I spent two very comfortable weeks living summer, urban life in Belgrade and I must say I was sad to leave when the time came. I visited Belgrade four years ago for the first time during a very short reconnaissance trip; the type I do to sniff out a location to decide whether or not I want to return for a longer period. My return was delayed due to destination obligation. Though travelers will claim to travel lightly we carry loads of obligation in terms of the places we both need to explore for the first time or return to again — a queue that perpetually lengthens. Best intentions are waylaid as new destinations appear. A slow, wonderfully inefficient heuristic for travel. Four years later, I returned. This time around I did Belgrade better by living in two separate neighborhoods for a week each. The first was one of the coolest neighborhoods I have ever lived in, Dorćol; it is a perfect place for an explorer to station themselves — accessible by walking to countless restaurants, bars, gyms. Dorćol made figuring out how to effectively live convenient and simple. Each night I took myself out to a delicious, dinner and […]
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I spent two nights in Belgrade, Serbia. A surprising city to me because I had little conceptualization of it to color my perception prior to arrival. Belgrade might surprise others as a city that is very European-feeling and yet with a very discriminate flavor of the Balkans which makes things much more appealing to me than compared to other more popular American destinations. When describing the “feel” of a culture I struggle — yet the Balkans give an impression distinctively varied from what I have experienced and that’s good. The people are not cold or indifferent (like many Europeans) and in fact it was easy to stroke up conversations and ask questions. Like Bucharest, my time here just scratched the surface — but enough to want to return.
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