Serbia

[Mrs Pingu]

I've been asked if I'll go there for work (with a Croat, of all people!)

Anything I should know before I commit myself?

[Ivo]

There's an active audaxing scene in Serbia.

Where will you be located? Serbia is consisting of various area's each different in it's own way.

[Mrs Pingu]

This is just for a brief visit so no cycling involved. Not sure but I'm guessing Belgrade if it's the national oil co.

[Pickled Onion]

As it's a work trip I imagine you'll be pretty well looked after so I'm not sure what sort of things you need to know. I'm in Niš at the moment and was in Beograd back in the 80s so a few random thoughts.

It generally feels very safe, there are lots of women out and about on their own at all times and I've never felt worried even in areas that would be a bit dodgy in other countries.

English is less widely spoken than you might expect even among young people, a lot of whom seem to have French as a second language. People are very friendly and helpful and will offer to translate if you get stuck.

Food is much more widely available than it was back in the 80s but not particularly exciting. It tends to be ver salty and/or greasy. Greek and Italian also widely available. Beer is not such a big thing as it is in similar countries, lots of coffee drinking and juices. Wine is supposedly good but you would have to buy a bottle what you get by the glass is piss. Vegetarian food is easy from a standard menu though you feel a bit guilty spending so little on a meal. Vegan not so easy but possible.

There's not a huge amount to see and do. Thousands of monuments to the various times Serbia has been liberated. Architecture is uninteresting though that might be different in Belgrade.

Your expenses budget will go a long way, but mobile and 3G extortionate as it's outside the EU. Wifi available everywhere.

[Ivo]

Official signs will be in cyrillic, commercial signs more often in latin script. It pays off to be capable of reading cyrillic, especially if you have to visit a semi governmental building.

[Jaded]

I went a few years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Manic taxi driver from the airport to the hotel. The hotel was a new one in the new part of the city (the Soviet era concrete flats bit) and the work meetings were in the USCE tower overlooking the river confluence. We ate in our hosts favourite places, which were all in the old town and were fantastic, proper good local restaurants. No veggie stuff there, and when we quizzed our host about what a veggie would do he laughingly said "they can watch".

Lots of people on public transport and walking, not so many cars.

I'd go back. It had the air of a place that was finding its future quickly, and loved its distant past, but didn't appreciate the more recent past. I flew LOT air. Quite the most extraordinary in flight food I've ever seen.

[Pickled Onion]

Also utility cycling is very popular and there are places to hire a bike if you want to get around and see more of the city. Driving on the pavement is common whatever vehicle and cyclists are fairly well respected on the road too.

[Karla]

I cycled through about 100 km of southern Serbia last year, going between Bulgaria and Macedonia.  I liked it: Serbia and Montenegro seem to be the states that have recovered most (and benefited most from the aid money?) after the Yugoslav wars of the 90s.  The infrastruture - or at least the roads - are very good.  Most building have been repaired, although you still see the odd one that has been left, like this.  Food is easy to buy; street food does tend to be salty and greasy, but not as bad as in Bosnia (which gave me a bad stomach within a week) and you can eat healthily without too much problem.  Wifi is everywhere.  As above, Serbia had more of a feel of a healthy and vibrant economy and culture than Macedonia, Bosnia or Kosovo, and more than once on my route I felt like I should have gone north through Serbia rather than through these three.

That's my impression from half a day's travel through one extreme of the country.  Have a nice trip!

[ian]

I go quite often to Novi Sad and Belgrade. Cool place, you won't have any problems. The locals, in my experience, are keen to impress. They may ask Americans to please not blow up any bridges while they stay (and then we laugh awkwardly).

Things to know.

They're all tall (seriously, sometimes I think I might get stepped on) and they all smoke (I mean, seriously chaps, at a respiratory medicine conference). They have finally banned smoking in restaurants which seems mostly observed.

Food can be good at decent restaurants, but is never light. Vegetarians are for eating. If you order a veg course expect it to arrive under half a pig swimming in cream. Street food is street food, of course you will die.

The local pivo is called Lav and that's a pretty apt description.

Knowing a few Slavic words (like pivo) will help, though most younger people will be keen to try out their English language skills on you (and their English is generally very good). Cyrillic seems less common in general usage (again amongst the younger population).

I've never noticed any particular surface animosity towards Croats but obviously not a subject to charge into (the company I work with is run by two ex-Serbian army chaps). Hungarian border guards seem universally disliked. There's a casual disregard for all Albanians, Kosovars (don't say it), and Montenegrins as 'lazy'. Generally, there's a fair amount of racism and other isms (not alas uncommon in Slavic regions in my experience).

But I've never had a bad experience. Not even my evening with a badly dressed Albanian gangster.

[SteveC]

MrsC and I had a few days in Belgrade a couple of years ago and had a great time. We were visiting Facebook friends but stayed in a hotel. The food we had was excellent including one meal at a vegetarian restaurant and another at a fish restaurant on a boat on the Sava.
Could probably get names if you wanted.

[Mrs Pingu]

Having looked up the oil co I'm guessing it might be Novi Sad. Oh well, it's not a complete shithole full of bandits, is the main thing

[Feanor]

Sometimes, visiting shitholes full of bandits is a bit of an adventure.

But not always.

[Ivo]

Having looked up the oil co I'm guessing it might be Novi Sad. Oh well, it's not a complete shithole full of bandits, is the main thing

Novi Sad is quite nice. it used to be an opposition stronghold during the war. The city has a partly hungarian population.
The Novi Sad part of my ride report of 2002:

By chance, on of the first things I passed in Novi Sad was a bike shop on the corner of Oslobodenjia Bulevar and Lasla Gala street. The owner and staff spoke decent English, and I asked the which maps are decent for cycling. Non of them were really advisable for my route, but one of the mechanics grabbed a bike and led me to a bookshop near the Vojvodina sports centre. The
owner of the bookshop resembled the bike shop owner, and the mechanic was heartily greeted. I emerged with some maps and a language guide in English.
After lingering around a while at the bike shop , I set of to do some sightseeing. Some of Novi Sad's bridges offered a sorry sight. The bridge to the Petrovardin citadel is reduced to it's fundaments , and the
pontoon-bridge replacing is off-limits for bicycles. One bridge further on is the only connection permitted for cyclists. In the late afternoon I set out over it, towards Sremski Karlovice.

[ian]

Novi Sad is great, the old town has plenty of cafes, bars, and restaurants (and a lively atmosphere on Thurs/Fri/Sat evenings). Škripa Pub for a chilled atmosphere and nice beer selection (yeah, I had to Google to get that accent). There's a couple of other places, not all of which I remember, which could be a positive vote. I mostly just rely on my Serbian colleagues to lead the way – so let me know if you need recommendations.

ETA: and it gets very busy during festivals – EXIT being the big one in early July.

[Bledlow]

As above, Serbia had more of a feel of a healthy and vibrant economy and culture than Macedonia, Bosnia or Kosovo, and more than once on my route I felt like I should have gone north through Serbia rather than through these three.

When they were all part of Yugoslavia, Serbia minus Kosovo & Voivodina (the region north of Belgrade) was close to the Yugoslav average GDP per head (Belgrade richer, the south poorer). Voivodina was about 20% higher, Bosnia & Makedonia 30-35% lower, & Kosovo >60% lower.

The lag of the poorer territories (especially Kosovo) had increased between the early 1950s & the 1980s. The wars in Bosnia & Kosovo probably knocked them even further behind.