This month in Belgrade has been my most relaxed month of the trip. In my fifth month on We Roam, I’ve adjusted to the group, and I feel almost comfortable never being entirely comfortable. As I wrote before, Belgrade is an incredibly livable city. I’ve been enjoying staying in an apartment flanked by a grocery store and a coffee shop, eating in multiple delicious restaurants within a five-minute walk, and having absolutely everything be affordable. (Though I’ve learned it’s not so affordable for the locals; apparently salaries don’t quite match up to the cost of living here…)
That’s not to say I’ve done nothing. Two weekends ago, we had a completely gorgeous excursion to the northwestern edge of Serbia. We visited the home of artist Sava Šumanović and a museum dedicated to his work—he spent time in Paris with the lost generation in the 20s before returning home to paint. We then spent the afternoon at the Ilić-Nijemčević vineyard, touring the grounds and the cellar, eating an enormous lunch, and sampling many, many bottles of their wine.
Closer to home, we had a rakija tasting and picnic in the park last week. One of our amazing city leads brought homemade snacks and a selection of rakija much tastier than anything I’ve tried in restaurants. We watched the sun go down while snacking and chatting.
And last night we went on a scavenger hunt. We ran all over downtown Belgrade, eating cookies, doing shots of rakija, and asking random strangers to take photos with us. The hunt even took us to Belgrade’s weirdest (and in my opinion, most delightful) attraction: a dino park where kids can play. For the record, my team won.
All in all, it’s been such a pleasant month. Belgrade is the first city we’ve been to that everyone on the trip endorses—I haven’t heard a bad word spoken about it, and that hasn’t been true for any other destination. Usually, some people love a place, and others hate it. It’s a little surprising because Belgrade doesn’t have the natural beauty of Split or the numerous tourist attractions of Berlin. If someone told me they were visiting Belgrade, I’d say, “Wonderful!” If they asked what to do, I’d say, “Um…make friends with locals and eat good food?”
But after four months of exhausting travel and personal drama, I’m incredibly grateful for the month off. I haven’t even gone on a date. I’ve just been getting extra sleep and trying to prepare, mentally and practically, for what comes next. Because by this time next week, I’ll be on to the next chapter. And things are about to get crazy. Stay tuned…the blog’s about to be a bit more exciting.
I’ve been delighted (and if I’m being totally honest, the tiniest bit surprised) by the quality of food in Belgrade. From coffee to pastry to casual bites to wine, nearly everything I’ve consumed has been both tasty and affordable. Last night I went on the Gastro Balkan Foodie Tour with some of my fellow travelers, and it proved Belgrade can go toe-to-toe with New York in fine dining—and blows NYC out of the water when it comes to price.
Our first stop was Ambar, a modern Balkan restaurant on the river that has a D.C. outpost as well. We kicked things off with a rakija mojito and feasted on Balkan-style tapas. I could eat a basketful of the gloriously puffy bread with three different dips, and the almond puree complemented the bacon-wrapped date. Apparently they offer $30 all-you-can-eat; I’ll be back to test my stomach’s puffy bread capacity.
Next was upscale and innovative Miamiam where we drank effervescent rose with three delicious courses: cucumber, avocado, and melon gazpacho in a glass; gravlax with a rye crouton, a slice of pear, and blueberry goat cheese; and (possibly the highlight of the evening for me) gorgeously wine-glazed pork belly topped with a plum, sweet potato puree, and garlic cream. I may have batted cleanup on my friend’s dish as well with that last one. Miamiam is just around the corner from my apartment here, so I will definitely go again in my two remaining weeks (how am I already down to two weeks?!) in Belgrade.
All of that was just a warm-up for the fine dining extravaganza that is Homa, where we had four beautiful and interesting courses: a sort of cheese puff that melts in your mouth with truffle mayo and shaved truffle; the most perfectly formed ricotta gnocchi I’ve ever eaten (they can get rather gummy; these had an ideal texture) with forest mushrooms AND MORE TRUFFLES; a squid ink pasta with fried Adriatic squid; and more pork belly—you can never have enough—with a pork fillet, grilled peach, and salad with truffle dressing. I don’t know what we did to deserve all that, but it was incredible, as were the white and red wine pairings.
Because you can’t have all that savory without a little sweet, we then made our way to Crna Ovca, an ice cream parlor with inventive flavors. I was tempted by a combo of sesame coffee with chocolate covered coffee beans and peanut butter with milk chocolate covered pretzels, but I’ll have to go back for that. With many, many courses sitting in my belly, I opted for the somewhat lighter combination of lemon basil and stracciatella with star anise.
