I arrived in Belgrade in the morning as I had taken an overnight bus from Budapest.  I had a full day and a half to explore Belgrade and so I wasted no time.  The hostel was not open yet though and I struggled to find a coffee shop to wait until it opened to drop off my bag and so I ended up wandering around for about 2 hours waiting for things to open.  I never did get my caffeine, but the Hostel did open eventually and I was able to drop my bag off and meet a few people to explore with.  We went for lunch and then headed to the fort in town to explore and enjoy the views of the countryside.  One of the guys had a drone, so we played around with that!

I have always been intrigued by the idea of a drone, and as prices come down and they get smaller, I have been even more intrigued.  However, I really don’t know if I would use it that often.  I like making videos but rarely get around to actual editing them.  I feel like it would be kind of like the go pro in that I almost never use it.

We wondered around for a while and had a very pleasant day.

I broke off from the group for a little bit to find a running store I had seen online.  My brooks Launch running shoes that I had brought on my trip had gone through a lot of hikes and runs and I wanted to get a new pair before Athens.  I was a bit worried, because I didn’t want to try a new shoe 10 days before Athens and wasn’t sure hoe available they would be in this part of Europe.  The owner of the running store was SUPER nice and we ended up chatting for a long time, He threw on the live stream of the NYC marathon as it was currently unfolding as we were chatting.  Turns out he was also running Athens and gave me some tips for that race.  Unfortunately he didn’t carry any brooks shoes but he did point me in the direction of a store across the street that did.  I felt really bad for talking to him for so long but going across the street to purchase what I wanted.  He understood and the store across the street ended up having the new version of the Brooks Launch and it was cheaper than I had previously paid in the US, which was nice.  I was happy to see so many options for shoes and running gear in general.  Not sure what i was expecting in Serbia to be honest.

I returned to the hostel and a bunch of us had talked about trying to find a nice Serbian place to eat dinner.  One of the fellow travelers had gotten a tip from someone about a super authentic local place that was only a short bus rude away.  We decided to go for it and headed off to find this restaurant. We got off the bus and got pretty confused because it was not exactly obvious where to go.  Turns out the place was in behind a house and an ally way.  Was a bit sketchy, but we eventually found it and it was exactly as advertised and EXACTLY the type of place I love.  No tourists, only locals, owner runs the place himself with cheap delicious local food.  We asked the owner to bring us enough food to feed the group and that’s about it.  Told him to make us whatever is Serbian.  This is what we got!

The owner was hilarious and the whole experience was awesome! This is the type of place I wish I could find in every city I visited. I was able to locate a decent number of truly local experiences though and am happy for that.  We headed back to the hostel and had a really nice chill night.  The next day, my bus didn’t leave until the afternoon so I had an entire morning for activities.  I opted to take a free walking tour to get a bit more context about the city.

The tour went over some of the religious history of the city as well as some of the political history as well.  We ended at a huge church that was under construction, although the crypt was open and rediculously golden.

After the walking tour, I had just enough time to get a run in and I was lucky to find a park across the river that had a rubber track around the outside.  I ran there as my warmup and then did some intervals on the track!

I did get to see a bit more of the city on the run and despite it being a pretty short stay, I did see more than I thought I would see.  Serbia is also on my list of places to return to.  It’s not high on my list, but I for sure did not get the full experience during my 1.5 day stay. After a quick shower, I headed to the bus station and was off to Macedonia.