I just realized I haven't written about a fun trip in a while. So now it's time to change that. Looking back, it had been a few months since I had any trip after being in US in February (go Seahawks!). Luckily Summer is here, which means more travel.
For the past couple years, I have been wanting to go to Belgrade, Serbia to hit the town in one of the best party cities in Europe. It also meant visiting another part of former Yugoslavia, to get a feel for it compared to Bosnia and Croatia. Flights had always been pretty expensive and non-direct, so I never did anything about it.
Until Crazy Wednesday struck again.
You may know that many of our trips occur because of cheap flights available on www.lot.com's Crazy Wednesday deals, when flights to certain cities are up to 50% off. Some airlines say that they have sales, but it's impossible to find the destination cities or dates/times that are actually on sale, and the sale price is never available. But it's easy on lot.com. You just have to book as fast as you can before the flights sell out, on the same day. So you don't have much time to think about it. This is good for me, because I usually spend less time thinking about buying flight tickets than I do on buying pants. Pants are hard. Flights are easy. It's just so simple to click "buy". My trips to Bulgaria and Israel were two of these impulse decisions.
On some fateful morning, after I had seen the announcement of the Crazy Wednesday deal, a few of us had a random Facebook chat going (as we do...probably making fun of Renata or talking about Volkan's mustache). So I brought up the idea of going to Belgrade for a weekend in June, hoping to generate some interest. But before anyone responded, I booked the flight. I was too excited to wait for anyone else. It was considered "by accident" because I went through the process of inputting all of my information just to see if the price was really that cheap, and after all the trouble (you know, typing your name and address and taking out your credit card and putting in the secret 3-digit number, etc), I didn't want to have to do it again later. So I just clicked "buy" hoping others would decide to come with me. The only problem with that is by the time the others (Volkan, Renata, Igors and Jay) booked theirs, the cheapest tickets were already sold out. Sorry! To take advantage of the cheap tickets, Volkan, Renata and Igors decided to travel a day earlier, spending an extra day in the sunshine. So in the end, I think they won.
The flight out was off to a good start, getting upgraded to Business Class. On these short flights it's actually not that fancy, but it means nobody sits by you and you get to enjoy a small meal you don't really want to eat anyway (half of which is usually cheese). I basically slept the whole flight anyway, as usual, so I didn't get to peek through the curtains at all the Regular Class citizens (including Jay) in the back. I would have liked to see how jealous of me they were, and to show off my cheese platter compared to their Prince Polo candy bars. And then I would have asked them to trade.
As we approached Belgrade, I looked out the window and saw a beautiful city that I didn't expect. In fact, I didn't know what to expect, except that there were lots of places to party. I didn't expect to see a small castle on a hill, with a wide curvy river (a couple actually), islands, and lots of trails, beaches and trees. With the afternoon sun angling down, it was very pretty. They really built up the infrastructure along the river, with beach areas, lots of bars and restaurants on boardwalks, walking and bike paths, and dozens of floating bars, restaurants and clubs. That's right, they are actually floating on the river, connected to the shore by long ramps.
We stayed in a pretty big apartment on Nikola Pasic square, pretty much in the middle of the city. After Jay and I met up with the other guys, we explored the main walking street (Knez Mihailova). One of the first things we found was a cheap sunglasses stand with a very friendly, but pushy, salesman. One of us decided to buy pair of 5 Euro fake Ray-Bans in a bright color, and the next thing you knew, we all bought one (or two), in different colors. The "Jay-Bans", as they became affectionately called, became the theme of the trip, which we traded with each other in order to make the best color coordinated outfits.
One of the things I was looking forward to the most, was getting rid of the Bosnian money I had been carrying around for the past 3.5 years, since my trip to Sarajevo. In every other city I've tried to exchange it, I was told that they don't accept it. I was worried that it had been devalued to nothing. But surely Serbia would accept it, right? Unless they wouldn't for some political reasons. I took it to a exchange office, crossed my fingers and toes and unfolded the bills (they had been folded into a square the size of my thumb and had lived in a small pouch since 2010. I forgot how much it was worth, and to my pleasant surprise they gave me over $70 for it (in the Serbian equivalent). It was like free money!
So after we had our Jay-Bans and money, we had to find food and drink. We spent most of our time walking around the river, sitting in bars, restaurants or clubs along the way. The fact that we had no other agenda than to relax and walk around made this trip much easier. Nobody was fussed about "must-see" spots or museums. We were happy to just wander around a new place and take it in. Overall the food and drinks were pretty cheap, so this was a happy time.
In honor of our beloved Jay-Bans, I bring to you the official rating service of the places we visited during the trip.
