Belgrade, Serbia - 44.8125° N, 20.4612° E - Part 1 - 0825Z08MAR25
By the time I landed in Belgrade, also known locally as Beograd, it was a wintry dark, and I was exhausted. Fortunately I had a driver waiting for me, so the trip to V's apartment was a short one. Up a couple of flights of stairs, a quick rap on the door, and I was happily invited in by V's groovy niece; for the sake of anonymity, and humour, I'll call her Erika.
Erika had rolled out the welcome mat. Magnificent food had been prepared, and I was given a tour of the place. Welcome to Serbia!
So, Belgrade.
Belgrade is old. Think thousands and thousands of years. Apparently first inhabited in roughly 5700 BC. It has suffered invasion after invasion, after invasion, and yet it moves forward. Of the numerous peoples that have been there, in no specific order, some of them were the Celts, Thracian's, Romans, Slav's, Ottomans. In the previous century, Belgrade became the capital of the newly formed Yugoslavia, which fell after, again, a series of horrifically brutal wars.
The city is situated on the junction of the Sava and the Danube Rivers, at the location of its most notable feature, Kalemagdan and Belgrade Fortress. Which are huge. The current iteration of the fortress was built by the Turks (Ottoman), directly over the top of the previous fortresses, to keep the Serb's out. This didn't work, although it took about 400 years for the Serb's to finally get in.
Hopefully the video works for you. I'm still working out how to use this blog.
Anyway, the currency used is the Dinar. At the time of writing this, it's worth roughly РСД70 to $1AUD (in Cyrillic, РСД is literally stands for RSD, Republic of Serbia Dinar), so $1 = 70 Dinar. The spoken language is Serbian, although many people from under the age of 40 can speak moderately good English. Cars are left hand drive. Rakija is the local, much loved, form of alcohol here. It is consumed at all times of the day, everyone makes it, and if Serbia ever has a petrol shortage, the high octane nature of rakija would function adequately as a substitute. Serb's describe it as a form of brandy, however, it reminds me of schnapps and grappa.
Personally, I love Serbia. Really love Serbia. It reminds me of Australia and Australians in the 1970/80/90's. They are very much of the 'give it a rub, you'll be fine' mindset, and DO NOT suffer fools or sooks at all. Life is quite hard for a great deal of people, as there is not a huge amount of wealth to spread around. Oh, and there are some seriously big men here, easily 2 metres tall, and they are a common sight.
The day after I arrived, there was a protest involving approximately 200,000 people, mostly students, and it was all done peacefully, and more importantly, legally. Should you wish to know about the protests, it was sparked by the collapse of the roof of a railway station in Novi Sad, also in Serbia, but you are better off googling it.
What else? The food is amazing, and is extraordinarily heavy in meat; really good meat. Oh, the government is a 'Parliamentary Democracy', and has both a Prime Minister, and President. I believe the President is the higher authority.
So, that's the nuts and bolts of Belgrade, in early 2025. Keep an eye out for Part 2, and I'll add my experiences and pictures.
N.
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