You Know the Nighttime Is the Right Time Meme
Identify 33
The 52 Places Traveler: In Belgrade, Nighttime Is the Right Time
If you know where to become in the Serbian uppercase — where wartime scars are however palpable — the night never has to finish.
Our columnist, Jada Yuan, is visiting each destination on our 52 Places to Go in 2018 list . This acceleration brings her to Belgrade, Serbia; information technology took the No. 32 spot on the list and is the 33rd end on Jada's itinerary.
Information technology's a phenomenon that my new friend, Iva Savić, wasn't falling comatose at dinner. The night before nosotros met, I was flight to her hometown, Belgrade, Serbia. She had been out dancing with a group of girlfriends until 4 a.m. Then she'd woken up bright and perky to caput to piece of work. She hadn't planned on staying out that late, but in typical Belgrade manner, dinner had turned into barhopping. "We stayed until 2 a.m. and then they shut off the music and nosotros moved on to another bar," she said. If you lot know where to go in Belgrade, the night never has to cease.
I had met Iva through her sister, Alisa Dogramadzieva, who has worked with The Times's Eastern European correspondents. Alisa was in nearby Montenegro, but Iva was eager to show me all her hometown had to offering. And I had been eager to have company and guidance navigating one of the few 52 Places destinations where night life is central.
As a adult female traveling alone, I oft feel a lack of security going out on my own later on dark. The last time I tried clubbing solo was two years ago in Miami as office of a Cosmo article on dating scenes across the The states — and the groping and stalker-like tendencies I encountered had somewhat traumatized me.
I knew I was in good hands with Iva. Similar me, she is in her 40s, but with a teenage daughter and an air of being able to both charm a charging bull and flip it over her head if provoked, though she's merely a niggling over five feet tall. Through her, I got to see the beauty of this capital city, set at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. I likewise learned how deeply the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and the breakdown of that country affected daily life in Belgrade, from the look of certain buildings that were never repaired later on the NATO bombings of 1999 to the songs cover bands play at bars. Near of all, she opened my optics to the true throughline of a trip to Belgrade: hospitality and an ability to sing and dance through the best, and the worst, of times.
Stilettos and restaurant serenades
Picking me up for our commencement night out together, Iva had i pedagogy: no stilettos. We would be doing a long walk over cobblestones and across railroad tracks to get to Beton Hala, or The Concrete Hall, a row of fancy restaurants built into refurbished warehouses along the east banking company of the Sava River. I had to laugh when I showed up in Birkenstocks, my only dressy travel shoes: every other adult female at that place looked similar a model, in a tight mini-skirt and, yep, stilettos.
"Belgrade is very known for loftier heels and beautiful women," Iva said.
It's also known for live music, which is then arable and varied, emanating from about every street corner and terrace, that walking outside can feel like stepping into a parade.
Bands played in nearly every eatery in the Concrete Hall, each with a terrace facing across the Sava River toward the Communist-era architecture of New Belgrade — a business commune built in the belatedly 1940s on a stretch of filled-in riverbank.
Nosotros got a drink at a identify called Hush Hush, where a talented guitar-and-accordion duo played evergreen '50s and '60s music from Eastern Europe. Downward the row, at Cantina de Frieda, a cover band was doing a rousing rendition of the 1985 classic "Ja Sam Lazlijiva" from Croatian synth-pop ring Denis & Denis. I couldn't get information technology out of my head for days, despite knowing none of the lyrics or what they meant.
The cobblestoned Skadarlija district — often compared with Paris'south Montmartre, and where your hotel will likely suggest that you have dinner — is filled with traditional taverns, chosen kafanas, where bands of five to six musicians move from table to tabular array singing folk songs and taking requests. (We ate at Tri Sesira, which had 2 squeeze box-led audio-visual bands playing simultaneously.) In the wintertime, when people crowd indoors, information technology'southward quite common to trip the light fantastic on your table to show your appreciation, should the music so move you.
Even the magnificent Hotel Moskva, a city landmark congenital in 1908 and where I stayed, had a piano player at breakfast, which really added to the atmosphere of golden chandeliers and red velvet furniture.
The scene I liked well-nigh, though, was in the historical district, Zemun, a former municipality forth the Danube that the city absorbed in the 1930s.
