Belgrade, Serbia

I have questions I ask and answer whenever I get to new place:

Is water safe to drink from tap?

Where is the closest grocery store

How do you catch and pay for train/bus/etc?

Where to get cash and how much is appropriate?

These are all questions I wished I had compiled in a checklist to be used before I arrived in each new location or country during these last seven months instead of doing the mental gymnastics every time I arrive in a new place. But it is the last country now and I finally have my list.

My flight is early in the morning from Vienna to Belgrade, Serbia. I need to get out of the Euro zone since my visa is close to expiring (90 day Schengen). It seems the next stop nearby is Serbia since I visited many other Balkan countries but not this one yet.

After arriving by plane I go to the city shuttle that is 20 minutes late and the crowd is starting to gather around. I’ve already been waiting about 30 minutes prior so I am proactive and push myself towards the front of the group when the shuttle arrives since I’ve been waiting much longer than most of these people and there is no formal line. The shuttle is a smaller bus and not everybody is getting on. My last stop during my travels and I finally learn to be pushy to my advantage. Most of the time I am overly considerate even when it hurts me. After the shuttle I have to switch to another bus and the heat is starting to kick in; my entire backside is drenched in sweat. I am on a crowded bus standing and trying to balance with my large backpack containing my life for several months and the guy next to me is real annoyed with my backpack. I am too sir. I am too. My hotel is right next to the bus stop and my room is ready. I’ve been so lucky with my room being available as soon as I arrive lately. I relax in the AC for a couple hours before I go back out to sweat again with a walking tour of town.

I meet with the tour and a tour guide takes us many sites in town and explaining their meaning. I learn places to hang out and restaurants to try. He of course tells us to try rakia but I’ve been to the Balkans before and I’m a pro at rakia now. The tour is great but he says nothing about anything related to conflicts in the last fifty years; the commentary stops at World War II. From what I’ve read the most museums around here do not address it either. I am really curious to get their perspective on recent conflicts since I’ve already heard some commentary from other Balkan countries. Maybe another day or so I’ll hit a museum or have a guide that will talk about that period of time. I do learn Serbia goes way back and has a long history. I definitely need to learn more.

After the tour, some of the more outgoing people of the tour arrange a meet up at a beer place around the corner. The six of us go and have a beer. We have two Aussies, two Americans, an Italian and a Colombian. We have a delightful conversation getting to know each other. We take the conversation to dinner afterwards. I try another one of those Balkan meat patty things that seem to be so popular in the region. This particular one is a combination of ground beef, chicken, and cheese. It comes with a side of fries, so yeah, very healthy.

pljeskavica as a type of Serbian hamburger made with ground beef, pork, or lamb. I ordered mine beef and chicken and cheese.

Google takes me through these buildings on my walk back to the hotel. I feel like I’m trespassing but I think others travel the same way.

The next morning I head out to visit the Nikola Tesla museum. Tesla was born in technically Austrian Empire in a region that is now Croatia but was born to Serbian parents. He spent the much of his life outside of Serbia but his inventions were brought to the country after he died, even though he spent most of his professional life outside the country. The museum can only be visited by tour once an hour. The two early tours the morning I visited were already reserved by large groups – although individuals cannot reserve in advance and have to pay in cash. I check in and notice I can’t buy my ticket yet. I am told to come back in about 30 minutes so I go around the block to try the pizza the tour guide yesterday raved about called Bucko. I rarely pass up a good pizza so it is an easy sell for me. The pizza is known for the sauce that is spread on top (called a salad). So basically it is a normal pizza slice with a spread of your choice. I got the beef salad which seemed to be the most popular. It is good but messy and something I am not sure I’d order again. Maybe I’ll go back and try another salad but there are a few more foods in Belgrade I still need to try.

I return back to the Tesla museum for the tour and demonstration of some of his inventions.

I walk around town a bit afterwards.

I head down to the funky Skadarlija district to have dinner at one of the two restaurants I have on my radar in that neighborhood. It’s a very short walk from my hotel so that’s nice since its still hot out. There is a Serbian band playing for dining guests. The music is traditional and sounds like something you’d hear in in many European tourist restaurants.

Karađorđeva šnicla is a Serbian dish consisting of a breaded and rolled veal or pork cutlet stuffed with kajmak. It was named after Karađorđe, a Serbian revolutionary who led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire from 1804-1813.

I had it with chicken since eating lots of beef and pork lately. It is good but very rich. Probably would never order it again but glad I got to try it. Also tried the Krempita again, this time with berries inside. I have had the dessert before and but I missed enjoying it from my Balkan days a couple months ago. I also discover that I am in love with the cheese topped Sopska Salata (Serbian salad). The salad is fresh chopped vegetables and cheese, so good.

