Our park up in Belgrade/Beograd was a very large, gated compound on the outskirts of the city with full facilities and friendly hosts. We arrived around 15.30 and, as most museums in the city centre were shut on a Monday, we decided to chill for a couple of hours in the sunshine before making our way to the Danube riverfront 30 minutes walk away for a bite to eat. We found a lovely fish restaurant called Sent Andrea so Liz had perch and I had sea bream. Both cooked beautifully. Another peaceful night’s rest before hitting Beograd on Tuesday, April 2. We’d given up reporting to the police by now and decided we would chance it if we were ever questioned.

We navigated the digital bus pass app, Beograd Plus, so that we each had an e-ticket (all day ticket for less than £1) on our phones as we didn’t get any Serbian Dinars out for such a short stay. We have been able to use our Wise credit card everywhere so far on this trip and so it was in Serbia. It was an easy 30 minute bus ride from our park up to the centre of Beograd.

We had been deceived about the weather as our compound was a sun trap and we donned shorts and sandals for our day out. We realised our mistake too late when others were wearing puffa jackets and long trousers!

Beograd actually means White City and is named after the White Fortress that was built up on the ridge and this was our first port of call. It had an interesting exhibition on the Serbian nationalists who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and basically started WWI. It gave an alternative view of what others would call extremists as they were seen as martyrs in Serbia. The fortress itself is open to the public and a lot of locals seemed to be wandering around and taking in the views.

After that we decided it was lunchtime and headed into the city centre to what can only be described as a very eclectic vegetarian restaurant called Mayka. It was like having a meal in someone’s loft with old, mismatched furniture on uneven floorboards with gold painted scaffolding! The food was highly recommended in various apps and guidebooks although none of them mentioned the decor, or lack of it. The food was okay but we’ve had better vegetarian Indian in London.

We then made our way via tram (still using our day ticket) to the Museum of Yugoslavia, which also houses the Tito mausoleum. It really brought it home how much of a cult of personality was created by him and the communist party so it’s no wonder that the Yugoslavian Republic collapsed when he died. It still made for interesting visit.

We were hoping to go to the Nikolai Tesla museum on the way home but found out when we got there that they only took Serbian Dinars so we had to abort that visit and instead made our way back to the bus station via various landmarks.

All in all, it felt like Beograd didn’t make the most of the Danube waterfront in the centre of the city but it was certainly more lively and had much more of a city feel to the place than Sofia.

Miles driven since last post: 0

Total miles driven this trip: 2,809

Tolls: €0