Day 38: The Belgrade Jevremovac Botanical Gardens
Updated: Sep 12, 2022
6/13/22
Today was my last day in the Belgrade and in Serbia.
I'm writing this and thinking how I miss Belgrade and what a fun and wonderful city it is and how I could even imagine enjoying living there.
(That's saying something, I consider myself more of a countryside person)
On this last day, I took care of a couple final souvenirs and gifts, and then headed over to the Botanical Gardens, which have been on my list since I arrived.
What surprised me most was that it was hidden right in the heart of the city in a place that looked like any other urban area, at least until I stepped inside.
They had expansive, lovely grounds full of labeled trees and other specimens, a beautiful Japanese water garden, and a rich greenhouse full of a wide variety of exotic plants.
The Japanese Water Garden
The Desert House had some specimens I had never seen before, and the diversity was so rich it was overwhelming.
The Tropical Houses did not disappoint. It was dense and multi-tiered like a jungle, with species like the Ficus elastica (bottom middle) reaching the very roof of the house. Two grand banana trees created a massive canopy. Every little heap of dirt in a crevice had something beautiful growing out of it, and to my great envy and frustration, most of these were maiden hair ferns, an infamously finicky fern few folks can keep alive! The environment in the house must have been super optimal.
They were re decorating part of the entry house to create the beautiful display you see in photos 1, 3 and 4. Again, here the diversity of specimens was thrilling!
As usual, Botanical Latin names were universal, and super helpful for identifying specimens. It was also cool seeing the names in Serbian!
Outdoors, there were many more things in bloom, including Hypericum (bottom middle) and Punica granatum aka Pomegranate (bottom right). Don't you just love that tricolor sage?! (Top left)
A bee that fits so perfectly that looks as if it were designed to pollinate the uniquely shaped flowers on this Acanthus mollis.
They had a gorgeous trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) that sprawled over a brick wall. I just had to get some pictures with it!
After the gardens, I headed to my next stop.
For those of you who may not know, I am a competitive pole dancer back in the states.
Of course I didn't want to lose my strength, so I found a studio that looked awesome, and I attended another class at Invictus Studio in Belgrade!
Most everyone spoke some English, and I learned enough Serbian to count out my pushups and crunches with the group. They do tough conditioning here, and the instructors were fabulous! Such a high skill level- both instructors I studied with have won international competitions, and it was so cool to learn with them.
That evening, we had one last dinner together as a group in possibly the most beautiful restaurant in Belgrade.
As we ate, we had a view from the top of the high rise over the whole city below.
It was a bittersweet evening. There was so much I needed to do back home, but Serbia and all my colleagues became very dear to me.
As I walked through the city back to our hotel one last time, I really felt my love for this place.
One of my bucket list items while abroad was to street pole (exactly what it sounds like), and so I did a half flag on my way home!
Tomorrow, we would catch our flight back to the states.
Fulfilled and feeling all the bittersweet, I laid down to sleep.
Ćao for now!
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