We thought we would never get there but we finally arrived in Belgrade. Our flight from Toronto to Halifax went smoothly, but then we had a 30 hour delay in Halifax, an 8 hour stop over in Frankfurt followed by another few hours flying on to Serbia. We landed at about 10:30pm so once we got out of the airport and found the right bus to get to our area it was already pushing midnight. Both feeling tired and grumpy we found the street that our hostel was located on thinking the finish line was in sight, but even though we knew the street number for the hostel the numbers on the buildings seemed to be in no apparent order..... we needed 23, but 21 and 22 were at one end of the street while the rest of the 20's we found 2km up the road. No 23 anywhere. After another hour of tears, sweat and some yelling at eachother we finally found the little A4 piece of paper that was the sign for the hostel. Our original plan of 5 nights here had been cut to 3 after our delay but we still found this to be enough time. It was a place that we had never really thought about visiting, so if it wasn't for Kaz's friend wanting to go there for a cosplay convention we may never have given it a chance. While all the guide books say this is still an up and coming tourist destination we found plenty to fill our time with and were intrigued by the history of the area.
We met our friends from back home, Kan and Leah, at the hostel after they had similar delays to us leaving Australia. Leah rushed off to her Japanism cosplay convention while the rest of us caught up on some sleep. That night we headed to the lovely Skardalja district for dinner at a nice restaurant that translates to 'The Hat'. We were relieved to discover that most people spoke English and things are cheap, which was a wonderful change from our last 2 weeks spent in New York and Canada. We enjoyed a shared dinner of mixed meat and local beer/grape brandy.
The following morning we headed to the Kalemegdan citadel, a fortress that is one of Belgrade's main attractions and is also free, which puts it in my price range. The fortress itself was interesting, the views over the city and rivers were great and there was a beautiful little café at the top of it.
On the way back we wandered through Knez Mihailova mall before bussing out to Ada Ciganjila, a man made island in the middle of the river. We enjoyed bevvies in a beachside cafe while soaking up the beach vibe, watching hundreds of people cram themselves onto the small stretch of pebbly shore to get some sun or enjoy a dip. We thought we had left the iconic massive slices of pizza back in New York but they seem to be just as big here in Eastern Europe. So for an easy dinner we grabbed a slice and a beer and enjoyed some live music back in the mall in town.
The next day we caught a bus to Novi Sad, Serbia's second largest city, to meet up with one of Leah's new friends from Japanism, Bojan. He took us hiking in nearby Fruska Gora National Park where we were eaten alive by mosquitos. When I say we, I mean Karen. The heat was also a factor but we were rewarded with stunning views from a lookout which always makes it all worthwhile. Bojan then showed us the sites of his city, which was rather subdued after an attack by a crazed gunman in a nightclub the previous night. The town centre was gorgeous with its pastel painted buildings, churches, cathedrals, cafe-lined streets, street lanterns with flower pots and botanic gardens. There was another imposing fortress on the opposite river bank. There was also a war memorial commemorating the innocent people who had been thrown into the frozen river and left to die under the ice during World War II. This coupled with the bombed buildings we saw in Belgrade (media buildings that were attacked during the war in the 1990s) were reminders about the region's sad history.
We enjoyed hamburgers for lunch that came highly recommended by Bojan, he didn't let us down. We followed this up with a gelati and then a coffee at a local cafe, so quite the indulgent afternoon. Safe to say the going was pretty slow after this. We stopped by a supermarket where Bojan was excited to help Leah stock up on local chocolates and sweets to take back home for her kids, I also found a brand of chips called "Josh" which I was very excited about. Small things....
Back in Belgrade we saw more of the city by night, including the famous Saint Sava Cathedral and the House of National Assembly before catching a flight to Dubrovnik the next day.
Definitely a fascinating place worth a visit, even if we only just scratched the surface.
