2022 World Tour – Belgrade, Serbia
Hello from Belgrade, my 30th stop on the trip and my 59th country.
Below is the standard summary:
– Cool Ranch Doritos: No
– Thai ATM Card Works: Yes
– Thai Debit Card Works: Yes
– Thai Internet Purchase Works: Didn’t try
– USA Credit Card Works: Didn’t try
– Worldwide Telephone/Data/SMS eSIM Works: Yes
– Spanish SIM Card Works: Didn’t try
– Magic Jack Works: Didn’t try
– VPN Works: Didn’t try
– COVID Compliance Chronicles: No Requirements
– Internet Works: Yes
– Drone Flights: Didn’t check
– Cost of Living: $$
– Currency: Dinar = USD $0.009, or 115:1. Wow.
– Language Issues: None
Your Short History Lesson:
As with Bosnia, Serbia had migrations of Slavic people in the 6th century, followed by the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms. It got local control via the Holy See in 1217 as the Serbian Kingdom / Empire. The Ottomans swept in, who battled with the Hapsburg Empire until independence again as the Principality of Serbia in 1878. The First and Second Balkan wars expanded Serbia by 80% into local regions. Austro-Hungary invaded during World War I, but was defeated in the end with Serbia suffering the biggest casualty rate in World War I. A Kingdom was again established, pulling in many of the regional states. The dictatorship of Yugoslavia unified these regions in 1929. The Axis Powers took over in World War II, with the establishment of many concentration camps and localized Holocausts. After the war, the Communists restarted Yugoslavia as you’ve read before. Even before the breakup in 1992, Slobodan MiloÅ¡eviÄ rose to power through several of the regional wars and was finally removed in 2000. He was sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes where he died in prison in 2006 before a verdict was reached. Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo’s independence. Serbia has applied to join the EU.
The bus to Belgrade turned out to be a 22 seat Mercedes shuttle bus, tiny and hot. 8 hours on the road, clearly a milk run as we stopped more times than I could count. The whole trip to the border was windy two lane roads, up and down, right and left. At one point the bus was so full we had two people standing in the aisle. 30 minutes or so to get through immigration into Serbia.
No exchange booths were open at the bus station to buy a tram ticket, so I had to roll the suitcase for 30 minutes. The center of the city is a giant hill so I had to go up, over and down to the hotel. The Google Maps locator pin was half a block from the front door so I submitted an update.
I checked in and went for a walk, first to an ATM for local currency and then to a kiosk to buy an RFID tram card and then top it up with a 3 day ticket for D250. Due to construction and a warning sign only in Serbian, I waited 30 minutes for my tram number that never arrived. A nice local kid helped me figure out which tram number would take me around the loop and up the hill to the trendy center of town and park containing the old fortress that overlooks the river junction. I had a very nice salami baguette for lunch, then I spotted a Thai massage shop. I got a foot / leg / shoulder / arm / head massage for $30, by far the cheapest I’ve found on the trip so far. The massage lady was from Surin in Thailand and has been here for 3 years. She’s been to my town in Thailand twice and she remembers the nasty monkeys at the temple south of the beach!
I walked across to the fortress and looked over the junction of the Sava and Danube rivers. I booked a ticket on a sunset cruise and spent it talking with a Model 3-owning Dutch guy and his girlfriend from Montenegro and a retired Turkish civil engineer who gave me some advice for things to see along the Turkish coast later in my trip. The several bridges over the river are colourfully lit up at night as you can see in the pictures.
The next morning I took the tram back to the chaotic bus station to prebook for my next leg. As big as this place is, the tickets to other countries are sold at one small desk behind an unmarked door outside the main station building. Madness! Cash only, hand-written paper ticket. 1 Euro departure tax to get through the gate to your bus. Another traveler finally finding the booth shared my frustration.
Buoying my spirits I got on an ECO electric bus to the Nikola Tesla museum. This one is far larger and complete than the little one at his birthplace, including a 12 million volt Tesla coil that lit up fluorescent tubes that everyone was holding, many working motor styles, pictures, cables, a suit he wore and even his ashes in a spherical urn in a corner. Belgrade makes a big claim on Nikola, even the airport is named after him. Most articles claim he was Serbian, but the border changed since 1856 and his birthplace is now in modern Croatia. The material for the Museum arrived in Belgrade according to the decision of the American court, which declared Mr. Sava Kosanovic, Tesla’s nephew, as the only rightful heir. In 1951, in accordance with Tesla’s last wish, Mr. Kosanovic transferred all the documents and Tesla’s personal things to Belgrade. I found another report saying Tesla was a proud Serb and lived, studied and worked in Gospic, Maribor, Graz, Budapest and Prague, but he only actually spent 31 hours and one visit in Belgrade.
After a lunch of halloumi cheese, blueberries and strawberries, I spotted a Tesla destination charger at a nearby hotel, but it’s listed on PlugShare as having to pay e35 to charge! I walked down into the parking garage to find a hybrid Porsche and a non-hybrid Merc parked in the two spaces. A security came over and I said I saw the chargers on an app and do you really have to pay e35? He finally said “Yes and you have to be a guest too.” I told him that was stupid and he said “Yes I know” and walked away!
I went back to the Thai massage place in the evening for a full body massage. I had a different lady, from Chiang Mai, and she said she had her own massage shop in Krabi until she moved here just 10 days ago. It seems like a strange time to make such a dramatic change right when tourists are coming back to Thailand.
Is it worth a visit? Meh. Lots of Soviet concrete. One good walking street and the Tesla museum were the highlights. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a lick of taking responsibility for the havoc and death of the many post-Soviet wars in the region. It was OK for a stopover point.
Next Stop: Budapest, Hungary
