The Nightlife In Belgrade Is Startling

Pulling into the train station from our grueling cross mountain trip, we arrived exhausted and sore in Belgrade. Beograd, Serbia is a beautiful mixture of Old city, sitting atop its hilltop fortress, newer city edging its ancient streets away from the fortress and the newest communistic residential blocks across the river staring bluntly into the sunset. Belgrade is Eastern Europes Berlin. The nightlife there is startling. The culture is party all night, drink coffee and enjoy the pedestrian only districts during the day. Spectacular. I wandered to Green Studio Apartment Hostel on the 6th floor of a building just a few blocks from the railstation, dropped my gear, checked my mail, grabbed my camera and ran out the door. Wandering the streets of Belgrade I made my way to the Kalemegdan fortress, and inside it to the military museum showcasing rows of tanks, artillery and weapons for siege and assault throughout Serbian history.

Fortress’s walls and impressive battlements completed I made my perilous journey in search of Serbian food. I was delighted to find a Serbian shop which, named after the Norse god of mischief provided me with suitable food and drink. I got a sandwich like meal with a huge sausage patty folded over and stuffed with ketchup, mustard, coleslaw, sauerkraut, spices, and chili.

Full and satisfied I started my march back up the narrow streets toward the pedestrian district, I meandered through the universities student square and grabbed a few shots of some really impressive graffiti before making it to the main pedestrian way. There I found myself a hot coffee and bread while watching the beautiful Serbian women pass by.

As night rolled in I made my way back to the hostel, took a quick shower and hurried out to do some dancing. I was stoked and ready for a good time. I found a club called Anderground which was built into the cave systems under the fortress. They had salsa EVERYNIGHT. I started dancing and quickly made friends with the salsa crew who were dancing there. They brought me in and started me to teach the Rueda calls in Serbian (haha awesome) and then showed me Rueda style salsa on my own. I threw in a little LA to keep it new for the girls and had a wonderful night dancing.

I repeated my dancing Saturday and Sunday night I headed on from Belgrade to Sarajevo. Saturday during the day I walked the new city (spreading down the hill from the old Jewish quarter) and found the closed Nikolai Tesla Museum. I’ll have to go back to find that museum when it’s open. It looked
amazing.