I landed in Belgrade almost two weeks ago now, and I have been immersed in the European lifestyle enjoyed by those in Serbia's capital city. Today, I want to write and share this blog post with you as I recount my first week or so in Europe, my experiences, and my thoughts along the way.
Arrival: What Time Is It?
When I landed on the 11th, it was in a fog of lack of sleep and some jet lag. The long flights were exhausting, and I still have no ability to sleep on a plane despite my best efforts from Toronto to Munich. I was running on 3 hours of sleep during over 15 hours of plane travel, so to say I was exhausted was an understatement. When I finally landed in Belgrade, my luggage was not with me and was apparently left behind somewhere in Germany. Of course, my luck! I had to sort this situation out in a foreign country halfway across the world in a muggy, unfamiliar environment where the native language isn't English. Quite disconcerting and not an ideal first few moments in Europe. Alas, I was able to get tracking information from Lufthansa and pick up my ride to my apartment in the city center.
Even with the layover in Munich, it never totally struck me that I was finally here in Europe until the drive over to where I was staying. Looking out the window of the car at a very old city and realizing nothing looked familiar was the moment I knew that my trip had begun. I was now a foreigner, someone who was a visitor to a completely different country. Even though I am white and the people surrounding me were also white colored, it was clear there was a difference in the surrounding environment.
After being dropped off, my roommate Mason came down to greet me and lead me to where our apartment was in the building we are living in for the month of June. Our apartment is in a rather nondescript building outside of Trg Nikole Pašića near the House of the National Assembly of Serbia. There is a long, colorfully lit pool and fountain almost directly outside of the apartment building where children and adults alike frolic in the hot summer months. This fountain is adjacent to an urban park, itself next to the city center and shopping outlets. My room is spacious, with nice recessed lighting, a large armoire, and French doors opening to a balcony overlooking the city below. And most importantly in the hot Serbian summer, air conditioning! I call this place home for the rest of the month.
Settling In
I did finally receive my luggage on the second day. It was delivered right to my apartment. Finally, different clothes! I had been wearing the same outfit for over 36 hours and badly wanted to refresh. Thankfully, I was now able to do this. I spent the most of my second day exploring my new surroundings. I headed to the co-working space Marsh Production exclusively run this month by Remote Year for its remotes. This medium-sized space is open and has reliable high-speed internet and several workstations. It's in a set-back location next to and above restaurants and bars. Even when working, the nightlife can be easily heard nearby. I settled in to try to do some work that I hadn't really been involved with since attending WWDC. I met some other people participating in the program while here and made some new friends. Another remote Mike and I got dinner later that night, my first exploration of the old Serbian city.
My sleeping schedule was thrown off (and honestly to this day is still not what it was back home) pretty badly, and I was sleeping in till noon or 1 PM each day. Yuck, I don't like sleeping in that late anymore, but I think it was a consequence of being so tired and possibly still jet lagged from my travel adventures. As the week went on, I tried to adjust to no avail. I need my sleep, what can I say?
Let's Explore
Remote Year has introduced a concept of "tracks" which are series of events designed to give the travelers a tailored experience of the local city we're visiting. Since I arrived late due to the conference, I was invited along to one already planned: a tour of the local graffiti around Belgrade. Graffiti has a special place in the city - it's everywhere. As our tour guide, himself a seasoned graffiti artist, explained it was used to add color to a gray city following years of war and distress. Some graffiti is simple and could be chalked-up to teenagers with nothing better to do. Other graffiti are intricate works of art - vivid, colorful, and detailed, capturing the spirit of a city that has seen so much.
The Fortress and Sunsets
There is an old structure on the riverfront (built in 535!) called the Belgrade Fortress. For years it housed the entire population of Belgrade and therefore the history of it closely matches the history of the city. It has bombed and conquered a number of times - by the Romans and then the Turks. It served as an important boundary in the Roman Empire. At first between the Empire and "barbaric" Central Europe and then between the Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), and the Slav-Avar State in the north.
Today, it is called the Belgrade Fortress and is a popular tourist attraction for locals and travelers alike. Its position along the western edge of the main city makes it ideal for sunset viewing. Visitors to the fortress hang out along "the wall" to observe the sun set over the river junction and city horizon. Some pretty spectacular sunsets can be seen here, as I have now witnessed first hand. This is truly one of the oldest and most beautiful parts of the city, rich in history and culture.
Boat Tours
A second track event was taking a boat ride down the Danube and Sava rivers in Belgrade while our tour guide led us down the storied history of the city. We were able to see Belgrade from a variety of angles and hear a local's perspective on the long, bloody history of Serbia's capital. This offered a unique perspective from the water allowing us to see both old and New Belgrade.
