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Published: June 29th 2008
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Now, I know that Belgrade is not the most obvious of holiday destinations, but it is certainly a happening place with friendly people and upbeat nightlife and lots and lots of cafes.
Apart from the lovely atmosphere of the place, one of the best things about being there is the sense of being well and truly off the beaten track, something I've never felt before not even in the middle of nowhere in Laos or India. I guess that most people think 'Belgrade, that's in Serbia, there was a war there' and quickly write it off as a no go zone. There just aren't any tourist restaurants or cafes here mainly because there aren't enough tourists to sustain them. This means that when you go into a cafe you know that it's the real deal where local Serbian people drink, not some overpriced and dumbed down place aimed souly at tourists.
The most surprising thing for me was that to look at the place you really wouldn't know that there had been war here so recently. There are no monuments, no museums, no memorials. I realised that this is probably partly because it is just too recent and partly
because there is no one clear enemy to blame and shame. It may seem obvious to us in Britain that Milosevic was an evil nutter but there are still Milosevic supporters about and it was all so complicated and nasty that there is still no evident agreed history. The one exception is the ruins of the Library which has a sign outside saying that it had been deliberately left un-repaired as a memorial, but even this is hidden down a back street and not mentioned in any guide book.
Belgrade does look more run down than other European cities I've been to (it seems that everything that stands still is grafittied) but it is still a modern, busy city with an enormous number of shoe shops. And the people here don't look poor, there are a lot of young people about with cash to spend which is very evident in some of the up market nightlife we encountered.
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We arrived at night after a 7 hour (plus 2 hour delay) train journey from Budapest. We stayed in Star Hostel which is basically just a small apartment with bunk beds. The place was full of drunken Brits
and Irish boys when we arrived and it took Sam a whole 3 minutes to get stuck into their drinking games.
After a bit a lay in we set off on a walking tour of the City, as set out in our guide book. However, we soon realised that the slight lack of road signs meant this just wasn't going to happen. So we just wondered, after coffee of course. We decided to try to fit in the jam packed itinerary that our guide book suggested. This meant 'get up late, have breakfast, wonder about a bit, have coffee, look at a church, have lunch, some more wondering, afternoon coffee, dinner, bar, club'..... and that is pretty much what we did.
During our wonderings on day 1 we did find Sveta Sava which is the (yet unfinished) largest Orthodox Church in Europe. It certainly is beautiful. The outside is almost finished but the inside is still being done. It was really interesting to see the work in progress with stacks of icons waiting to be used.
On the way back we walked past the parliament building which was stormed by anti- Milosevic protesters not that long ago.
For dinner we went to ?. Yep that is actually what it is called. Now if there is one tourist place in Belgrade this could be it, but there were still a lot of Serbians there so I'm still not sure that it counts. It is a very old traditional pub with old wooden beams and tables and wonderfully grumpy bar staff. Luckily they did have salad a bread that I could eat, apart form that and pastries Serbian cuisine just doesn’t do vegetarian.
Next we hit the nightlight!.... which starts rather later than at home so, even after getting lost, we still had to sit around for a while for it to start. The clubs that we went to were all floating on the river. They are pretty cool and have decent DJs (who do more than just change the CD) and funky decor. I got the feeling that these were all quite up market because most people reserved tables. Because we hadn't reserved we were basically told to say where we were put next to the bar. It's a far cry from the general 'free for all' at home. Still a good night out though.
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After another lay in it was time to hit the cafes again. On day 2 we wondered up to the citadel near our hostel. There are fabulous views from this old fort right out over Belgrade. The city actually looks surprisingly small form up there. To one side the Danube snakes away through forests and green countryside. If you ever have a day to spare in Belgrade, bring a book and a picnic and spend the day here.
For dinner we wondered to a lovely cobbled street full of restaurants with Gipsy bands playing. Afterwards we went in search of a bar called 'The Federal Association of Globe Trotters'. Now this may sound touristy but still doesn't qualify as a tourist bar because 1) it is mainly aimed at diplomats and expats and 2) because it is bloody hard to find and if you don't know it's there, you just don't know it's there. Putting all our trust in the Lonely Planet travel guide we pushed open a door that look like a normal apartment block with no sign outside and followed the sound of music. The bar turned out to be the most totally cool chill out zone I've encountered in Europe. All floaty music and bring coloured cushions. We spent a pleasant evening sampling the local fire water.
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On our last day we tried to check out a few small museums but they were all closed, indefinitely or just for the day I', not really sure. So we decided to check out the bomb sites, which sounds much more like the Belgrade you've heard about on the news. This proved to be highly unsuccessful however. The walk along the river was pleasant but we got caught in a storm and ended up sheltering in a shipping container with a load of Serbian workmen. When the rain had past we continued our search and ended up getting a little lost and walked so dam far we had to get a taxi back into town. There were some overgrown areas that might have been bomb site but nothing obvious.
That night we said good bye to Belgrade and took a night train to Bulgaria.
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