Walking Old Town Belgrade

[@DanielGamboa-n3c]

Lively and lovely old town!

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Miss you buddy! I can't wait for you to come see our new diggs! And of course for when we finally make it out to your part of the world as well!

[@veronikas.3847]

Great to see your face, Rex! Love your videos.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Awww, thanks Nika! Miss you guys, it's been a while!

[@GA_ME]

Nice video. Welcome to Belgrade and enjoy :)

[@tonylinkich3464]

With love to my family SRB from OZ

[@martinawolf9605]

Thanx❤

[@NicolasDudic-ph4kd]

Well done,Nice vidéo!! Vive la Serbie 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸

[@blairinbelgradeTV]

Welcome to Belgrade ❤

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Thanks a bunch! Loving it so far.

[@stefandee1970]

Nice

[@GA_ME]

4:29 "Should we hang out more or not"

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

🤣

[@AlexM-t6h]

The statue on the Republic Square is of Knez Mihailo (Prince Michael) and the main walking street is named after him, Knez Mihailova. The "by the horse" phrase was initiated by the Communists and stuck to this day, a very ugly thing to say. They demeaned everything related to the Monarchy before them, hence "by the horse" and not "by the Prince" or "by the monument". I wish people would stop saying "by the horse", it is disrespectful to our history. That monument has been there since 1882. Anyway, it is not true that nobody talks about this Prince, we all know who he was. You mentioned Prince Milos, that was actually his father and that fountain next to Hotel Moskva was dedicated to him.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Thanks again! I didn't know the history of "by the horse." I have asked several Serbians and they didn't know who he was which surprised me but it does seem disrespectful now that you mention it.

[@Nicolae.95]

Great video! 👍👍

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Thanks I appreciate it!

[@draganpaunovic5596]

that's not Knez Milos street it's OBILICEV VENAC

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Yeah, after I'd made the video I figured out I mixed up the streets. 🤷 Thanks for correcting it though!

[@AlexM-t6h]

"The only genocide committed in the Balkans was against the Serbs" refers to WW 2 when the Croatian Nazis known as Ustase murdered between 700,000 to a MILLION Serbs, Jews, and Roma. And that was real genocide. What happened in the 1990s was nothing compared to that. I wish they would remove that graffiti, it shouldn't be there, like any other graffiti... We don't have a different viewpoint over what happened in the last century. We were allies in both world wars and bled heavily. We do have a different viewpoint about the 1990s - all sides do. You obviously know nothing of the Balkan history, it goes way deeper than you can imagine, so it's good you refrained from commenting.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Thank you! The graffiti is interesting and a bit shocking to foreigners so, personally, I'm glad it's there and I tried to completely refrain from commenting exactly because I'm aware of my ignorance. Even what I did say was enough to anger some people, which is understandable but I was really trying to point it out without making any comment. And I'm super glad I did because you and others gave some history in the comments! It's not something I'm going to bring up in conversation so it's turned out that this was a great way to get a little education! As a sidenote, I personally agree that NATO should've stayed out of the situation in the 90s. Our involvement there set a terrible precedent on top of making tension between Serbia and the west.

[@awkwardowl8835]

The NATO could not by any means stay out from Balkans in 1990-ies since its inherent expansion policy is undeniable today in Ukraine. "Yugoslavia" was crafted on the exact same Anglo-Saxon note out of just liberated Serbian lands in 1918. and destroyed in the 90ies by the CIA. It won't be long before you realise how deeply Pentagon is manipulating the average Anglo-Saxon mind. Do you see any exceptional lucidity in Elon Mask or in Donald Trump, as opposed to the previous Pentagon's marionettes?

