Sometimes you do everything and nothing in a place all at once.
What I mean by that is that sometimes you spend a long time in a place (a lot longer than you ever expected) and it becomes the “norm”. You start finding your new favourite restaurants and visiting them frequently. You know where your favourite foods are placed in your nearest supermarket. You get work done and watch TV (we all know about my addiction to the TLC channel), all while being in a different and new city.
And even though it’s still a travel experience, it’s much like being back in a routine at home. Which doesn’t make for interesting blogging.
That has been the case for me here in Belgrade. I have loved my time in this city and discovered many surprising aspects about it that have excited me. So much so, in fact, that when I recently visited Novi Sad, its smaller Serbian neighbour, I was so disappointed with its lack of diversity and, in particular, food options, that I turned right around and came back to Belgrade.
And during most of my time here I’ve been thinking to myself: “What can I blog about? Even though I have thoroughly enjoyed Belgrade, what can I tell people about it?”
The truth is, I haven’t done that much “touristy” stuff here. Sure, I visited the Kalmegdan Fortress and took a brief trip down the ridiculously touristy bohemian pedestrian street of Skadarlija. But mainly I have just eaten at local restaurants and streetside fast food joints, drank the cheap beers while watching the sunset and gotten some work done. Not too exciting, but still an interesting travel experience.
And so, if I (someone who lived more like a local than a tourist in the city for around four weeks) had to sum up Belgrade to you, I would say something like this:
Belgrade is not what you would expect it to be. It isn’t striving to pull itself out of its war-torn roots, as some misinformed travel guides would have you believe. It is a vibrant, bustling city, full of wonderful restaurants and bars and stylish people. It takes its style, food and culture very seriously, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t know how to have fun. Aside from Sarajevo, it’s been one of the most surprising discoveries I’ve made on this trip.
But now it’s time to move on, to Romania; yet another place that was never initially in my travel plans. I can only hope that it’s as pleasantly surprising as Belgrade has been. It may end up being a flop, just as my time in Novi Sad was, but I guess that’s part of travelling; always seeing new places and discovering whether they fit.
For me, Belgrade fit like a glove.
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