Marco Theo: Belgrade, Serbia

Last weekend I went to Belgrade, Serbia with five other students. I haven't done any travelling outside Hungary yet, and I'm glad I've finally started.

You can see Serbia's dark history in Belgrade. We spent our time in the "old" section of the town. Many of the streets are filled with gray buildings with lots of concrete, reminiscent of its communist past. A section of the city still has bomb damage from the NATO bombings in the late 90's. Graffiti is also ubiquitous (violent crime is rare, however.)

It would be unfair to describe Belgrade only as a gloomy, recovering city. There is plenty of excitement and interesting history in the city. The food, for one, was fantastic - Serbs are famous for their grilled meats, and also a delicious pastry called Burek. The restaurants we had dinner at had live music accompanying it. Everything is very inexpensive too.

Near the center of the city is an old fortress. When we went to the fortress, it was very foggy, so it felt like I was in a fantasy novel. Inside the fortress is a zoo. It was very different from any American zoo I've been too. Several of the zoo's birds would roam freely, so the walkways were filled with peacocks. Since it was in a fortress, some of the exhibits simply used the old fortress walls to contain the animals. It was perfectly acceptable to feed and pet the animals. It would have been easy for me to pet one of the tigers, for example - the Serbs seems to have an attitude that if you're dumb enough to touch a tiger, you deserve to get hurt, so why bother to prevent visitors from touching the animals? While all the dangerous animals were of course secured, some of the other fences were startlingly low. One of the fences was not more than three feet, and the animals inside easily could have jumped over.

We also saw the church of St. Sava. The lights in the fog gave it a divine look, and the sheer height of the dome is hard to appreciate from the pictures alone.

Overall, despite Serbia's reputation, Belgrade is an overlooked gem for tourists. It's very affordable, making it even better for students - I had veal with an appetizer at a high-end restaurant for less than $20, and spent $3-$5 at less fancy places.