Belgrade - "White City"; smelly fog and my first guest!

after almost three continuous weeks in sofia, it was time to get of town again. so i got my stuff together and bought myself a train ticket to belgrade. i went there during the night from friday to saturday last week. i stayed two days, one night, and came back by train early on monday morning. okay, i have to admit it wasn't the best time to visit the city given the weather forecast promised lots of snow. but who could have known that the snow would be accompanied by so much fog? well, anyway, this way i got to know belgrade as a really "bel" (= white) "grade" (=city) :-D my wonderful serbian guide - marko from couchsurfing whom i had met in ohrid at the CS-balkan meeting - picked me up from the train station in the wee hours of saturday morning and after a short break in his residence, he showed me to this park, where you usually have a great view over the rivers. danube and sava. well, in this picture you can see the gorgeous view that i had *lol*
but please don't get me wrong: i still had a wonderful time. okay, that time did involve some wet feet and cold nose and ears, but also some really nice people, serbian coffee and a palacinca (=pancake) party ;) all that already convinced me that i HAVE to go back whenever the city itself is also more inviting. the people were already!



coming back to sofia, i also found a snowed-in city once again. but the next day was sunny and really nice.
<-- aleksander nevski cathedral covered in snow ...BUT THEN...
there came the fog! no, i won't post any pictures of sofia sunken in in the fog here. first of all, because it doesn't look any nice and there isn't anything to see; and secondly, because i didn't take any :-P
just this much: the fog is not just fog. it smells bad. it makes your throat itch if you breathe in too much. and it is kinda annoying b/c you don't see anything, especially when you have a guest and wanna take a look at the city :(
so, PLEASE! whenever you come to sofia, leave your car at home. and if you move here: sell it! don't take it here!!! ;)

this saturday - 24th of november, one week after belgrade - came my grandmother to visit me. just me! whoohoo, my first guest!!! considering the above mentioned smog, the best we could do was to escape it at least for one day. thus, to vitosha we went. vitosha is the mountain right by sofia. one of the lifts going up there has closed cabins in which one can ride quite comfortably to aleko peak (hight ~1200m).
surely, i didn't have to organize this excursion myself, nor had my grandmother and i to go there by ourselves. hristiana was a perfect great and wonderful company. thanks again, dear! it was really a great idea to go there and with you together it was at least twice as much fun :o)

i hadn't seen the blue sky for at least half a week, we had a sunny bright day. hadn't it been for the chilly breeze, we would have been sweating up there. it was definitely a lot warmer than down in the center of sofia.


by the way, the following day, monday, the fog lifted a bit, but it started to rain instead. also not perfect for sightseeing. yet, my grandmother and i enjoyed our time a lot. and if anyone else feels like visiting me here: now i know a few really good places to have delicious bulgarian food ;)