Tag: Beograd

Best of Belgrade, The Belgradist, Uncategorized

Best of Belgrade Food Scene 2023: A value for money guide

It has been a while since I did this type of list. Firstly, COVID threw a spanner into a lot of great businesses which did not survive the pandemic or have changed how they work entirely (lots of them, like Proleće and most of Skadarlija becoming basically crap overpriced tourist haunts) . Secondly, when I started writing this blog, Belgrade’s food scene was significantly less … Continue reading Best of Belgrade Food Scene 2023: A value for money guide

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The Belgradist, Uncategorized

Lost Belgrade: Structures that should RETVRN to Belgrade’s street

Serbia’s and Yugoslavia’s embrace of modernist architecture after WWII has been so thorough that any thought of reviving architectural styles before 1920s is seen as automatically kitschy and a no-no amongst our architects. While some structures were restored (the building housing the National museum, Central Belgrade palace complex) after extensive aerial bombings during WWII many were replaced with new modernist buildings, but there was also … Continue reading Lost Belgrade: Structures that should RETVRN to Belgrade’s street

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Balkans, Culture, Politics, Travel

Non-Western Balkans: an identity struggle

Some time ago, overcome by a listicle-making urge, I considered putting together a playlist of highly orientalist Yugoslav songs with entries such as Bebi Dol’s Mustafa and Brekvica’s “Loša”. While trawling though YouTube I realised the absurdity at the heart of the endeavour: much of our pop music is “oriental” in the sense that it was influenced by Turkish (or wider Silk road) rhythms and … Continue reading Non-Western Balkans: an identity struggle

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Belgrade, Guide to Belgrade, Life, The Belgradist

Vanishing Majik of turn-of-millennium Belgrade hotspots

There is no better sign of (approaching) middle age than reminiscing about the restaurants, bars and clubs which are no longer around, but which left a mark on one’s memories, taste and, in many ways, life. My path towards becoming a kafana connoisseur started in Vidin kapija, across the road from my primary school. I was taken there in 1996 by my mom and grandma … Continue reading Vanishing Majik of turn-of-millennium Belgrade hotspots

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Best of Belgrade, Guide to Belgrade, Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (67): Swimming palaces of Belgrade

Maybe it is the shimmer of the water, maybe it is the people around them, or perhaps it is chlorine or sunstroke, but swimming pools, and especially public pools, have a magical, surreal touch to them. It is no wonder they inspired a lot of great art from Hockney’s Bigger splash, to Cheever’s excellent (yet dark) tale of a man who decided to swim his … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (67): Swimming palaces of Belgrade

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Balkans, Guide to Belgrade, The Belgradist, Travel

Beyond ajvar, burek and ćevapi: building your kafana cred with must-try offal and regional dishes

While Serbia and the Balkans come nowhere near Italy in purism about food and food related customs (aka culinary fascism), there are certain things that are not done, and certain other signs that signal to you that you are in the presence of a true gastronomic veteran. For example, one of the main tells that you are a non-local in Serbia is ordering ajvar in … Continue reading Beyond ajvar, burek and ćevapi: building your kafana cred with must-try offal and regional dishes

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Uncategorized

Путовање до базена: Правда за круг Двојке

Јутрос сам одлучио да се мало охладим и запалим на 25. мај, како бих се охладио од спарине које се спсустила. Како сам успео да промашим фамозну Двојку и 79ку, кренуо сам пешке из лиминалног дела Старог града у коме обитавам и у коме сам обитавао, стицајем околности, од детињства, са ”Старе Палиуле”, ”Копитареве градине”, ”испод Скупштине”, ”око Палмотићеве” (без медицинских импликација) – све у … Continue reading Путовање до базена: Правда за круг Двојке

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Best of Belgrade, The Belgradist

Beyond splavs and Ada: how to spend your Belgrade summer

After two lousy years of the pandemic, now there is a potential world war threatening to sour our „špricers“. However if the years of turbulence taught us anything, it is that it is important to make the most out of a lousy situation, something that Belgrade always excelled at. While most of the guides will send you to swim in Ada, eat in Skadarlija or … Continue reading Beyond splavs and Ada: how to spend your Belgrade summer

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Hidden Belgrade, Uncategorized

Hidden Belgrade (66): SIVilisational decline

For a very long time, SIV, for me, was just a drab government building. While I passed it fairly often, unthinkingly, on my regular walks between old Zemun, much like the whole of New Belgrade – with the exception of Sava Centar – it was unremarkable, melding into the grey mass of what I (and many around me) termed as “uninspiring socialist architecture”, something that … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (66): SIVilisational decline

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Balkans, Guide to Belgrade, The Belgradist, Travel

Belgrade to Novi Sad on Soko express

Train travel used to be the stuff of nightmares in Serbia. While I was in highschool I remember packing up lots of food for a 90km train ride to Novi Sad, while any attempts to venture further – to Zagreb and Budapest (both about 400km away from Belgrade) – were day-long out trips in crappy trains that stopped in crappy stations. I n a lot … Continue reading Belgrade to Novi Sad on Soko express

