Belgrade 2.0
- Blog na srpskom
- This site best viewed from Belgrade (but not with Internet Explorer).
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Car called Yugo
“At least it had heated rear windows—so your hands would stay warm while you pushed.” – A quote from one of the many satisfied Yugo owners, taken from the web site cartalk.com, who officially voted Yugo the worst car of the millennium. How come there are so many of them running the streets of Belgrade? Because they’re cheap. But sometimes the maintenance of the car turns out to be much more expensive than the car itself.
The factory that produces the cars is located in Kragujevac, a town located some 150 km south of Belgrade. It’s production fell to about 1000 cars per year, which is good. The less Yugo on the streets – the better. There are around 750.000 of these beauties still representing a road hazard around the world. Most of them are in Serbia and, of course, in Belgrade. Mostly young people drive it, again, because it’s very cheap, and because its possible to make all sorts of alternations and customizations on it. None of them help.
The Yugo models include Yugo 45, Yugo 55, Yugo 65, Yugo Koral, Yugo Tempo, Yugo Cabrio, etc. They all look the same, and nobody knows what is the difference between various models. First model was designed in 1981 and the design remained the same until today- at least we can say its consistent, if nothing else. It is impossible to find out whether the design of the vehicle was ever considered modern and pretty, even in the beginning. Yugoslavia tried to export the car to the US, but unfortunately, the Americans saw through this attempt of Yugoslavia to weaken their morale, and stopped buying it some months after the sale began.
Wikipedia suggests that the Simpsons family car might be one of the Yugo Zastava models, but this is of course just a guess.
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Turbo folk clubs
In the beginning of the nineties a new form of music was born in Serbia. A perfect blend of traditional folklore music and modern western techno culture, it combined two good things to create a monstrous mix: turbo folk. Without many or any national trademarks present, some people claim that this genre has what it takes to be considered as the epiphany of all things Serbian. Maybe, but it certainly does not represent all things Serbian that are good. Anyway, the music (can it be called music?) is not going to be described here, because
1. it is impossible,
2. it would be a waste of space and
3. we want you to see it (and hear it) for yourself.These are the places where you can find people who still refuse to evolve, businessmen who think it can’t get any classier than this, and girls looking for a new sugar daddy. And if you plan on starting a fight, better have your gun ready.
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Communist sites
If you have strong sympathies about the guys who had basically good idea, but on the wrong planet, then welcome to Belgrade, Comrade. Even if you are just curious about it, or you don’t care at all, you are welcome.The remains of past times little mentioned today are in any case all around you, saying : we didn’t built these buildings to be nice, but to last. And it seems that they will, too. There were actually some attempts to tear some of them down, with little or no result at all. Famous for doing all things differently from the rest of the world, Serbs did the same with communism – towards the end of all things, when things began to fall apart, they added a touch of pure capitalism. That’s why it lasted longer here then in any other country, save China, Cuba and few more, who obviously knew some other secret ingredients. And so, as others watched and followed in anticipation, comrade Stalin among them, former Yugoslavia managed to live in some sort of surreal happy-happy virtual country. More recent civil wars and enormous foreign debt showed that this came at a great price. Now all we have left are buildings and monuments from this period to remind us of how it was, and that we should maybe learn something from it. The problem is, a great part of population who remembers these times claim that it was actually better in the «red» period, while others strongly disagree. See for yourself who is right, and if you don’t have a standpoint, better get one.
Since the bigger part of New Belgrade was built on a drained swamp ground in the period between the end of the WW2 and the beginning of the 80’s, this well may be one of the biggest areas with big, gray and ugly buildings in Europe. Of course, none of the Belgraders and not so many tourist guides will know what are the best sites with these fine examples of mans idealistic victory over mind, matter and nature all at once, and that’s why you’ll need this commie sense guide here. The reasons for non-existence of similar guides are many: people too lazy to make one, people willing to forget those times, people just being ignorant in that particular direction, people too young or too old to remember, and most of all, the chronically short-term memory-loss of the entire nation.
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Belgrade under Belgrade
We dont have a metro, but that doesnt mean you can’t move around under the city of Belgrade. Rulers of Belgrade in ancient and not so ancient times thought it could be useful to dig some holes under the city as a place to hide and keep food and drink in emergency situations, as escape tunnels and for digging the stone to build houses and buildings throughout the city.
These caves are still not properly explored, and there are numerous urban legends claiming that there are tunnels under the whole of Belgrade, connecting opposite parts of the city. If you’re lucky and persistant enough, you can find some guides to show you these holes, caves and tunnels and tell you a bit about the history of the city under the city. If you can’t find any guides, send us a mail and we’ll see what we can do.
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The place where the World War I started?
The story goes like this: unsatisfied with the fact that Bosnia had been annexed to Austrian-Hungarian empire, this group of mostly bosnian serb nationalists under the name of “Young Bosnia”, backed-up by Serbian secret society “Black Hand”, decided to assasin the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand during his Sarajevo visit. On June 28, after a set of strange and misfortunate coincidences, they succeded in doing so, and unwillingly triggered the chain of events that will lead to one of the biggest armed clashes in history, known as the World War One.
Prior to that, the group of revolutionaries held secret meetings, made plans and preparations for the assasination in this place, “Zlatna moruna” cafe, address Narodnog Fronta 2.
Not a lot of people know about this, even in Belgrade. Only a small plaque tells what has been in this place before it has been turned into a betting and gambling club. Maybe this says something about the way authorities in Serbia take care of the important historical places. Then again, maybe The First World War isn’t so significant event after all? You can bet on it. -
Music and movies at bargain prices
Every sunday from 09.00 to 13.00 in front of the Students Culture Centre building (SKC), a group of people mingles about buying and selling old music records, CDs and tapes.
It’s hard to wake up early enough on a sunday morning in Belgrade, but this event is worth sacrificing some of your beauty sleep. For real rock-bottom prices you could get your hands on some really good stuff. Besides old and used originals, enourmous amount of burned CDs with freshest mp3s and new movies (some of them still in post-production) can be also found here for ridicolous prices.
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Belgrade hidden cafes and clubs
If you heard from someone that Belgrade is city that never sleeps, and you come to Belgrade and you think to yourself: someone has been lying to me. Where are all the people between two and six AM? The answer is: they are awake, but they are hiding from you and they are probably hiding in some places where you cant find them. Plus, when you know everything about something, it usually becomes boring. That’s why we will only reveal the existence of tucked-away, hidden music clubs of the city. Ok, we’ll give you the names too:
DzKC: This club lies near the Slavija square. It’s small, filled with smoke, music is loud and tables are dirty. But it’s still really cool. If you’re interested, there is a squat next to it too.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: DZKC DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE, IT HAS BEEN TORN DOWN. When i discover the new location i will give new hints. Until then, check out the other hidden cafes in Belgrade.
Club Mama: It’s a basement hidden in the Cumicevo Sokace shopping center. There, that’s enough help.
Ben Akiba: Apartment-turned-cafe in Nusiceva street, probably one of the most famous ones, and also one of the classier ones.
The World Travelers Club: It’s also an apartment-cafe near Skadarlija. Pay attention to the numerous weird sculptures and things on the walls. Cafe has very strict house rules that you must comply to, plus, don’t be surprised if they don’t let you in.
Areja cafe: Maybe this isn’t the real name, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that this is a really cool place with live gigs and great enterior. Those that know where hostel Three Black Catz is will know where this cafe is. Ring on the picture of the bee. Enough said.
Dollar: located in one underground passage, closed and opened numerous times, still keeping the atmosphere of “cool”Your mission is to find these places and stay awake at some place other than your hotel room.