[@slobodankazic7376]

You made some mistakes in your video, one of them is that fortress in Belgrade is named after Kalemegdan Park. In reality things are reverse: Belgrade fortress was named Kalemegdan by Turks, but later on when large part of fortress was destroyed it was transformed to the park named Kalemegdan. Therefore, fortress comes first, and park second. Some more interesting details about Belgrade: the area of Belgrade is incredibly rich in water, particularly underground. Hotel Moskva is located above former water spring and even today it uses two pumps to remove water that comes from its cellar. The statue of Duke Mihajlo on the Republic square resembles to statue of Ban Jelacic on the formed Republic square (now named Jelacic Square) in Croatian capitol Zagreb. This comes from the fact that both statues were made by the same sculptor, an Italian artist who received purchases to make bronze statues of both leaders at almost same time. So, he made different status of the riders (one was Croatian Ban Jelacic in Zagreb, the other was Serbian duke Mihajlo in Belgrade), but to simplify his work the artist made same statues of their horses. Since the times when Romans and Turks ruled Belgrade up to the 19th century the Republic square was the place where the city ended and the city walls stood. Romans made their cities according to the same plan-there were two main streets one that stretched from east to west and the other that stretched from south to the north and both streets intersected at public square named forum. In Roman times forum was located in close proximity to Knez Mihajlova street, Actually, at the end of Knez Mihajlova street which you presented in your video, next to Kalemegdan, is the library with a original Roman room in its cellar-it is estimated that this room was built 2000 years ago.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Super interesting, thank you! I'm aware of several mistakes in this video but you're the first to talk about the name of the fortress and park so thank you again. I took that factoid from the walking tours and I'm surprised because I find walking tour guides to be generally extremely reputable. I didn't know any of the rest of these things but they make total sense. I'll be publishing a video next week that covers many corrections from this video, my video on Kalemegdon, and my video about Sava's Temple. The coolest part is that, since subscribers told me how beautiful is the crypt below Sava's, I finally made it down there!

[@slobodankazic7376]

@@ExpatsInTheMaking I suggest you to make one of your future videos about Tasmajdan Park. Tasmajdan is a Turkish word which means stone mine, it is because in ancient times stone was mined from Tasmajdan and large part of Kalemegdan fortress was made of limestone extracted from Tashmaijdaan. Tasmajdan limestone was also used for building fence around Russian church which is next to Tasmaidan. In the fence of the church there are visible remnants of the shell which was incorporated in the limestone when whole area of Belgrade was under sea about seven million years ago. Unfortunately, a large part of shell was removed by vandals in recent times. The eastern part of Tasmajdan hill was used as quarry and it is almost completely diged out, so there is a fence between west and east part of Tasmajdan which prevents visitors from falling down. There are caves in the eastern part of Tasmajdan. They are not available to the public, but I believe that with little effort you could get a permission to come there. The western part of the stadion was used as cemetery in 19th century, so event now when workers are digging in the park they usually find some skeletons. Next to the park there are two churches. One is St Mark's church where Serbian rulers from Obrenovic dinasty are buried as well as the most famous Serbian king Dusan Nemanjic. In the lobby of this church is a hive made from matches-it took eight years of work to make it. The next church is so called Russian church, made by Russians who fled from October revolution in 1920's.In this church there is a grave of Russian general Vrangel who fought against communists in Russian civil war and his forces, located on Crimea, were the last ones that persisted and fought against Red Army even when all other white generals ran away. There is much more that I could tell you about Tasmajdan, but I think that this is enough for now.

[@nemanjibaby]

“Very different history told here”!? What does that mean? Serbs lost 30% of their total population in WWII. Then in WWII, the Nazis had a policy of killing 100 Serbs for every 1 Nazi soldier killed and their Croatian Ustasha quislings operated extermination camps killing over 500,000 Serbs. Look into the biggest one called Jasenovac then research Jastrebarsko, the only children extermination camp in Europe operated by those Ustasha maniacs. Then in the 90s, the US government helped the Croats expel over 200,000 Serbs from their ancestral homes in Krajina. Are you implying that the murder of some Muslim SOLDIERS using a safe haven to terrorize surrounding Serb villages is genocide but what happened to the Serbs is not? You come to that part of the world to imply that the Serbian people committed genocide bc the US/z i o media that brainwashed you say so!? Do better, man.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

It's my intent not to imply anything but simply to state, "there's a very different history told here about the last century." And I was very clear not to take a side. I'm definitely ignorant in so many ways and that's part of what travel is all about. In US education about the world wars we don't learn anything about the Balkans, it's just completely ignored like, I assume, 1000's of other stories. The history of the 90s, we do learn a different story than people do here and again, I simply wouldn't take a side. It is alarming to see the bombing sites in Belgrade, and I'm glad they've been left for people like me to see. "History is written by the victors," is not a fair policy and I find the truth usually lies in the middle but again, I have no idea and would not claim to know the truth. All of that said, it is interesting to learn how other nations are taught their history, especially as an American, where our government's fingers are all over the world. On that note, thank you for sharing specifics! These are, obviously, not topics I bring up in conversation and it's awesome to understand a little better! Thank you!

