The Great Balkans Road Trip: Belgrade (Day 8)

Welcome to day 8 of 13 on The Great Balkans Road Trip. This is a group tour with Just You. We started in Romania, have travelled through Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Kosovo, before landing in Serbia yesterday. If you’ve missed the earlier episodes, you can find the full series here. This blog contains affiliate links to help support my writing.

Breakfast at the Belgrade City Hotel

I’d enjoyed another great night’s sleep. I’d been on the move all day every day, travelling and sightseeing, sticking to alcohol free drinks and returning to a comfy bed with comfy pillows every night. This really was the life.

I woke organically, wrote my morning pages (getting what was in my head down on the page), showered and headed down to join my companions for breakfast, completely at peace.

Compared to the banquet at our hotel in North Macedonia, there wasn’t too much to be said in favour of the breakfast buffet here. There’s no photo today because I basically just had hard boiled eggs and they’re not that photogenic. However, I seek joy everywhere, and I was delighted to find the eggs had been properly prepared in that they were of the ‘easy peel’ variety.

This morning my companions were moaning about the rooms and the breakfast. It was kind of those places where they seemed to have run out of everything: cutlery, glasses, food, etc. I was happy eating my eggs with my hands and the lack of anything else was only helping me stick to the SlimmingWorld programme. I half wondered if my accountability bear Paddington had snuck down here to hide things.

The table clearing wasn’t up to my companions’ standards either, with only one man (dubbed Manuel by the group) rushing round trying to keep on top of everything. One of our group decided to help, although Manuel was quite insistent he had everything in hand.

Over breakfast (well, eggs), I picked up some new travel tips from my companions. One brought teabags so she could always have a brew. Whilst there was generally hot water available at breakfast, I am not quite sure how this worked in rooms where there wasn’t a kettle (which there wasn’t in most hotels on this trip). I must remember to ask follow up questions. Another woman brought travel pillows so she never had to put up with uncomfortable hotel room pillows. Whilst this wasn’t a problem for me on this holiday, it had been in the past and does affect my sleep. This was an issue on my visit to Rome earlier this year, when I ended up foraging cushions from the living room in the middle of the night.

After breakfast, I headed to reception to reclaim my passport, which had been held hostage overnight.

‘Could I have my passport back please?’

‘Room number, lady?’

As with Sofia, there were no pleases and thank yous here – and I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called lady. I guess I have been called worse. I used to call people miss and sir but I don’t suppose you can these days.

Anyway, passport secured, I headed back up to my room to chill, check in with my SlimmingWorld group and write a bit before heading down and out for the day. We were in Belgrade all day today, starting with a guided tour before making our escape (to pubs, obvs), then reuniting with the group for dinner.

My next job was to enquire of our guide what those parroty things were in the hotel.

Nymphs, apparently. I’ve just looked this up and, yes, indeed that is what they are (commonly known in English as cockatiels). Who needs Agatha Christie when I can solve such mysteries through simple interrogation…?

Some facts about Belgrade

• It was a Roman military base.
• It is important strategically because it is where the rivers Sava and Danube meet.
• The original railway station (featured in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express) closed in 2018 and is going to reopen as a museum next year. If you’re interested in train stations this is an interesting website.
• A new international bus station is being built by the new train station.
• Galerija Belgrade is the largest shopping mall in South East Europe and is a replica of one in Dubai.
• Expo 2027 is being held in Belgrade.
• Novak Djokovic was born in Belgrade.
• Belgrade is one of South East Europe’s strongest IT hubs, with a fast‑growing software industry, major global companies and a deep engineering talent pool.
• The architecture in Belgrade is a combination of modern and brutalistic buildings.
• The new buses use supercapacitor-based energy storage.
• Traffic management is excellent, with roads and crossings seeming very well organised.
• An underground aquarium is being built at Ušće Park.
• Zemun Quay is a beautiful promenade and the whole area looks like somewhere I’d love to have visited, having watched this video.

• Belgrade is home to the Nikola Tesla Museum, where an urn containing Tesla’s ashes is on display.

Our guide told us that Dubai was investing £10m into building the new Waterfront and showed us silver towers that were built by Israel. Serbia seems to have a lot of rich friends. We were shown a building that had been bombed that the US and Russia were interested in rebuilding. We were also driven around a wealthy area housing various large residences and embassies.

Serbia, we learned, is rich in copper, gold, silver and lithium.

In between points of interest, our Serbian guide attempted small talk with the group, asking where we were from. I said Blackpool.

‘I went to Blackpool and Brighton. Brighton is wonderful.’

How to win friends and influence people…

We drove past the neighbouring football grounds of Red Star and Partizan Belgrade before arriving at the Church of St. Sava, where our guide was excited to show us what he called ‘the Battle of Madonna’. None of us knew what he was referring to but it seemed important.

Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary at Church of St Sava

There was a very long queue leading into the church. It reminded me of the queue for the Vatican Museum. It was also a hot day. Our guide advised that we would be joining the queue before quickly confirming that he was joking. As tourists, we had a special entrance to the church that would bypass the queue; we could walk straight in. That didn’t seem right to me but neither did standing in a queue for several hours so I guess it was the worst of two evils.

