sasha.

My pleasure thank you, thank you.

As the evening moves on its time to experience some local drink and here it’s Rakia.

Hello

Hi I’m Laura

Good evening my name is George.

Nice to meet you

Welcome to our Rakia bar, so I would like to start a story before serving Rakia,

with the history of the name Rakia.

So there are two versions, first version says that Rakia got it’s name from Arabic word ‘al rock’,

which means drop of sweat, and the reason for that is that Arabian’s were the first one did use process

of distillation, but for the production of perfumes, not for the production of alcohol.

And the second version is that it's from Indonesian words Haraq,

which was first distilled alcoholic drinks out of, drink out of palm leaves.

So with time and knowledge about production of hard spirits, with process of distillation, move towards west

and until the middle of the 16th and early 17th century we had almost every country in Europe distilling

some national hard spirit. So in Serbia and all Balkans was usually, usually Rakia.

Ok shall we get started?

Yes of course.

Excellent.

I brace myself for my first taste of this mysterious drink.

Here it is.

Okay so we're starting with the grape Rakia, here we go,

so Rakia made of grapes is drink slowly like every Rakia so sipping not drinking bottoms up.

Excellent so I'll just have a little sip of this to start off with.

Yeah of course we say Živeli

so it's Cheers.

Živeli

Živeli

And you must look people in the eyes.

yeah of course, of course

Živeli

there we go

Enjoy

It's quite strong, it’s got quite a kick to it, but the interesting thing is you can actually taste

really strongly the grapes coming through that.

I’m going to sip some more I like it

How did you like the first one?

I liked it I'm gonna, well I’m gonna, what I'm kind of gonna rate that though.

That was a pretty hard hit, I like the food with it that made it better but I'm gonna go with,

I'm really harsh, two out of ten at the moment.

Okay.

But it can only get better and I’ve still got four more.

Of course that's an opener so because of that second Rakia that you'll try,

is very popular Rakia made out of Quince.

Yeah like that. I'm definitely preferring that I'll be honest with you then the first one that I tried.

That's a lot nice already I mean, I'm thinking on my Laura scale that I might actually push it up to

maybe a four or something in the middle. But I think I need to try a little bit more so

As the evening continues the alcohol is starting to get to me but I've got more to come.

So what we got here?

We've got the most traditional Serbian Rakia, and the national brand of Serbia and that is plum Rakia.

This is really nice, it kind of warmed me up. I'm gonna go with,

I'm gonna go with a six actually.

So I managed to lose some friends but I've gained some more ones as well so happy days

and I'm on to Rakia number four is it?

Yeah that's honey Rakia

I think

that might have to go up once again I do slightly prefer that to the plum so

I think I'm gonna go with

a seven for this one.

Just one more round to go.

So this is my fifth and final Rakia, so I hope it's gonna be good.

The past ones have got two, a four, six and a seven. So what this one you’ve got me?

Okay let's go for the, at least nine.

Yeah?

Okay so this is, this is raspberry Rakia. This still has a plum base so I hope you'll like it.

It's a represent of the sweet Rakia is something that that has become modern recently,

so this is this is the last thing that you'll try here so I would like to thank you.

Thank you

For being a nice judge for, for making good descriptions.

I haven’t been that nice yet have I?

No but still, yeah I'm trying to buy you right now to give us the best possible grade.

I like that because of course the highest grade I’ve given before is a seven,

but this one it's so lovely and sweet, and it almost tastes like a liqueur.

That sort of mix berries but I guess that's because it's been fermented for so long.

Yeah of course.

and it's got a really rich flavour,

I'm actually gonna give this one a nine out of ten this is your highest score so far.

That was good

Well listen thank you so much, hopefully we'll come back again and but we've had a great time here.

Of course thank you very much and I hope you'll come again.

Oh definitely will.

Next time on Serbia Old and New.

I continue exploring the city of Belgrade, where I get to meet Alexander, the Crown Prince of Serbia.

I also explore fashion and go for a kayak tour along War Island.

See you next time you.