Belgrade, Serbia

We arrived in Belgrade, Serbia from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina by train. An unexceptional journey apart from crossing the border, where we had our passports stamped 3 times for some unknown reason.
When we arrived in Belgrade, we found an ATM machine and withdrew some cash. There were a lot of public pay phones in the train station, all of which required a phone card. We spent a good 30 minutes asking in every kiosk for a phone card, but with zero luck. Finally we were told that the only place you can buy them is at a post office. The post office was a good walk from the station, and it was closed, so pointless trying it.
In the end Laura asked a taxi driver to phone the agent for our rented apartment to let them know we were on our way.
We arrived at our rented apartment, collected the keys, paid the bill, and even though we were very tired, we headed out for a much needed beer. A couple of beers later and we felt well and truly at home in Belgrade.

Video of Belgrade, Serbia – Part One

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stand alone blog posts for Belgrade ~
Instagram Belgrade, Serbia – Part One
Instagram Belgrade, Serbia – Part Two
Instagram Belgrade, Serbia – Part Three
Downtown Belgrade Apartments

Eating in Belgrade ~

Travelling Actor Restaurant ~
I ordered a mixed grill, as soon as I saw it I knew I’d never eat all of it, it was very large. My plate was groaning under the weight of grilled lamb, pork, chicken, and chips. Laura ordered stuffed pork, which was a much smaller serving than mine, but still too large for her to finish.
We both ate a lot of our meals, but by the time we were full neither plate looked as though we’d touched the food, so we asked for our leftovers to be wrapped up for us to takeaway.

Restoran Dva Bela Goluba (Two White Pigeons) ~ http://www.dvabelagoluba.com/
Laura ordered creamy mushroom soup, I asked for veal broth. For our main courses Laura chose pork with vegetables, I opted for chicken with yogurt. We ordered a couple of portions of French fries too.
The waiter seemed to be rushed off of his feet, despite it being well after the lunchtime rush, and the restaurant only having a handful of diners. He didn’t write down our order, so it was no surprise that we didn’t get exactly what we’d asked for.
To start we were both given veal broth. It was a pretty good soup, although Laura had her mouth set for mushrooms.
Our main courses were what we ordered, more or less. My chicken with yogurt was served with sautéed potatoes, so I needn’t have ordered French fries. Laura’s pork with vegetables was really tasty, lots of pork in a hearty vegetables sauce.
We were more than halfway through our main course when the waiter brought us a huge platter of French fries, which were actually sautéed potatoes. I’d already given Laura a couple of my potatoes, so we didn’t really need the extra portions.
We enjoyed our meal, it was surprisingly grub especially considering the restaurant was more of a tourist place than a place where locals eat.

Tri Sesira Restaurant ~
We had a very good lunch at Tri Sesira restaurant. To start Laura chose creamy mushroom soup, I chose veal soup. My veal soup was good, Laura’s mushroom soup was a mixed vegetable soup not mushroom, but she said it was good.
For our main course we both ordered the same dish, roast lamb. We received a very generous serving of succulent sweet roast lamb, with lots of roast potatoes, and some greens.
Once again we couldn’t eat all of our main course, neither of us ate even half of it, so we asked for our leftovers to be wrapped for us to takeaway.

Library Restaurant ~
Another decent meal of cheeseburger and chips for me, and chicken with vegetables for Laura. My cheeseburger was massive, so big I had to dismantle it to eat it. Laura’s chicken and vegetables in a creamy cheesy sauce was equally as generous in size.

Place under our apartment ~
One lunchtime we ate at the bar restaurant beneath our rental apartment. We ordered one of the rail specials, chicken. We received two large moist chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and bacon, served with raw onion, cabbage, and two large floury bread rolls. Seriously good grub, and very good value.

Drinking in Belgrade ~

The Black Turtle Pub ~ http://www.theblackturtle.com
They have several different pubs at various locations in Belgrade.
Good beer. In fact we liked the beer so much, we visited 3 of their pubs. Purely for scientific reasons. We need to make sure different locations did not effect the taste of the beer 

Belgrade (Beograd) is packed full of great drinking places many of which are clustered around Skadarska. Our rental apartment was on Skadarska so we were more than happy.

Summary ~
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Belgrade, so much so that we extended it to roughly double our original booking.
Belgrade is a nice city with lots of cafes, bars, restaurants, and shops, it’s lively, pleasant for walking, and the people are friendly, we’d definitely visit again.

Video of Belgrade, Serbia – Part Two

Click here to view the embedded video.

Moving on ~

We purchased our train tickets to Bar in Montenegro at the main railway station in Belgrade. The lady at the ticket counter spoke good English, and they accepted credit/charge cards. The train and bus station are next to each other, there were countless kiosks selling snacks, drinks etc. and also a few cafes to lounge in while waiting for a train or bus.

Useful Links ~

Serbian Railways – http://www.serbianrailways.com
The National Tourism Organisation of Serbia (TOS) – http://www.serbia.travel
Tourist organisation of Belgrade – http://www.tob.rs

Other bloggers on Belgrade, Serbia ~

1. A YANKEE-IN-BELGRADE
2. Trendy Balkan vibe: a trip to Belgrade from ILLYWORDS
3. Being Boring In Belgrade….And Moving On (Finally) from homeless and confused
4. Goodbye Belgrade from Luggage Tags
5. Belgrade: A Long and Somewhat Confused But Somewhat Coherent Post from ANNIE GET YOUR NOTEPAD

Random Musings ~

Richard: The Presidential candidates debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is like asking you to choose between Coke or Pepsi, or McDonalds or Burger King. Which ever choice you make will be unhealthy for you.

Richard: Lance Armstrong. His sponsors are dropping him like a hot potato. It is turning into a Tour de Farce.

Richard: Drugs in Belgrade. I stocked up on diclofenac sodium, 200 Dinar (£1.70/$2/€2) for 20 100mg tablets. Serbia will be the last country where I am able to buy them over the counter, so I purchased a 2 months supply.

Laura: I was surprised to read that Holly Valance and Nick Candy paid for Katy Perry to sing at their recent wedding. I’ve heard her sing live, and she’s not someone I’d pay big bucks to for a private performance. Maybe that’s why Russell brand divorced her.

Laura: You gotta love over the counter drugs. Thanks to no nonsense rules I purchased a tube of Tretinoin (Retin A – Airol) for a quarter of the price it would cost in England, if you could actually buy it the UK without a prescription.
I need something to reverse the ten years my skin has aged during the last year of our travels.

Laura: Observation. The woman of Belgrade seem incredibly slim, especially considering their apparent love of pizza, pastries, and pies.
I too love a good pie, as the size of my thighs will testify.