Belgrade Is Not Prague
A few years ago, Patrick Horton wrote a well-worth reading article for the San Francisco chronicle “Been there, done that. Got the Prague T-shirt, and the one from Budapest’s nearly worn out. Where’s next? What?! Belgrade? Serbia?!” We bombed them five years ago!
Six years later, it’s no secret that Belgrade is still not a very popular vacation destination, Belgrade is not Prague. “Belgrade is a big city, but it’s not filled with tourist like other large European cities. There also isn’t a crazy amount of tourist attractions to see, but there is always something going on.” said, Blag, a 18-year-old man from Windsor, Ontario Canada, who traveled to Europe. He put up a blog post last week talking about his impression of Belgrade and Prague. “Belgrade is one of my favourite cities.” and Prague? He didn`t buy the T-shirt. “We went to the capital of the Czech Republic for about a day. Unfortunately, this was the most tourist fill place I have ever been to. There seemed to be more tourist than citizens.”
For sure, Belgrade is not Prague, even if the number of tourists in Belgrade is increasing - and even if more people want to visit this undiscovered European Capital called Belgrade, it’s still likely that Belgrade will continue to be free of too many Western visitors. At least, for now.
Comments
By Vladimir Arandjelovic on July 5th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Belgrade is the “Big Apple” of Serbia by virtue of its being the largest and the most cosmopolitan city of former Yugoslavia. These days, it is to Serbia what Paris has always been to France. Just as Paris can be distinguished from France, Belgrade can be distinguished from Serbia. The provincial people in France hate Paris and tend to stay where they are; in Serbia the more the provincials are intimidated by Belgrade and the more they resent it for that, the more they tend to pull up their provincial roots and move there. Belgrade doesn’t need tourists to be a vibrant city. Its own people suffice. Tourists are welcome to appreciate and enjoy it.