Belgrade: A City Full of Surprises

At the start of my time in Belgrade, Serbia I had no real knowledge of the city and all that it had to offer. I went into my time there knowing that the city was safe and that I would figure it all out as I went, and that’s just what I did. I was there for just over 3 days and spent two of those days touring Belgrade and I enjoyed every moment of it. Since I am traveling for so long, it is important to build in “rest” days to help reset, get planning and other work that I have done, and keep from burning out.

On my first full day in Belgrade I started the morning with a free walking tour to see a majority of the large sites of the city. The tour was a lot of fun and was a great way to see a bunch of the city while also learning more about Belgrade, which, as I mentioned earlier, I knew nothing about going into my time there. It was on this tour that I met three other women who were also traveling solo in Belgrade. After the tour the four of us went out for a delicious traditional Serbian lunch. After lunch, one woman had to go to work since she was working remotely, but the other two and I continued to explore the city together. It was a fun day and the city really surprised me with all of its sights and the minimal amount of tourists.

Throughout my time in Serbia I noticed/heard very few tourists. One example I observed of the city not being a “typical” tourist city was the fact that I did not come across many souvenir shops; there was really only one spot in the city that had a few shops, nothing like in other cities I have visited. Another example was throughout many of the different large tourist sites there were few to no other tourists. Overall, I really loved the experience of being one of very few tourists. While there weren’t many tourists, one thing that surprised me of the tourists I met at my hostel and walking tour, was how many Americans there were. I met and spoke to more American tourists in Belgrade than I did in Rome, Florence, and Budapest combined; that is not to say there weren’t any in those cities, just that I didn’t really meet any.

Some of the sights I was able to see on my first day exploring included Republic Square, the National Theater, the National Museum, Skadarlija (Bohemian) Street, the museum of Serbian language, the Belgrade fortress, St. Sava Temple, and more. It was a very full, but a great, day exploring. My favorite sight of the day was St. Sava Temple. This orthodox church blew me away with its beauty. From the outside you could see that it was large, but once inside it was much bigger than it appeared and everything was covered in gold mosaics. It also had a large crypt in the basement that too was covered in gold. It was super cool being in such a beautiful church and having so few other visitors. An interesting piece of information I learned, on one of the walking tours I did, was that the church officially opened in April 2020, despite it being the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On my second day exploring Belgrade I met up with one of the women I met the day before and we went on another free walking tour, this time visiting the sites that were not covered the day before. These sights included Belgrade’s famous Hotel Moscow, Nikola Tesla Museum, St. Sava Temple, the Old Palace, St. Mark‘s Church, the National Assembly, and more. This tour ended at St. Sava’s Temple and so I went in again and was once again amazed by the interior. Later that afternoon the three of us, the two from yesterday and I, met up again and went to Zemun. Zemun used to be the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when the area was divided in two, with the main part of Belgrade being held by the Ottoman Turks Empire. In current day Belgrade, Zemun is a neighborhood within the city. When wandering through the area, we went up to a tower on the top of the hill to take in the views. What made this experience even better was the fact that there was only one other tourist there.

Another interesting observation I noted when walking around Belgrade was the mix of different styles of buildings, from the more traditional older, western, European art nouveau styles, mixed with brutalist, ‘boxy’ appearance, buildings, and finally the USSR Socialist architecture. What I was told was the reasoning for this mix of styles was due to the number of times the city has been bombed and destroyed. Since it is the capital, the city had to be rebuilt fast and there wasn’t time to worry about the building styles.

“Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one thing that is going to require the most from you.”

- Caroline Myss