Balkans day 9: Belgrade

The Montenegrin train system was as good as its word. I was deposited at Bijelo Polje, where it was chilly and no one seemed to know what was going on. But the onward train to Belgrade did indeed come, and I gratefully settled down in my cabin to sleep. Only to be woken again an hour later, at 2am, to go through passport checks at the Serbian border. Ah well, them’s the breaks.

Belgrade cityscape

Incidentally, the rumours were true: a staff sleeper car from Tito’s Blue Train is indeed in use on this service. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in it.

Blue Train carriage at Bijelo Polje

The rest of the journey passed without incident, and we arrived into Belgrade just before 9, at the misleadingly-named Beograd Centar, which is 3km from the centre. I didn’t have any local currency to get a taxi or a tram, so I set off on foot.

Belgrade is enormous compared to everywhere else I’ve visited on this trip – well over a million inhabitants, as I suppose befits the former capital of Yugoslavia. In my sleep-deprived haze, the skyline that hit me as I walked into town reminded me most of cities I’ve seen in China. But, deeper in, it is most things Sarajevo is – a clash of architectural styles, in particular, with gleaming high-rises next to the burnt-out husks of buildings alongside art nouveau and grand neoclassical cuboids. I was mostly interested in finding some dinars so that I could buy myself some breakfast.

(Money is a harsh taskmaster. I’d adopted the unutterably clever policy of tucking a €50 note under the insole of my shoe in case I was mugged. Last night when I checked it I found that it had sheared clean in half underfoot. An expensive insurance policy, to be sure. Be careful if you do this.)

Buildings in Belgrade

Buildings in Belgrade

Buildings in Belgrade

By the time I’d finished breakfast it had started to rain hard, so I spent a little time wandering around Republic Square and environs, then hung around in a smoke-filled café behind the theatre until I could check into my hotel and catch up on some sleep.

In the evening, I headed to the nearby Skadarlija neighbourhood, which Lonely Planet describes as “Belgrade’s Montmartre”. As they say: yeah, no. The absence of picturesque church, enormous numbers of steps, and bracelet scammers made the analogy quite tenuous for me. But it was nice, and I got a decent meal and some craft beer in a bar where some live jazz appears to be about to kick off.

Skadarlija street

Tomorrow I’ll visit the fortress before I travel onward to Niš.