Single on a July Day: Part 1, Belgrade

I felt like getting out of town this summer and for three weeks I partied and toured my butt off!! It's always fun to see other cities!

The trip starts with Serbia-- Belgrade and Novi Sad.  I gotta say Belgrade is party central. Talk about a city that never sleeps!!! Or cools down... It was in the high 30's the whole time I was there... Even got to 40 at one point. I was told that it was unusually hot this summer. I'm sure being surrounded by concrete didn't help, though.

Getting from the airport to the city was easy; there is a bus right to the city centre. The bus itself was hard to find, but the info desk was very helpful. The upside of traveling alone is that I can just take my time and figure it out. This bus ride down was not bad and it was pretty inexpensive. I stayed at an awesome little hostel--Hostel Home Sweet Home. It was a little difficult to find..once I found the street I still had to walk a fair bit up and down before I saw the tiniest sign on a hidden entrance way.

The view from my terrace...yes, terrace.

The hostel was awesome. It was great start to the trip. Friendly staff, a fully stocked kitchen and dining area and a\c in the living room and some of the bed rooms. I had a terrace, which would have been OK if it wasn't so hot!!!!!!! During the day I locked my items up and left the door open for cooling. I didn't have any issues.

Hamburger and Beer

Key things to do:
1) Take the free walking tour!!! Belgradewalkingtours.com
-the guide is a local and they provide a great history lesson as you see the sites of Belgrade. Make sure you're wearing good walking shoes, my tour was about 2.5 hours. After which I settled down in Skadarska for lunch... Delicious lunch.
2) Drink beer and/or Rakjia
-the two local beer suggestions are Jelen and Lav..I didn't have Lav until Novi Sad so I'm suggesting Jelen at this point. Drinking there is pretty inexpensive when you have a Canadian paycheck. 2 beers and a 20% tip came to approx. $4.65 CDN!!! -Rakjia is a tasty brandy-esk beverage. A lot of people make it at home.. Just ask at a bar. I got into my rakija times in Novi Sad.. So stay tuned..
3) Wonder
-This is a no-brainer. I grabbed simple directions and a map from my hosts and wondered through the city. There is a lot of cool historic buildings and graffiti around--Something that is totally missing from the gentrified Toronto.
4) Stay out late
-I was tired by 1am.. Most likely due to walking in the heat.. But as I said, this city doesn't sleep. I could hear the party going all night! If I could move, I would have continued.

I think this encapsulates enough of my few days in Belgrade, well there is more...but I'd need my own TV show for that ;) Now to go north....

Waiting for the train to Novi Sad