Last Day in Belgrade - Train to Timisoara Romania (20 June), Touring Timisoara on 21 June

Saw Belgrade Orthodox cathedral and Tito's tomb in Belgrade before departing on 4:00pm train to Timisoara, Romania. Had the most delightful companion for that follow-on train ride from Belgrade Serbia to Timisoara Romania (5-hr train ride). She was Myra and a dentist for the railway system, so she knew all of the conductors and staff, as well as their current state of dental hygiene of course! Her brother, Ilja, is an orthodontist and they were traveling together to see his fiancee in Romania. They talked to us the whole time to "practice their English". Fascinating and enlightening to learn about socialized medicine, her view of the war, and of he opinion of geopolitics in general from a medical person's point of view. We ended up cutting short our trip to Timisoara by one night, because the hotel we'd booked was way out of town and the cigarette smoke was too prevalent in the bedroom for sleeping. So we are headed off to Budapest tonight for a 4-night stay instead of 3 nights. Will sleep in a 6-bed room with roommates tonight because we are arriving one night early, but at least we have a place to sleep.

Timişoara 4th largest city in Romania after Bucharest, Iaşi and Cluj-Napoca. It is a large economic and cultural center in Banat in the west of the country. It is a multicultural city with influential minorities, primarily Hungarians, Germans, and Serbs, as well as Italians, Arabs, Indians, Bulgarians, Roma people, Jews and Greeks. The city is also called "Little Vienna", because it belonged for a very long time to the Habsburg Empire and the entire city center consists of buildings built in the Kaiser era, which is reminiscent of the old Vienna. Timişoara is an important university center with the emphasis on subjects like medicine, mechanics and electro-technology. An industrial city with extensive services, it was the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It was also the second European and the first city in what is now Romania with horse drawn trams in 1867. There are numerous claims that Gustave Eiffel, the creator of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, built one of Timişoara's footbridges over the Bega.

Jewish synagogue in Timisoara. OK HouseMaster inspectors, Fair or Poor?

Orthodox church in Timisoara.
Inside Orthodox church in Timisoara.
Orthodox vicarage in Timisoara.

OK HouseMaster inspectors look at the "duct tape" fix near the top of the cupola!


Pictures in Tito's Tomb in Belgrade. He was big into batons.
A ahrd day at the office for poor old Tito. So many Yugoslav republics to manage and so little time.
Emily at Tito's Tomb. We were the ONLY ones there.
Timisoara Orthodix cathedral from the outside - - where the beginning of the 1989 Romanian revolution began, really.
Inside of Timisoara Orthodox cathedral.
Inside of vestibule littler cathedral next to Belgrades big state Orthodox cathedral.

More of Tito's batons.


Inside Belgrade's state Orthodox cathedral - - being overhauled and restored. Is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the world.



Myra and Wendy on train from Belgrade to Timisoara.