Belgrade 2.0
- Blog na srpskom
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Driving in Belgrade
You will find that driving in Belgrade city center isn’t more difficult than in, say, Calcutta… Just kidding. You will need some pointers concerning the parking system in the city center, which is now divided into three parking-zones. The First zone will allow you to park your vehicle for one hour in the same spot, the second for two, and the third, you guessed it, for three hours. Most hotels in the city center have their own parkings, though. Paying for parking in Belgrade can be done in three ways – via SMS (mobile phone text message), by buying a parking ticket at a news stand or from a parking-ticket-machine. Don’t allow yourself to have to do it the fourth way – by paying the service of having your car tolled away to one of four city car-jails. The bail you’ll have to pay for your car will amount you from 100 up to 200 euros, depending on the place you parked your car at (too near the crossing, the middle of the road, or the lawn in front of the city hall, for example), the amount of parking time you failed to oblige and the mood of the police officer in charge. Quarreling wont help (because most cops don’t understand english anyway), neither will the fact that you’re foreigner be any of their concern, so there is only two options left: pay the fine, or leave the car in Serbia.
Serbs love their cars so much, that they refuse to leave them at home when they go to work, creating enormous rush hour jams which often last the whole day, probably because of our flexible working hours. So, don’t be surprised when you find out that traffic regulations are regarded more as something that is recommended rather than imposed by law. After some driving, you’ll begin to get a better picture of what we’re talking about. It will be the moment when you feel the urge to break the law and make that illegal u-turn, convinced that its the only way to get from point A to the point B – this year, if possible. Think again, because if the police spot(s) you, know this – the fines are high, even for people with a whole lot of money. Arguing with the police, again, wont help, and don’t even think about trying to escape. The traffic can be so thick that even Steve McQuinn wouldn’t escape. Plus, you risk to explore the inside of a charming Serbian police station. So, again, you have only two things to do: don’t do it, or look thoroughly and make sure there aren’t any policemen around before you commit a terrible act of making a traffic violation.