Umbrella Bar (8 Jay-Bans out of 10)
- There was nothing fancy about it, except it was an open air bar and they had a million colorful umbrellas hanging from the sky which matched our Jay-Bans. And the waiters were super friendly and made an effort to chat to us, which left a very good impression. Poland, please learn about this.
Toro (9 Jay-Bans)
- A somewhat trendy place on the river next to lots of other bars, good for drinks at night, with GREAT Latin/Asian fusion food (tapas style), a big swing to keep big kids (us) occupied, and a friendly staff who even gave us recommendations of other places to eat, before we even committed to sitting down.
Stara Pecma Balkan club (5 Jay-Bans)
- This was our Balkan club experience, and though it was undoubtedly fun for the locals, I found it a bit uncomfortable. The live music was fun for a while, but then every song (in Serbian language) started to sound the same. There weirdest part is that there was no dance floor. Everyone stood around high tables and wiggled a bit and moved their arms while standing in place. Turns out that this is the style of the "dance clubs" here. Why would you take the tables away to make a dance floor? Where would people put their bottles of rakija? You weren't even allowed to come in the place unless you had a table to stand at. Mingling and wandering is against the rules. They even assigned some random dudes to our table, since a small corner was un-used. It gets points for being a "cool experience" and for all the fake boobs, but loses points for the Ray-Bans (not Jay-Bans) that people were wearing inside. I can't decide if I should give or take points for the guy who kept following me around repeating "Serbia loves China!", and taking a picture with me.
Splav (10 out of 10)
This place was very impressive. On our Saturday afternoon, the plan was to walk to Zemun, a neighborhood that everyone told us to visit, with various pit-stops at floating bars and restaurants along the way. The floating buildings were either giant boxes or funky boats, parked 20 meters off-shore with a ramp connecting to the river walk. There are seriously dozens or even hundreds of them. Splav looked pretty nice from the outside, so we went in. Inside, Splav looks like a proper SUPER NICE restaurant/bar. You don't even notice you are floating on the water. The service was good, the view was great, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time just relaxing. The clientele was pretty attractive too, which doesn't hurt. Spending the late afternoon on a floating bar with friends while exploring a new city has got to be one of the better things in life (especially with beers and Jay-Bans).
Street vendors and cafes for random burek and yogurt (7 Jay-Bans)
- I don't mean a specific place, but you gotta try this kind of take-away food no matter where, especially when the burek is hot and fresh and dripping with oil that soaks through the bag.
A few other places:
- Pasha was a restaurant boat on the river, near Zemun (among dozens of other boats). We had fish soup (spicy with big chunks of fish) and a huge bread for only $5. I was super full already, but still had really good calamari and veshalitza (some Serbian meat thing...I didn't really understand the waiter).
- We didn't eat there, but we walked around Zemun a bit, which has many little restaurants, bars and shops along the "beach".
- At Frida (near Toro), there was music everywhere but nowhere to dance...only people sitting and standing around tables, dancing in place (more like tapping their feet) or standing still like they didn't hear any music at all. Even when the most popular dance hits come on, nobody moves. It was like everyone is deaf. We even took a video to show it.
- Freestyler was a ultra club on the river, packed with people, loud music, expensive drinks, hard to get in...just like any ultra club. And still, there is no dance floor. But the good news is that more guys in the bathroom there told me that Serbia loves China. Thank you for confirming this information. I wasn't sure if I should believe the other guy, but now I know it must be true.
Things I learned:
- The ATM there gave me a better exchange rate than my bank would have given me (so going forward I will not let my bank convert it if the ATM gives me the option)
- Serbia uses Cyrillic alphabet sometimes and Latin sometimes. But just because it's in Cyrillic, doesn't mean they speak Russian!
- People call it the "Silicon Valley" and not because of the software development. But because the ladies wear a lot of silicon (inside their skin).
- Drinking Rakija makes you appreciate vodka. Translation: Rakija is no good.
- Taxis there can be a-holes. Even the locals get ripped off. One taxi in our group paid 600 Serbian money ($7) while another 3000 ($33) for the same route. This is irritating because these butt-heads give the city a bad name.
- Trading soccer stickers is very popular. Every time we walked past one particular square (Hotel Moskva), there were dozens of people trading soccer stickers, marking their checklists, and placing them safely into protective sleeves. It reminded me of the elementary school playground with baseball cards or garbage pail kids, but 10,000 times more intense.
Looking back, we didn't really learn much about the history, but it was a very fun and interesting trip. And if it shows up on another Crazy Wednesday, Belgrade would make for another fun weekend trip.
For the past couple years, I have been wanting to go to Belgrade, Serbia to hit the town in one of the best party cities in Europe. It also meant visiting another part of former Yugoslavia, to get a feel for it compared to Bosnia and Croatia. Flights had always been pretty expensive and non-direct, so I never did anything about it.
