Blogs from West, Serbia, Europe - page 19

A dreary day in more ways than one . . . We went to bed at midnight last night after what was a long night (relative to our day) and woke up about 9AM to a dreary gray sky and rain outside. On the one hand we need a break, but on the second I am feeling better. We will go out in a couple of hours and visit the Citadel and maybe go do some shopping for Jennifer who wants something from the many clothing shops on Kneza Mihailova. Despite the dreary day, I'd say Belgrade and the Serbs are still our favorite place and people so far. Italian in Belgrade We had lunch at Duomo, a great Italian place in the "Silicone Valley" street - great because of the food, service, and atmosphere. I ... read more

It turned out that there were only two trains each day which run from Budapest into Belgrade in neighbouring Serbia. One that goes over night and one that goes during the day. As we had alraedy booked our accommodation we were stuck with the day train and it meant that we had to skip our planned brief stop in Novi Sad. We also had difficulty changing money into Serbian currency for the trip with the exchange place at the station not stocking it. Then when we arrived in Belgrade we came across the first ATM that didnt accept Rosss Maestro card. Luckily Kerries Visa card was accepted. One other problem awaiting us in Belgrade was that not only did we not understand the Serbian language but we could also not attempt to pronounce it as everything ... read more

Hilsener sendes dere fra Beograd og Serbia. Vi kom hit for to dager siden, etter en lang og rar togreise fra Ljubljana. Toget vaart skulle gaa kl halv ni om morgenen, men det kom ikke noe tog foer halv ti. Det sto Beograd paa doera og konduktoeren hilset oss velkommen, men da vi kom fram til Zagreb to timer etterpaa kom det en brysk mann inn i kupeen og sa at dette toget ikke hadde tenkt seg videre. Saa vi maatte samle med oss alt pikkpakk og finne noen paa stasjonen som kunne forklare oss hva som foregikk. Det var ikke enkelt, de fleste var klare over at det var noe med toget men ingen var helt villige til aa fortelle oss hva. Vi ble sittende en time paa perrong nr 2, fordi dama i informasjonsskranken ... read more

The bus from Sofia to Belgrade took a lot longer than expected. The border alone took an hour because apparently, the border patrol on the Bulgarian and Serbian sides were too busy having coffee and cigarettes to immediately get to stamping our passports. When we made an unexpected stop in Nis to switch busses, I was lucky enough to meet a Macedonian girl who spoke English (no one else on the bus spoke that, German or Spanish, so I would have been really out of luck) and showed me where to switch in our tickets, where the new bus was, and covered the 10 dinar fee to "check" luggage onto the new bus (that's a new one) as I didn't have any Serbian money on me yet. She told me some really interesting stories about ... read more

So this morning, went off to this suburb part of Belgrade called Zemun.. Its just a 10 min. bus ride but it feels so different! So laid back!!! Its very nice and peaceful...I came across this church that's under renovation..Its actually the Nikolajevska Church... Bumped into a father and brother outside and they let me in! got in and wowowow! The inside was Nice!!!!!!....then the brother came over and started explaining the history and meaning of things to me!! How Nice!!!!! At the end, he gave me this cool postcard with a pullout page of photos of the town as a gift!!! ..Really friendly! Then I walked around town and happen to be able to kinda....communicate with some locals.....very pleasant...The town didn't have much but it was very comfortable walking around. Took the bus back ... read more