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Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade » Vranic June 9th 2013

Novi Sad and Belgrade, Serbia (Srbija) 4 to 8 June 2013We come to Serbia to mainly see 2 places, Novi Sad and the capital Belgrade (Beograd) and learn quickly that it is a country of much to see, beautiful cliff lined River Danube in the north, quaint little country villages, good and terrible roads, friendly people, wide rural regions, with wheat, maize and canola crops as well as row cropping. It is green and has been wet on and off. The River Danube flows down through its centre.Men are prominent in this country (only from an outsider’s observation so we may be incorrect). When we arrive at a local restaurant, particularly in the rural areas, we mainly see men socializing…loudly.We come here a little reticent but leave with confidence that they are trying to improve facilities ... read more
Around City Square Novi Sad Serbia (16)
Around City Square Novi Sad Serbia (19)
Around City Square Novi Sad Serbia (27)

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade May 1st 2013

Belgrade, Serbia Der Kleine Prinz tied up in downtown Belgrade not far from an ancient fortress that overlooks the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. We had a stroll through the fortress from the top of which I could see what is known as “new” Belgrade. I would have loved to spend some time walking around the downtown area of old Belgrade but we were instead only driven around the city by bus. What I did see was what could be a beautiful city that needs a lot of sprucing up. It suffers from years of poor construction during the communist years, damage during WWII and most recently in the late 1980s and early 90s when it was bombed by NATO forces. We passed the bombed out military headquarters building as ... read more
Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade April 10th 2013

It was a country (that used to be), which I came to know about from playing erasers with country flags on them. Basically each eraser has a country’s flag and name imprinted on it and the game revolves around getting one’s eraser on top of opponent’s one, thus ‘conquering’ it. That’s also how I got introduced to many countries that still would sound foreign to some. Hah, childhood game with educational value! Anyway, the story would not be about the childhood but about the concretizing and then materializing of plans to visit parts of former Yugoslavia. I was intrigued by the history of the country that used to be. I was puzzled why that word Yugoslavia was consigned to history textbooks, especially when I grew up with the notion that it is (was) a great kingdom. ... read more
Of the Fortress
Museum of the History of Yugoslavia
The revolutionary, 'President for Life'

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade February 7th 2013

Sadly, I have had almost no time to sit and reflect. I've told people about Paris & Belgrade and processed the photos on to Facebook but I haven't sat and written this, and now it's October. 10 months later. So this will be a short entry, writing about Paris and about Belgrade (one after another in February) but in the spirit of the travel blog I want to record my journeys, so here goes. We went to Paris as part of an Awesome/2 Morons deal. I don't know if you remember, waaaay back, when I went to Rome for three days with a couple of Swedes for a conference, and had an absolutely amazing time running around Rome, having loads of adventures and learning about how fantastic people can be - Cristiano, my couch surfing host ... read more
Snow in Paris
Snow in Paris
I won cheese!

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade November 18th 2012

As a certain former manager of a team in the North West once said: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that" And so it is with the eternal derby of Serbia. At least twice a season, to the supporters of both Red Star and Partizan, this fixture becomes much more important! The 143rd meeting on 17 November was no exception, so it was with much excitemnt and a little trepidation that we finally left the comfort of FK Rad's bar and took the 10 minute bus ride down the road to the Marakana. The bus took a slight diversion from it's normal route and skirted past the ticket offices of Partizan. They were ... read more
Marakana 1
Grobari Partizan
Crvena Zvezda v Partizan

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade November 18th 2012

They say there is no rest for the wicked. It is the same for football fans. The tour leader always has an actioned packed diary of events to attend, so Sunday morning saw an early start for Hajduk Beograd v FK Zemun. The second experience with the famous Zemun Dragons..... well they think they are famous anyway. Hajduk ............ Lion ........ play in the Belgrade district of the same name, but curiously have a dove on their club badge. They carry the nickname, Pigeons. When was the last time a pigeon worried a dragon? It didn't happen today either! The usual random stadium photos ensued. A disused ticket hut shot. A policeman exchanged glances with the Man in the Middle. Mad was the joint conclusion. Shaking of the heads was a mutual reaction. It was 300 ... read more
Beograd 6
Zemun Dragons 1
Hajduk Beograd

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade November 17th 2012

The rain had cleared the next morning. Breakfast in the hotel was a lot busier. The weekend had almost arrived and the foreigners were beginning to surface for the big match. A hefty looking German sported his Grobari t-shirt. We worried for his future out in the real world. After breakfast, we went on our own military mission .... back to the Military Museum in the Belgrade Fortress. We skipped the bows and arrows bit and went straight to the sections on the First Serbian Uprising and the First World War. A group of Serbian military were on a guided tour. They seemed oblivious to the temperature and kept their thick winter coats on. An afternoon followed in the Melody Bar. It was meant to be a pub crawl, but we got comfortable. The beer was ... read more
Kalemegdan
Kalemegdan Market 1
Kalemegdan Market 3

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade November 15th 2012

An England Under 21 game. A last minute away victory. Missiles from the crowd. Players fighting. A red card. Coaching staff fighting. Alleged racist chanting and abuse from the crowd towards England players. Arrest warrants issued against a number of English and Serb players and coaches. Hostile rhetoric in the press in England. My cyrillic is not up to scratch or I might find that the Serb press was none too thrilled about it all either. A good time to go back to Serbia then! The usual preconceptions cast aside and doubters dismissed, it was time to get on with my 4th excursion to Serbia. The Man in the Middle is back for his 2nd visit too - last seen checking out a Trabant in East Berlin - keen to get his fill of Derby action. ... read more
Belgrade Fortress
National Parliament
Hotel Slavija

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade October 17th 2012

July 23rd Ah the joy of cockroaches; there’s nothing like turning on the light and seeing them scurry away. Made my way down to the sports store where Ildiko works to say goodbye. she has been great and I’m really going to miss her; she has been guide, translator, animal sympathiser :p the train isn’t exactly the Ritz, it’s grubby, a couple of the seats are busted, and there’s a faint aroma of urine on the air… but hey, it’s cheap, I’m on the right train, and the ticket collector DIDN’T frown at my ticket and tell me I was in the wrong place, so I’m happy. There is an interesting mix of old and new in Serbia; I just saw a horse drawn wagon full of hay amongst all the cars stopped at the railway ... read more
Burek!
View from the top

Europe » Serbia » West » Belgrade August 28th 2012

As this is the second time I have written this blog after not saving it, I wouldn’t expect too much. Frustration aside, I will begin again…we arrived in Belgrade after a beautiful train trip where we basically had the entire cart to ourselves so we were able to spread ourselves out quite comfortably. When we arrived at the train station we knew which tram we needed to catch and where to get off, but we could not at all find ticket stations, so we just hopped on and had a free trip, the driver seemed to be happy for us to not pay. We were happy with the location of the hostel being in the centre and close to everything we wanted to see and do. We arrived to a hostel owner who was keen to ... read more
Zindan Gate
River Danube
Streets of Belgrade




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