Београд - Beograd - Belgrade

[Okayyou]

Moving on from sleepy Sarajevo, the Euro tour continues with Belgrade, Serbia. See previous sets here:

Norway, Netherlands, Spain, South England, London, Edinburgh, Iceland, France, and Bosnia

I took a train from Sarajevo to Belgrade and really got to see some interesting parts of Eastern Europe, seweage processing plants, decrepit industry, bombed and burned out factories. The windows on the train were dirty and didn't open so I didn't get any shots. Pulling into Belgrade I could already tell it was substantially larger than Sarajevo. It felt like a major city, much busier and chaotic. I only spent a few days there but felt I got to see most of the downtown. Highlights include the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world, it is currently under construction; a run down soviet era style market complete with grumpy, bearded ladies; and getting caught in a rainstorm without my umbrella. Belgrade means the White City but it should really change its name to the Gray City, lot's of drab. The people were colorful and there seemed to be a tinge of eccentricity within the culture, what can you expect from a country that put Tesla on its currency.

Some Serbian music
• Video Link































































































































































The following juxtiposition is dedicated to Austinlee:































That's it for Superbia, next stop, wild Ukraine.

[Kingofthehill]

Killer set. I love all the random Brutalist high-rises and Orthodox churches. Did you get to see that really crazy all-Brutalist high-rise city? I think it's called Novi Belgrade. What is it with Serbians/Slavic women and fake blonde hair, though?! It looks so cheap!

[ColDayMan]

This was awesome.

[arkitekte]

Another home run set.

[Danny]

Amazing pictures of Belgrade and its people, Okayyou. Thanks for sharing!

I´ve liked your pictures of people. Spectacular sharpness.

Congratulations and greetings from Madrid, Spain!

[Rico Rommheim]

Fascinating! How is the atmosphere in the city, does it feel welcoming/safe? Is it cheap to eat/hotels and such?

[Omaharocks]

Excellent, good to see Belgrade on here, I'm going to be spending some time there this summer.

From what I know, Belgrade can be gray by day, but lively by night. It apparently has nightlife on par with places like Madrid, Berlin, etc though maybe without the diversity.

[diskojoe]

They need to learn how to mass manufacture this. It could be a major export opportunity for Belgrade.

Place is in serous need of deep cleansing. The grumpy lady at the market was cute.

[pallo]

Your photos are wonderful buddy Could you tell me what camera do you use?

[NYbyWAYofGA]

I think that these photos have a glimmering beauty up under all of the greyness that sorta highlights the city...quite haunting. The people seem to have some sort of swagger. I can't put my hands on it.



She campy...

[giovanni sasso]

not sure if al capone or notorious BIG ...


i'm really enjoying this eastern european portion to your ongoing globetrotting. the landscape is very similar to pennsylvania, so it's interesting to see how natural the (im)migration to the area is for so many of them. i know a guy from belgrade living in philly who runs a serbian restaurant. he opened it around the time that slobodan milosevic died in prison, so it was a sort of point of national pride for him at the time.

great set as usual. lots of great colors on this one, and that orthodox church is wild, as is most of the architecture from the post-soviet yugoslav era.

[jeremai]

Excellent continuation of the tour... fascinating to see all these less well represented cities.

[sentinel]

Civilized.

[Surrealplaces]

Cool shots!

Interesting to see both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabet used. I always though Serbia was completely Cyrillic. Are they slowly moving to the Roman Alphabet?

[toyota74]

Cool.....love the commie blocks.

[pallo]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

Cool shots!

Interesting to see both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabet used. I always though Serbia was completely Cyrillic. Are they slowly moving to the Roman Alphabet?

Actually I think it has some political connotations....

Conservative people use only Cyrillic while progressive tend to use the Roman alphabet

[fern]

predictable good

[Ex-Ithacan]

Thank you for sharing your artistry with us.

[Okayyou]

KOTH - the soviet market was over in Novi Beograd but I missed the hi rises you mentioned. I saw some shots after goggling it, crazy stuff. Also, I don't think there is an original hair color in this shot:



Rico Rommheim - City felt fine, I got the impression that the mafia had their hand in a lot of businesses. I don't recall it being that cheap but it was certainly less expensive than Western Europe.

Omaharocks - I was there during the week and think I missed some of the nightlife. There is an area in the city called Silicone Alley with a lot of bars and clubs. Diskojoe found a photo of the type of patrons and namesake of the street.

NYbyWAYofGA - Definitely, though the amount of girls wearing minnie mouse t-shirts was ridiculous.

Pallo - I was using a Canon 7D. I just recently upgraded to a 5D mk III so the 7D will probably be getting sold here soon.

Surrealplaces - I had zero experience with Cyrillic when I arrived. However, after a few days of translating signs and remembering my greek alphabet from science classes I started to get the hang of things.



Pi = P, H = N, after understanding the letter shifts, things make a lot more sense. Almost all the young people I met spoke English, they are probably used to both alphabets.

Everyone else, thanks for the comments, glad you liked the thread.

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures!