From today on, I'll be starting a new series of posts here, for those who are visitng Belgrade now or at anytime soon: "Minha Belgrado" (meaning "my Belgrade", in Portuguese).
For "Minha Belgrado" I'm preparing a series of posts with suggestions of places to go in Belgrade, nice places for a meal or a coffee, where to go for a night out, where to go shopping for interesting items, accommodation in the city, general services and so on. It's gonna be like some sort of guide, but based on what I learned from being in Belgrade for almost 8 months in the past 3 years (2 months in 2007-08, 3 to 4 months in 2008 and 2 months in 2010): things and places I was introduced to by local friends, or things and places me and my friends discovered after a long search or even things and places I discovered by chance, while walking around the city.
Hope you people enjoy it and, most of all, hope it's useful!
And don't hesitate to send me emails if you want to know any more details on something or if you have any suggestions yourself! teteglitter at gmail.com
;)
Friday, 26 November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
A weekend in Herceg Novi
Despite the very curvy road from Belgrade (Serbia) to Montenegro - and the group of extremely annoying and loud teenagers sitting on the back seats of the bus (giggiling ALL the way long), heaven knows how I managed to take some sleep during the first 9 hours of the trip. But yep, I did!
I was lucky enough to wake up a few minutes before we reached one of the most impressive landscapes I ever saw in my entire life: the "Skadarsko jezero" (lake Skadar), this huuuuuge lake, border between Montenegro and Albania, surrounded by impressive mountains. It's one of those places you would expect to see only in a movie, cause it doesn't even looks like it's real! Such a beautiful place!
But still, nothing describes the feeling of reaching the Adriatic coast for the first time and glancing the sea in between the mighty mountains of Montenegro. It was breathtaking!
I was lucky enough to wake up a few minutes before we reached one of the most impressive landscapes I ever saw in my entire life: the "Skadarsko jezero" (lake Skadar), this huuuuuge lake, border between Montenegro and Albania, surrounded by impressive mountains. It's one of those places you would expect to see only in a movie, cause it doesn't even looks like it's real! Such a beautiful place!
Skadarsko Lake (from Google Images)
But still, nothing describes the feeling of reaching the Adriatic coast for the first time and glancing the sea in between the mighty mountains of Montenegro. It was breathtaking!
At that point, even my ever-sprained foot (it was hurting hard all day long, after my birthday party two nights before) wasn't bothering me anymore. We were FINALLY at the Adriatic Coast!
To cross Boka Kotorska - Kotor's Bay - our bus took a ferry boat, presenting us with a handful of beautiful views on a fine, sky clean and sunny saturday morning.
When we finally arrived to Herceg Novi's central bus station, Njego was already there to pick us up and take us to EKO Fest site: Španjola, a 15th century fortress (one of the city's 6 ancient fortresses!), were we should camp for the next couple of days.
When we finally arrived to Herceg Novi's central bus station, Njego was already there to pick us up and take us to EKO Fest site: Španjola, a 15th century fortress (one of the city's 6 ancient fortresses!), were we should camp for the next couple of days.
When we arrived at the top of the mountain, where the fortress is placed, we were welcomed by Neven and a tray full of cold slices of watermelon and a box of "žu žu".
We sat by the shadow to have some rest while Andrei, Jaú, Federico and Neven started some sort of a jam session with a couple of guitars and some percussion, by the side of the festival's stage. After some time there, after we cooled down a little bit, we decided it would be better for us and our DJ equipment to find a place to stay other than the camping.
We went downhill to the city center. We split ways when we reached the Old Town Gate: two of the girls went with Neven, to search for a place for us all to stay, while me, Sol, and the boys sat for a drink by one of the many cafes at Nikola Đurković Square. Some 40 minutes later, the girls called us saying they found us a great place to stay for an even better price: an apartment with several beds, only 2 minutes walking from the beach.
With the address in hands we started heading to the apartment and, after some minutes walking under hot, hot sun, we finally found the place! We quickly changed into our bathing suits an ran to the beach to meet with the other girls.
