All of the Balkan countries are also high on my list of destinations, particularly Serbia. I'd met a Serbian fellow in Cusco and he was as nice as they come and spoke highly and proudly of his country, insisting that I should visit. I knew I would like it. As with Romania, I am intrigued by its recent history. None of these countries are what you'd call typical destinations in a sense and to that extent many of us don't know much about them. That alone is enough to pique my interest. These spots are about as off the beaten path as you can get in this part of the world these days. And they are still relatively cheap.
I learned about the big Sziget music festival in Budapest while I was in Thailand. Budapest was on my itinerary so I made a plan to go during the festival, August 12-18, and go to at least one day. I'd already booked my hostel. This meant that by the time I got out of Romania I had 10 days before I had to get to Budapest. Ideally I'd have liked to have hit Belgrade for a few days and hopped over to Sarajevo and Dubrovnik before making my way to Novi Sad and in to Hungary, but that would have meant hours on bad trains, ugly border crossings and only a couple of days in each spot. That's not generally the way I like to roll. That said, 10 days is a bit more than I wanted to spend in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Chill out time.
The train journey behind me, I successfully navigated myself with little difficulty to the hostel I'd booked on hostelworld.com using the address and map in my Rough Guide where it is also listed. This is no easy feat as Serbia uses the Cyrillic alphabet and for some stupid reason the map in the guide book uses the Roman alphabet translations. Okay I could work around that but there's one problem. They'd moved since the last edit of my guide book! Shit. Now what? I asked the lady in the L'Occataine shop next door and she knew of the hostel and directed me to its new location. Thanks to sketchy directions in broken English and poor signage, I still couldn't find it and by now I've had my 15 kg. pack on for some time and it was pushing 30 degrees. What now? I need internet so I can check my booking confirmation and get the right address and directions. I can't find an internet café anywhere close by. Shiiiiit. Wait. I know. I'll go to another hostel nearby. Sometimes my brilliance astounds me. I find one only a few blocks away. They know it and provide me with a map, in Cyrillic and directions.
The Star Hostel, once found, is great ($20). It's small, and has a friendly and helpful staff and a common area that made it easy to meet other travelers. The neighbourhood is great too. It has a lower east side Manhattan feel. The street is tree-lined and quiet. Sidewalk cafes dot both sides from one end to the other. It's a few blocks down the hill from Revolution Square and the pedestrian street, Kneza Mihailova, and the fortress and its park is just around the corner. Every day was sunny and hot. I really, really like this town.
Belgrade is home to the highest concentration and number of absolutely gorgeous women in the world, and they dress well. 'nuff. said. Overall the people watching ranks high as well. You'll always find a couple of buskers going on Kneza Mihailova, especially at night. I'll never forget the three kids, brothers and sisters, none of them over the age of 12, a violin, cello and an accordion, rockin' out some traditional Romanian folk. Kick-ass. They always drew a big crowd. I stuffed a hundred in their box. There was a big concert in the park by the fortress on Saturday night. The clubs are too numerous to mention and they are packed seven days a week.
Belgrade is a café culture. I became a regular at two great little coffee shops near my place where cappuccinos were just under two bucks. Nena at Music Star Café made the best ones in town and delivered them with the biggest smile. She took the time to show me her new high-heel shoes. When returning home from a long walk one day I discovered a neat little corner bar, Centrala Topli Napili, that served up delicious cold Niksicko Pivo (beer) on tap for only 95 dinar (under two bucks). I had the same waiter each time. I walked past the place on my way to the train station at around 10 a.m., he was setting up and waved goodbye to me. As a matter of reference, you could expect to pay as much as $4 for the same beer on the pedestrian street.
Serbian food is actually pretty good, especially the pizzas, despite what the Alberto and the rest of the Italian boys say. Go to Tivos right by the square. A delicious slice was only 70 dinar (50 dinar to a buck.). Two would make a meal and you could chase it with a .5L can of cold beer from a stand around the corner for 85 dinar. There's burek, meat or cheese filled pastries that make a meal in themselves and don't cost much more than a buck. You can get pljeskavica, which are colossal hamburgers, Romanian style, delicious and only around three dollars. You can get them with sausages instead of a meat patty too. Another good one is karadorde vsnicla, a breaded veal cutlet rolled and stuffed with cheese that the Rough Guide correctly describes as 'gut busting'. In a proper restaurant this dish wouldn't cost more than around $8. A whole pizza would be 300 to 400 dinar. I never paid more than $3 for a beer. The strangest thing was walking past the Scottish Pub and seeing Serbians wearing kilts.
Early one evening I sat down for a beer in one of the many spots on my street. There were two chairs and two stools at the table. I wanted to kick back and put my feet up but I was pretty sure the stools were seats, not footstools. I looked over and a couple of locals were using them as leg rests so I figure it's okay and I put my legs up, careful to keep my feet off the stool. The waiter came, took my order and asked me to put my feet down. Of course I felt a little stupid and apologized. When he came back with my beer, I explained that I thought it was okay because the two fellows adjacent had their legs up. When I ordered my next beer it was on the house! I insisted on paying but he would not let me.
I was shopping for some knock off Ray Bans on the pedestrian street and came upon a guy with a rack at which three British girls were trying on some glasses. They were asking the guy if they had UV protection. I laughed and asked how much they cost. They're like 20 bucks. I said, 'no, there's no UV', continuing to laugh. I mean really. Anyway, dude didn't like it and starts to wave me off, saying 'bye' rather loudly. I thought he was kidding and said 'but I want to buy some glasses' and kept looking. He kept at it, wave and 'bye'. I said, 'you're kidding right?' Nope. So I said, 'okay, fine', and bought some at a spot up the road. Kinda funny really.
Other than that the people were pretty personable and helpful. Nobody ever hassles you and you never got attitude. As for sightseeing, you could do it all in a day or two at most. Of note were the bombing sites where they left intact the bombed out ruins of what I think were a couple of military administrative buildings. Another funny thing was walking to the museum of contemporary art only to find it fenced off and completely under renovation. It's on all the things to do lists and nobody at the hostel was aware that it was closed. The city has 12 daily newspapers! Hawkers are out on the streets every morning and evening. It seems the Serbs are voracious readers. There was a daily demonstration at Revolutions square in support of the deported ex leader, Radovan Karadzic. Good to know there's not much support for the guy.
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