Belgrade... home to the largest apartment complexes I've ever seen
I arrived in Belgrade after yet another JAT flight delayed by "technical issues"... I shouldn't be surprised, JAT is part of the Star Alliance with Air Canada - the service levels are about the same.
I checked into my hostel and got my own room with a TV! That had English channels! That I could watch reruns on NCIS on all afternoon long!
On the way from the airport to the hostel, we passed some enormous and extremely dismal looking apartment complexes. I would guess that some of these complexes had at least 700 apartments in them - they were a couple of city blocks long, black and grungy. Unfortunately, like most of the Belgrade I saw.
My hostel was about 2.5 km from the city centre - on the first day I walked into town, but like most cities in Europe, you have to climb a giant freaking hill to get anywhere, so after that first venture I took the bus. I walked around the Belgrade Fortress, took a few pictures, and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.
The next morning I took part in a free walking tour (so far the only city that didn't have a free walking tour was Istanbul!) and while interesting, I felt like we missed out on a lot of the recent history. One of the reasons that I like the free walking tours is because the guides are usually very honest with the history and will answer any questions. Granted, this was one of the first tours I'd taken with only young people (I was probably the oldest on the tour) so maybe that's why there wasn't a lot of questions. But apart from the mention that the citizens saved a bridge from NATO bombing, there was little mention of communism and no mention of Milosevic.
That afternoon I wandered around my hostel a bit and down to take a few evening pictures of their new bridge... in all it was a very quiet visit. The city itself seems rather old and rundown... which is not really what I expected from one of the party capitals of the world (not that partying interests me in the least, but I expected more).
Next stop... Athens. And 32C heat!
I checked into my hostel and got my own room with a TV! That had English channels! That I could watch reruns on NCIS on all afternoon long!
On the way from the airport to the hostel, we passed some enormous and extremely dismal looking apartment complexes. I would guess that some of these complexes had at least 700 apartments in them - they were a couple of city blocks long, black and grungy. Unfortunately, like most of the Belgrade I saw.
My hostel was about 2.5 km from the city centre - on the first day I walked into town, but like most cities in Europe, you have to climb a giant freaking hill to get anywhere, so after that first venture I took the bus. I walked around the Belgrade Fortress, took a few pictures, and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.
The next morning I took part in a free walking tour (so far the only city that didn't have a free walking tour was Istanbul!) and while interesting, I felt like we missed out on a lot of the recent history. One of the reasons that I like the free walking tours is because the guides are usually very honest with the history and will answer any questions. Granted, this was one of the first tours I'd taken with only young people (I was probably the oldest on the tour) so maybe that's why there wasn't a lot of questions. But apart from the mention that the citizens saved a bridge from NATO bombing, there was little mention of communism and no mention of Milosevic.
That afternoon I wandered around my hostel a bit and down to take a few evening pictures of their new bridge... in all it was a very quiet visit. The city itself seems rather old and rundown... which is not really what I expected from one of the party capitals of the world (not that partying interests me in the least, but I expected more).
Next stop... Athens. And 32C heat!
1 Comments
I'm only just catching up on your travels. I get so disappointed when I don't get passport stamps!
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