Belgrade

I arrived in Belgrade only to find one of the ugliest and dirty cities I had ever seen. The train ride into Belgrade gives you an idea about how dirty it is. Gypsies occupy the area near the train tracks and live in shanties build with ply board, plastic tarps and used tires. Little kids walk around on the roofs of these places and just stare into the train windows, like they have never seen such a thing before. I stepped off the train and was instantly attacked by bugs I'd never seen before and noticed not a word was wrote in the Latin alphabet. I pulled out my journal that had my directions to my hostel sketched in it, but until this point I didn't realize how vague they were. They read "Cross street, find bld. 91." I walked out of the train station and was met by heavy traffic and no crossing points. The air was dusty and muggy and it was so hot the only thing I could focus on was how I wanted to just lay in a shower of cold water. Eventually I crossed the street and looked for the building numbers. I didn't expect from this first encounter that I would like this city so much, or that I would even recommend people to come here.

The first one I saw was 5....and my heart dropped. How could they be so rude to make the directions sound so easy. But I had a clever idea....I would walk backwards and see what happened. And luckily this was exactly what I needed to do, I followed the road the other direction and found building 91. But it was just a regular apartment building. I said to myself "this will be interesting." I rang the bell to the sixth floor and they let me in. Inside it was dark and straight ahead, up the first set of stairs was a dog laying on its side--its eyes piercing in my direction. I tried not to be frightened by its defensive stance and walked right by it, and up 12 flights of stares to the 6th floor. And while I was prepared for the worse, I actually had found a really nice hostel. The staff was really nice and the people there were really friendly. Though they were hosting 2 locals who were living in the hostel and working somewhere in town and they caused a bit of trouble with the girls and the staff, but they were practically harmless as long as you blocked them out.

Right away I met a Spanish girl in my dorm and while we planned to go to town together something came up and she went out alone. Then I met a Serbian man named Oliver who told me he was going out to explore with this Swedish girl and that I should come along...and I figured being with a Serbian would be really helpful so I said yeah.

Oliver had been living in the French Alps for the last few months and was on his way back home, but decided to spend some time in the capital. As soon as we walked out he asked a man where to find the Bohemian quarter of Belgrade, and they talked for about 3 minutes before Oliver waved us over to the man's car and told us to get in. Nina (Swedish girl) and I were a bit skeptical; Oliver could see it on our faces and said "These are my people, there is no reason to be scared. I will not let anything happen." And so we decided to get in. Then the man driving explained that there was a lot of construction in that area and that it was to hard to describe the route, plus he was going that way anyway so he might as well have taken us. We drove for about 10 minutes and then walked up and over for about 6, stopping every 2 minutes to wait for Oliver who would ask directions, each time starting in a different language, seeing if people would get confused. And they did.

We stopped at a bar where Oliver had friends, and sat for a beer and to get to know each other a little bit. Oliver had spent his last few years traveling all over the world (pretty impressive for a Serbian, considering the amount of visas they have to get to go to countries just beside them). And Nina had also spent a lot of time in her life traveling.

In the bohemian quarter is something I didn't expect from Serbia. It was something I'd never seen other than on the movies. There was live music that would go from table to table playing romantic and nationalistic songs (an accordion, a few guitars and a bass). We went and sat at one and instantly Oliver started making song requests, and they played for us for about an hour, each time singing really loudly and all together. Oliver got really drunk and kept giving them money making requests. It was really fun, and something I surely did not expect.

From my experience, Belgrade was a city of hidden gems and great contrast. It was not a rich city and still had not repaired a lot of buildings from the war. So from time to time you will just stumble upon a building that is half destroyed. Also there is mix of classical architecture and communistic buildings. And it isn't like Zagreb where they are kind of spaced out, in Belgrade they are right next to each other and all over the city. Also Belgrade has a really nice fortress that has been converted into a park, and this is probably the best part of the city, because it is so large, and really beautiful.

Another section of the city is where Josip Bronz Tito is buried. This part of town is really obscure...mostly because it is in the middle of nothing. You are just walking through a really typical part of town and then a really dirty park and suddenly there is museums and really fancy houses...but everything around it is incredibly plain and empty. And it is kind of far from the center.

Oliver then asked a woman where a good place to eat was, and instead of just telling us, she told us she would take us. So we walked, and walked, and walked. It was too bizarre, the lengths people were helping us. It was a traditional restaurant that was directly across from the Orthodox cathedral. The place had opened in the mid-to-late 1800s and aside from electricity and expected upgrades it had barely changed...or so said the waiter. We ate some food and treated the woman with a coffee for showing us the place. After eating we walked back to the hostel and I fell asleep.

The next day I went with the Swedish girl to Titos grave, and after she left for her train I went to the fortress part of town and walked all over the upper part of Belgrade only to find myself in the bohemian part of town. I had a cup of coffee and then returned to the hostel to cook some dinner. After eating I was sitting in the common room of the hostel, listening to music and writing when 6 Norwegian girls asked me if I wanted to play some card games with them. So I played the games and we talked about travels and stuff. All 6 of them were traveling together but 3 were fly back home the next day while the others were going to Sofia and then Istanbul. We soon discovered that we planned to take the same night train to Sofia and decided to travel together.

The next day I showed the Norwegian girls around because I had seen more than they had, and I was sure I'd caught the most important parts (plus it was nice to have company). We drank coffee and then went to eat, trying to pass time until our night train at 9:15. After walking around, sitting around, and looking around the hour finally came for us to catch our train.

Like I said, my experience of Belgrade was very bizarre. But it was a really great place and something that makes traveling all the more worth it.

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Part of trip: Europe Trip 2

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