I’m jealous! It’s been over 3 years since I was there, but unless prices have gone up enormously, it’s quite cheap. Here’s some more info on what to see: http://www.bootsnall…

I live in Beograd (Belgrade)… it’s pretty cheap comparing to EU. Nightlife is awesome here if you like electronic music. Just stay away from football fans.

Hey Iggy CHE I was wondering now I know you live in Belgrade if you could tell me the best way the get there from Budapest, I`m going to be at Buapest for 30-31st March and on April 1st I need to be at Belgrade at midday so I dont mind to travel by night or in the morning.
Thanks

You have one train connection from Budapest every morning, and two bus connections, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. I like more buses, because it’s cheaper and faster then trains. Train ride is about 8 hours, and if bus driver drives fast you can get within 5.5 hours. Also bus round ride costs around 20 euros, and train is around 35-40 euros. Bus agency is called fudeks (fudex).

Belgrade’s a pretty interesting place to visit. There aren’t many traditional tourists there, not even that many backpackers.
Because of the bad economic situation, it’s incredibly cheap there. Your money will stretch a long way I think. I used to get slices of pizza for about 50c I think, maybe less, and breadsticks for about 10c or something like that. I remember buying a bottle of wine for about a euro. It’s a fairly massive city, pretty impressive in size.

As for the people, I met some friendly ones but some people are a bit gruff with English speakers. I think it’s to do with having been bombed by the US/NATO a few years ago, every night straight for sixty or seventy nights. They sell postcards of the bombings. You can still see some tall buildings that took direct hits.

Like the guy before me who’s from Belgrade said, it has a cool nightlife. On the river, there are a series of floating nightclubs that are open all night long, pumping out really loud music across the river. Different from most other places I was at last summer.

The city and country have been cut off for a while. In the 1990s, the Serbs were portrayed as the bad guys in the civil wars. They were demonised and paid a price for it. The people are conscious that they’ve been left behind the rest of Europe. You can see the lack of money in some of the crumbling buildings and the old smoking buses. You get the impression the city has seen more grandiose times.
At the same time, all the young people I saw had top of the range mobile phones and good clothes.
The politics of the place are really interesting too. I think you’ll have a month to remember there.

Nice post man I’m really open to see other people’s opinions.

Is the American embassy still totally fortified? I remember walking past there to the Canadian embassy – what a difference!

No, it’s repainted and renewed. Stupid Americans built big Barricade all around and closed the small street behind

Also now, we have some new hi-tech buildings, new sidewalks, new buses, and pretty much everything in downtown that was old is renewed.

Really big difference for only few yeas.

I noticed some fancy new buses there. On the back of them was written ‘A gift from the people of Japan’. I’m glad someone’s throwing money in Serbia’s direction. I’d say the city will change a lot whenever the big money starts flowing in, or maybe it already has.

Nah, now there’s some new right-wing government who doesn’t wont deport those war-crime bustards (generals) to Hague (International Court of Justice), so we’re not getting any more money support. I really don’t know where the fuck are they getting that money for the city, because our economy is so SHIT (it can’t be worse)!!! Paychecks are the same like before (200-500 euros a month) and taxes are like in EU.

Eventually Serbia could get investment from the EU, if it joins. No doubt the EU would castrate the country first…

"If somebody has been there, tell me how does the city, people and places look like?? Where to go on weekends?".

The city is huge. The downtown part is on a hill. Beneath there’s a river spanned by some huge bridges. The city looks different but not so different from others in that part of Europe but it feels different.
I couldn’t find many ATMs that took my card. There’s a McDonalds but not tons of restaurants as far as I could see. They show movies in English with subtitles in the cinemas. You might notice lots of Russian tourists in the summer. I think they were Russian.
The old castle above the city is worth a walk around.
In summer, when it’s hot, hundreds of thousands of people head out to a huge lake in a park. The water is like green soup but it doesn’t bother people. It’s a sea of humanity down there.
I was expecting people to look more Slavic. Some do. Others have some influence from the Turkish occupation, so they look more southern European. The young people speak good English.
Once you get there ask them about good places to hang out.
I heard there were decent places within reach of the city for day-trips.
Do buy the postcard which shows the city being bombed. If you send it to the US it might not go down too well as it shows the various screen shots from news channels of the bombings, followed by one of a crowd burning the stars and stripes. Real novelty postcard.

quote:Do buy the postcard which shows the city being bombed. If you send it to the US it might not go down too well as it shows the various screen shots from news channels of the bombings, followed by one of a crowd burning the stars and stripes. Real novelty postcard.