The people in the queue were queueing to be blessed and to seemingly kiss the holy relic, which was here for only a few days from Greece. How quickly we have forgotten the hygiene we employed during COVID. We had managed to figure out that the relic was apparently something Mary wore while she was nursing baby Jesus. Our tourist access meant we could see the relic but not kiss it or be blessed, which was fine by me.

What was not fine by me was being in the middle of a crowd. I took the opportunity to escape when our guide offered to show some of us where the toilets were. I did not return, heading straight back to the bus.

Of course it’s now time for a pub crawl because who needs to see another fortress? Not me. Lets go go go!

En route to the first one, we passed a street artist performing some sort of dance with a football. Here he is if you want to take a look. It was interesting enough to take a note of but we had pubs to get to so we didn’t linger.

https://www.instagram.com/dijegofs

What are the pubs like in Belgrade?

You may recall from previous posts that we had originally planned on going on a pub crawl last night, hosted by local beer blogger Pivoslavija, but arrived too late to partake. However we obvs weren’t going to pass up the opportunity of a free afternoon in Belgrade so I manufactured a little pub crawl of my own.

What is Samo Pivo! like?

Bloody tricky to find on a map! We were in the vicinity but could not find it. This is why we needed a guide! Sounds amazing, though, according to Pivoslavija, with the ‘best [beer] selection in the city’, with ’27 rotating taps’ and ‘hundreds of bottles’. Checking them out on Untappd, I can see their selection includes Vault City, Thornbridge, Crow Brewery, Belgians, weissbiers… Whilst I’m alcohol free these days, I was pretty confident that, with that beer range, they’d have some decent AF options.

I was gutted to have missed out on this. But it really was very hot and we were getting thirsty and impatient to find a pub that was actually visible.

What is Old Town Gastrobar like?

It was easy to find, visible and had outdoor seating in the shade, so that was a great start. We perused the beer menu with keen eyes.

They did have draft beer on the menu in addition to the above bottles, but a lot seemed to be out of stock – including the Tuborg 0.0%, hence I ended up having this.

After all that walking and hunting in the heat, there wasn’t even a beer at the end of it for me! Happily, my companions managed to find some, even if it wasn’t what they had originally selected on the menu.

There was a beer fridge inside too.

There were four of us pubbing today – including a new (fellow female) companion for our pub crawls. As one of them returned from a toilet visit, they reported on interesting signage that needed a photograph (they knew the drill by now), so I headed in there to get my shot.

Happily, it wasn’t far to the next pub. We managed to resist stopping here for a shot of rakija. It was far too early for that. Plus I don’t drink obvs.

This is what I mean about impressive traffic management: it’s very clear where to cross the road.

My companions were still collecting trinkets to take home with them – either for themselves or as gifts for others. I might have sent postcards once upon a time but I’m not one for shopping on hols. That said, my Artist’s Way book had recommended that I adorn myself with items that bring me joy, and I realised I was missing a few such items from my wardrobe, namely jumpers, an umbrella and socks (I do have these items. obvs, but the ones I have don’t spark joy).

‘Do you not fancy the Donald Trump socks?’

These were everywhere, apparently, although they hadn’t caught my eye. And no, I didn’t fancy them, thank you very much.

What is Dogma Brewery Central like?

This place was fabulous – and just the kind of pub I love.

The above is a Dogma Brewery Raspberry Mint Sour, which went down very well with my companion, who usually drank pilsners. I was very pleased that she was broadening her beer horizons and more so that she was enjoying new flavours. You see I can still be a beerfluencer even without drinking.

I was surprised to find no alcohol free beer in here either. Perhaps it wasn’t a thing in Serbia? I’m definitely noticing that some countries seem to be better than others in terms of AF beer availability. For example, Romania was fabulous – and boy was I ready to get back there tomorrow! Here’s what I had to drink here.

It was something different, I suppose – and not something I have had in many years. And, yes, it was a tasty and refreshing drink to enjoy on a hot day. And I was still in a great pub with good people and I was on holiday and enjoying myself so life wasn’t so shabby, all things considered. I learned from my holiday in Rome earlier this year that sometimes you just have to go with the flow and cannot expect AF beer to be available everywhere. I hope that will change with time but, for the time being, we are where we are.

How great does this place look?

We ordered food and I decided to take a look around and hunt down the toilets where, unsurprisingly, I found something cool to photograph.

I paused on my way back to the table to take more photographs. This caught my eye as I remembered that one of our group had had an unwelcome roommate looking not too dissimilar to the photo bottom right. I shared the photo in the WhatsApp group, pointing out that his roommate was actually famous.

Lunch soon arrived. Like last night, it was more of the pub grub variety than traditional local cuisine but we’ll get to that later when we go out to dinner. One needs a variety of meals on these holidays. I couldn’t live off pork and tomatoes for two whole weeks, now, could I?

Next!

What is Hard Rock Cafe Belgrade like?

We were here because one of our party had something to collect. I used to visit Hard Rock Cafes everywhere I went to collect badges for my travelling teddy bear, Dany. I knew others who collected t-shirts. On this occasion, we were seeking out drumsticks, which I never even knew was a thing. But apparently so.

