Belgrade, Serbia., Belgrade, Serbia

Driving through the border from Romania to Serbia was a strange experience; we were at the border for some time; handing our passports to the designated person on the minibus and waiting for the final verdict from the border guards.

A couple of people were asked to get off the minibus to go and speak with officials; luckily we were not one of them! After approximately 45 minutes we were allowed through to Serbia. Our first impressions were that it was really quite unclean with copious plastic bags trailing off trees like extended branches; however, a few minutes down the road were big houses and expensive cars and the contrast was stark. We made a short pitstop at a garage and bought a couple of drinks (having to pay by card as we had no Serbian dinar) and continued our journey to Belgrade.

We were the last left on the minibus but we were dropped opposite our hotel which, as it was our anniversary, was an upgrade from our previous accommodation. We had booked a spa hotel called Hotel Xenon for a little bit of luxury and we were not disappointed. The hotel was lovely! It was a 4* hotel and was £70 a night.

We headed to the spa and had a swim, sauna and jacuzzi which was very enjoyable and booked a massage for the next day for our anniversary. We then asked at reception where the best place to go in Belgrade was. In all honesty, we hadn’t done a massive amount of research about Belgrade and so were happy to go with local advice. The receptionist recommended we went to Skadarlija, a vintage street in Stari Grad (a central area of Belgrade) where there are copious restaurants and bars and so booking a taxi we headed there around 6pm to have a look. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).