Academic Travel Post #3: Serbia

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HIGHLIGHTS:
- visiting Josip Broz Tito's grave. Yugoslavian leader from 1945 -- 1980
- staying at a fancy hotel with famous guests! 
- exploring the many areas of the city which still are scarred by the most recent wars in the 1990s 
- meeting with staff at the OSCE's (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission to Serbia and discussing their goals.
- standing on the very hill where clashes between Western and Eastern Empires occurred
Serbia's aggression towards Kosovo lead to a NATO bombing campaign of 1999 which left the Serbian Foreign Ministry building (and many others) in shambles. That was more than a decade ago yet it stands today in more or less the same state it was in 1999, minus the trees. 
Finally getting some use out of my passport pages! In the European Union and Schengen visa areas they rarely stamp your passport. But Serbia is not EU so I finally got a stamp! Although nothing will beat the border agent in Croatia who gave me the stamper and let me mark my own passport! #BestBorderCrossingEver
Now that I am back from travel I have lots to catch up on! But I am looking forward to posting a few more times about some of the different beautiful + fascinating places I got to explore over these last two weeks. Thanks for following along! 
Next post: Sarajevo, Bosnia. 

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