After a little walk, we finally found what we all agreed to be a nice spot to stay, just by a restaurant/bar: the sea was almost as quiet as a lake and the water wasn't cold nor warm, but perfect temperature and the white stones instead of sand (like we have on most beaches here in Brazil) would allow us to see that amazing greenish-blue colour of the water. So, so beautiful!
Sol and I were specially amazed to realize we were really swimming in the Adriatic, something both want to for a long while. Another special thing for me was the fact that, for the first time ever, nobody - really, nobody - gave me any kind of weird look because of my skin colour. For the first time ever I wasn't looking like a tourist on the beach!
We stayed on the beach for a long while before we decided to have something to eat and go back to the apartment - after all, we had a gig to play that evening, at EKO Fest.
After a shower and some little rest we dressed up, took a taxi and headed to Španjola Fortress. The taxi driver - a woman, to our surprise! - we took couldn't speak a word of english, but each and every communication trouble was surpassed when one of our favourite tunes - and appearently, the driver's too - started playing on the car radio: "Gas gas", by Croatian singer Severina. The 4 of us plus the driver went all the way singing it as loud as we could!
When we reached the fortress we went directly to the backstage to leave our equipment. There, Neven told us we would start playing around half past midnight, so that meant we had a couple of hours to enjoy ourselves at the festival.
More and more people were arriving at the festival during those couple of hours, and by the time we started our DJ set, it was pretty crowded already! We divided our set in 3 parts, so each one of us could spin whatever we felt like. Andrei started first, with some balkan dub. I was second, with my electro jazz and swing set and Sol was the last - but not least! -, with some electro jazz and house. It was SO, so cool! The crowd was really excited cheering at every mixing we did!
Federico managed to record our DJ sets with his camera, he should be sending the video material to us really soon (and as soon as he does so, I'll post it here ;)
When we finished our "job" and came down the stage several people came to us saying they really enjoyed our DJ sets, where they could find us online and that sort of stuff - really nice feedback!
The DJs that took the stage after us kept the electronic beats with really cool sets and we stayed there, dancing and drinking for several hours before we decided to go back - walking! - to our apartment.
As soon as we were all up the next day, we rushed to the central bus station to buy our tickets back to Serbia: instead of going back directly to Belgrade, we would stop by Čačak for a couple of days, for the highly awaited Guča Festival.
To our dispair, all the night buses to Čačak were sold out and the only bus with seats still available would leave from Herceg Novi some 10 hours before what we first planned - which meant that that day was actually our last entire day in Montenegro. Or else we would loose one festival day at Guča.
After the bus station, our group split into 2: some went directly to the beach from there and me plus some others went back to the apartment where we had lunch and just then went down to the beach.
We all met again by the sea, where we talked for several hours, had some cold drinks, palačinka and even had some free entertainment, as a very funny guy, sitting next to us, was giving a showcase of clumsy dives and crazy stunts at the shower, splitting water on everyone and everywhere. The guy's crazy behaviour kinda reminded me of the wolf from the soviet animated series "Nu, Pogodi!".
Anyways, after the beach we went to a really nice restaurant by the beach, where we had diner under a wonderful moon.
After that, we split in 2 groups again: some went back to the apartment (as they wanted to wake up early and enjoy their last hours on the beach) while me, Marina, Andrei and Jaú wanted to go to another restaurant, where there was gonna be a "tamburaši" evening that night. We couldn't have picked a better place to go: good musicians playing claaaassic songs we could sing along, a wonderful view of the sea and good variety of rakija to choose from. When the show ended, we decided to go for a night swim - best decision ever! The water was warm, the beach was, of course, totally deserted, allowing us to be as noisy and silly as we wanted (oh, the rakija!). The coolest last moments in Herceg Novi we could possibly have.
The next day I woke up around noon. Those who didn't have much to drink the night before were already up, actually coming back from a morning on the beach. We all met, called a couple of taxis and went to the central bus station, where we would get the bus to our next - and most awaited! - stop: Guča Festival!
We sat by the shadow to have some rest while Andrei, Jaú, Federico and Neven started some sort of a jam session with a couple of guitars and some percussion, by the side of the festival's stage. After some time there, after we cooled down a little bit, we decided it would be better for us and our DJ equipment to find a place to stay other than the camping.
