Belgrade (Red-Light Town), Part 2 (27 Octobre-3Novembre 2006)

There really was only so much time one could spend in a small freezing room, and only so much time one’s lungs could survive in constant cigarette smoke (Mama and the rest of the guests were chainies…its lucky the whole building didn’t explode with the mix of cigs and gas). So, Sam and I took to the warmer outdoors and started doing some sightseeing.

There was a lot to see each day and, for me, Belgrade was a city of visual extremes. On one corner you can see the old dept of defense that got bombed by NATO. The city doesn’t have enough money to demolish it, so it stands there, holey in the spaces where the bombs and missiles hit, like a very morbid memorial site.(And just to rub it in, rumour has it that this will be the sight of the new American embassy!).

If you walk to the other side of the city, you can see these really cool floating restaurants and nightclubs, all colourful and clean. The prices there are even comparable to France, suggesting that Belgrade is more prosperous then it looks. (but don’t let that fool you, the average wage is 250 Euros per month, and rent is 200 Euros).

There’s also plenty to eat(obviously a plus). The first, second and fourth things we did were all food-related. The savoury stuff is all meat. Pork mostly, because during Turkish rule raising pigs became a popular form of resistance. Today I think the Serbian culinary corner is resisting cooking chicken properly so do yourself a favour and steer clear of any chicken, or you might end up on the toilet all night. The sweet stuff is pretty special though. Lots of cherries, and apple, and cream. They use pastry, and cakes, and chocolate to their full effect, and occasionally over-effect.

One of the first nights we went to a restaurant with the Serbian speciality: meat; to the tune of a singing and story-telling lady in her Sunday best, accompanied by a string quartet. We went with two Macedonians and an American from our hostel: Oliver, Krichek, and Corey, all of whom had come for 1 night and ended up staying for 4-5.

While we were there, this ginormous book fair was on. The Macedonians promised us it would be the highlight of our trip if we went. It was an indoor festival and, since the weather had dropped from 23 degs to 3 degs, this promise set by the Macedonians looked ever more promising. So the next day, the four of us left. It really was just a hall full of books from different countries, genres, publishers etc. After a couple hours, Sam and I were so very very over it!

So we decided to ditch “the highlight of our trip” and walk to the island across the Sava River. We walked for about half an hour and didn’t stumble across any island. So we started to walk back towards the hostel, along a riverside path. It was so windy and this ‘scenic route’ didn’t seem like much at first. But then we stumbled upon some gypsy homes, that poor as they may have been, were so pretty (and the only source of colour among the concrete grey apartments and industry surrounding). On that two hour walk we strolled from the gypsy neighborhood to an industrial area to a graveyard for old boats. The next day we continued where we left off, and from the city centre continued up the same path past some trendy shops, then good restaurants, then cool clubs, to the tourist-attraction citadel. It was like slowly getting over a hangover.

Then we ran into a friend from Sam’s uni: Marc, a Spanish-French ex-Australian exchange student who moved to Serbia via Russia to study Italian. We spent the afternoon together, and the next night went to his very cool apartment in Zamun, the more cheerful side of Belgrade. During the Ottoman empire, Belgrade was on the Turkish side of the border and Zamun was on the Austro-Hungarian side. Now they’re joined, and Zamun is like a trendy suburb connected to the new CBD. After dinner, we recounted the romantic comedy of the Downtown Hostel, written by Lilia, directed by Oliver, starring Krichek and Mira, and reproduced many times by Sam and Mayan to anyone who’ll listen.