Belgrade, Serbia: My thoughts after three weeks

Three weeks ago I shared my first impressions of Belgrade. It was full of rash, uninformed opinions, but then, that’s what first impressions are.

I ended up spending almost three weeks in Serbia and was surprised nearly every day. It’s not enough time to know a country, but I learnt a lot. Now that I’ve left I thought I’d return to my first impressions and see what I think now.

I didn’t get scammed

I thought the shady men at the airport asking me if I needed a taxi were a sign of things to come. I was wrong. I did encounter the taxi drivers at some bus and train stations, but I wasn’t approached by anyone selling anything at any other time. I used taxi drivers quite a few times and they nearly always used the metre (unless the fare was agreed in advance) and never tried to overcharge me. The only time I felt like I’d been caught out was at restaurants where a bowl of bread was placed on the table, which I didn’t order or eat, but was then charged for. I’m used to that trick in a lot of places in Europe, but in this case I just paid for it without arguing simply because both times there was a language barrier and I didn’t feel like complicating things over such a small amount of money.

Belgrade is not ugly and Serbia is beautiful

I retracted my “Belgrade is ugly” statement pretty quickly. It didn’t take long for me to look past the crumbling city and its rubbish and see some really beautiful parts of Belgrade. But Belgrade is just the beginning and I’ve decided it was my least favourite part of Serbia. The country side is lovely and such an insight into the culture. Nearly every house is surrounded by fruit trees and I loved the haystacks that look like coconuts. The bus ride to Knjaževac was really beautiful, but the highlight was definitely western Serbia, particularly the area around Nova Varoš and Uvac Canyon.

Yes, it’s CHEAP

It’s been a while since I’ve travelled somewhere cheap. My little jaunts to places in western Europe always worked out to be more expensive than I would have liked and travelling around the UK, well, that’s just ridiculous. I thought Belgrade was really cheap when I arrived, but it’s even cheaper in smaller places such as Niš and Nova Varoš.

I will write more about the cost of travel in Serbia because I think it’s something that will bring a lot of people to the country in the next few years. I set myself a fairly tight budget for this trip and without really watching my spending, I finished up my time in Serbia well under what I’d allocated.

It’s the friendliest country I’ve been to

That’s a big call since I’ve been to countries such as Canada, Scotland and Ireland where the people are renowned for being friendly, but the Serbs have constantly impressed me with their kindness and welcoming nature. I know I’ve written about this already (a lot), but it made a huge different to my time in the country. It’s something you really need to experience yourself.

The city and country is transitioning – not as fast as it should

While I was in Serbia, Australia had an election and got a new Prime Minister. I told my Serbian friends that I wasn’t really happy with the outcome because the winning party didn’t have a strong focus on the environment and wouldn’t budge on the issue of gay marriage. This was the wrong thing to say to someone from Serbia. “If that’s all you’ve got to worry about….” was the start of their reply. And they had a very good point. I don’t know anything about Serbian politics, but many people I met weren’t happy with the state of their country. The word “corruption” came up a few times.

In Belgrade I saw many signs of Serbia’s promising future, such as new shopping centres, global fashion outlets and a lot of Western brands and chains. A lot of it is new. H&M only opened in Serbia recently (although to be fair, H&M has only just announced it’s opening in Australia).

But there are things that aren’t working as well as the Serbs might like. Apparently a boat service used to run between Novi Sad and Belgrade (they are connected by the Danube River), which I would have been keen to use, but it stopped a few years ago. The route is covered by sightseeing boats, but some sort of public transport connection here would have been great. I asked some locals whether the economic crisis had an affect here and they said it was impossible to tell because the Serbian economy was always in crisis.

Beyond the city most of the country looks like I imagine it would have 10 or 15 years ago. I spent a lot of time walking around feeling like I was trapped in the 90s (the fashion and music didn’t help). Train and bus stations are a mess, as are the trains and buses.

If I came back to Serbia in a few years, I’m sure I would have a very different experience than what visitors have now. Some of the services I used only opened this year so there will no doubt me more of the same next season and the season after that.