Belgrade Travel Guide

Belgrade is not a beautiful city. People from Belgrade will not be offended by this and even wholeheartedly agree and quote Le Corbusier, a French architect who was even harsher in his view about this city: “Belgrade is an ugly city…” When I meet travelers who say that they had been to Belgrade or want to go there, I always wonder what has gotten into their mind because the city was ugly. Although I like city and people, I came for entirely different reason than tourism, which I wrote about in Closure, my travel diary about Serbia.

I don’t remember much of what I saw on the streets of Belgrade since I felt in a daze most of the time I was there. A local Serbian friend I met on a trip to Andorra took me around showing me the city and gave me free lectures about the city, historical and touristic sights. She saved me the horror of navigating a big polluted city all by myself. She walked very fast, and I felt like a pony strung along by a leash. “Cindy, stop. This is where so and so happened. Next. He did this and that here. Next. And next.”

Unless you visit friends, attend an event, have a “fictional” personal issue to resolve as I did, which I described in my travel diary Closure, or you are in search for a southeastern European goddess, I don’t see why you would want to travel to this city. (What do I mean by Southeastern European goddess? I thought that the Bosnian and Croatian women were beautiful, but the Bosnian women commented that the Serbian women were even more so, “Wait until you come to Serbia,” they said to me.

Trip brainstorm

– Republic Square, also called ‘by the horse’, is a favorite meeting place for locals in the heart of Belgrade. Just tell the other person to meet you at the statue of Prince Mihailo Obrenoic riding a horse.

– The National Museum is right on the square. Who wants to visit the National Museum anyway?  I don’t unless it’s cold or raining, or I’m completely bored out of my mind. Sit down in a coffeehouse on Skadarlija (Skadarska), a pedestrian street filled with restaurants and cafes that having live bands performing in the evenings.

–  The Residence of Princess Ljubica (Konak engine Ljubice) is another tourist attraction.

– See the Kalemegdan Citadel, situated at the end of Knez Mihailova, the main pedestrian street in Belgrade. This citadel is more of a local hangout than a tourist attraction, but that’s why it’s more special. You’ll find parents walking with small children, old men playing chess, kissing lovers oblivious to the bystanders. If you happen to be there in the evening, make sure you stay and watch the sunset. It sounds a little bit cheesy, but watching the sunrise/sunset is still one-of-those-things people want to do, and it’s much nicer when you do it in a foreign place. From the western lookout of the citadel to the direction of the sunset, you can see the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.

– In the summer, you can ride a bike, inline skate, swim, water ski, bungee jump at Ada Ciganlija artificial lake.

– If you are a political buff who are interested in current events, you might want to visit the National TV and the radio station that were bombed by NATO in 1998 as a punishment to Serbia’s war with Kosovo. The buildings are completely destroyed, and you’ll see a lot of burned walls and shattered glasses. The government leaves them in this current state to create an open-air museum that reminds people not to forget.

Eat

Serbian cuisine, similar to other Balkan countries, has a lot of grilled meats, sausages, local cheeses, and bread.  A small portion of fresh, healthy Balkan salad is usually served along with the main course.  There are very few ingredients in the salad, mainly tomato, onion or cabbage, cucumber and Balkan cheese lightly soaked in light, non-packaged dressing prepared from olive oil and vinegar.  Grilled meat in Serbia (and the rest of former Yugoslavia) is delicious and usually not available in other Western countries unless you visit a Croatian or Serbian restaurant. But even so, the quality of the meat isn’t the same.  Cevapi and pljeskavica are two types of grilled meat.  They are made from a mixture of lamb, pork, and beef, grilled with onions, and served hot on fresh somun, a kind of pita bread. Some compare pljeskavica to American hamburger which I think is a huge insult, not to McDonald but the people from this region. One is freshly prepared from family recipes while the other is mass-produced and laced with chemicals.

My recommendation to you, when in Serbia eat burek, cevapi or pljeskavica before trying anything else assuming you want to eat anything else after that.

Accommodation Belgrade

Transportation

• Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) is 12 kilometers west of the city center, home base of Jat Airways, Serbia’s major airline.  Low-cost airlines, in the last few years, start to fly here. WizzAir has direct flights from London, Eindhoven, Memmingen, Gothenburg, Malmo, Charleroi, Rome, Stockholm and Dortmund.
• The central train station, where all international and domestic trains stop, is only 1 km away, or 15 minutes on foot, from the Republic Square.
• Belgrade’s central bus station is next to train station. Lasta, Serbian Eurolines carrier, is a major bus company, which has services to Europe.
• Trams in Belgrade are very old; I was told they were donated or bought for dirt-cheap prices from richer countries like the Czech Republic. When Czech upgrades their trams, they give away old ones to Serbia.
• Trams in Belgrade are very old; I was told they are donations or cheap buy from richer countries, the Czech Republic as an example.  When Czech upgrades their trams, they give away old ones to Serbia.

Sample Costs

Guidebooks

Photos of Belgrade

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