We went downhill to the city center. We split ways when we reached the Old Town Gate: two of the girls went with Neven, to search for a place for us all to stay, while me, Sol, and the boys sat for a drink by one of the many cafes at Nikola Đurković Square. Some 40 minutes later, the girls called us saying they found us a great place to stay for an even better price: an apartment with several beds, only 2 minutes walking from the beach.
With the address in hands we started heading to the apartment and, after some minutes walking under hot, hot sun, we finally found the place! We quickly changed into our bathing suits an ran to the beach to meet with the other girls.
Sol and I were specially amazed to realize we were really swimming in the Adriatic, something both want to for a long while. Another special thing for me was the fact that, for the first time ever, nobody - really, nobody - gave me any kind of weird look because of my skin colour. For the first time ever I wasn't looking like a tourist on the beach!
We stayed on the beach for a long while before we decided to have something to eat and go back to the apartment - after all, we had a gig to play that evening, at EKO Fest.
After a shower and some little rest we dressed up, took a taxi and headed to Španjola Fortress. The taxi driver - a woman, to our surprise! - we took couldn't speak a word of english, but each and every communication trouble was surpassed when one of our favourite tunes - and appearently, the driver's too - started playing on the car radio: "Gas gas", by Croatian singer Severina. The 4 of us plus the driver went all the way singing it as loud as we could!
When we reached the fortress we went directly to the backstage to leave our equipment. There, Neven told us we would start playing around half past midnight, so that meant we had a couple of hours to enjoy ourselves at the festival.
More and more people were arriving at the festival during those couple of hours, and by the time we started our DJ set, it was pretty crowded already! We divided our set in 3 parts, so each one of us could spin whatever we felt like. Andrei started first, with some balkan dub. I was second, with my electro jazz and swing set and Sol was the last - but not least! -, with some electro jazz and house. It was SO, so cool! The crowd was really excited cheering at every mixing we did!
Federico managed to record our DJ sets with his camera, he should be sending the video material to us really soon (and as soon as he does so, I'll post it here ;)
When we finished our "job" and came down the stage several people came to us saying they really enjoyed our DJ sets, where they could find us online and that sort of stuff - really nice feedback!
The DJs that took the stage after us kept the electronic beats with really cool sets and we stayed there, dancing and drinking for several hours before we decided to go back - walking! - to our apartment.
As soon as we were all up the next day, we rushed to the central bus station to buy our tickets back to Serbia: instead of going back directly to Belgrade, we would stop by Čačak for a couple of days, for the highly awaited Guča Festival.
To our dispair, all the night buses to Čačak were sold out and the only bus with seats still available would leave from Herceg Novi some 10 hours before what we first planned - which meant that that day was actually our last entire day in Montenegro. Or else we would loose one festival day at Guča.
After the bus station, our group split into 2: some went directly to the beach from there and me plus some others went back to the apartment where we had lunch and just then went down to the beach.
We all met again by the sea, where we talked for several hours, had some cold drinks, palačinka and even had some free entertainment, as a very funny guy, sitting next to us, was giving a showcase of clumsy dives and crazy stunts at the shower, splitting water on everyone and everywhere. The guy's crazy behaviour kinda reminded me of the wolf from the soviet animated series "Nu, Pogodi!".
Gotta love the sense of humour
Anyways, after the beach we went to a really nice restaurant by the beach, where we had diner under a wonderful moon.
After that, we split in 2 groups again: some went back to the apartment (as they wanted to wake up early and enjoy their last hours on the beach) while me, Marina, Andrei and Jaú wanted to go to another restaurant, where there was gonna be a "tamburaši" evening that night. We couldn't have picked a better place to go: good musicians playing claaaassic songs we could sing along, a wonderful view of the sea and good variety of rakija to choose from. When the show ended, we decided to go for a night swim - best decision ever! The water was warm, the beach was, of course, totally deserted, allowing us to be as noisy and silly as we wanted (oh, the rakija!). The coolest last moments in Herceg Novi we could possibly have.