Phil,

I sent the Chinese Embassy one to my friend in San Fran with the caption "Now this is Chinese Take out." It never arrived.

Although the post date was September 10, 2001 which may have had something to do with it.

At least you had ATMs! We had to change all our money at the border!

I want to go to Belarus before they get regime-changed. It’s ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ supposedly.

I think Europe’s next dictatorship will be called the EU…

I think Trans Dniestra is as well, although that is part of Moldova.

I was really supprised with belgrade….allthough was only there for a day an a half I had a good time…..when I planned my trip I didnt plan on serbia,but a expired visa from bulgaria along with some other unplanned travel woes(as in I didnt plan a thing) I ended up there.At first I was a little uneasy being american,1st time in europe and alone….after meeting a friendly girl to show me around I had a really good time.All in all I would and want to go again as the little taste of the city I got I liked.
Now I would recomend as weekend trips….macedonia(lake ohrid)and also sofia(hopefully I’ll be there)as there close,cheap and nice

Reading all this made everything easiest.And much more intersting. I`ve looking some pictures of Belgrade and look pretty cool. I am not going to forget what you said about the floating nighclubs. But is it true there are few ATMS??? I`m Matercard or do you recomend me to take cash??

Thanks a lot.

It’s not as westernised as you might expect. There weren’t so many ATMs in the city centre. I had to run around to find one that accepted Cirrus. With Mastercard, you’ll be ok I think.

quote:
At least you had ATMs! We had to change all our money at the border!

Still, we got to feel rich for a while. I think I changed 300 DM, and they changed that into 50 dinar notes or something else that was really small. I remember having so much cash I didn’t even know where to put it! It sure didn’t all fit into my money balt or wallet.

quote:

quote:
At least you had ATMs! We had to change all our money at the border!

Still, we got to feel rich for a while. I think I changed 300 DM, and they changed that into 50 dinar notes or something else that was really small. I remember having so much cash I didn’t even know where to put it! It sure didn’t all fit into my money balt or wallet.

I know that feeling In the 2001, I think that 1dm was 15 dinars, and at that time the biggest bill was 100 dinars. Know we have up to 5000 dinar bills, and 10 and 20 dinars you have both in coins and bills. Smallest coin is 0.5 dinars (50 paras) now. Watch out because old coins (before year 2000) are not excepted anymore.

I can remember seeing an old one that was in the millions, but looked like the old 50 or 100, but a hell of a lot more zeros. Identical though. I guess it was priduced during the hyperinflation of the war.

I remember that stack of cash well seraph! I recall them counting off a few bills, giving us the remaining stack then two more. I think it was 250+ bills at a single time.

I really had to splurge at the train station to get rid of it all (beer, porn and cigarettes)

Hey Iggy,

I am going to be heading through Belgrade in a few weeks…. Where would you recommend to stay? I will probably spend 2-3 days there. reply here or email me at scott-at-mackeybros.com

cheers.

hi seraphim!

i am also interested in visiting Belgrade. It’s a cultural capital with a capital C (sorry, corny sentence!)

The nightlife is amazing I hear. The really cool fm4 radio station from Vienna has a few English language articles on travelling throughout the region, mostly with a young modern twist:
http://fm4.orf.at/en…
http://www.echofest….

It’s cool that they are featuring lots of DJs from Sarajevo and Ljubljana!

@Smackey

It depends of your budget. Most people stay in 4 stars hotel "Moskva". It’s really in the downtown of the city.

My budget is cheap and i like to meet people being that I am alone. =) Hotel Moskva sounds expensive.

Hi everybody, Now I am in Beograd. The city it`s great, it is pretty different to another cities. Peopple are really friendly and mayority speaks english. Trasnportation its excelent and cheap. Food and drinks are really cheap. But PLEASE if you are not staying in a hotel ask were do can get registered to the police. Because i had a problem today with the police for not having with me a permission. so ask to anybody because when you are going out of serbia they won`t let you leave withuot this permission.
Women are beatiful!!!!!!
Alex

you lucky bastard! hopefully I will get out there this summer.