There, Iva introduced me to Jasmina Vekic, possessor of the 138-year-old fish restaurant, Saran, one of the oldest in the city. Like many Serbians, she'd left in the '90s and congenital a life as a businesswoman in Prague. After Yugoslavia dissolved, almost 15 years ago, the authorities sold off a lot of the businesses it owned, including restaurants, and Ms. Vekic had been able to buy this 1 at a deal price. She'south at present 1 of the few female person eating place owners in the city. Serbians, she said, shouting over the ring in her eating place, put music above everything. "Even if y'all're an eighty-year-quondam Serb," she said, "y'all want to have a birthday party and to dance."
'The '80s were the happiest time'
Another night, Iva took me to the concert of possibly the greatest comprehend band I have e'er witnessed, The Gift, at a venue called Bitef Art Buffet Summer Stage in the Kalamegdan Fortress, an actual fortress used to defend against Ottoman invaders that is the city's near pop public park.
The singer, Jovan Matic (known every bit Joca Ajkula, or Joca the Shark), wore eyeliner and oozed sexual energy, particularly once he had shed his shirt. They exclusively played New Wave songs from the '80s (Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Become Enough," R.E.Grand.'s "The One I Dearest"). The crowd of generally twentysomethings knew every lyric.
"The '80s were the happiest time," Iva said. "You could travel and Belgrade was open. Anybody went for summertime holiday; they didn't have to count their bacon. These songs remind me of my childhood, before the war."
I asked her if she had any nostalgia for '90s pop: Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears. She barely knew them. Before she and her family had left Yugoslavia, information technology had become completely closed off. "The '90s was when nationalism was spreading," she said. "Y'all'd turn on the TV and hear the war songs."
Club hopping on the waterfront
No affair where in the metropolis your night begins, chances are it will stop up at the Sava waterfront. After the Concrete Hall on the Old Belgrade side, Iva took me to one of her favorite dance spots, Tranzit, which had a great D.J., was totally outdoors and had none of the predatory behavior that had turned me off in Miami. Iva suggested we reserve a tabular array and I had said no considering I didn't want to pay some exorbitant canteen fee. But it turns out that in Belgrade, reserving a table at a guild just means y'all have a guaranteed spot to stand without getting jostled — for free. (At some confined, you tin can do that VIP canteen service thing, likewise, if that'southward your thing.)
Across the water in New Belgrade, the scene is all about clubs on boats, known as splavs. Are yous into folk music? Half-naked women dancing on platforms to drum and bass? Paintings of Frank Zappa's confront? (They're plastered all over club Zappa Barka.) At that place's a party gunkhole for everyone. And information technology was easy to hop from one to some other since nigh none of the boats accuse a cover; if they practise, it'due south around $5. (Just picket out for taxi scams; whatever legit cab has "TX" as part of its license plate number.)
Far less autonomous, though, is the $3.six billion redevelopment of the Old Belgrade waterfront just past Tranzit. Where a beautiful new park and walking path stand, filled with deputed art — similar a calorie-free-up plexiglass sculpture — were one time people'south homes; residents were violently evicted to brand way for construction. That raid prompted the biggest antigovernment protests in Serbia since the uprising that ousted Milosevic in 2000. The funding, from the United Arab Emirates, is controversial, every bit is the architecture, which will put highrises adjacent to the oldest parts of one of the oldest cities in Europe.
Meat, meat, meat (but likewise fish)
"Traditional Serbian nutrient is meat, meat, meat," said Iva. It as well seemed to exist a lot of cheese, cheese, cheese — phenomenally delicious and destined to clog all your arteries.
At to the lowest degree once, if you're determined to do Belgrade right, you lot need to start off your day with burek, a savory pastry fabricated with salty cheese, phyllo leaves and enough grease to power a biodiesel engine. "If I have ane tip, it's that a bakery side by side to the market is usually going to exist good," said Iva when she took me to Pekara Trpkovic side by side to the Kalenic Market. (Raspberries are too a adept market purchase; Serbia is 1 of the globe's biggest exporters.)