The next day I woke up around noon. Those who didn't have much to drink the night before were already up, actually coming back from a morning on the beach. We all met, called a couple of taxis and went to the central bus station, where we would get the bus to our next - and most awaited! - stop: Guča Festival!
Monday, 1 November 2010
Marakana, bre!
On July 29th, after the craziest night ever at the Blek Panters and Kafanica (promisse I'll translate the post into english real soon!), we woke up around 3pm. We had until 5pm to take a shower, have something to eat and get dressed up (in red shirts!) for one reeeeally cool occasion: Neven and his friend, Djordje, arranged to take us to a football match at Crvena Zvezda's stadium, known as "Marakana"!
Unfortunatly, Crvena Zvezda didn't win Slovan Bratislava but we had a lot of fun nevertheless, after all it was my first time ever watching a match in a stadium - and the coolest thing: from the VIP area ;)
And here's a short video Sol recorded with her cam:
Unfortunatly, Crvena Zvezda didn't win Slovan Bratislava but we had a lot of fun nevertheless, after all it was my first time ever watching a match in a stadium - and the coolest thing: from the VIP area ;)
And here's a short video Sol recorded with her cam:
Friday, 29 October 2010
"Wish I could reach you in Belgrade" is back!
From today on I'll start posting here several blog entries I wrote a couple of months ago, when I was still in Serbia. I didn't put these entries online by the time I wrote them because my time on the computer was always kinda short: our apartment in Belgrade had 2 computers for the 6 of us, you can figure how tough it was to stay online for some time.
I'm back to Brazil now, but I've got a lot to tell! :)
I'm back to Brazil now, but I've got a lot to tell! :)
Monday, 9 August 2010
Off to the coast
The cool news?
Saturday we will be heading to Montenegro: Go East collective will be performing @ EKO Fest, in Herceg Novi!!!
Can't wait :)
Saturday we will be heading to Montenegro: Go East collective will be performing @ EKO Fest, in Herceg Novi!!!
Can't wait :)
Friday, 6 August 2010
A day in Zagreb
I was at the supermarket with my friends when I got this message from Neven saying that when earlier that day he invited us to go to Zagreb with him, he meant it. "Are you guys coming?", he asked.
It was 9 pm and Neven said he and his friend planned to leave around midnight. We would get to Zagreb on the next day`s morning, stay there until late afternoon/early evening and then back to Belgrade. A 4 hour journey from Belgrade until Croatia`s capital.
I really felt like going - I mean, it`s not everyday that you get to be invited to spend a day in Croatia! I asked my friends if any of them would like come with us that evening, but as Marina and Ju had just arrived from Rio that very same day, they wanted to rest a little, eat something relax.
It was half past midnight when I met Neven and his friend Njego at buregdzinica Sarajevo and we got on our way to Zagreb. After one hour in the car, a heavy thunder storm reached our car and stayed with us for a couple of ours. A little while after we passed the Serbian border Njego - who was driving - stopped at a gas station, where we got a few hours of sleep.
When we woke up it was around 7 and the day was on - still a bit cloudy after the heavy rain on the previous night, but looking like it was gonna be a bright summer day within a couple of hours. On the road, Njego showed me some houses/constructions by the side of the road, destroyed during the war. Is still weird to think everything happened almost yesterday. I mean, 15 years might feel like a life-time to me, someone who`s turning 26 now. But 15 years is nothing, really...
After one more hour and something driving, we finally arrived to Zagreb! Njego dropped me and Neven nearby the city center and took his way - later that day we would meet up with him again and to go back to Belgrade.
Neven and I had a quick - but really good! - sandwich for breakfast and then we went for a walk around the old city. We visited the Cathedral, passed by an open air market and then we stopped for a tea with krempita on a really nice cafe called Mala Kavana, on Trg Bana Jelačića (Ban Jelačić Square), Zagreb`s main square. Really beautiful place.
After that we split ways: we agreed on meeting around 5 at the square`s statue: that would give me around 4 hours to do whatever I wanted in Zagreb and to explore the city as I wanted.
