Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2013
One of the oldest residential buildings in Belgrade
It has survived wars and NATO bombings when buildings around it were destroyed Beautiful Belgrade...what a city! I have to say, when we first got off the bus and started walking to our hostel we were really not sure about the city we were in. Abandoned buildings, graffiti everywhere, we felt a little unsafe as we made our way down the backstreets of Belgrade to the Spirit Hostel which was to be our home for the next few nights. But the longer you spend there and the more you understand the history of what the city has been through, unattractive though it may be on the surface, the more the beauty of it grows on you. It is a city of contrasts with small underground bars found next to blaring, show-offy ‘Silicon Valley’ and by the time we left, we both thought that the longer you stayed there, the more secrets you would learn and the more you would grow to appreciate this amazing city for what it was, what it is and what it will become.
Alas, we only had three days to explore so this blog will be short and sweet, like our stay in Belgrade. We decided to start off our exploration with a little helping hand from a free
walking tour which was advertised in our hostel. Amazing. Our guide J (cannot remember his full name but he said to call him J!) was fantastic. He absolutely loved his country and that love shone through as he talked to us. He was funny, knowledgeable and even shared with us some ‘rakija’ (a home brewed plum brandy) sweetened with honey, which is a traditional drink in Serbia – and 40% proof! Yum. We had a few more of those while we were in Serbia...and in Montenegro as well! A particular story J told stands out and I am going to share it with you. During the NATO bombings in 1999 there was a particular bridge that NATO wanted to bomb to cut Belgrade off from supplies. This was a bridge built by the Serbians that they were proud of and did not want to lose. So the people of Belgrade had two choices when the sirens went off warning of an attack...hide...or save the bridge. So thousands of Belgrade-ians would go to this bridge and dance and sing and basically have a massive party on the bridge so that NATO would not destroy it...I am sure the rakija was flowing
Barges on the Siva River
Restaurants, clubs, bars... those nights! Could you imagine that on the Tasman Bridge in Hobart? Hmm...
Apart from our walking tour we did our standard of trying to get lost in the streets as we wandered around, which is of course the best way to discover a city (:D), drank Serbian coffee (or Turkish or Montenegrin coffee – all the same just different names depending on where you are!) and of course fit a night out in there as well. And what a night out it was!! Belgrade knows how to party!!! During the summer all the action takes place on barges along the Siva and Danube rivers. We took ourselves down to the Siva River to check out the nightlife, first heading to a club called Sound which bounced in the water every time a song came on that everyone liked and played the ultimate hits from the 80s right through to now, before heading to River where the house music was pumping and all us plebs were dancing around the outside watching all the plastic fantastic richy-poos dancing in the middle! Was an experience...and even though I had managed to blag us in (which Ben was very impressed with and
Victor
One of the most recognisable symbols of Belgrade if I have to admit it, so was I), we didn’t stay longer than an hour or so at River...we couldn’t get a drink!!! So at about 3am we toddled off back to our hostel, grabbing a falafel and a kebab on the way back and marvelling at the fact that we were walking through a city at that time of night that looked dodgy as all hell and yet we felt completely safe! I should also mention that it was a Wednesday night and it was pumping! Does no one sleep in this city?!?
One more story before I leave you to look at photos, but don’t worry, it is a short one. We hired bikes and cycled out along the Danube River to Zamun, a picturesque little town about 5km away. And when I say picturesque, it was gorgeous! But...we got caught in a storm and after hiding out in a cafe for a while we decided to take off in the rain to get back to our hostel...and forgot to take any photos. Whoops. Google it though, it is stunning. See, told you it was short!
Oh! I have one more story before I leave
you to it and I go to bed! We, being the conscientious Australian citizens that we are, voted while we were in Belgrade! I KNOW! And it was no easy feat, let me tell you. After cycling around (before heading out to Zamun) for about two hours looking for the Australian Embassy where our map and the internet told us it was, we gave up and decided it was not worth it and we would just go check out Zamun as planned...and lo and behold we cycled right past a huge Australian flag declaring the location of our embassy....in a completely different spot to where it was supposed to be and about 4km away! Yeesh.
Okay, rant over. Time to go to sleep. This wasn’t such a short blog after all... 😊
One last thing...anyone thinking of going to Belgrade should go...you won’t be disappointed!
Lots of love
Sarah and Ben xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.185s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 70; dbt: 0.0938s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
