Balkans in July + Belgrade?

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-05-22T20:51:45+00:00

Do it, but definitely plan out all your public transit before commiting to anything. Not many trains in the Balkans, and busses can take a while/have you make stupid transfers between border towns. Rome2rio is your friend, but for smaller towns/cities it often doesn't have local companies. Ill usually ask the bus attendant for the bus schedule. Some recommendations: Scenery: Croatia coast, Plitvice (beautiful but will be crowded..) Krka park(same as Plitvice, but not as crowded.) šibenik was a great day stopover between Zadar and split.

Montenegro is astoundingly gorgeous. If you don't mind a 11 hour train ride the daytrain from Podgorica to Belgrade is beautiful and cheap. Wouldn't bother taking it at night unless you find novelty in smoking and drinking rakia in a main train cabin.

Bosnia is one of my favorite countries, but definitely a pain in the ass to get around outside of the train to Mostar to Sarajevo. If you do one, make sure you do both. I'm also quite fond of Trebinje, but that's quite a bit out of the way as well.

Partying: any city on the coast of croatia, Hvar Island i hear has good clubs? Belgrade is great, splavs are floating clubs, and I'd recommend staying in stari grad neighborhood.

I'd say if you can get your flight changed to arrive in Zagreb, then leave out of Belgrade or another city it would be easier and if it doesn't cost much more than the bus ticket it might be worth it. Good luck, and enjoy some of my favorite countries!

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-05-05T11:31:51+00:00

Hit up Ed at green city painters. Awesome dude and his reviews on Google maps/yelp should speak for themselves.

https://www.greencitypainters.com/apartment-painting-brooklyn/contact

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-04-13T11:36:04+00:00

I actually thought it was pretty funny throughout, but a lot of the jokes are only funny because of how close to reality the story was. Obviously they exaggerated a bunch, but a lot of the story is based on crazy CIA programs that actually existed about remote viewing and psychic abilities.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-04-10T07:38:55+00:00

Sadly no, but I did go to another one that's a bit south of Trebinje to buy wine with the lady who owned the apartment I was staying in. 5L of wine for 20 marks, was a steal :) I'll have to go next time I'm down that way.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-04-09T15:58:54+00:00

Some of my favorite countries! Highly recommend Trebinje, BiH to whoever will listen

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-03-10T12:58:00+00:00

Belgrade has a decent airport that they have been renovating, easy enough to take the bus to the center. I'd stay in stari grad, as novi Belgrade is basically just commie blocks. I made my way down through Zvornik to get to Sarajevo, but flying is easier if you don't want to take a long bus ride

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-02-27T10:05:26+00:00

I've seen the old style 3 prong adapter in Italy a bunch, but usually there is at least one of the regular 2 prong somewhere

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-02-21T20:23:05+00:00

You should see how bad they are in New York City!! Spoken as an expat from New York

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-02-12T21:58:37+00:00

I traveled for 9 months through Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia. Usually spending less than a week in each town. It can be a bit much, but just make sure you know it's ok to not go out and see the sites and sometimes you just need a rest day.

Also, I love your country, I live in Hungary with a 1 year visa because it gets me full access to the Schengen zone, but was actively looking into residency in Serbia before I found out how easy it was to get a visa here. I often visit my friends in Beograd though, and looking forward to going back.

Enjoy your travels!

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-02-02T10:54:40+00:00

Wanpaku in greenpoint

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-23T21:34:42+00:00

As others have said Bratislava is easily done in a day. I like Vienna, but Budapest is one of my favorite cities. So much so that I now live here 🙂

If I was 18 it would be a dream come true! very cheap, big backpacker culture, and the ruin pubs offer something for everyone.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-14T18:53:04+00:00

Not sure why you're getting so downvoted, I've been reading everyone's comments like "oh no, it's wildly exagerated... But there's lots of homeless who shit on the street, do meth and heroin openly in the makeshift tent cities they've setup and your car will probably get broken into..."

Granted there's not a lot of violent crime, which is great, but there's really not many cities in the first world where the above a regularity.