After dinner I explore Skadarlija and end up down a funky alley with bars and more restaurants. I hope to come back here another night.

Goodbye Vienna (and Austria)

I go to the famous cafe Sacher to try their torte cake. I order the combo with the coffee and the special Brut champagne. If I return I’ll insist on sitting upstairs in the beautiful velvet dining space.

I visit the lovely Austrian National Library. I love a library with old books.

Finally get to try wiener schnitzel at Huth Gastwirtschaft.

I visit the Imperial Crypt, the crypt of the royals.

I then visit the Stephansdom Crypt where I see a plethora of human bones as well as intestines and other innards in alcohol jars. I highly recommend this tour if you like creepy things. No pictures inside.

Some internal body parts, juicing up for hundreds of years

I walk around town and then have cocktails at an American bar.

What goes with crypts, bones and cocktails? Seeing the Barbie movie in a historic theater. This theater also is famous for showing the movie The Third Man. If I had more time in town I’d come back to see that.

After the movie I take the train and walk to my hotel through the Prater amusement park where I get to view it lit up for the evening.

My final day I visit Belvedere Palace and its weird art. The palace is a museum and holds some famous artwork by Gustav Klimt and other artists.

Finally I eat a late lunch at an old glass building, the restaurant called Brasserie Palmenhaus Wien.

There is so much more to see and do in Vienna but but I am flying to Serbia in the morning for my final stop so I go back to pack. This time I have to pack for flying since all the bus and train routes were terrible.

This time tomorrow I’ll be back in the Balkans

Vienna, Austria

I take the train to Vienna from Graz, I didn’t upgrade myself this time but its ok because I get a four seat to myself almost the whole way.

When I arrive to Vienna central station it doesn’t take me too long to figure out which train I need to transfer to. I end up buying a multi day pass even though it’s expensive to simply things. My train drops me off at Prater, a transportation hub right next to a large park that contains an amusement park. I realize later that there is a subway train I could have taken from there to make my walk even shorter or I could have taken a short cut through the amusement park. Instead I follow google with its long walk around the parameter of the park to almost on the other side of the park where my hotel resides. Yes, I am sweaty. And I feel like I am not close to anything except this theme park. Did I make a mistake booking this hotel?

My room is ready when I arrive. I check in and clean up. I have a Mozart concert and dinner scheduled tonight at Schloss Schonbrunn. The package includes a tour of some of the rooms inside. Very impressive. Of course no pictures allowed again. I learn so much about the Hapsburgs during the audio tours of the rooms like Maria Theresa, Elizabeth (or Sissi the beautiful wife of Emperor Fran’s Joseph) and finally the famous Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France – how did I not know she was a Habsburg? Anyway I enjoy the big room with Rococo frescos, the white gold trim in the grand room.

After the tour we take a long walk to a restaurant down the street for our dinner that is part of the package. Come to find out it is a fixed menu with the choices being beef or vegetarian. I was really looking forward to trying some authentic schnitzel tonight but I guess it will have to wait. The food is lackluster and the service is unbearably slow. I stared at my wine and water on the bar for 15 minutes before I finally got up to tell a waiter (not mine) that those drinks were mine. If I did the package again I would skip the dinner and get fast food somewhere.

After dinner we walk back to the orangerie or large room outside the palace where the concert will be held. I chose upgraded seats that included a Prosecco. I sip my Prosecco while I wait for them to let us in. I can’t film inside but it is a great performance. The singers and musicians are delightful and seem to really enjoy their job. I am glad I bought the tickets this evening.

After the show it is late and google is telling me I have to take a train a very far walk away. I decide to ignore it and go to the train I arrived from. The train is running so not sure why google would give me bad directions. (Note: It seems to be the first of many bad directions for my last week or so of travel). Luckily I get back safely and timely using my instincts.

In the morning I have a wine tour scheduled. They don’t pick up at my hotel so I commute down to another part of town and walk through a park on the way that has seen better days.

We are taken out to a wine region called the Wagram region. Our first stop is at the Holzer Winery that is run by a husband and his wife. We meet the wife who introduces us to some wines and tells us her husband’s family winery history while we sip wines on a lovely table by a vineyard. It is a nice day at the winery. As these tours go we are all very friendly after a couple glasses. This region is known for its Gruner Veltliner which a very popular wine for a long while in Austria but has only begun to get the spotlight in the USA in the last maybe ten years. I discovered my love for Gruner in an Austrian restaurant in Brooklyn that had it on tap as did other Brooklyn bars during my life in NYC.