Until Crazy Wednesday struck again.
You may know that many of our trips occur because of cheap flights available on www.lot.com's Crazy Wednesday deals, when flights to certain cities are up to 50% off. Some airlines say that they have sales, but it's impossible to find the destination cities or dates/times that are actually on sale, and the sale price is never available. But it's easy on lot.com. You just have to book as fast as you can before the flights sell out, on the same day. So you don't have much time to think about it. This is good for me, because I usually spend less time thinking about buying flight tickets than I do on buying pants. Pants are hard. Flights are easy. It's just so simple to click "buy". My trips to Bulgaria and Israel were two of these impulse decisions.
On some fateful morning, after I had seen the announcement of the Crazy Wednesday deal, a few of us had a random Facebook chat going (as we do...probably making fun of Renata or talking about Volkan's mustache). So I brought up the idea of going to Belgrade for a weekend in June, hoping to generate some interest. But before anyone responded, I booked the flight. I was too excited to wait for anyone else. It was considered "by accident" because I went through the process of inputting all of my information just to see if the price was really that cheap, and after all the trouble (you know, typing your name and address and taking out your credit card and putting in the secret 3-digit number, etc), I didn't want to have to do it again later. So I just clicked "buy" hoping others would decide to come with me. The only problem with that is by the time the others (Volkan, Renata, Igors and Jay) booked theirs, the cheapest tickets were already sold out. Sorry! To take advantage of the cheap tickets, Volkan, Renata and Igors decided to travel a day earlier, spending an extra day in the sunshine. So in the end, I think they won.
The flight out was off to a good start, getting upgraded to Business Class. On these short flights it's actually not that fancy, but it means nobody sits by you and you get to enjoy a small meal you don't really want to eat anyway (half of which is usually cheese). I basically slept the whole flight anyway, as usual, so I didn't get to peek through the curtains at all the Regular Class citizens (including Jay) in the back. I would have liked to see how jealous of me they were, and to show off my cheese platter compared to their Prince Polo candy bars. And then I would have asked them to trade.
As we approached Belgrade, I looked out the window and saw a beautiful city that I didn't expect. In fact, I didn't know what to expect, except that there were lots of places to party. I didn't expect to see a small castle on a hill, with a wide curvy river (a couple actually), islands, and lots of trails, beaches and trees. With the afternoon sun angling down, it was very pretty. They really built up the infrastructure along the river, with beach areas, lots of bars and restaurants on boardwalks, walking and bike paths, and dozens of floating bars, restaurants and clubs. That's right, they are actually floating on the river, connected to the shore by long ramps.
Lots of floating bars and restaurants along the river
The United Power of Jay-Bans
One of the things I was looking forward to the most, was getting rid of the Bosnian money I had been carrying around for the past 3.5 years, since my trip to Sarajevo. In every other city I've tried to exchange it, I was told that they don't accept it. I was worried that it had been devalued to nothing. But surely Serbia would accept it, right? Unless they wouldn't for some political reasons. I took it to a exchange office, crossed my fingers and toes and unfolded the bills (they had been folded into a square the size of my thumb and had lived in a small pouch since 2010. I forgot how much it was worth, and to my pleasant surprise they gave me over $70 for it (in the Serbian equivalent). It was like free money!
So after we had our Jay-Bans and money, we had to find food and drink. We spent most of our time walking around the river, sitting in bars, restaurants or clubs along the way. The fact that we had no other agenda than to relax and walk around made this trip much easier. Nobody was fussed about "must-see" spots or museums. We were happy to just wander around a new place and take it in. Overall the food and drinks were pretty cheap, so this was a happy time.
In honor of our beloved Jay-Bans, I bring to you the official rating service of the places we visited during the trip.
Umbrella Bar (8 Jay-Bans out of 10)
- There was nothing fancy about it, except it was an open air bar and they had a million colorful umbrellas hanging from the sky which matched our Jay-Bans. And the waiters were super friendly and made an effort to chat to us, which left a very good impression. Poland, please learn about this.
Under my Um-ber-ella-ella
Artistic Jay-Bans
Toro (9 Jay-Bans)
- A somewhat trendy place on the river next to lots of other bars, good for drinks at night, with GREAT Latin/Asian fusion food (tapas style), a big swing to keep big kids (us) occupied, and a friendly staff who even gave us recommendations of other places to eat, before we even committed to sitting down.
