Bodacious Belgrade
Month two has already wrapped and I am now one sixth of my way through Remote Year. It’s crazy to think how quickly this year is going it also helps recognize that I don’t look out the time will have been and gone. It seems so long ago that I stepped onto that plane to leave for Lisbon but also I can’t believe 9 weeks has already passed.
Due to the need to transition between cities over the weekend a month in a city could either be 4 or 5 weeks depending on schedules. Lisbon was 5 weeks which was great for getting started and adjusted to the remote year lifestyle. However Belgrade has only been 4 weeks and frankly it went by in a heartbeat. Who knows where the time goes.
After such a fast paced time in Lisbon there was a need to slow things down in Belgrade and thankfully I can say I managed to do that…. slightly. With such a traveling and working lifestyle with so many people means there is always something going on. However this month I found myself managing when to do stuff and when to not rather than saying yes to everything in Lisbon.
Where in Lisbon I felt like I wasn’t ready to leave and still had things to do I feel differently about Belgrade. Possibly because of being more proactive in some situations or perhaps there was less to accomplish here. Leaving Belgrade I feel like I’ve managed to do everything I wanted to do. Likely I will never go back because of that but then again if someone was wanting to go I could find myself back there on a plane at some point.
About Belgrade
Belgrade is one of those cities that was never high up on my list. When looking at the list of cities for my itinerary it wasn’t exactly jumping out at me. However my mindset was well Remote year goes there for a reason so I guess I will enjoy it. And boy did I. Most of the group came into Belgrade with zero expectations of what to expect. It probably helped as we were all pleasantly surprised by what Belgrade had to offer and promptly fell in love with its charm.
Belgrade is not really a touristy place and in fact I only know a couple of people who have been here before. This played to its advantage by not having such a touristy feel it allowed us to enjoy a more authentic Serbian experience. It also was great for the cost as everything has been so cheap and I’ve probably ended up spending about 40% of what I spent in Lisbon… Most of the beer I had on the trip was only about 200 dinar which equates to about £1.50. Not paid for beer that cheap since my Uni days :)
Coming here I thought the language barrier would come more apparent from Portugal where we had no issues. In fact it was not the case everyone seems to speak English which was a nice surprise and certainly helped us stay ignorant tourists for another month.
Belgrade and Serbia has an interesting history from the past 30 years with the break up of Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars. However I am leaving feeling like I don’t really understand much more than when I arrived. It just seems the history doesn’t get spoken about here I can imagine similar to Germany after the Second World War. We did try to visit the Museum of Yugoslavia to learn more however it felt like more of a tribute to Tito than about the history itself.

Big thing in Belgrade is to go Splavving. The main clubs are based on the river side on boats. I heard so much about how Belgrade was such a great party place. However I felt disappointed. All the Splavs were table based so there really wasn’t much room to dance. In most places as well DJs seem to be there inconsistent about what songs they were playing and transitions between genres. Fellow Remote George put it so great from one night out ‘It’s like two kids having a joint birthday party and they’re fighting over the music’


Belgrade doesn’t seem to have much in the way of rules.. Within the first couple of days was standing on the pavement waiting for a taxi and a van decided it was going to park exactly where I was stood. No guesses for who blinked first… Serbia doesn’t seem to care about where people smoke and it seems anyone can smoke anywhere. Which has been a weird flash back to pre smoking bans in Western Hemisphere. Remotes that do smoke even struggled to adjust to the fact they could smoke anywhere.
Best bits
A couple of days into our time in Belgrade was 4th July. That famous independence day where Americans managed to get away from the awfully nice British empire and our royality. Although ironically some Americans love our royality more now than a lot of British people. Despite not being American I wasn’t going to miss the chance of big party despite it being on a Wednesday this year. Location of the party was on boat house so we were able to bbq and drink without the worry of disturbing anyone else.

One of the tracks this month was Kayaking up the Danube to place called War island which is between New Belgrade and Belgrade. It was such a fun morning kayaking up the Danube and even more fun when found there was beer for us on the island waiting :) The problem with morning drinking is that the tendency is to just keep drinking which is exactly what happened. However it turned out to be one of the most fun days of the trip so far. If there is more options of Kayaking on this trip I will certainly one of the first to put my name forward.



Whilst we were in Belgrade Exit Festival was happening in the nearby city Novi Sad. Exit festival is one of the biggest festivals in Europe and all happens in the fortress within Novi Sad. Because of how hot Serbia can get the festival was at night rather than during the day. I initially was waving on that showing my age for staying up to the small hours. Turns out going was a great experience and will always remember being drunk on hill listening to David Guetta on the nearby main stage.



My fellow remote Mel whilst researching Belgrade/Serbia managed to find something called Drina Regatta. This is where 15,000 Serbians get on rafts and go down the Drina river whilst drinking and barbecuing. Yes they were barbecuing on rafts! Originally we were trying to organize a raft ourselves but we managed to find a tour company thankfully that took a lot of the stress and hassle out of the whole weekend. So we spent our last weekend in Tara National park which is one of the most beautiful spots in Serbia. The regatta itself though turned out to be quite messy which is no surprise drinking with friends for 3 hours on a raft. Unfortunately my GoPro didn’t survive the journey. Originally I had thought someone else had it but just goes to show that you cannot assume someone else is looking after your stuff! Doing the regatta made me feel like I had done some very Serbian and immersified myself that little bit more than if I had done something else that weekend. I just can’t imagine many tourists knowing such a day exists so I feel privileged to say I have done it.




Music and Video
As I have had a quieter month it has meant to I have had more time the important vice of Netflix has helped me have some me time. Fortunately this month I’ve managed to catch up on a couple of programmes I was looking to finish for example Westworld (warning I don’t think it’s as good as people say).
I’ve also been working my way through Unsolved which is a dramatization about the murders of 2Pac and Biggie and the subsequent investigations. It’s really interesting and if that type of programme or the topic interests you I fully recommend checking it out.
This month I’ve had a couple of specific songs in my head. I’m not fully sure why but they are very catchy and have ended up stuck in there for most of my trip so far :)
As well as songs in my head it seems singing Mr Brightside at Karoake has made everyone want me to sing it at all opportunities. Unfortunately I am already getting sick of singing the song at every opportunity so I will need to find additional karoake songs. Any recommendations?
Mental health
The last thing I want to write about is probably one of the hardest things I want to write and open up about is my mental health. As I mentioned in my Lisbon blog there is expected to be ups and downs on the coming year and it isn’t all going to be rosy. To be honest Belgrade has not been a great month for my head and emotions. Whilst I have enjoyed parts of Belgrade this month it has also sucked for the way I have felt through most of the last 4 weeks.
As a result of my mental health I’ve unfortunately hurt people I have cared about this month which leads to a catch 22 situation in terms of getting better. Fortunately going through those situations makes you notice who are supportive in those situations and I will forever be in those persons debt for being there for me when I needed it the most. I’m also gratful for the people I’ve hurt forgiving me and allowing me to redeem myself down the line.
Hopefully as I move onto a long weekend in Germany and then Split for a month a new location will help clear my head which it so desperately needs.