The boat tour took us onto an island called Great War Island. When Zumen fell to the Turks in the 1500s, it was used to house city prisoners. The island got its name from its strategic location in the conquering of defense of Belgrade. Today, the island is officially uninhabited; however, a few dozen residents live on it to tend to their local vegetable gardens during the summer months. Today, the island is also a nature retreat within the city, housing summer camps and nature seekers including a beach on the northern end. It's a very pretty and scenic retreat just outside the urban mass of Belgrade.
After the boat tour concluded, we ventured to Zumen, one of the urban neighborhoods of Belgrade. Zumen has been inhabited since at least 4,000 BC! Old cobblestone streets, restaurants, and shops are a marking identifier of this city enclave. We climbed up steps to the Gardoš Tower (or Millennium Tower), built to mark 1,000 years of Hungarian settlement in the Pannonian Basin, to take an amazing view of Zumen and Belgrade off in the distance.
Wrapping Up: Week One Thoughts
My first week in Europe was an exciting one filled with new adventures, challenges, adjustments, and new friends. I got in to the swing of things in Remote Year and got a hold of my new life abroad. I've been casually noting the differences between America and here as I go.
One thing that I definitely notice as a difference between here and home is the tendency to stay out very late even on work nights (Mondays, Tuesdays, etc). Music will play late hours of the night outside of the workspace, and a large number of restaurants and bistros are open late even on weeknights. In America, it seems like on the weekdays most things shut down much earlier, even restaurants. This is not the case here, where people can be found at restaurants or wandering the streets all hours of the day and many hours of the night.
Another difference is more obvious and that is the age of the buildings and city. Belgrade is very old with settlements going back to several thousand years BC in Zumen and at least 279 BC in the city itself. There are buildings and monuments that are hundreds of years old, much older than anything found back home. The city streets do not appear to follow any sort of grid or spiral system, instead following their paths set long ago. Belgrade has seen more than its fair share of wars and bombings, the most recent in 1999. This is reflected in some areas with hallowed out buildings and areas under construction from the years of war.
One other small thing is the pigeons here are also extremely aggressive! Several times just walking down the sidewalk I have had them almost fly right into my face. They don't seem to be very afraid of humans or co-existing among them in their endless pursuit of food scraps.
It's been an adjustment to get used to a new European lifestyle, but all of this has been greatly aided by two major things: the first being the support of a Remote Year "tramily" (tribe + travel + family). Most of the people I have meet in my Kublai group have been very supportive, welcoming, and chill. There are a variety of personalities, of course, but in general everyone seems to be cool with each other, respectful of each other's space, and eager to explore and discover as much as they can as digital nomads. The second major thing is the internet and ubiquity of data thanks to smartphones and the evolution of the mobile internet in 2017. I would honestly not feel nearly as comfortable traveling like this if I did not have a smartphone to guide me along my way. Invaluable resources include Google Maps, Google Translate, Happy Cow, Slack, Messenger, currency converters, and several others. They make it easy to stay connected and travel even in foreign countries without getting completely lost.
Given that I strongly adhere to a vegan lifestyle, most people have commented that it must be difficult for me to make my way along this trip, that finding food must be a challenge, etc. In fact, it's not been really that difficult. The local farmer's market here in Belgrade is fresh and cheap - I can find fresh fruit like cherries, raspberries, blueberries, dates, and bananas and vegetables like spinach, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and many others for ridiculously cheap prices as compared to the United States. Additionally, I've been lucky to find vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants along my way thanks to the guidance of apps like Happy Cow. I've even managed to locate multiple organic and health food stores, one within eyesight of my apartment selling several dietary staples like plant milk, legumes, tempeh, soy, and more. Even at most 'regular' restaurants despite language barriers, I've been able to order vegan-friendly options. Really there have been only a things I haven't been able to find. Namely, one thing I haven't seen in any grocery stores are tortilla chips. This must be mostly an American Tex-Mex thing. Also, the iced tea here also seems to be mostly Nestle with peach flavoring. Yuck! I'll need to find a loose tea resource for the last week here and while I'm in Lisbon. I have some loose tea still from California, but that is quickly running out.
I'm going to try to update this blog at least once a week and ideally twice a week. Stay tuned in the next few days for a recap on my second week as I continue to explore Belgrade. Soon, I will be preparing for my next stop Lisbon, Portugal. #WhenInEurope #DigitalNomad
Thanks for reading!! I hope you find these posts insightful and entertaining.