22 Jun 2014 Timisoara to Beograd
We get an early start, bid goodbye to the friendly staff of Casa Leone, pick up the generous pre-packed breakfast, and walk out to the tram stop. It is 6:30 am. The 4 and 8 trams come by our neighborhood: 8 to the train station, 4 to the center. The 4 comes first so we take it. Two stations later, an 8 is right behind, so we hop off the 4 and on to the 8.
At 7:15 am we are at the train station. On track 7 is a cute 2 car train that has been badly tagged by graffiti artists. There is no engine car - just two cars that join without walls in the center. We take two seats at one end - it turns out to be the end. There are maybe 10 folks traveling onward into Serbia, including a father and daughter from Grenada, Spain, who have come to accompany their son/brother who is going home after a year of studying in Bucuresti.
The other 10-15 folks are going to tiny spots in rural Romania south of Timisoara.
At 7:48 we are off. Our breakfast sandwiches are delicious. We are quickly back in the boonies. At 9:00 we are at the border. The Romanian police pass through the cars and stamp our passports as we leave the country. Then the Serbian police come through the cars and collect our passports. By 9:30 we get our passports back. We have Serbian stamps, and the time now 8:30 am, since we are now on Central European Time. At 8:52 (apx) we pull into Vrsac in Serbia. There is a Serbian train ahead on the tracks. Mike wanders around the station looking for a way to buy Serbian dinars or use an ATM. Nada, nix, nema.
At 9:40 we are off on a nearly empty Serbian train. We tool along through the flat Serbian countryside. At 10:47 we pull into Pancevo, and the train suddenly crush loads with locals going maybe 20 km into Beograd. Carol is in the restroom. Mike is asleep in a 4 seat group. A man comes along, shouts at Mike [in Serbian], and wakes him up. "Who do you think you are (or something to that effect)?" So the bags go up top on the racks, and we acquire 2 seatmates.
From Pancevo to Beograd we are in a crowded suburban train. Signs of industrialization appear. We cross the Danube (Dunav) and pull into the Dunav station. It is 11:30 am. We lack crucial items: no local currency, no water, no bus card. The station is empty. Welcome to Serbia.
It is unclear what to do. We 5 (2 of us, 3 Spaniards) walk one block to a busy boulevard. Carol sits down with both Froman backpacks and assorted day bags. She waits while the rest of us walk up and down the street. Finally, the walkers find a money changer who is open (it is Sunday and many places are closed).
Mike changes $50 US into 4150 dinar. The rate, 83 dinars to the dollar, turns out to be close to the best rate in town. He buys a bottle of COLD water, and two BusPlus cards, with 2 rides on each. One of the cards is fancy, and costs 250 dinar ($3). The other costs 40 dinar (45 cents). To this day, Mike never learns the difference between the two cards. (Maybe one is good for 5 years, the other for 3 months??). The rides, including long rides to the airport, on the card, cost 73 dinar (85 cents) each. BlusPlus cards are flash cards; you hold them close to a reader on the bus, and one ride is deducted. Enuf about transit.
Mike returns to Carol (who is beginning to attract negative attention [Gypsy?] from proper citizens); the Spaniards head on. We two are now refreshed and relieved. Time to hail a cab (a wise move when you don't know the lay of the land) to the Beograd City Hotel, where we have reserved a room for 52 euros (6275 dinar). It turns out to be located right across from the Central Train Station and the main bus station - perfect for us. It is also a fancy hotel (maybe even ****), with what turns out to be a very nice breakfast included. Indeed, a good deal even if pricy by our standards.
After we have settled in, we go for a walk toward the center. About 600-700 m partly uphill we are at Zeleni Venac bus station. Lots of buses leave from here, including the 72 to the airport, and the 83 to Zemun. Also here is a great vegetable and fruit market. We do a little shopping. It seems hardly possible, but a lot of the prices are even cheaper than Romanian market prices, e.g., cherries for 75 cents a kg.