We then have an Austrian dinner where I try some pork schnitzel and lots of other items. I forget to take pictures of the meal but I do take a picture of the delicious rum cake they serve as a dessert. Another winery brings us wines to try while we eat instead of us visiting another tasting at a winery. I purchase one of the bottles of red since I still have three nights left in town to enjoy it.

We head back in town and I am dangerously low on clean clothes so I force myself to do laundry. Hopefully this is the last time I need to do laundry before I go home.

The next morning I wake up early for the highly anticipated Naschmarket. I enjoy the flea market portion of the market but the food vendors are aggressive, especially in the nuts/sweets spices section. Had one almost run after me to try his nuts “only one man”. It seemed to be many vendors selling the same things. There are some unique sellers and restaurants thrown in there but not enough to add it to my recommendation list especially when I’ve been to some pretty cool markets in the past.

Surrounding the market…

I do some sightseeing. I eye one church with some stone sculptures but I decide almost 10 euros is too steep a price to visit, maybe later.

Schloss Eggenberg

In the morning I tour Schloss Eggenberg. The state rooms are only accessed by guided tour so I sign up for the early tour. Eggenberg palace is another UNESCO protected building. It is a representation of baroque architecture. Schloss Eggenberg was created for the prominent Eggenberg family (yes the same one that had a presence in Bohemia – specifically Cesky Krumlov). The rooms are impressive but it is another in a long line of palaces that allow no photography so I have no photos to share. Many of the rooms were barely used over the years and it was a very large palace for the time when it was built. Regulations existed about having palaces with more rooms than what the current royals had so some rooms were not in use as a compromise. Also it was built with lots of math and astrology in mind: Hans Ulrich had items of the Gregorian calendar incorporated in the design (ie 365, 52, 31, 24, 7). Impressive because this was a time when the Gregorian calendar was not yet widely adopted.

We can take pictures in the gallery museum though. There is lots of religious themed art. I find Corpse of Saint Florian Guarded by an Eagle quite interesting.

There is also a large coin collection.

I stop at the Frankowitsch – Brötchenbar – Delikatessen to try their open face sandwiches for lunch. They are good. I love the spread on the sandwich Pumpkin seed oil. I also order a lox one because I love salmon.

After lunch I take the train up to Schlossberg the tall mountain area that overhangs into the town. I enjoy some great views from up there. I slowly walk down from level to level and finally get to those intimidating stairs. I am sweating just going down so I am not sure I would really enjoy going up this time of year but lots of other people are doing it.

Walking back to my hotel I decide to stop at a cocktail bar and try a couple drinks. Afterwards I walk around and finally get a night view of the city before I go back to pack. I head to Vienna tomorrow. Good night.

Graz museum day

I visit the Kunsthaus Graz (Graz modern museum) because I love some weird art. The main exhibit is a series of artwork from artists from the former Yugoslavia – a region I visited earlier. I see the artwork from the artist that does the running through Zagreb nude (I love you Zagreb) and I see some interesting penis related artwork (Gelatin by Golem is one example, photos of naked guys in nature backdrops is another). The art explores many different ideas and pushes boundaries. One movie shows hostile architecture in the ways cities develop spaces that seem to prevent sitting. In the movie people sit in these hostile spaces and later show their bare bottom with the associated indentations. In addition the museum has a great view of the city.

I also walk through the art space called Murinsel, an island in the Mur river that hosts a cafe and an art space. They play movies and have live music perform there.

I also walk along the water.

I notice a long path up the hill to a park with scenic views but it is not in the plans today. Instead I happen upon a tunnel next door that was built as a war shelter. It leads up to a lower part of the park. I use this time opportunity to grab lunch. Sushi is on the menu today. There is a photographer taking photos of all the menu items for I am assuming website photos and such. They offer the few of us dining all the plates when they are done with the photos. Unfortunately this happens after I’ve already stuffed myself. I could have walked out with a much cheaper meal if I would have just been slower to order.

After lunch I walk by an interesting double staircase.

I walk by the mausoleum dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand II next door. It looks impressive but I decide to wait til later to go inside which proves to be a bad decision because I never catch the opening times again during my visit to the city.

It is three o’clock so I am in time to see the historic Glockenspiel dance. In this clock there are two dancers, a woman and man, who dance to the different chimes.

Earlier when I was rushing to the clock I noticed a weird white building in the distance. This building seemingly made of white cubes is called Argos designed by Zaha Hadid.

Tonight I have dinner reservations to try the famous Graz fried chicken (Backhendl, or Styria Fried chicken). It is quite good and pairs nicely with their salad that contains pumpkin seed oil (yum) and the famous Styria beans the size of a thumb.

When I finish dinner it is raining so I run back to my hotel for the evening. Little do I know that this rain will cool things off nicely. While most of Europe has a heat wave I am feeling quite nice the next couple days.