We have found another city to love. Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. Its strategic location has given it a battle scarred history. As one of the oldest cities in Europe, it has endured 114 wars and has been razed to the ground 44 times - we read that there is no building in the city left that is older than 250 years. For us,it is easy to quickly find the charms of a rural or small town, but cities often take more time and perseverance to get past the chaos of busy streets and discover its character and charms. What didn't take time however, was the wonderful feeling of warmth, friendliness and hospitality we felt from Serbians, and most notably the residents of Belgrade. As always for us, as travellers, it is the connections with local people and fellow travellers that make the journey worthwhile. Belgrade can be challenging at first as it lacks an infrastructure for cyclists (but they are working on that) and it lacks a ring road, thus the main road takes all traffic, including freight trucks, through the city centre. Here there is no "rush hour" as it is always rush hour. However, a ring road - including a bike lane- is presently under construction and should be completed in 2 years. Cyclists beware: at this time, Belgrade is not a bicycle friendly city. It is to our advantage that we arrived by train and have been on foot while here. Since Bratislava, Eastern European cities have lacked the infrastructure maintaining sidewalks and roads. We see this here as well. Villa Marija has proven to be an exceptional place to stay. Igor and his wife have created a comfortable home away from home with great food and warm hospitality. The location is quiet and close to trams and buses which take us into the heart of Belgrade. We appreciate the quiet after riding the crazy roads into the busy town centre. Knowing that we would be here for 5 days and needed a place to dismantle our bike, we booked ahead using booking.com - this is the first time we have prebooked accomoodation since arriving in Gatwick 4 months ago.
We wandered into this plumbing supply store in search of packing materials for our bike. They didn't speak English and they probably thought that we were crazy wanting plumbing supplies for a bike. We bought pipe insulation and zip ties to protect our bike frame. He is holding our business card with our internet journal address on it - hope he understood us enough to check out our journal and their picture.
Everywhere you go in Belgrade you see graffiti. Upon first look, in places Belgrade has a grimy, decaying exterior. However, if you give the city the time it deserves, the city and its people will reward you with wonderful hospitality and many surprises. We also saw beautiful buildings, well maintained and in good repair.
In the centre of the city is Belgrade's famed Knez Milhalova pedestrian street. We were curious about the giant astronaut. Inside the building was a special two week, free science exhibition put on by the physics department of the University of Belgrade. Physics students were donating their time to present science experiments.
While we were talking to Russell, a Romanian man approached us and said that he was a bicycle tourer as well. As you can see he was passionate about cycling. His tattoo is definitely impressive. When he found out that we want to finish our ride in Romania in the near future, then he offered us a place to stay and hoped to take a month off work and ride with us.
We had a wonderful evening at Sesir Moj, the restaurant recommended by Vuk, my travelling companion on the train from Sremski Kolovanci. Barry tried Serbian meatballs.
This tiny, packed and atmospheric restaurant also somehow found room for entertainment - magical. They struggled to think of a Canadian song, but we encouraged them to play Serbian folk songs instead.
The quartet performed at your table - the stand up bass had to play in the wings by the door as there was no room for him. Our waiter is in the background - superb, old world service.
Vuk's father had been Director at a local Culinary School - this restaurant was owned by one of his students. I showed them a note of introduction written by Vuk and they treated us with special consideration - they treated us to a Serbian appetizer and this "on the house" dessert - walnut cakes with honey, yummy!
Thank you Vuk for your recommendation - we had a wonderful and memorable evening. (We think our camera is beginning to show the effects of too many rainy days and falls! - sometimes the flash malfunctions and the picture is hazy.)