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Best of Belgrade, Culture, Hidden Belgrade, Reviews, The Belgradist, Uncategorized

Belgrade Post-Modern: Ruins at the End of History

“The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if possible, is to imitate the ancients.” Johann Joachim Winckelmann  “As is the case with the weather: rain and storms from the West reached us and so did Postmodernism. At the very beginning of Postmodernism, a great conference was held in Zagreb on that topic, which identified vectors and positive values ​​of the movement … Continue reading Belgrade Post-Modern: Ruins at the End of History

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Hidden Belgrade, Politics, Serbia, The Belgradist

Occupation in 2-6 Pictures (2): Strahinja Janjić – a traitor’s traitor

On July 28th  1942, 36 year old Strahinja Janjić was taken to the infamous Banjica camp, on the charge of planning to assassinate Milan Nedić, the head of the puppet government that was helping the Germans control “German occupied territory of Serbia”. Banjica, ran in tandem by the Gestapo and Nedić’s government, claimed more than 3,800 lives and was the place where anti-fascist Serbs, Jews … Continue reading Occupation in 2-6 Pictures (2): Strahinja Janjić – a traitor’s traitor

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Belgrade, Best of Belgrade, The Belgradist

Enjoying the sweat of your brow: Belgrade’s top spas

Ever since I came back to Belgrade in 2016, I put myself through countless arduous tasks in order to bring you the knowledge, dear Reader, of the best ways to spend time in my beloved hometown. This promethean striving led me to run, eat and listen to music, but no task was harder than trying to figure out what the best places are to spend … Continue reading Enjoying the sweat of your brow: Belgrade’s top spas

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Belgrade, Politics, The Belgradist

Coffee in Belgrade: the first 500 years

During the first year of his reign, in 1521, Suleiman the Magnifient decided to out-do his great predecessor, Mehmed the Conqueror by trying to take two major bastions standing in the way of Ottoman expansion. The first was the island of Rhodes, then held by the Knights of St John, and the other one was Belgrade, a major fortress protecting Central Europe, held by the … Continue reading Coffee in Belgrade: the first 500 years

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Balkans, Travel

Vrnjačka Banja: Remembrance of Things Past

Driving down to Vrnjačka Banja, on a hot July day without a working AC in my car, like we did in our Lada in 1990s, was my Madeleine moment. I was there only once before – with my maternal grandparents in May 1990 – when they decided to christen me on the sly to avoid my atheist father’s protestations, which made that trip have an … Continue reading Vrnjačka Banja: Remembrance of Things Past

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Pokretači, The Nutshell Media, Uncategorized

Pokretači #121 Stefan Tošović o akcijanju i akciji u sportu i medijima

Stefan Tošović je čovek iza Akcijanja u akciji, jednog od najboljih novih medijskih projekata koji približavaju sport, fitnes ali i druge discipline gledaocima. Stefan, inače bivši urednik Men’s Healtha Srbija, je podelio i svoje uvide u svet fitnesa i medija, dve industrije koje su se ozbiljno promenile u protekloj deceniji. Beleške: Stefanov osvrt na sport tokom pandemije Intervju sa Stefanom Kneževićem Stol kod Bora Pratite … Continue reading Pokretači #121 Stefan Tošović o akcijanju i akciji u sportu i medijima

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Best of Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (64): Community spaces

I only noticed Romansa, a Dorćol institution, when a friend of mine casually said it is where her mum likes hanging out with her neighbours. I probably ran and cycled past it hundreds of times – my wannabe yuppie fitness fervour very much at odds with the languor of its patrons, who, no matter the time of day, hung out in its pleasant tiny overgrown … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (64): Community spaces

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Hidden Belgrade, Serbia

Homosexuality in Serbia through the Ages

One of my first encounters with the concept of other sexualities was when, as kid visiting my grandmother`s tiny summer house in Montenegro I was walking around the yard and pointed to a far-away house on a land neighbouring ours and asked who lived there. „That was cousin M.`s house…“ she said, somewhat darkly, unlike her eager explanations of who else lived in the 20km … Continue reading Homosexuality in Serbia through the Ages

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Uncategorized

Build Better: How a Belgrade Firm Built the World

Energoprojekt, the most famous firm based in Belgrade, is celebrating 70 years this year, and thanks to the great people of BINA (Belgrade International Architecture Week) I got acquainted a bit further with both its amazing HQ in New Belgrade as well as its accomplishments around the world. The frim, founded in 1951, initially focused on major energy projects in Yugoslavia, building its coal and … Continue reading Build Better: How a Belgrade Firm Built the World

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Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (63): Finding Vračar and Belgrade’s holiest mound

On May 10 1594, the Ottoman rulers of Belgrade decided to make sure to make the point to their Serbian subjects that any resistance to their rule is futile. The reason was the first massive uprising against the Ottoman rule in Banat, which erupted in the spring of that year, motivated by the victories of Habsburg forces against the Ottoman army, which 73 years before … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (63): Finding Vračar and Belgrade’s holiest mound

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