Belgrade: Bad Timing

After the smuggling adventure on the Balkan Express train from Sofia to Belgrade, I got into the capital of Serbia late, around 10:00pm, even after the one hour negative time change. So much for Eastern Europe's train efficiency matching that of Spain. I was pretty tired still, from my late night out clubbing in Sofia the night before (even though I slept the first four hours on the train), so I pretty much unpacked and went to bed that first night so that I could be fresh to tackle Belgrade in the morning.

When I woke up and talked to my hostel guy, however, I learned that my plans for Serbia were pretty much all for naught. Serbia still celebrates a heavy, three-day version of Labor Day that's leftover from the Communist era. Pretty much everything shuts down except for parks and churches, so no museums or anything of the sort was going to be open the entire time I was there. However, I thought that - only being there for two full days - I could just take it easy and have a legit vacation.

The hostel guy recommended a walking tour - something that was surprisingly still going on with the holiday - so I showed up for that. The tour was not all that impressive, in that the guide obviously didn't want to be working that day and showed next to zero enthusiasm for his city. However, two good things about the walking tour were that 1) it gave me some ideas of places to come back to and 2) met a group of five other people who were traveling and made for good conversation. I went with these three Brits and two Argentine girls - all young people - and we went to the Bohemian gypsy neighborhood, Skadarska, for beers. We enjoyed each other's company enough that we agreed after a few hours to break up for showers and then meet back up in Skadarska to find somewhere to eat dinner.

A few hours later, we met back up and settled on this traditional, multi-course Serbian restaurant that our guide had recommended (one of the few things he actually did). We all went in on a massive group platter thing, so that we could all try a bunch of different stuff. The waiter started us off with some more pre-dinner rakia brandy - just like in Bulgaria - that was too strong and nasty for me but drank my portion to be respectful. Next, he brought us out all these cold cuts and other Serbian appetizers, one of which was like a pastry stuffed with spinach and cream cheese (surprising but tasty). Lastly, because afterward we had no room for dessert, was this massive assortment of meats: chicken breasts, a lot of pork, a lot of sausage, and a huge platter of beef bones. He also brought bowls and bowls of delicious goulash, and oily potatoes, and garlic-drizzled peppers. Kind of like Bulgarian cuisine, Serbian cuisine was very simplistic but hearty and absolutely delicious.

The Argentine girls left after that to catch an overnight bus to Sarajevo, and the two Brits that were a couple went home and went to bed (they'd come on the night train from Budapest and had only arrived that morning). The last Brit and I went for some beers at a pub down the way, and then we made moves trying to find some of these clubs down by the Danube riverside. However, all of them were closed because of the holiday. We managed to ask the right person, however, for directions: a Serbian kid who'd graduated from the University of Hawaii and spoke excellent English; he took us out for the rest of the night and introduced us to all his friends. He even took us to the one club that was still open, apparently. So that's how the night ended up.