Boys just wanna have fun
Renata and Jay enjoying tapas on the river
Stara Pecma Balkan club (5 Jay-Bans)
- This was our Balkan club experience, and though it was undoubtedly fun for the locals, I found it a bit uncomfortable. The live music was fun for a while, but then every song (in Serbian language) started to sound the same. There weirdest part is that there was no dance floor. Everyone stood around high tables and wiggled a bit and moved their arms while standing in place. Turns out that this is the style of the "dance clubs" here. Why would you take the tables away to make a dance floor? Where would people put their bottles of rakija? You weren't even allowed to come in the place unless you had a table to stand at. Mingling and wandering is against the rules. They even assigned some random dudes to our table, since a small corner was un-used. It gets points for being a "cool experience" and for all the fake boobs, but loses points for the Ray-Bans (not Jay-Bans) that people were wearing inside. I can't decide if I should give or take points for the guy who kept following me around repeating "Serbia loves China!", and taking a picture with me.
Splav (10 out of 10)
This place was very impressive. On our Saturday afternoon, the plan was to walk to Zemun, a neighborhood that everyone told us to visit, with various pit-stops at floating bars and restaurants along the way. The floating buildings were either giant boxes or funky boats, parked 20 meters off-shore with a ramp connecting to the river walk. There are seriously dozens or even hundreds of them. Splav looked pretty nice from the outside, so we went in. Inside, Splav looks like a proper SUPER NICE restaurant/bar. You don't even notice you are floating on the water. The service was good, the view was great, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time just relaxing. The clientele was pretty attractive too, which doesn't hurt. Spending the late afternoon on a floating bar with friends while exploring a new city has got to be one of the better things in life (especially with beers and Jay-Bans).
Splav
Inside Splav, it looks like a normal, really nice restaurant
On the patio of Splav
Street vendors and cafes for random burek and yogurt (7 Jay-Bans)
- I don't mean a specific place, but you gotta try this kind of take-away food no matter where, especially when the burek is hot and fresh and dripping with oil that soaks through the bag.
Breakfast of champions
- Pasha was a restaurant boat on the river, near Zemun (among dozens of other boats). We had fish soup (spicy with big chunks of fish) and a huge bread for only $5. I was super full already, but still had really good calamari and veshalitza (some Serbian meat thing...I didn't really understand the waiter).
- We didn't eat there, but we walked around Zemun a bit, which has many little restaurants, bars and shops along the "beach".
- At Frida (near Toro), there was music everywhere but nowhere to dance...only people sitting and standing around tables, dancing in place (more like tapping their feet) or standing still like they didn't hear any music at all. Even when the most popular dance hits come on, nobody moves. It was like everyone is deaf. We even took a video to show it.
- Freestyler was a ultra club on the river, packed with people, loud music, expensive drinks, hard to get in...just like any ultra club. And still, there is no dance floor. But the good news is that more guys in the bathroom there told me that Serbia loves China. Thank you for confirming this information. I wasn't sure if I should believe the other guy, but now I know it must be true.
Nice dinner at Pasha, also on the river
Volkan loves this picture
- The ATM there gave me a better exchange rate than my bank would have given me (so going forward I will not let my bank convert it if the ATM gives me the option)
- Serbia uses Cyrillic alphabet sometimes and Latin sometimes. But just because it's in Cyrillic, doesn't mean they speak Russian!
- People call it the "Silicon Valley" and not because of the software development. But because the ladies wear a lot of silicon (inside their skin).
- Drinking Rakija makes you appreciate vodka. Translation: Rakija is no good.
- Taxis there can be a-holes. Even the locals get ripped off. One taxi in our group paid 600 Serbian money ($7) while another 3000 ($33) for the same route. This is irritating because these butt-heads give the city a bad name.
- Trading soccer stickers is very popular. Every time we walked past one particular square (Hotel Moskva), there were dozens of people trading soccer stickers, marking their checklists, and placing them safely into protective sleeves. It reminded me of the elementary school playground with baseball cards or garbage pail kids, but 10,000 times more intense.
Soccer sticker stock market (say that 10 times fast)
Looking back, we didn't really learn much about the history, but it was a very fun and interesting trip. And if it shows up on another Crazy Wednesday, Belgrade would make for another fun weekend trip.
Where's the music video?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this "Serbia love China" is some kind of inside joke or code phrase for something - like buying drugs. Perhaps if people respond with the right phrase it means they want to buy drugs...???
ReplyDeleteGOOD DAY AND WELCOME TO STANDARD ONLINE FINANCE LTD
ReplyDeleteDo you need 100% Finance? I can fix your financial needs with a lower back problem of 3% interest rate. Whatever your circumstances, self employed, retired, have a poor credit rating, we could help. flexible repayment, Contact us at: standardonlineinvestment@gmail.com
Apply now for all types of loans and get money urgently!
* The interest rate is 3%
* Choose between 1 and 30 years of repayment.
* Choose between monthly and annual repayment plan.
* Terms and conditions of the flexibility of loans.
Regards,
Mr. Abdul Muqse