Belgrade - Not So Ugly

By Karl Haudbourg • on July 16, 2009

We recently wrote about Belgrade. Is Belgrade A Beautiful City?. On that post, a reader, Nick Gilbert, went on to say that Belgrade is a horribly ugly town. Another reader, Merkat, has written up a reasonable response, where he notes that it’s wrong to label Belgrade an ugly city. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Yup, it seems to be true. The latest example is a Brit from Warrington, Richard Partington, who is travelling this summer, mostly in Eastern Europe. So far, he has experienced Istanbul, Sofia, Varna, Bucharest, Belgrade, Novi Sad (and Exit Festival) and now he is in Budapest. He put up a blog post today “The trip so far“. And the beautiful city is? Budapest. No. Sofia. No. Istambul. No. Varna. No. Belgrade. Yes. “Belgrade, for a city which just ten years ago was being bombed to smithereens by NATO forces, is surprisingly beautiful. You can still find bomb damaged buildings, though in the centre, a hilltop park and citadel give great views and summer time ambience. The pedestrianised streets nearby, lined with cafes and shops, also have collections of avante garde artworks adorning windows and sculptures stand in the streets.”

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