BREMEN

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is located on both sides of the river Weser, with its approximately 549,000 inhabitants it makes the 10th largest city of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the Hanseatic era, towards the middle of the 13th century, it developed into a flourishing commercial metropolis and is now a popular destination for visitors, holidaymakers and tourists from all over the world. Bremen is famous for the city musicians and is also one of the city's most famous sights.

The most visited and praised sightseeing places that you should visit in Bremen are:

 Bremen Roland: Bremer Roland was built on the market square in front of the town hall in 1404 and is over ten meters in size. According to an old legend, the Hansestadt is as free as the Roland statue standing and watching over the citizens.

Bremen City Musicians: Bremen City Musicians is the second well-known landmark of the city and goes back to a fairy tale of the Grimm brothers. In the fairy tale, a rooster, a cat, a dog, and a donkey accidentally meet, after having escaped the killing of their owner. Listening to the suggestion of the donkey, they go to Bremen to become city musicians.

The Bremen Cathedral: The Bremen Cathedral is located on the marketplace of the Hansestadt and is a gothic building built in the Middle Ages. Guided tours are offered through the cathedral.

The Focke Museum: The Focke Museum is the Bremen National Museum of Art and Cultural History. Here the visitor learns everything about the history of Bremen and in foam magazines so far unknown artifacts from the museum are shown multimedially.

The Schnoor quarter: The Schnoor quarter is a medieval quarter in the Hanseatic city and is characterized by narrow streets as well as half-timbered houses. It can be found in the old town of Bremen and gives an impression how the citizens of the middle ages lived and worked.

Universum Science Center: The Universum Science Center is located near the University of Bremen and offers about 250 exhibits which visitors can try out. The Science Museum was opened in the year 2000, has the shape of a whale and is divided into three themes: Expedition Man, Expedition Earth and Expedition Cosmos.

The Citizen Park: The Citizen Park is the largest private park in the Hanseatic city and is located near the old town. Bremen's citizens, visitors and tourists can relax here. There are some sights, such as the famous Marcus Fountain and the Emmabank. The reindeers can be spotted during their walks through the forests.

The Bremen Wall System: The Bremen Wall System is a fortification system and today is a parking lot which enjoys great popularity and dates back to the year 782, when a wooden wall was built around the village of Bremen in order to protect the citizens.

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It's located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. Its name translates to "White city". The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.23 million, while over 1.65 million people live within its administrative limits. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council. Belgrade is classified as a Beta- Global City.

One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city, naming it Singidūn.

In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. Northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed 44 times. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918.

During the post-war period, Belgrade grew rapidly as the capital of the renewed Yugoslavia, developing as a major industrial center. In 1948, construction of New Belgrade started. In 1958, Belgrade's first television station began broadcasting. In 1961, the conference of Non-Aligned Countries was held in Belgrade under Tito's chairmanship. In 1962, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was built.

Belgrade hosts many annual international cultural events, including the Film Festival, Theatre Festival, Summer Festival, Music Festival, Book Fair, Eurovision Song Contest 2008, and the Beer Fest. The Nobel Prize winning author Ivo Andrić wrote his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina, in Belgrade.Other prominent Belgrade authors include Branislav Nušić, Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić and Meša Selimović.

Most of Serbia's film industry is based in Belgrade. FEST is an annual film festival that held since 1971, and, through 2013, had been attended by four million people and had presented almost 4,000 films.

The city was one of the main centers of the Yugoslav new wave in the 1980s: VIS Idoli, Ekatarina Velika, Šarlo Akrobata and Električni Orgazam were all from Belgrade. Other notable Belgrade rock acts include Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori and Partibrejkers.

There are many foreign cultural institutions in Belgrade, including the Spanish Instituto Cervantes, the German Goethe-Institut and the French Institut français, which are all located in the central pedestrian area of Knez Mihailova Street. Other cultural centers in Belgrade are American Corner, Austrian Cultural Forum, British Council, Chinese Confucius Institute, Canadian Cultural Center, Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Italian Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Iranian Culture Center, Azerbaijani Culture Center and Russian Center for Science and Culture. European Union National Institutes for Culture operates a cluster of cultural centres from the EU.

Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife; many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. The most recognizable nightlife features of Belgrade are the barges (splav), spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers. Many weekend visitors prefer Belgrade nightlife to that of their own capitals, due to a perceived friendly atmosphere, plentiful clubs and bars, cheap drinks, the lack of language difficulties, and the lack of restrictive night life regulation.

The city is home to Serbia's two biggest and most successful football clubs, Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade. Red Star won the 1991 UEFA Champions League (European Cup). The two major stadiums in Belgrade are the Marakana (Red Star Stadium) and the Partizan Stadium. The rivalry between Red Star and Partizan is one of the fiercest in world football.