Don`t know if I mentioned here before, but I love wandering alone in a city I`ve never been before. Wandering with friends is great too, but when you`re alone you take your time, you pay more attention to certain details you probably wouldn`t if you had your friends around.
So, with a map and a couple of brochures I got at the city`s tourist council I had everything I needed to start exploring the old city of Zagreb!
I took a couple of walking tours one of the brochures suggested, and it was totally worth it: lots of cute little streets decorated with flowers, beautiful 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings, churches, gardens, lanes and so on. It felt like I was in some movie set and at some moments it felt a little bit like some spots I`ve been to in Vienna as well.
After those 2 walking tours I visited two museums: the Zagreb City Museum and the Art Naif Museum - both really nice and worth a visit.
After that I stopped by a shopping center, sat a on a café for a cold soda and then headed back to Ban Jelačić Square, ponctually at 5pm.
The 3 of us met up again, had another cold drink. The cloudy, gloomy morning had turned into a bright, warm summer afternoon and the colours on the square were so bright it kinda felt like I was inside a painting.
We were now ready for another 4 hours on the road until home. Until my Belgrade.
It was 9 pm and Neven said he and his friend planned to leave around midnight. We would get to Zagreb on the next day`s morning, stay there until late afternoon/early evening and then back to Belgrade. A 4 hour journey from Belgrade until Croatia`s capital.
I really felt like going - I mean, it`s not everyday that you get to be invited to spend a day in Croatia! I asked my friends if any of them would like come with us that evening, but as Marina and Ju had just arrived from Rio that very same day, they wanted to rest a little, eat something relax.
It was half past midnight when I met Neven and his friend Njego at buregdzinica Sarajevo and we got on our way to Zagreb. After one hour in the car, a heavy thunder storm reached our car and stayed with us for a couple of ours. A little while after we passed the Serbian border Njego - who was driving - stopped at a gas station, where we got a few hours of sleep.
When we woke up it was around 7 and the day was on - still a bit cloudy after the heavy rain on the previous night, but looking like it was gonna be a bright summer day within a couple of hours. On the road, Njego showed me some houses/constructions by the side of the road, destroyed during the war. Is still weird to think everything happened almost yesterday. I mean, 15 years might feel like a life-time to me, someone who`s turning 26 now. But 15 years is nothing, really...
After one more hour and something driving, we finally arrived to Zagreb! Njego dropped me and Neven nearby the city center and took his way - later that day we would meet up with him again and to go back to Belgrade.
Neven and I had a quick - but really good! - sandwich for breakfast and then we went for a walk around the old city. We visited the Cathedral, passed by an open air market and then we stopped for a tea with krempita on a really nice cafe called Mala Kavana, on Trg Bana Jelačića (Ban Jelačić Square), Zagreb`s main square. Really beautiful place.
After that we split ways: we agreed on meeting around 5 at the square`s statue: that would give me around 4 hours to do whatever I wanted in Zagreb and to explore the city as I wanted.
Don`t know if I mentioned here before, but I love wandering alone in a city I`ve never been before. Wandering with friends is great too, but when you`re alone you take your time, you pay more attention to certain details you probably wouldn`t if you had your friends around.
So, with a map and a couple of brochures I got at the city`s tourist council I had everything I needed to start exploring the old city of Zagreb!
I took a couple of walking tours one of the brochures suggested, and it was totally worth it: lots of cute little streets decorated with flowers, beautiful 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings, churches, gardens, lanes and so on. It felt like I was in some movie set and at some moments it felt a little bit like some spots I`ve been to in Vienna as well.
After those 2 walking tours I visited two museums: the Zagreb City Museum and the Art Naif Museum - both really nice and worth a visit.
After that I stopped by a shopping center, sat a on a café for a cold soda and then headed back to Ban Jelačić Square, ponctually at 5pm.
The 3 of us met up again, had another cold drink. The cloudy, gloomy morning had turned into a bright, warm summer afternoon and the colours on the square were so bright it kinda felt like I was inside a painting.
We were now ready for another 4 hours on the road until home. Until my Belgrade.
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