From a near fight on my flight to Belgrade to discovering hidden gems and quirky adventures, here’s my Belgrade travel experience on Day 3 of my trip out of my comfort zone.
Booking 5-star Hotel for £56
After deciding that I will complete my journey and I will go to Istanbul, I started looking for hotels. To my surprise, I found a 5-star hotel for only £56! I have never stayed in a 5-star hotel before. I worked for one briefly and I was even a part of the opening team, but I never stayed as a guest.
Grateful for not giving up in day one
I am now able to look back on my distress on Day 1 and feel that I have made the right choice. This is the longest trip I have been on since I started travelling solo around the world. I miss Stitch and I am massively out of my comfort zone, but I feel happy. I feel inspired and empowered. I am thirsty to see more, to discover more and to fall in love with new places.
The beautiful park
I accidentally stumbled upon Parcul Regele Mihai I al României. What a lovely park! I consider this the best hidden gem in Bucharest. I took a walk around and I can confirm, there are many Instagrammable spots. I ended up sitting on the grass by the lake and just relaxing in the shade. What a wonderful time I had there…
The 15 sneezes
However, I kept sneezing during the day and this is starting to get me concerned. What if on top of all the chaos, I also get a flu or something? But, you know what? I can deal with it. If I can jump headfirst into this adventure and keep moving when it feels like the whole universe is against my trip, I can deal with anything.
The delayed flight
My flight to Belgrade was delayed by an hour. This put me an hour behind schedule and I started stressing out about how many places from the ones I had on my last-minute-prepared list I will be able to see.
The different aircraft
I was flying with AirSerbia and this was my first time on a small ATR aircraft. Everything felt so different. The windows were under the wings, there were only 4 seats in each row and surprisingly they were lettered as A, C, D and F. I was very confused in the beginning. It was exciting to travel on an aircraft I have never been on before. Also, as this was a very short flight, we were flying at only 6,000 feet, which offered stunning views over Belgrade. We all received a complimentary small bottle of water and biscuits, which was a nice touch. There was a bit of a turbulence, but then…
A person tried to start a physical fight with me
As we were getting ready to land, the person sitting on the same row as me tried to discard her empty water bottle on the empty seat next to me. I objected in English and she said she doesn’t understand. So I used my Bulgarian, which is similar to Serbian and I gave her the water bottle back. She then started speaking English to me trying to start a fight. The flight attendants swiftly intervened, but the person kept swearing and refusing to sit down even though we were descending and the seatbelt signs were on. I ignored her drama, but she seemed like this was the end of the world and she will never recover from the fact someone told her off about leaving her rubbish all over the aircraft.
Just a little side note: Please clean after yourselves on planes – especially on budget flights. The on-board team sometimes has a little as 45 minutes between flights and your rubbish may cause delays.
Me vs the ATM
You need cash in Belgrade. Many places don’t take card payments, including the airport shuttle.
First, it took me a while to locate the ATMs, which were just next to the exit for the airport bus stop. Then I chose one and started the process of withdrawing money.
Second, there is a lower limit of how much you can withdraw and I think this was way above what I needed (therefore, I still have Serbian dinars somewhere in my travel kit).
Third, the ATM just froze. Then, I got really stressed. Frozen screen, no buttons working, no sounds, no money and no bank card. I feel like I spent 10 years there, thinking about how now I needed to cancel my bank card, declare it lost, transfer money and even potentially call the ATM provider to tell them that they have my bank card and I am leaving the country in less than 20 hours. Stress, stress, stress!
But! A miracle happened and after frantically pressing buttons for what felt like eternity and a day, the ATM spat out my bank card without charging it. I moved on to the next ATM and withdrew 2,000 RSD.
A1… why?
Here is an interesting fact about myself – when I was a kid, I would travel between my home town and my nan’s village on a minivan that had no seatbelts or proper-working breaks and was operated by someone who could or could have not had a drivers licence. This person would smoke, blast chalga music and would be extremely skilful at driving around the potholes along the way. This was all an ancient history to me, a distant memory that I didn’t need to think about ever again… Until I boarded the A1 – the airport shuttle at the Serbian Airport.
Suitcases go at the front, next to the driver, so they can just roll around as he is driving. It’s a mini-van with about 15-20 seats, but there would be like 35 people travelling, including some standing up. No aircon. No seatbelts. The driver would shout at you in Serbian to sit down and then he goes around and collects the money for tickets. He was nice… also capable of driving on the motorway at the same time he was filling in the documents for the ride.
I have already said that I am not religious, but this ride made me think about this.
The Western City Gate
This building fascinates me! Two massive constructions, connected by a bridge in the sky and a UFO on top! This is centrepiece of the Eastern European architecture and no one can change my mind about it! One side is empty office building and the other – a block of flats where people still live. The UFO tower is a restaurant that never opened. If I am to return to Belgrade, you will find me there! Do you know if they do AirBnB? If not, this is a missed opportunity.
Belgrade
Belgrade was pretty and welcoming. I couldn’t see much of it, but I managed to see most of the landmarks I had on my list. I also discovered some hidden gems such as Hotel Moskva. I am aware that there are protests in the country that tend to turn violent, but tonight I only saw people sleeping in tents in front of what I believe to be the parliament building.
On my way to the hotel I ended up boarding the correct bus but in the wrong direction. It was kind of lucky I did this, as it led me to finding a place selling delicious Pljeskavicas and I was already starving!
I am in the hotel now, getting ready for sleep and my trip to Istanbul tomorrow.
