The travels of Tim and Megan: Belgrade, Serbia

Saturday

On Saturday morning we flew out to Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Not the most popular tourist destination on the planet, but a fascinating place nonetheless. Serbia is a land-locked country located at the crossroads of central and south-eastern Europe, covering the central part of the Balkans.

After their settlement in the Balkans, Serbs formed a medieval kingdom that evolved into a Serbian Empire, which reached its peak in the 14th century. By the 16th century Serbian lands were conquered and occupied by Ottoman Turks. In the early 1800s, a Serbian revolution established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy which subsequently expanded its territory. Decimated as a result of World War I, the country united with other South Slavic peoples into a Yugoslav state which would exist in several formations up until 2006, when Serbia once again became independent. Belgrade was the capital city of Yugoslavia before it broke up too. The official language is Serbian and more than 84% of Serbia's 7.5m population belongs to the Eastern Orthodox religion.

We arrived in Belgrade around midday and took a taxi into the city. Despite being very warm in the Balkans, there had been a few thunderstorms around the week prior to us arriving. It was fine and sunny when we arrived, but there was a touch of rain around later in the evening. We checked in to our hotel, the Hotel Prag, which was very nice (we think it was recently renovated, as it appeared very new and clean). Then we set off on a self-styled walking tour of the city centre.

Our first stop was the Trg Republike (Republic Square), one of the city's main public squares, and home to the National Museum, the National Theatre and a fine statue of a Serbian man on a horse. From the Trg Republike, we wandered down Knev Mihailova, a pedestrianised street full of shops, market stalls and loads of Serbs, most of whom were eating ice-creams. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, perfect for ice-cream eating, but we have never seen so many ice-cream stalls and people eating ice-creams in such a confined space! The street is one of the oldest and most famous landmarks in the city and it contains many famous old buildings constructed in the 1870s. Knev Mihailova runs right down into Kalemegdan.

Kalemegdan is a large park and fortress in the Stari Grad area, on top of a cliff that overlooks the Great War Island and the confluence of the Sava River into the Danube. The park was very pretty, with plenty of statues of famous Serbs, lovely flower gardens and trees and lots of market stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things. We stopped and bought a souvenir bank note from the era of hyper-inflation in Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s. From October 1993 to January 1995, prices increased in Yugoslavia by 5 quadrillion per cent! We bought a 500 billion dinar bank note, which, of course, is no longer legal tender. Today, one British pound is worth around 125 Serbian dinar, which would mean that our bank note would be worth around £4 billion.

We wandered through the park and around the fortress walls up to the edge of the park, at the top of the cliff. From there, there are fabulous views down to the Danube and Sava rivers. There was a hilarious sign post warning us not to get too close to the edge of the cliff (see below). There was also a collection of military tanks and cannons and the like on display in the park, which was a little odd, but very relevant. Serbia has been involved in its fair share of wars in recent times. Serbian forces attacked Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 and then Belgrade was itself attacked by NATO forces in the late 1990s. There is a military museum in Kalemegdan, but we just viewed the outdoor section.

By mid-afternoon we were feeling a little peckish, so we headed from Kalemegdan to Belgrade's most famous cafe, the Cafe "?". The food was delicious - Tim had beef goulash with boiled potatoes and Megan had a "Serbian" salad and bread with cheese. Apparently, many years ago, new owners took charge and could not decide on a name for the cafe, so they hung a large question mark symbol on the wall outside behind the word "Cafe" and the name just stuck.

After lunch we wandered back through the shops of the Old Town - we were both surprised at how modern Belgrade was. We had half-expected it to still be very much in the mould of a Communist state, but for the most part, it was like a lot of other Central European cities. We passed back through the Trg Republike and, after a few wrong turns, we eventually found Skardaska, a lovely cobbled pedestrian street full of arty bars and restaurants. We walked down the peaceful street and popped into the Red Bar for a drink.

In the evening we went out for dinner to a fantastic little restaurant called Srpska Kafana. On the way there, we saw a man walking his pet rabbit down probably the busiest street in central Belgrade. No leash or anything like that...the man just walked along the footpath and the rabbit hopped along behind him, occasionally stopping to sniff around like a dog. Awesome.

Dinner was brilliant - the restaurant was a cosy little place with great artwork on the walls. We had a delicious bottle of Serbian red wine, called Car Lazar. Tim ate pork tenderloin and chips, Megan had chicken wrapped in bacon and we both had walnut pie drowned in honey for dessert. Very nice. Meat and potatoes are big in the Balkans, but they also seem to have amazing cakes and sweets.

Sunday

On Sunday morning, we were a little slow to get going, which was probably just as well, since it was a grey and drizzly start to the day. We had breakfast in the hotel, which was not too shabby at all and then we headed down to the main bus station to investigate our transport options to Sarajevo later that day. The bus station was an experience - it was like a time warp - we finally found the slice of 1970s Communist state we had hoped for. In saying that, we got fairly cheap bus tickets on a reasonably comfortable bus to Sarajevo. We had planned to get the 4pm bus, but we changed our minds and got the 1.15pm bus, as the rain had firmly set in by mid-morning and it was looking nasty in Belgrade.

So we walked in the rain up to St Sava Temple, Belgrade's most famous Orthodox temple. On the way, we passed a couple of buildings that looked like they had been hit by a bomb and then just left there. There was some serious damage (see photo below). St Sava's Temple was really impressive - on the outside at least. It has a pretty little fountain in front of it, making for good photo opportunities. The inside of the temple was being renovated, so it had been stripped bare.

However, the small chapel/baptistery off to the side of the main temple was open for action and it was beautiful inside. We were fascinated by the people worshipping in the temples - there are lots of different pictures of saints spread around the inside of the temples. Worshippers come in and cross themselves several times over in front of a picture of a saint and then kiss the picture and usually leave some cash in front of the picture too - like they are giving money directly to the saint?! They then move on to another picture in the temple and repeat the process.

We walked some more in the rain, which was getting heavier all the time, and picked up some supplies for the six-hour bus ride. The journey was actually pretty good - the time seemed to fly by, and apart from the odd person that reeked of BO, the trip was very comfortable. We read our travel guides, listened to our ipods, ate our snacks, had a bit of a sleep and followed the live text updates of Germany's massacre of England in the World Cup - which we enjoyed immensely. The scenery was stunning in parts too, particularly on the Bosnian side - it is such beautiful country.

We had an interesting experience at the border crossing into Bosnia. The bus stopped on the Serbian side and an armed officer came on board and collected up our passports, disappeared with them and re-appeared a few minutes later with our passports stamped, then the bus drove across a bridge and into the Bosnian border control, where the same thing happened. Although this time, Tim had to get off the bus and unlock our large suitcase which was in the baggage hold under the bus, so that the officer could rummage through it. We are not sure what he was looking for - stowaways, weapons, drugs...? He seemed very interested in the Montenegro travel guide in our suitcase, but then he grunted and indicated that Tim could close and lock the suitcase and re-board the bus. Just as well, we didn't fancy a night in a Bosnian prison...