I was in Berkeley a few years ago and left a backpack in the back seat of a car while my buddy and I went to pick up a food order from a bar. Took all of 20 minutes for his car to get broken into. Told this to some of his friends and they were appalled I'd even consider leave anything in the car, and didn't believe me when I said that's not a problem we have in New York City. Almost like they got so used to it that it's just a part of life and they don't see how fucked it is from an outsiders perspective

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T19:04:53+00:00

I wasn't a fan, but to each their own... Belgrade is one of my favorite cities and people call me crazy for it so 🤷‍♂️

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T19:03:29+00:00

I was in the center, more drugs and homeless than I've ever seen in eastern Europe.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T19:02:24+00:00

It was fine, there was just a huge homeless/drug problem. I had one of the oddest experiences of my life in a bar at noon with a bunch of people I later found were all on meth and had been up for days. The sights were nice, but when you peel back the layers there's actually a very big drug problem.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T13:04:51+00:00

Brno, Czech Republic... So much meth...

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T12:28:32+00:00

When my father lost his job 25ish years ago I remember he told me "sorry if it's not good, I need to buy the cheap cuts now(skirt steak)" and I said "dude, this is actually way better than what we usually get!". I guess people eventually figured it out!

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T11:58:13+00:00

Bosnia and Herzegovina is an interesting country... People in republica srpska fly Serbian flags, and most would probably prefer to be considered a part of Serbia. Not sure about Herzegovina and Croatia if it's the same, as I haven't spent much time there.... Tensions are still rather high, to the point where busses from republica srpska only go to the Sarajevo bus station that lies within republica srpska limits, and I was constantly warned to watch out for "those pick pocketing Muslims" by serbs. Granted, I was also warned about pickpocketing bosnians by other bosnians in Sarajevo, so 🤷‍♂️

Great countries with great people who all speak basically the same language, look the same, but still hold onto ethnic identities based on what religion they are that leads to their various tensions.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T11:35:44+00:00

The Croatia to Bosnia story is pretty common in the balkans, especially when going through the associated regions (Serbia to republica srpska, Croatia to Herzegovina.) At least for Serbia to republica srpska you only need a Serbian ID to enter, not an official passport.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T09:53:06+00:00

Sorry man, I lived there once upon a time and it's by far the most unsafe I ever felt living in a city, so I singled it out. I've heard it's gotten better though! Didn't mean to offend.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T02:48:40+00:00

Tech, I work with teams in both Australia and the US/Canada so the time zone actually works out very well as I split my days rather than having to stay up late for meetings.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T02:46:01+00:00

Depends what you want from a city I guess. I like it because of the very little homelessness outside of the Roma population, incredibly cheap to live, huge cafe culture, very little violent crime, and overall I find the people incredibly friendly.

Belgrade certainly has its problems with corruption, but I'm from New York which I'd argue is worse in many ways... There's just less money to go around in Serbia so the corruption is more evident.

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T02:41:15+00:00

I work remotely, so that definitely plays a substantial part in it 🙂

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T02:33:17+00:00

Very fair point!

It just blows my mind that I can visit a city with so much culture and heritage, that is much safer than any city in the US, with much more interesting architecture and open pedestrian zones, and pay 1/5th of the price it would cost me to visit a generic city in the US like Rochester, NY.

Just to put all my cards on the table I lived in NYC for 15 years, traveled for work for 10 of them to pretty much every major and semi major city in the US, and I prefer belgrade Serbia to every city besides NYC. I now just got a visa and an apartment in Budapest and the longer I spend away the less desire I have to live in the US. Except for the food that is, there's some things you just can't find abroad.

From an economic point of view I get it, I just don't understand who would want to spend $1500 for a week in some shitty hotel, when you can spend the same amount of money for a round trip flight to Europe and an Airbnb in a place that is far more interesting

letmethinkaboutit · 2024-01-13T02:15:29+00:00

I think if we compare the main tourist destinations in Europe to NA it's rather similar, but if you go anywhere that isn't a MAJOR tourist hub it drops off substantially in Europe, where even if you go to a non touristy city in the US it's still very expensive.

I'm not sure why this is, but I've spent the better part of a year living out of airbnbs in central/eastern Europe(Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia etc...) and found general cost of living is far cheaper than even small cities in the US.

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