To beverage, brainstorm with rakija, or plum brandy, and move to Jelen beer. The meat dish every Serbian will ask if yous tried is cevapcici:minced meat rolled into a rod shape, grilled and served with flatbread. I was a bigger fan of the ii condiments that typically come with it, along with grilled onions: ajvar and kajmak. The old is a spread fabricated from red bell peppers; the latter is fabricated from the fermented cream of boiled milk, and possibly better than butter (something I didn't know was possible).
Fish lovers should head directly to Zemun, where the river catches are so fresh you can sometimes find fishermen grilling them on the shore. At Saran, widely regarded as the best fish restaurant in the city (the proper name means carp), Iva and I had a whole grilled perch, forth with a stew of river fish (riblja corba) that gets its deep red color from cayenne pepper.
True to the Serbian reputation of beingness generous hosts, Iva ordered a cold appetizer starter with all of my favorites every time we sat downwards. The all-time of those platters, and best overall meal, hands downward, came at Durmitor, a curt cab ride from the urban center center in New Belgrade. They're known for steak, but what I'll remember is a dessert chosen tri lece, a soft, moist cake dripping with sweetness foam. No bands played during our meal. "The food is so proficient," Iva said, "they don't need music."
Returning to the scene of a nuptials — and arrest
On the style to a sunset boat cruise, Iva took me to the perfect spot in Belgrade for an afternoon Aperol spritz: Reka (translation, River), a hip eating place in Zemun that she had been mentioning for days. It is owned by 3 women — who take filled the walls with colorful paintings from local artists — and features live music every night. Information technology'southward as well, Iva said, where she was detained by the constabulary for speaking English during the chaos of the NATO bombings of 1999 — the nighttime before her wedding.
I was surprised she was O.K. returning. "We came that night because nosotros liked the vibe, and the vibe is still expert," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Information technology wasn't their fault."
The bombings lasted from March until June of that twelvemonth, and were aimed at ousting the Milosevic government for the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians. Amid the instability, Iva scheduled her wedding ceremony for May, and booked a eating place basement for the reception — to double as a flop shelter. "We thought, 'We're in dear. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Permit's do it'," she said.
She had been working at the BBC as a journalist and producer when a colleague suggested they go to Reka to celebrate her last night as a single adult female. They were making reporting phone calls well-nigh the day's bombings when a police officer showed up to accept Iva and her colleague, along with Iva'due south futurity ex-married man and her blood brother-in-police, into custody. Somebody had overheard them speaking English language and called them in. The perception was that the British were at mistake for the bombings, and that by working with their reporters, Iva was a traitor and her colleague a spy.
They didn't become out of the station until 2 a.1000., at which indicate Iva rushed to her tailor'south firm and woke her upwards to fetch the dress she'd meant to get hours earlier. Picking up her maid of award required sweet-talking her way through a police battlement and driving around flop craters by the military drome. The windows at the municipal building where they wednesday had been blown out. "Nosotros were walking on broken glass to get married," she said. Only the political party had been great — live band included.
Jada Yuan is traveling to every identify on this year's 52 Places to Go listing. For more coverage, or to send Jada tips and suggestions, delight follow her on Twitter at @jadabird and on Instagram at alphajada .
Previous dispatches:
1: New Orleans
ii: Chattanooga, Tenn.
3. Montgomery, Ala.
4. Disney Springs, Fla.
5. Trinidad and St. Lucia and San Juan, P.R.
6. Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica
seven. Kuélap, Republic of peru
8. Bogotá, Colombia
9. La Paz, Republic of bolivia
ten. Los Cabos, United mexican states
11. Chile's Route of Parks
12: Denver, Colo.
xiii: Rogue River, Ore.
xiv: Seattle
fifteen: Branson, Mo.
16: Cincinnati, Ohio
17: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
18: Buffalo, N.Y.
nineteen: Baltimore
20: Republic of iceland
21: Oslo, Kingdom of norway
22 and 23: Bristol, England, and Glasgow, Scotland
24 and 25: Tallinn, Estonia, and Vilnius, Lithuania
26 and 27: Arles and Megève, France
28 and 29: Seville and Ribera del Duero, Spain
xxx: Tangier, Morocco
31: Road Trip in Western Germany
32: Ypres, Belgium
Adjacent dispatch: Prague
You Know the Nighttime Is the Right Time Meme
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/travel/belgrade-serbia-nightlife-clubs-restaurants.html
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