Perhaps on account of the lack of sleep we chose to stay in Belgrade, hoping to find a hotel and have a decent sleep. The overnight sleeper compartment was relatively wasted, as we were awoken 4 times for immigration when we left Slovenia, arrived in Croatia, left Croatia and arrived in Serbia.
After staring at a wall where we had picked a hotel out of our Lonely Planet, we managed to find a suitable hotel nearby. Evidence of how tired Cinthia was.... she slept until lunchtime, when I woke her and told here it was time to eat and see some of Belgrade.
The main street of Belgrade is a nice tourist mall, and aside from clothing which incurs a 20% import tax, all other goods are quite cheap. This allowed us to stock up on some supplies.
Prior to beer o'clock we needed to do something cultural, or at least some exercise, so we decided to walk 3 kilometres to Cathedral Sv. Sava, Belgrade's largest Orthodox Church, and the third largest in Europe. It was a hot day, over 40 degrees, so even walking was a major effort, especially with a new foreign beer to trial.
Construction of the cathedral was started in the 1960s, however it is still not finished inside. Once it is finished it may look spectaular, however now it feels rather empty given its sheer size.
Post our beer we headed onward to a restaurant street, with no cars and a cobblestone road. The restaurants were all very nice, and virtually every one had a 3-4 person band playing music whilst patrons dined. It was hard to choose which restaurant to dine at.
After the first day how would I assess and describe Serbia? In architecture terms, it appears most similar to Zagreb, as it is nothing like Sarajevo, Mostar or Ljubjana, nor the Croatian coastal cities, Split and Dubrovnik. Whilst Zagreb may have slightly nicer cities, and certainly appears more scenic around the park area, I have the impression Belgrade is the city I would prefer to live in out of the region.
Both have some old eastern European trams zipping around, particularly near the main station, however neither network dominate the city area quite like Melbourne. the trams are on a much narrower gauge, and are a little thinner. Sometimes they operate in pairs. It seems like the trams spin around the corner much faster than in Melbourne, however the trams are much lighter, and as is generally the case, the wheel flange is deeper in the ground. OK, enough about Public Transport for now.
One difference is that Belgrade has a lot of pedestrian (zebra) crossings, including at major intersections.
In some some ways I consider Belgrade to be like Melbourne- not a place tourists will come to and be astounded by any single attraction, however worthwhile visiting if you are in the area. Like Melbourne, I think Belgrade is a probably a cool place to live, rather than a cool place to visit. I think the similarity that both cities share are the vibe of cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. In Belgrade, a morning cafe will turn into an afternoon restuarant, and then post dinner morph again into a happening bar.
Cinthia and I however confine ourselves tonight indoors, mainly to watch the tennis final. It is Nadal v Djokovic, and when Cinthia admitted to me she would cheer for Rafa every point he won, I admitted to her of all the situations I could protect her from, i didn't like my chances against 5 angry Serbians. We watch the first set, as Djokivic starts taking control, Rafa, who is a fighter, almost seems resigned to his fate, with Djokovic beating him for the sixth successive occurence. At least the Serbians will be happy tomorrow, and as Australians, we can take equal pride in Sam Stosur's grandslam breakthrough.
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