We have restaurant, Prolece, in mind, that we discovered while searching "Beograd in Your Pocket" on the internet in Timisoara. We leave the bus station and the market, and cross a very busy street. A block or two up on the left is a shwarma restaurant with, wonder of wonders, a prominent mezuzah. The owners are Israeli, and Carol thinks to ask where there might be a synagogue in Beograd. Why yes, thank you for asking. Just go to the next block, turn right and walk a little bit. (We note that we really want to come back and get some shakshuka featured at this place, but the timingis never is opportune. Too bad.)
It is just after 2 pm. We follow the directions to Sukat Shalom. Quite an imposing building with a tiered portico. A sign outside says it was dedicated 15 Jun 1924. We pay a small admission and go inside to a beautiful, art deco style synagogue. Big tall ceilings and an upper section, once for the women. Now, pretty much just a museum.
Back to the main street. 5 more short blocks and we are at Prolece. Next door is a fancy ice cream shop. Tempting, but first some real food.
Restaurants listed by "In Your Pocket" are designated as 1 euro, 2 euros, and 3 euros on the website. This is a "1 euro" place, but actually rather stylish. It is packed, even though the time is well past 2:30 pm.
We sit down in the patio and order mushrooms with kaymak, sarmaluta (stuffed cabbages) with corn porridge, lamb soup, café latte, a draft beer. The mushrooms are incredibly rich because of the kaymak (butter cheese). Total 1733 dinar ($21). We are finally full. Would have been perfection except for the smokers surrounding us.
It is 3:30 pm. Off a block to the classy central street, which has been closed off to traffic. There is an office with tourist info. A large Plexiglas cube for donations to help those battered by the recent flooding. Cafes, ice cream, restaurants, museums, stores, and street entertainers. Musical buskers range from a talented folk group to an old guy with a violin whose off-key playing drives Mike nuts.
We walk into a book store and spot a very beautiful Serbian cookbook for $25 or so. Too heavy. Too expensive. The recipes didn't seem to be that interesting.
On the mall there is an art gallery which allowed people in as if it were a museum. Entry gratis. 3 stories of great 20th C. paintings. Much satirical art. Serbian artists were in the mainstream for every artistic trend.
Carol senses a good deal of style and panache in this part of Beograd. Some people are earning real money and have the means to look like Madison Avenue execs.
To the north of the pedestrianized street lies the Citadel. Looking down the street it seems near, but that is an optical illusion. We make the decision to visit the citadel tomorrow, so we stay in the neighborhood, looking for a store that sells bottled water, and another that fills up bus cards. The former was not too hard, but the latter turned out to be very difficult. We pass a very old mosque. Finally, we stop for a snack, and polish off our cherries.
We are now a little refreshed, but this morning's early start, the stresses of moving out, relocating, and even the time change are taking a toll on us.
We walk back along Terazije Blvd, a wide stretch of traffic. Finally, we come across a kiosk which fills bus cards, and we purchase some tickets for the next day. We pass two buildings which were bombed in the Kosovo wars and never repaired, and we are back at the hotel.
Evening is coming on, and we have business to settle. Our current plan: leave Beograd on 24 Jun. All day train to Podogorica, Montenegro. Then to Kotor and on to Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 25 Jun. To Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 26 Jun (we need to be in Sarajevo on 27 Jun for Carol's hiking trip). So we walk over to the train station to get the necessary train tickets.
BIG surprise: because of the recent flooding, the day train is suspended. NO day train. The night train schedule is unattractive. No day bus to Podgorica either. So we sit down over coffee at an internet café in the bus station (you have to pay for the internet even though you bought the coffee). Finally, we decide to fly to Dubrovnik on 24 Jun and take the bus to Sarajevo on 26 Jun. No Montenegro this trip, at least for Mike. Tickets are $175 US each, leaving at 13:35 and getting in at 14:40. We settle the deal online.
We are a little bit hungry so we order some fast food at the bus station: a large plescavica (a hamburger with a piece of spiced up meat). Cheap and uninspiring, but it quenches hunger.
Back to the hotel and to bed.
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