And if we didn’t finish our meal with rakija, we wouldn’t be in Belgrade. So our final stop on the tour was Rakia Bar, where we sampled a few different kinds. They’re all ridiculously strong, but they range in flavor intensity from liquid candy to Robitussin to…drain cleaner, I’d imagine. But seriously, it was a fun end to an amazing night. Not only is the food excellent in Belgrade, the hospitality is phenomenal. From servers to chefs to our lovely guide, Uros, everyone was warm and welcoming—as evidenced by our (unnecessary and unexpected but so lovely and appreciated) parting gifts, wooden spoons with our names in Cyrillic burned into the handles. My name hardly makes sense in Serbian—with the way their letters are pronounced, it’s more like Yenneefer), but I’m happy to have something by which to remember a wonderful evening.
Whenever I go on vacation, I find myself wondering if I should live there. I definitely contemplated it when I went to Anguilla last winter. Why return to snowy New York?, I thought. Anguilla has everything I need.
Traveling with We Roam has allowed me to test this idea. While a month isn’t long enough to experience all the nuances of a place, it’s long enough to give you a sense for what day-to-day life is like. And I’ve learned there’s a huge difference between places I want to visit and places I want to live.
I’ve only been in Belgrade for three days now, but I can tell it’s extremely livable. I already have a favorite coffee shop, Aviator—they have several branches, but one (pictured below) is just around the corner from my apartment. And if around the corner is too far, I have another lovely coffee shop by day/bar by night right next door. On the other side of my building is a reasonably well stocked 24-hour grocery store, and there’s another just across the street. Every restaurant I’ve been to so far has been delicious, affordable, and within an eight-minute walk from my flat.
Yes, food and drinks comprise 90% of my happiness.
But really, I’m not saying Belgrade has everything I need (New York’s arts scene has ruined me for most cities, and the dating apps here offer slim pickings), but my essential building blocks for contentment are present.
An interesting flip side is the cities where I’ve felt most at home so far, Berlin and Belgrade, are two of the least picturesque. Last month in Split was such a strange month for me—while I had some of my favorite moments of the trip there (visiting the waterfalls at Krka on my long-distance date, for one), I felt frustrated living in a town that was filled to the brim with other travelers, where the closest grocery store was a 15-minute walk away and closed at 7 pm, and the restaurants were largely either unappealing or overpriced with middling food.
Yet Split is undeniably beautiful. While it shares some unfortunate Communist bloc architecture with Berlin and Belgrade, the ancient beauty of the old town with Diocletian’s Palace and the natural beauty of the coast shine through.
For me, though, amenities trump appearance. I would have loved Split if I’d stayed there for a couple nights on my way to the islands, as most travelers do, but 37 days there was far too long.
All of this is deeply subjective. I knew that before this trip, of course; New York is an incredibly polarizing city. But it’s been fascinating to travel alongside people, having nearly identical experiences of a place but completely opposite reactions. My roommate last month adored Split. She drew energy from just walking around the old town and felt like she could happily stay there forever. Berlin, meanwhile, the latest love of my life, left her cold.
I’d be happy to visit Split, but I’d go crazy if I lived there. I could easily live in Belgrade, but it wouldn’t be my top recommendation to someone looking for a vacation. But you might disagree. And that’s one reason why we travel—to discover these things for, and about, ourselves.
That’s not to say I’ve done nothing. Two weekends ago, we had a completely gorgeous excursion to the northwestern edge of Serbia. We visited the home of artist Sava Šumanović and a museum dedicated to his work—he spent time in Paris with the lost generation in the 20s before returning home to paint. We then spent the afternoon at the Ilić-Nijemčević vineyard, touring the grounds and the cellar, eating an enormous lunch, and sampling many, many bottles of their wine.
shots of rakija, and asking random strangers to take photos with us. The hunt even took us to Belgrade’s weirdest (and in my opinion, most delightful) attraction: a dino park where kids can play. For the record, my team won. 
Because you can’t have all that savory without a little sweet, we then made our way to 
Yet Split is undeniably beautiful. While it shares some unfortunate Communist bloc architecture with Berlin and Belgrade, the ancient beauty of the old town with Diocletian’s Palace and the natural beauty of the coast shine through. 
