Liam snoozed and I relaxed whilst waiting for
my clothes to dry. I went down and the lady at reception had put them into a
basket for me. So I went up, woke Liam, and we got ready to leave. We left the
apartment, through the High Street, and down a little maze of side streets to
the Brankov Most – the bridge to the ‘New Belgrade’ side of the Sava. The view
north was amazing, just a horizon of forest.
We walked over the busy road bridge, which
took us 20 minutes, to a park on the other side. Immediately in front of us was
a shopping mall. So we hid from the evening heat inside and grabbed a snack. We
then walked around the mall and up a blocked off road to a park.
This was where
the Beer Festival was being held. An adjacent road to it was crammed full of
people going to it: teenagers, middle-aged men and women, families – the lot.
We had a light padding down at the gate and walked down a security alley to the
main arena. There were stalls of the different beers all around, the ground
messy from a few days of partying. We grabbed a £1.50 beer each and went to the
arena. The sun was creeping slowly behind the stage.
A nice folk band were on – 8 members I think
and a man in his seventies on lead vocals. Songs lasted about 10 minutes long
it seemed, and had an almost ‘Greek’ feel to them, although it was definitely a
Serbian set up.
We happily listened for 30 minutes, grabbing another beer, but
then made our way back as dusk was approaching. More people were arriving as we
exited. We walked back across the bridge at just the
right time. The sun was leaving a glorious day, and we say the city light up on
its banks. The fortress just glowed from the forest around it.
St Sava’s Church
the other side of town was a Christian beacon for the city. We walked to
Republic Square, which was still busy, and had a couple of cocktails. We then
went to the 24-hour convenience store next to our hostel and grabbed snacks for
the morning. We watched some shows on my phone then slept.
We woke at 06:45. We showered and finally
packed before living the hostel at 07:20. We walked the last time through the
High Street, then down Balkanska to the train station. It was hot already. My
train was at platform 4, and we confirmed Liam’s. We sat opposite the train for
10 minutes then said our goodbye’s. I was now on my own.
The train hardly filled up whilst I waited
until the 08:15 departure. I had a young lad and girl for company as I departed
Belgrade over the river Sava.
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