First trip to Belgrade

Wednesday
I did some quick reading about Serbia before I left on my work trip to Belgrade, as my existing knowledge centred around words like 'Srebrenica' and 'Milosevic', but most of what I found focused on the same kinds of topics.  Equal parts amusing and chilling is a line from the Wikitravel page, "Whilst there isn't much by way of ethnic or cultural diversity in Belgrade..."

txt from the plane:
JAT airlines... I think it stands for Just Airworthy... Temporarily. It also smells of cigarettes which is strange. Or it just might be that something is on fire. That would explain the temperature.


email from the hotel:

By some miracle (actually a miraculous series of miracles) I've made it to my hotel in Belgrade.  That plane had seen better days, and I really hope it was the pilot's first day on the job.  There was blood on my tray-table when stowed so I didn't open it up.  There was a loud squealing sound the whole flight (loud).  The was a near mid-air collision over Germany (at least it seemed very close to me).  The final approach felt like the pilot was trying to shake off a stinger missile.  Even when we'd touched down he brake tested the plane behind down the run-way and had to have two shots at stopping the plane at the gate, again using his amazing limit-braking technique.

I actually semi-slept for much of the 2.5 hr flight after I'd had a little cry and plugged some Fat Freddy's Drop into my ears, so despite the best attempts of JAT, it wasn't so terrible after the first hour of waiting to die.

Anyway, I managed to avoid the taxi drivers telling me that the bus to the city doesn't run anymore (they all had the same story, which was mildly impressive).  Why the hell is "anymore" not a word, spellchecker?  Its like welcome or farewell or tonight.  On the bus that wasn't running anymore I sat next to a man from Iowa (not Bill Bryson, although he was discussed) who is here following some 16th century Milanese Saint's life and we got along very well indeed chatting about America and Americans and Iowa and New Zealand and Europe and so on, and both very much enjoying reflecting on Bryson's "Americans don't see ice as a luxury item".  I'm staying right in the centre of Belgrade, and it looks like an easy walk to anywhere from the hotel.  The hotel ("Design Life" --- oooh, sophisticated) is pretty good, and the bed has the biggest one-piece mattress I've ever seen.  I've been out to get food (giro... and giro after-taste at no extra cost) and sat between two grand state buildings and watched bats and people enjoy the twilight.

Thursday

Gave my presentation - bored most of the people senseless, but felt confident and relaxed while presenting, so I think it went as good as it could have been.  There were some good questions afterwards.  One of the guys that does the same thing and works for the microphone manufacturer was ecstatic about it (i.e. it'll save him some work), and several people asked me for the slides... the rest caught up on some sleep.  We finished a bit early and that night the hosts put on a tour of the city for us.  I said to the others "I hope its a walking tour and not a bus tour... I guess we'll find out at 6pm".  6pm came and we all got on a bus for 2 hours of clenched teeth as the tour guide enjoyed being the centre of attention and hammered out mindless set pieces or showed off her amazing knowledge of our home countries or sometimes reverted to just saying meaningless phrases to add emphasis to the previous meaningless phrase. e.g. "And here on your left is the Swiss embassy.  And here on your left is the German embassy.  This man here from Germany already knows that because the Germans are the best at reading maps.  Gold medal.  That's right...  Yes...  Yes."  My God, will you just f**king die.  As soon as we got off the bus for a stop at a park I went off in the other direction from the group, looked at an incredible 16th century church across the road that she had given only a "here is a 16th century church.  Very nice.  Yes." to as we passed it in the bus moments before, found a strange solitary (tomb?) stone with a caricature soldier on, examined a 50m wide (!) London Plane tree that was being supported by several metal posts, and looked at 18th century double glazing.  Meanwhile, during a 20 minute all-hands-on-deck process, she memorised everyone else's nationality... presumably so that if they attempted suicide during the tour she would be able to match the corpses up with the embassies she was so fond of.

Dinner was at a restaurant on the Sava, and was quite pleasant, but 4 hours of it was about 2 hours too much, and we got home at about midnight.

Friday

Not much work to get through so we wrapped it up by 10:30am, and I spent the next hour talking with Salvador about hideously technical stuff to do with my current main diffuse-field project at work. Very useful, quite interesting, and as usual plenty of laughs to soften it up. Then a 2 hour tour of DMDM, the Serbian NMI, and then we were free by 2pm. So 6 of us sat outside and had a chat and a drink, and afterwards I joined the Danish contingent for a walk alongside the Sava river, which ended with us sitting outside at the highly rated Cantina de Frieda until 11pm. We had been joined by 8 others from the meeting for dinner -- I had a terrific steak -- and it was a great night and after 6 hours of drinks and food my bill came to 20,000D.... only 20 Euros. When it came time to leave I decided it wasn't time to leave and 3 of the other younger guys agreed with me and we stayed for a few more extremely cheap rounds. That the singer of the excellent live band was absolutely gorgeous was probably of some influence as well. An outstanding night, some good friends made, and the first real taste of what Belgrade does best: have a good time.

Saturday

Nikoli Tesla museum was somewhat disappointing, but an afternoon walking the city and the park were the opposite, as despite the often brutal communist facades there is always some detail with character, and plenty of people to furnish the streets.  You never feel alone in Belgrade, in a good way.  In the evening I did more of the same, exploring on foot before eventually stopping at a Mexican restaurant to eat and watch Djokovic beat Murray in the ATP Rome semi in a thrilling comeback, which the staff and I thoroughly enjoyed.  Afterwards, while looking for a friendly bar to prop up, I stumbled across an open air blues concert on the top of a bookshop entranceway -- this is after midnight -- which was free, or you could grab a chair and buy a beer, and at 1.60 euros for a pint there was no decision to make.  The superb blues band was watched by an audience ranging from teenagers to pensioners, in roughly equal numbers, and my waiter was Borat.  I left at 1:30am and the city was still buzzing with people and a great vibe.  I've never been anywhere like it.  To top it off I got home and a live NHL playoff match was just starting on TV, so there was another opportunity not to be missed.  Belgrade, the city of sleep deprivation.

Sunday

Got up early, got ready, called my cab, paid my bill and reluctantly left for the airport (the carrot of Belgrade behind, the stick of JAT ahead).  A minute's drive from the hotel we passed the American Embassy - a windowless fortress with "No Photos" signs all around - and 2 blocks along the road passed some government buildings that had been bombed by NATO in 1999, looking like they had been hit yesterday.  It brought to mind that this is a city that hasn't had a pleasant recent history, with issues with both the East and the West, a civil war, and ethnic tensions (to put it mildly), which makes the "good time" vibe of the place all the more amazing.  Perhaps there are resentments here... there is certainly a lot of graffiti about (in Latin and Cyrillic)... but in the evenings I always felt that the common goal was "stay up late and have fun", which happily aligned very well with my goal.