Visit to Belgrade!
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2005
1
9
Trip End
Sep 01, 2007
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Beograd, Serbia and Montenegro
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Destination: Belgrade (Beograd), Serbia
What a great city! Caroline, Kylie and I set off for Serbia by train from Romania in the middle of the night, which is always an adventure. We tried to sleep thru most of it, but the trains aren't usually sleep inducive. When we finally arrived we decided to just walk to our hostel and boy was that some uphill hiking! We ended up staying at the 3 Black Cats hostel in the Old City Center which I totally recommend b/c of location and the cool staff. It's a small hostel, but we met some really cool people that were staying there and had some really interesting/enlightening conversations. Over the 4 days alot of people were in and out and we only met one other American...but he seemed a little shady if you ask me. He was totally interested in the work I was doing overseas but didn't want to divulge ANY of what he was doing. Creepy.
I was pretty impressed with Beograd (yes, we pronounce it with an 'L', but they don't...and this is how they spell it). It was more westernized than what I expected and they still use a lot of cyrillic there, so I was able to read and understand the street signs in getting us around town. Now, in many of the touristy areas they do have the english version as well, and with maps you are fine anyway. I found the people there to be friendly and helpful. It was very interesting learning about the Yugoslavian history and I actually went to a Military Museum and yes, did see artifacts from the NATO attacks on Serbia (Yugoslavia). And, yes, that included remnants of US Military planes, bombs, and Army gear. Now that was weird and freaky to see.
I was impressed by the shopping district downtown, the 4-level International bookstore, the restaurants, and the museums. I found the best chocolate ever at a Chocolatier downtown - wish I could remember the name - because they had Red Pepper flavored Dark Chocolate. AWESOME. talk about an interesting twist to chocolate!
So when you go to Beograd, you must the Beograd Fortress and Kalemegdan, now the Military Museum is inside the Fortress but I wouldn't rank it very high as practically NONE of it is in English. They do not have english versions on tape either. It was just a walk thru museum and no tour guide accompanied us. However, when you are walking past the ice skating part in that area and you go under the bridge leading you toward the exit, there is a small military pin shop that is fabulous for getting memorabilia. The guy working in there speaks english and can tell you the history on any of the thousands of pins he has. He also has a great collection of old Yugoslovian money and postcards.
We had some really fun times in Beograd, they have great nightclubs, with awesome music where we danced the night away. They actually had a great Jazz club too called the Sinatra bar that we really enjoyed. There was one night we were chased out of one of the bars by a drunk trying to hit on us...it was kinda freaky. However, some locals actually tried to assist us by stopping him and talking with him for awhile but he caught up to us as we walked up to some twenty-somethings and asked them if they spoke english and then if they would just pretend to know us till we could get rid of him. It worked!
One of the first days we were there we met a girl, Britta, from Denmark that was staying at our Hostel and doing some solo travels around Europe. Well, she was really cool and so she joined us for the rest of our trip and the four of us had a great time meeting other new people, having great conversations, and checking out the city.
I hope to get back there some day and do some more traveling outside the city. Many of the people we met were traveling back and forth from Beograd to Kosovo and doing a comparison and historical reflexion of the two cities. I'd love to do that too...and see more of the countryside and coastline, which is just breathtaking.
The girl that we met from Denmark, Britta, she ended up going back to Romania with us and doing some traveling there. Her and I stayed with another PCV in Timisoara, RO for a few nights so I could show her around that city. Then she went on to catch up with Kylie in Craiova and do some traveling with her. And ya know...that's what traveling is all about...meeting new people, learning about different cultures, and creating lasting friendships! Here-Here to a great trip!!