We weren’t staying here to eat or drink, with more pubs on the horizon, but I did take a couple of pics for you, dear reader.

I bought a ukulele a few months ago, inspired by Ewan McGregor playing one on his road trips in Long Way Up / Down / Round / Down Under. I’d love to be able to play an instrument but have never mastered it. I used to play the keyboard (and harmonica, actually) when I was little but was never inspired by music classes at school. I always ended up on the tambourine or triangle because it was the least effort (similarly with my selections of the discus and shot put for Sports Day). Playing instruments didn’t follow me into adulthood. Could I start again now with the ukulele? Perhaps the purchase of plectrums would help inspire me to actually play it?

Dear reader, I’ve since bought a book as well but still haven’t started playing. I’ve got as far as tuning it, though, which is a start. Do you play an instrument? Any words of encouragement to get me started?

Next on the map were Craft Beer Store and Beersheep Beer Store, but neither were open, as it was still relatively early. The former has a brilliant AF range, as well as craft beers from Serbia, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Czechia and the UK. The latter also has AF, as well as an incredible range of beers from Serbia, Estonia, Denmark, Hungary, Scotland, USA, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

It is so hard to plan these pub crawls when you don’t have visibility or control over timings on a guided tour. We were missing some treats, for sure, but, hey, we were also packing in a lot of other fun things, so it’s swings and roundabouts.

What is Jackson Pub like?

This one wasn’t on my list but it was on the way back to our hotel and it caught our eye.

Again I enquired after alcohol free beer and again I was told they didn’t have any.

‘We do have an alcohol free cider, though.’

Well, beggars can’t be choosers, right? It had to be better than fizzy water and pop.

The others found beer, as you can see from the photo. There was a decent range in here. Soz I’m not photographing these – I probably should, as I know you want to see them.

We got to talking about long-term travel. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about being away for six months, like my new friend was, so I asked him how he found the experience.

‘You should have seen the post when we got home.’

On the walk back to the hotel, we witnessed a woman walking a cat on a lead. The cat was having a wee on a car. That was something else I’d never seen back home. Although I frequently saw a man walking a ferret in Walsall.

Dinner in Belgrade

Soz totes forgot to make a note of where it was we ate tonight but here are some pics.

They do like their taxidermy over here. More of that sort of thing here if you like it.

The staff were pretty brusque here and we were under no illusions that we were getting what we were given and that was that. Having been starved of beer all day, I was not to be deterred. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, right? And look what I got!

Over dinner, conversation turned to unusual food items. One woman was excited because she’d found some Crab Pringles. She was also a big fan of sprout ketchup and insisted I try it. I do like sprouts and ketchup but I wasn’t sure I’d like to commit to a bottle. They should run tasting sessions in supermarkets for these things.

I learned that our group included someone who had been on Pointless as well as University Challenge. I always fancied going on Family Fortunes myself but I excommunicated my family many years ago and the cats wouldn’t have been much use, I don’t suppose.

We then heard the story of how one of our party once met Alan Carr. She was wearing a leopard print coat. Alan said:

‘I hope that’s fake.’

‘Yes but these are real,’ she replied, flashing open her coat.

I received another TV recommendation: Penny Dreadful. This came up because of Rory Kinnear (who’s in it), who I suggested would have been a better fit for the TV version of Roy Grace from the Peter James novels.

Someone then recommended a wordless phrasebook as a good way of getting around in places where there is a language barrier – you just point at pictures in the book. It’s genius really.

Needless to say, I barely noticed the food here tonight, as the conversation was so good. They really were a good bunch, this lot, and I was pleased to be spending this holiday with them. Thank you, Just You, for bringing us all together.

Happy TV

Back at the hotel, I decided words were not enough to convey the irony of Serbia’s ‘Happy TV’, so here’s a photo.

I had to look this inappropriately named TV channel up. Apparently Happy TV was once a childrens TV channel. It was then bought out by another company who kept the popular name but changed the content. The locals appreciate the irony of the name in the current context.

And that was that for our last night in Belgrade – and Serbia. Tomorrow we would be heading off on the road again, first to Novi Sad, then facing our worst border crossing of the tour, before finally arriving back in Romania, where we overnight in Timişoara.

What did I learn today?

• Eggs are enough for breakfast.
• Travel pillows are a thing.
• Cockatiels are known as nymphs.
• Expo 2027 is being held in Belgrade.
• Novak Djokovic is from Belgrade.
• Nikola Tesla can be found in his museum in Belgrade.
• Zemun looks worth a visit.
• Belgrade is rich, with rich friends.
• The Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary is an important religious relic.
• Alcohol free beer is hard to hunt down in Belgrade.
• Hard Rock Cafe drumsticks are a thing.
• I need to try sprout ketchup.
• Wordless phrasebooks are a thing.
• Happy TV was happy once.

Is this part of a wider Balkans travel series?

Yes! If you want to start at the beginning you can find Day 1 here or find the whole series below. The journey takes me from Romania, through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, before heading back into Romania (despite border control’s best efforts…).

Travel Diaries