River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

Traveling to Serbia, the Heart of the Balkans

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If I’m being frank, I was most excited about traveling to Serbia on our recent river cruise through Europe. First off, I’d never been there; secondly, it’s a country I knew very little about; and third, I had a friend there, a former student from my Semester at Sea days, who would prove invaluable to our education about the region.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

Visiting Novi Sad

Novi Sad was our introduction to Serbia. It’s where our cruise director was also from and a town I’d never even heard of prior to a couple days before our arrival, despite it being the second largest city of the former Yugoslavia.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

After we got off the ship, we meandered the town’s center where Natasa was waiting to scoop us up and give us a tour of her home.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

The center itself was very similar to many other European cities comparable in size: lively, colorful, clean, full of things to eat and see, punctuated by a church in its epicenter.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

As Natasa walked us over to the bridge en route to the fort, however, the landscape changed dramatically.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

War-Torn Serbia

As decay clouded our immediate foreground, she explained to us how NATO bombed Novi Sad during the Civil War as means to stop the ethnic cleansing, completely demolishing the trio of bridges that link the two sides of the city in the process.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

For nearly three months, missiles rained down on Novi Sad. She told us how those living on the western banks would ride the barge across to the center to go to work, alongside passengers who were heading to the hospital to seek medical treatment from the bombings. Much of the city was left without water and electricity, and widespread ecological damage and pollution ensued.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

As she gave us an oral history of her three decades alive and how Serbia has changed, Natasa walked us up to to the top of Petrovaradin Fortress, with Novi Sad spread out before us.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

We had a couple of beers and learned more about present day Novi Sad—she kept saying what a “small town” it was, which struck me as funny given that the population tops 250,000—before we sauntered back down again, back into the center for dinner at a charming sidewalk cafe tucked away in a side alley that we would have never found on our own.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

After dinner, we retreated to our ship for the night, fully enchanted by Novi Sad and ready to see how Belgrade would compare.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

Visiting Belgrade

We awoke the following morning to a beating sun and a view of the capital from the cabin of our AmaWaterways cruise ship. What I love about river cruising is how you’re deposited right in the heart of a city versus ocean cruises where you often dock in ports far (sometimes, hours even) from the closest major town.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

We were not 10 minutes from Belgrade’s own fort, so our first stop was climbing to its peak for an aerial view of its sprawl.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

The Belgrade Fortress is mind-blowingly old, having been built in 535. It’s also one of the more expansive fortresses I’ve ever visited, spanning four different sections and requiring a bit of time to see it all.
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

We took an hour from the time we started up the steep incline until we headed back down the other side into the bowels of Belgrade.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

After just a few hours out on foot, we’d already come to think of Belgrade as a tad busy, a wee bit hectic, a sort of “go go go!” energy driving the city. It’s the San Francisco to the sleepier Novi Sad’s Santa Cruz, a fellow waterfront development with a grittier edge and a vibrancy reminiscent of SF in the early 2000s before the tech bros turned it into DoucheTown USA.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

Novi Sad definitely felt cleaner. If I had to describe Belgrade in one word, “gritty” comes to mind. But both SVV and I are drawn to grit—at least when “grit” translates to “artsy,” “lively” and “spirited”—and loved the street art that peppered every last corner of Belgrade.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

But just like San Francisco, the area close to the waterfront was Castro-like in its artistic flair, whereas the commercial district felt much more stark and austere, not unlike Union Square.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

We spent the first half of our quick day in Belgrade walking before returning to our ship for an afternoon bike tour that AmaWaterways had arranged for us. There were so many areas of town, like the Bohemian corridor Skadarlija, that we didn’t make it to, but I’m confident a return is in our near future.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

After our few short days in Serbia, SVV and I decided if we were ever to move overseas again for a stint, Belgrade and Novi Sad would be very high on the list of contenders.

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia

What do you say: Want to join us in the Balkans for an extended stay?

River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia


 

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River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia in All Its Gritty Beauty
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia in All Its Gritty Beauty
River Cruise Down the Danube: Discovering Serbia in All Its Gritty Beauty
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COMMENTS
  • October 3, 2016

    We are heading to Belgrade literally tomorrow! We are driving around the Balkans and have been on the fence about Novi Sad + Belgrade or just one or just the other. We’re starting to drag a bit, so the idea of being in one place for 5 days was especially appealing. So now, Belgrade it is. But your photos from Novi Sad now have me regretting the decision – I’m just not going to show them to Drew! We have had such an interesting time exploring this region as it looks like you did. Here in Bosnia, the effects of the conflict are also very apparent. Cheers!

    • October 10, 2016

      Julie! I have so much to catch up on of your site the past two months but I cannot WAIT to read what all you think of Belgrade. You can always save Novi Sad for a return trip =)

      • October 11, 2016

        Ok, we’re out of Belgrade now. Overall, really liked it! We ate several meals down where I’m pretty sure your boat was parked (that strip of white kind of warehouses-turned-amazing-restaurants). Did you go there at all? We kept going back for sushi. 🙂 And next time, Novi Sad for sure.

        • October 11, 2016

          We didn’t! But we DID eat at the food trucks parked right there along the riverfront walkway. So good! But now I’m bummed I missed converted warehouses =(

  • October 4, 2016

    I’ve only been to a few countries in the Balkan but I’m so impressed by those that I can’t wait to explore the whole region! I’d definitely sign up for a trip there 😉

    • October 10, 2016

      Which ones have you done, Dominique? P.S. I’m going to Curacao tomorrow!

      • October 10, 2016

        That’s your first time Curacao right? Are you going diving? Enjoy!! I’ve only been to Greece and Bulgaria in the Balkans. So many more countries to go 😉

        • October 10, 2016

          First time, yes, and I’m excited! We’re going for a photography project with Afar, but they do have Scott and me doing a two-tank dive one morning, hurrah! Any absolute favorite things you loved about the island that we must photograph? (I did read all your posts on it!)

          • October 10, 2016

            Boka Watamula is a great project to photograph. It would be especially nice to find a way to capture all the elements: the eye, the nose and the mouth. Curaçao is home to many view points as well so landscape photography is also nice! In Willemstad, you’ll find an area in Otrabanda with painted buildings which would also make a nice project ?

  • October 4, 2016

    The street art there looks simply fantastic!

    • October 10, 2016

      I love a city with great street art! We just got back from Lexington, and it too had a fantastic mural scene if you’re ever looking for a trip with great urban art =)

  • October 4, 2016

    …..I MUST go here! Must, must, must!

    xox

  • October 7, 2016

    I love the streets, architecture and shops!

    • October 10, 2016

      It was such an unexpected delight, and I’d love to return for more than just two days!

  • October 8, 2016

    Nice street arts. Btw if you are still in Bulgaria you will find amazing street art in Varna. There is one couple which basicly changed this city into fairy tale!

    • October 10, 2016

      Oh man, I’m not. I’m back in Tennessee! But I’d love to spend a few months in that region doing a long-term stay at some point in the next couple years.

  • October 13, 2016

    Very superb and such a nice article thanks for sharing this post.

  • October 14, 2016

    Wonderful articles in this post it’s very beneficial for me. Thanks to share this post.

  • October 19, 2016

    Love that street art! Thanks for sharing a slice of the globe many of us don’t know much about!

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