Belgrade Favorites

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Favorite thing: A sunday morning I woke up in Belgrade and, after breakfast started going for a walk. Being my hotel in a pedestrian area, at the beginning I did not notice what was happening but soon realised all the city centre was traffic free, no cars, no busses, no taxi, nothing. This is not the first time I see a walking town centre but it's the first time I see that in a big city and, the free space for people to walk, skate bike and play with ball was impresseive as the streets were huge.

Fondest memory: I really left Belgrade thinking of this sunday morning with citizens enjoying the streets usually full of cars, noise, smell. I don't think this happens all the sundays, but it was a nice chance to actually measure how much space transports need.

Fondest memory: The cyrillic alphabet is hard to understand for foreigners. How to pronounce...

А = a
Б = b
В = v
Г = g
Д = d
Е = je
Ё = jø
Ж = zh
З = z
И = i
Й = j
К = k
Л = l
М = m
Н = n
О = o
П = p
Р = r
С = s
Т = t
У = u
Ф = f
Х = h
Ц = ts
Ч = tsj
Ш = sj
Щ = sjtsj
Ъ = _
Ы = y
Ь = '
Э = e
Ю = ju
Я = ja

Favorite thing: These old cars can be seen all over Serbia. I think they are Yugo cars.

Yugo was a former Yugoslavian car maker. I do not know if it still exists.

They were one of the very few car brands from a communist country that managed to sell cars in Western Europe and the US before the fall of communism.

Fondest memory: Budget requirements apart, the police still uses this car for economic reasons.

Doesn't the Italian police use FIATs and the German police Volkswagens?

Favorite thing: If I am not wrong, Belgrade means "The White City".

It does have a lot of white. However because white is a colour that makes the dirt quite visible, it gets rather greyish in many areas of the town.

Fondest memory: Seen from the other side of the River Sava, the white, not-so-clean buildings, and the sketchy look reminds of some Portuguese cities.

The hill of old Belgrade reminds me of the town of Coimbra, Portugal.

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Favorite thing: Here's a few of the local beers we found,
Jelen was the usual offering and probably our favourite, also the wonderfully named "Lav" was common also tried a dark beer made by Nikšiæko which was pretty tasty too.
As ever local beers far cheaper than imported ones.
For info (in Serbian) try http://www.jelenpivo.com/
Friendliest bar visited "CYTP" corner is the Cyrillic spelling and my translation is Sutr corner.
It's close to the Red Star stadium on Bulevar JNA, stadium side of the roundabout. Lovely friendly place for a beer.

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Favorite thing: Well Belgrade has lots to offer. Great out door caffes, shopping, parks, arhitecture, rocking nitelife, great restaurants....
Recently voted for one of the Party towns in Europe. As is emerging from the isolation, Belgarde is relativly cheap and funky.
What I like out the City, is that have lots to offer, from backpaking, budget hotels, to refined dinning, also it is great for familys. So if you have your young ones with you, and you are questioning do you go there , do not think , just go.

Favorite thing: This online map might be usefull for those who plan to visit Belgrade.

CLICK HERE for online map of Belgrade

There is an option for english and a solid tips for search by name and category, or by street name.
On planplus you can find also other cities in Serbia like Novi Sad, Nis, Kraljevo...

Enjoy. :)

Favorite thing: This ugly forest of concrete buildings without trees or anything great but absurdly enough, near the riverside is called Blokovi (the blocks). Somehow it has some secret spirit and charm, and those who live there say would never leave, it's some sort of a symbol or a big small family, I don't know, it's hard to describe... Many even find it beautiful, although i always fail in that constatation. I took this photo from the plane, and only from the up above you can realize how truly gigantic and scary this settlement is, and I always wonder how does it manage to capture so many hearts...
It was built in the last 30-40 years, before that, there were only fields and cattle... Now it is a city within a city as well!