My European Correspondent Visits Belgrade

As most of you know, I have a European correspondent who occasionally provides me with posts. Not often, alas, because he has something much closer to a real life than do I. In any event, he provided me with this  -- sadly, it was at the end of October 2019 and I am only now getting around to posting it -- so here is a quick travelogue of my European correspondent's trip to Belgrade, Serbia. As you can see, he an I both are suckers for historical stuff, especially military:

I’ve just spent a few days in Belgrade, Serbia with an old friend. It is a fascinating place! It’s an odd mix of old, run-down, soviet-style crap, and the modern, western world. We got here by plane, and right off the flight we were met with the usual depressing, grey, concrete-heavy communist architecture we all know and love.

We had no idea what to expect there, as we went on this trip on a whim and didn’t do any research from home. We rented an apartment in the city centre, and spent 5 days just walking around town. There are plenty of cafés and restaurants everywhere. The food and drink is very cheap. The local food was quite good - we had no idea what we were ordering, but we never never disappointed. The local beer is rather bland, at least if you drink the big brands. There are some very good local craft beer to be had, if you look around. There are small, local fastfood shops open all night. Serbian hotdogs are quite good, and very cheap.

There is not much to do here, which is fine. We were perfectly happy to sit at a cafe and do some people watching.

Serbian women are gorgeous! One can spend hours and hours, drinking beer at a café, watching hundreds upon hundreds of beautiful Serbian women walk past.
Balkan being what it is, I expected a lot of gypsies here. I did not see many, which was nice. To those of you who have not met gypsies, and might be offended by me saying that I dislike gypsies, then please go and visit a gypsy camp. You will be cured of your politically correct notions "toot sweet”. They are a parasitic people; their survival is utterly dependent on a host.

I walked around all over town in the middle of the night, alone, and I felt perfectly safe.
Most people speak English, at least the younger generations. Everyone we spoke to was very friendly and helpful. We got by very easily. There are some tourists here, but not many. There was a sudden influx of dumb, loud, obnoxious British soccer fans, but they left shortly after the game.

There is quite a bit of smog over the city. There is a lot of diesel fumes in the streets. Just avoid the larger streets, stay on or near the walking streets in the center, and it will not be much of a problem.

Traffic in Belgrade is fascinating to watch. Drivers spend a lot of time honking their horns. There are traffic jams everywhere. Drivers will enter an intersection, even though it is obvious that they will not make it across before the light turns red. They’ll be stuck in the intersection, and drivers from other directions will also enter the intersection, even though it is currently occupied by stalled traffic. And everyone is honking their horns.
We friend and I are certainly coming back to Serbia. Next time, we will rent a car and go see other parts of the country.

Here are a few pics:

Communist architecture is the same all over the world.

Old cars:

My friend had one of these once. It’s a Lada Niva.

Food and drink:

A really good craft beer, served in “Stanica” bar.

The old fort in Belgrad:

Old weapons on display. 

Miscellaneous:

Dozens of “immigrants” from the middle east, on their way to the northern Europe. 

This park seemed to be the home of lots of young middle eastern men.They would sit here all day, doing nothing.

A gypsymoblle!

I've never been to Eastern Europe. Thought this was quite interesting.