Serbia: Belgrade

Belgrade, Serbia: our sweet ride to belgrade
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Getting a bus to Belgrade from Sarajevo clearly exhibits the divisions that still exist between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims.   Sarajevo has a huge bus station adjacent to the train station.  However, not one bus goes to Serbia from there.

To get to Serbia, one needs to take a 35-40 minute bus ride to Srpsko Sarajevo, or Serb Sarajevo (now called Istocno Sarajevo as a result of Bosnian court intervention), and board one of the Serbia bound buses from their bus station.

Metropolis on the Danube

Belgrade, Serbia: not fun
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During and after the siege of Sarajevo, almost all Sarajevan Serbs moved to this section of town, thus making it the unofficial capital of Repulika Srpska (the administrative capital is Banja Luka).  The cyrillic alphabet is also used in this part of town, as in the rest of Republika Srpska.

The bus situation is quite ridiculous.  Our bus to Belgrade had to skirt the city of Sarajevo, only travelling through Republika Srpska en route to Belgrade.  This route lengthened the journey to almost eight hours.  We arrived in Belgrade at the beginning of the evening, passing large concrete blocks as we headed into the center of the city, crossing the Danube.

Belgrade, Serbia: en route to belgrade
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Belgrade is one of the oldest and largest cities in the Balkans.  A settlement was found here from 6000 B.C. and the city now has a population exceeding 1.2 million.  The downtown lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers, thus giving it an attractive setting.

We were met at the bus station by two good friends of mine, Milos Stopic and Jovana Zoric, whom I met on the Greek island of Ios the previous summer.  They graciously hosted Rachel and I for the duration of our stay, providing amazing hospitality and outstanding company.  A third friend of mine from Ios, Maja Rajcic, also met us later in the evening.

Belgrade, Serbia: beograd (belgrade) in cyrillic
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After settling in at Milos' fantastic apartment in Novo Beograd, Milos and Jovana took us into the historic part of Belgrade for a wonderful feast of Serbian food and Jelen Pivo (tasty Serbian beer).  We caught up with each other's lives (both Milos and Jovana are studying to enter the law profession), and moved the party to a chic outdoor bar where Maja met us with her boyfriend.

As far as nightlife goes, Belgrade is difficult to beat.  Of all the places I have been, it's safe to say very few cities can compete with the 24/7 nightlife extravaganza that is Belgrade.  And when you actually go out on the weekend, watch out because it is CRAZY.

Belgrade, Serbia: cool cyrillic for a restaurant
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We retired fairly early in the night (although much later than any bar in Boston stays open), eager to get an early start the following morning to explore the intriguing core of Belgrade.