[@nebo1186]

@@ExpatsInTheMaking or you are cia pretending to be a youtuber, making use of those 80 billions to "battle the malign influence of Russia and China in Balkans

[@vapalaca]

@@nemanjibaby He’s American. They have no clue. But here they are in Europe, making little silly videos to educate the rest of the world.

[@nemanjibaby]

@@ExpatsInTheMakingFriend, you can’t come to a country that experienced these tragedies by the Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians, Nazis, Ustaša, Commies and most recently NATO terr or ists, that lost millions of their citizens fighting back and lecture us that “our history” is wrong. The Serbs suffered through it while those murderers wrote your history books. Anyway, enjoy your stay, Belgrade has something for everyone. Best regards. Try the burek.

[@BelgradeArch]

Good to teach some ignorant, brainwashed foreigners some truth and real history.

[@milansavic2803]

Its older then Istambul

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Really! That's crazy! I'll have to read about it. Thanks!

[@milansavic2803]

But, Istambul is much more important in the world history.

[@argavenharge9704]

Nice!

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Thanks!

[@AlexM-t6h]

I am amazed how you keep making errors on simple things without checking things prior... Knez Milos street it is not.... and he was not the same guy as the monument. The monument and the main pedestrian street are named after Mihailo... and Milos was his father... and he also has a street, but not that one. I mean, today with just a click away you can check everything easily. You make good videos, but there are many inaccuracies that should have been verified before the video was made. For us it's important, because it shows respect for the country you are in, for the world that's watching, things should be accurate. You or the world might not care what the street or monument is called, but then, don't say it. If you do decide to mention it, then make sure what you are saying is accurate. You seem like a nice guy, your comments and feelings are genuine and I appreciate that. Just make sure the historical facts such as names, periods, etc. are verified. Thank you.

[@vapalaca]

Expat? What is that exactly? Same as immigrant?

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

Excellent question, that quickly becomes about privilege. Immigrants typically want to gain citizenship in a country where they are non-native. Expats want to live there, and sometimes do gain citizenship, but it's more about living abroad than gaining opportunity or escaping a negative situation. My wife and I have no intention of returning to the USA for the long term. In fact, we're much happier if we never have to. However, I doubt either of us will ever give up our US citizenship, and we'd return if somehow the situation got terrible wherever we're residing. Basically, there are immigrant expats, but the edge between them generally is that expats are from countries of privilege and immigrants are often not. 🤷

[@vapalaca]

@ Not "expats" IMMIGRANTS just like everyone else, the word "expats" is a hierarchical word designed for the purpose of putting Americans generally white folks above everyone else ,The arrogance of Americans is embarrassing, go ahead say it without feeling shame I AM an Immigrant. Are you EU citizens? I’m worried Americans will flock to EU cause they are facing a few issues there.

[@vapalaca]

@@ExpatsInTheMaking I see you deleted my original comment. Looks like I hit a nerve.

[@pronosticosdeportivos9517]

Just out of curiosity: Why did you say that you're much happier if you never have to go back to the USA? By the way, "expat" it's just a way to say "immigrant", just it looks cooler.

[@ExpatsInTheMaking]

@pronosticosdeportivos9517 There are a lot of reasons my wife and I prefer living outside the USA! This year it was amazing not to be inundated with election stuff, especially because my parents relocated to Arizona and it seems that election coverage and adds were everywhere all the time in swing states. I found life in Latvia and definitely in Serbia more free than back home. I find people both more reasonable and respectful here. I could go on and it's only my experience but overall there are lots of reasons I plan on never moving back. I'm happy to visit, and always happy to come back home to another country. Do you live in the USA? I understand why someone would say that about expat and immigrant but I do think there's a difference, beyond just privilege. I don't really plan on immigrating anywhere, I just don't plan on going back. So I don't feel like an immigrant but I've definitely expatriated... 🤔🤷