Eternity In The Belgrade Streets

Wake up.  Go to work.  Realize that your low-paying job will take you nowhere.  Realize it pays enough money for alcohol.  Buy alcohol.  Drink it.  Pass out.  Repeat.

It's another day in Belgrade, Serbia.  As a tourist my typical day went something like what you see in the video above.  The only difference was that at some point I could leave.   Every time I go to Serbia I fall more in love with the place and think how nice it'd be like to live there...  Hold on, dreamer.  As one Serbian asked, "American, if you make the same wages as I, will you love the place??" ...

Still the party goes on.  Despite nights at the Belgrade Beer Festival watching great music (including those from the video, S.A.R.S.), the best times came from hours of wasting time on the winding streets of Belgrade.  Nothing important ever happens and at the end of the day you ask yourself, "Where did the time go?"

The next thing you ask yourself, "Who gives a damn?"

We sit at a cafe drinking.  We're relaxing after spending the day wandering the ruins of Kalamegdan fortress.  Some of us have beer or strong coffee while others are content with water.  I don't recall the names or nationalities of all of those sitting with us.  Some are Serbian and others are from as far away as Australia.  We arrived with a group of four, but that changed rapidly.  New people keep arriving at our table.  As soon as they arrive others leave.  But some of them return.  Others don't.  We order another round of coffee and beer.

Belgrade Cafe Gatherings

Our little cafe table is a revolving door of new faces and conversations.  Every conversation starts as an epic plan with someone to travel to some new location in Serbia; Sabac is nice by the river; no, the fortress in Novi Sad; no, no let's go back and party in Nis...  As soon as the plans are set in stone, they crumble and fall apart like the old buildings of the White City.  Someone leaves and another comes to replace them.  New plans begin ever more elaborate than the first; a train to Sarajevo, Bosnia; no let's hitchhike to the Hungarian border; Timosoara, Romania's not so far away; we can go all the way to Latvia if we leave now...

We order another round of coffee and beer.  And another.

I have seen this a million times when traveling.   Plans, plans and more plans that are thrown about like so many darts at a board.  Very few actually make it to the target, but the game was fun regardless of the time spent.  We spend all afternoon on plans for traveling to the ends of Europe and back.  At the end of day we stay at a Couchsurfer's house in Belgrade for the night, completely exhausted from all the dreaming we've done.

  

Serbia's Belgrade Beer Festival

The Belgrade Beer Festival is not a beer festival.

That's what every beer geek back in the USA would say.  Out of the 20 or so beers available at the festival, there's nothing that would excite any major beer tourist.  Unfortunately, once you go east of Germany and the Czech Republic all the European beers start tasting the same.  If you want to be the first to say you've drank Jelen, Laskov, Niksicko, and some Irish-Style Serbian Craft Beer, then go for bragging rights.  They're still better than your average Central American beer, but nothing that will make beer geeks have beergasms.

Maps Are Irrelevant When You're This Drunk

You don't go to Belgrade for beer tasting...you go there to party.  The Belgrade Beer Festival is certainly a great place to party.  There's one massive stage that has live bands playing until the early hours of the morning.  Beer, alcohol and Serbian barbeque flow freely.  Beautiful Balkan girls will dance with you and crazy Balkans guys will challenge your foreign ass to out-drink them (good luck.)

Unlike Serbia's far more popular Exit Festival, the Belgrade Beer Festival still feels authentically Serbian. Most of the bands are national or former Yugoslavian rock acts that don't play outside of the Balkans. Meanwhile the Exit Festival attracts Europeans from all over to see international bands and DJs such as Guns N' Roses, Snoop Dogg, Eric Prydz, Artic Monkeys and David Guetta.

During 2 days at the Beer Festival, I didn't run into a single 'foreigner.'  Note the contrast.

Good Balkan Company

The big headliners for the 2011 Belgrade Beer Festivals were Riblja Čorba, Atomsko Sklonište, Kiki Lesendrić i Piloti and Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg (yes, from The Ramones.)  And if anyone remembers the 1980s, Simple Minds also headlined.  One group which has never headlined, but which has played every festival dating back to the first in 2003 is the Orthodox Celts.  They are actually a national group, but true to their name they play traditional Irish folk music.  They fucking rock.

Are any of these groups ringing a bell??

From a local perspective, Riblja Čorba is probably the most famous of all the groups.  These old guys have managed to stay rocking since 1978 with most of the original band still intact.  I'm told their lyrics are quite funny and often political....if only I understood Serbian.

In addition to solid rock 'n' roll groups, the festival offers more typical traditional Serbian groups for people who are into the Gypsy Balkan sound made popular by Goran Bregovic, Emir Kusterica and the like.  As cool as that music is, some Serbians will tell you that Goran and Imir 'sold out.'  Go to this festival if you want to hear some undiscovered sounds...

My personal recommendation: buy a few liters of Jelen Pivo outside the festival where it's a lot cheaper and get drunk before you go in.  Most of the Serbians will be doing the same and -as with me- they might ask you, "Why the fuck you here, and not Exit Fest?!"  Then they will hand you a beer and say, "Ziveli!" You'll be in good company.  I certainly was.

I ♥ Balkan Girls 

The White City Is Falling Apart

These streets hide many parties

A neglected city can be both depressing and exciting.  When I look at Central American capitol cities like San Jose, Managua and San Salvador they leave me feeling empty and sad.  The unchecked grim and litter, poor city planning, poverty and high crime in these places makes me want to lock my door and stay inside.

Belgrade has the opposite effect.  Despite its dirt, crumbling buildings, disorderly streets and Mafia presence the city beckons me to play and drink and dance outside in the dark.  Perhaps its because the winding, random streets often yield surprises: secret bars, discos and 'kafanas' that stay packed all night.  Perhaps it's because the crime isn't so random; as long as you don't cross the wrong people or places you're pretty safe.  Perhaps its because the poverty doesn't scream in your face; people with very little invite you to drink and dine with them without expecting a handout.

Tijuana: unmarked Mexican-owned bar. Ask around.

Perhaps I'm wrong about all of this and I've just meet the right people.  Either way it came as no surprise to me that the year I first visited Belgrade (2010), it was selected as Lonely Planet's 'Best Party City in The World.'  As much as I hate Lonely Planet, they were right this time.  In Belgrade, the word 'weekend' is irrelevant, and any night of the week is fair game.

A 'Party City' is not determined by the number of bars or discos present, but by the desire of the people to party.  Serbians have a party spirit whether it be with Moet champagne in a posh, high-fashion disco on Kneza Mihalova Street, or with homemade rakia on a park bench in Kalemegdan.  It may not seem that way on the first visit, but look harder.  Even if the city streets look quiet, just ask enough people and they can direct you to one of a dozen secret bars hidden in the floors of the large buildings. 

Danguba Rock Club: Live music every night

So of course I partied.  I had timed my trip to Belgrade so that I could go to the Belgrade Beer Festival.  The festival doesn't have the best beer in the world, but with around 3 million people attending over 3 days it probably has the most people of any beer festival and some of the most music.  Did I mention the whole damn thing is free??

That party will have to wait until tomorrow.  Tonight I'm not going out since I have to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in a while.  I don't remember exactly how we caught up, but it involved lots of alcohol, coffee, dancing and funny hats.  Indeed a country's party spirit is determined by its people, not by its places.