Written by Indu
with edits by Caleb
A few years ago, Caleb and I made a pact that we would no longer give each other birthday presents. Instead, we agreed that for every birthday, we would plan some sort of surprise trip for one another. Near or far, it didn’t matter if we could find cheap plane tickets. No divulging the final destination – we just determined what days worked best, gave vague advice on what kind of weather to pack for & went.
This year, however, we have the luxury of already being on the road with a general travel schedule in place. A few weeks before my birthday, I thought about where I would like to go. Every time we told someone in the Balkans about our travel plans, nearly everyone said the same thing.
“Have you gone to Belgrade yet?”
This was often followed by a “you must go” or even someone kissing their pursed fingers like an Italian describing a delicious bolognese sauce. I decided Belgrade would be the perfect place to spend my birthday.
. . .
When we headed to Belgrade from Bosnia, the drive was interesting. We had been enamored with the beautiful autumn-colored hills in Bosnia, but the landscape slowly changed to more of a city scene as we neared Belgrade. There was quirky, modern architecture and major roads overloaded with traffic. I admittedly got a little nervous. The last thing I wanted was to head into a mini NYC for my birthday. Especially not after we had such an amazing little retreat in Bosnia.
After sitting in a lot of traffic, we finally arrived at our hotel. We have been staying mainly at Airbnb’s in the $20-40 per night range. But since it was my birthday, Caleb wanted to do something special. He spent a little extra money and booked a few nights at a luxury hotel called Lazar Luxe.
We parked our car, determined to leave it in the garage until we left Belgrade for good. Normally, we make a habit to walk everywhere in a city. This was especially the case in Belgrade, given the traffic we had just sat through.
We parked the car and headed to our room. I could see several balconies from the front of the hotel & was excited to see the view we had from ours. To my dismay, the hotel attendant ended up taking us to the basement, level -2, where we not only lacked a balcony, but also had no windows. The moment we walked in felt reminiscent of what someone who got catfished from online dating might experience. You know…the person looks gorgeous in pictures but when you show up you realize the pictures were from 10 years ago and insanely photoshopped. Not to mention, smells kind of funky too. That was Lazar Luxe. Our complimentary free drink was—water. Seriously.
We decided to get out of the hotel & grab a late lunch at an Indonesian Restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel (more on this here). After an amazing meal, we returned to our hotel and made plans to meet up with a local friend we met earlier that month when we stayed in Rajski Konaci–an Ethno Village located a couple hours south of Belgrade (more on this here). Her name was Danica. At the time, Danica was our lifesaver, helping us translate with the Serbian host in the Ethno Village. At the end of our visit, she told us that she lived in Belgrade and to let her know if we ever visited.
We took Danica up on her offer and reached out to her once we got to Belgrade. Later that night, Danica drove to our hotel and we walked down the street to a brewery she recommended. To be totally candid, Caleb and I were pretty shy the first time we met Danica at the Ethno Village. We tend to keep to ourselves when we are around people we don’t know well (which I’m learning is kind of an American thing?) and we already felt like we were imposing on Danica’s time in Rajski Konaci by constantly needing help translating. However, after one month of absorbing the Balkan culture, we felt like breaking out of our little bubbles. We were eager to get to know our new friend more. We ordered a few beers and chatted well into the night.
“If you’d like, I can take you two around Belgrade tomorrow and show you all of the things I recommend seeing,” Danica offered.
How nice, I thought. We have barely spent any time together and this kind woman is offering to show us around town. This would never happen in the states.
We happily agreed and came up with a plan for the next day. Danica had a meeting in the late afternoon, so we decided to meet in the late morning and go from there. She walked us back to our hotel after drinks. With a laugh, she wished us a good nights sleep and said be prepared to walk a lot tomorrow. This was no lie.
The next morning, Danica drove to our hotel and messaged me to let me know she was downstairs. She pulled a little bag out of her car and handed it to me.
“Happy birthday!”
I opened up the bag and saw two beautiful necklaces Danica made. I was taken aback by her generosity. Here she was, only having met us twice now, clearing her day to take us out for my birthday–and she made me a present? I was incredibly touched. I gave her a hug and we started on our walking tour of the city.
She led us through a zig zag of streets until we got to the main street (Boulevard of King Alexander. We walked through a big park and got to a monument of a man with an insanely large mustache.
“Here is a landmark you can use to determine where you are going when you come back here alone. Just remember, once you get to the man with a mustache, left is…. Right is…. Straight is….”
Easy enough.
Then Danica led us further past the park to the Ppen Market. Much like a Farmer’s Market you’d have in the states, Open Markets have local vendors selling fresh produce, flowers and other home goods. It’s a great alternative to going to the supermarket and, unlike the states, it happens every day in multiple parts of the city.
After we were done at the market, Danica took us to the Church of Saint Sava, the largest orthodox temple in the Balkans. She explained that, like a lot of Belgrade, the temple was under construction. She laughed and told us that construction lasts forever in Belgrade.
You could tell construction was ever-present. Streets that had active construction weren’t really blocked off. Pedestrians walked through the construction sites nonchalantly as if it were business as usual. This is not at all like the US, where the route would be completely blocked off, forcing passersby to detour. Nope, here people just carefully stepped across the broken pavement and newly placed rail tracks to get to where they needed. So Danica did…so did we.
The Orthodox temple was beautiful despite the construction. In front of it was a huge park & waterfall. The bells began to toll, indicating that it was already Noon.
After visiting the Orthodox temple, Danica took us into town. The closer we got into town, the more and more it started to look like Manhattan. There were huge, elegant buildings. Walkways adorned with decorations that you’d expect of Christmas time, but here they were used yearlong. Big billboards advertising fashion, restaurants, & media companies that once haunted me at work. Grandiose fountains that made the entire area look ritzy. Oh, and let’s not forget the Golden Arches. A McDonalds amongst it all. Yes, we were definitely in Manhattan. Please, you can’t hide from the Ronald!
We walked into the interior streets and saw familiar shopping, people dining at beautifully set restaurants, and eye catching architecture that I can only describe as a fusion of victorian + balkan + New York City. I can’t stress this enough–I literally felt like I was in a pretty American city at Christmas. That must have been very confusing for you. It was nice.
This strip of glamour also provided us a means to get to the place Danica really wanted to show us – the fortress.
We passed by a dinosaur park (which clearly caught Caleb’s attention) into a walled area. I still cannot understand why you guys were not excited about the dinosaurs. I mean…just LOOK AT THEM!
The fortress was home to many things:
The confluence of the river sava & danube, with a gorgeous view.
A display of military tools and vehicles used in the actual war: “tools?”
A church made largely of old war remnants (those are bullets on the chandelier!)
By the time we finished up at the fortress, we were starving, so Danica took us to a place she liked (???) where we ordered pasta. It had been so long since we had eaten pasta out!
While we were eating, we talked to her about our plans for the evening. Caleb had arranged an Escape Room for him and I to attend. It was themed: escape from a Yugoslavian Restaurant by finding the rakija recipe. At first, Danica was going to split off from us before we headed to the escape room. She thought it sounded a little childish, and I mean, who wouldn’t given that description?! Uhm…ME? and since when do children need a rakija recipe??? But luckily, she eventually decided to join us.
Once we finished eating, Danica walked us down to the Main Street where we had a view of the river. On there river were several docked boats and buildings. She pointed and explained that at night this becomes the party place in Belgrade. Restaurants and bars open up, people come to dance and drink, and the vibe is completely different than it is during the day.
“There you can also find – how do you call it…” Danica searched for words “…gold diggers.”
Caleb and I died laughing. It is funny to see that some terms are universally used.
At this point, we were getting close to our Escape Game appointment so we started to walk in the direction of the building we were supposed to meet at. On the way, we saw interesting paintings on the side of buildings. The area felt so hip.
We finally got to the room for the Escape Games and opened the door – it was a full-on Yugoslavian Bar, bartended included. As we entered, Danica naturally sat at the bar and started to smoke. The bartended offered us Rakija shots, on the house. It was a real bar!
I have actually tried a couple escape rooms before. When I went to Miami for a company event, I pulled my team away from sunshine and beach time to do a team building escape room. Totally worth it, despite the dirty looks I got early on 😉 These games get you to think different, push you to be a little competitive and are a lot of fun. This was my first escape room.
The Escape Room was fun. I won’t spoil anything in case someone else decides to play it, but it was a lot cooler than the ones I played before. Hidden gizmos and gadgets that lit up or sang or filled up with water. You were saying something about not spoiling something? Suffice it to say, after a lot of help from our bartender (in both words of wisdom & rakija shots), we finally found the hidden rakija recipe. Which we also got to keep.
We all had a blast, including Danica who told us that it was nothing like she expected. The bartender gave us another round of shots before we headed out for our next adventure.
After we got out, we decided to get some coffee. Danica was going to take us to a cool area with good coffee, but first, we passed through Skardiljia street. Skardiljia Street.
I type this with hearts in my eyes because Skardilija street was the one place in Belgrade that was on my “must go” list. It is a bohemian, cobblestone street with cute colorful restaurants and shops. It looks absolutely stunning in pictures. It was even better in real life. In fact, the pictures we took don’t even do it justice.
As we walked to the area Danica planned to get coffee in, we saw a dramatic change from cute bohemian decor to hip, sarcastic, artistic decor. I was in Portland.
I wish I had taken more pictures of this area. There were lounge cafes everywhere. They were essentially converted warehouses with repurposed furniture. People were relaxing, spending hours drinking coffee, and chatting. Wall art was plastered across all of the buildings.
We had some delicious Serbian coffee, which I didn’t love down in southern Serbia but adored here. They straight brew the grounds in the water and leave them in there, leaving it nice and strong.
After we finished our coffee, we walked back to the hotel, nonchalantly weaving through construction zones and talking. At one point, Danica saw a little store and stopped. She ran inside really quickly and came out with a bag of cookies, candy & mini liquor shooters. Vinjak! She handed the bag to us and told us these were all Belgrade/Serbian staples that we must try. I could not get over how sweet and special she made this day for me with gestures like this.
We arrived at the hotel and said our goodbyes. I was sad to be saying bye to Danica, but I have a feeling we will see her again one day in the not-so-distant future.