October 2023. Belgrade. Serbia.
Back at the main Belgrade station on our second night, I somehow had to persuade Mrs RM to walk another 10,000 steps so I could visit a craft beer pub before we left Serbia in the morning.
Luckily, she’d seen that Храм Светог Саве, the Temple of Saint Saviour, was THE essential sight in the capital, particularly at dusk.
Now Belgrade is an interesting city, but it lacks the unexpected quaintness of the great European cities, such as the snickelways of York illustrated in this book someone left on the Stockport-Sheffield train this evening,
or the thrillingly boisterous streets of Naples.
Speaking of Naples, Maradona seems to be as adored as much in the back streets of Serbia as Southern Italy.
Pubmeister visited Belgrade in 2017, and his post has some good example of the street art that illuminates the city, but I tend to focus on discarded spirits bottles.
St Sava’s is one of the largest cathedrals in the world, though barely known outside the Balkans,
with a 1985 service attracting 100,000, almost as many people as there are pub cats. They must have all stood as church pews are notable by their absence.
The mosaics are particularly stunning.
and it’ll make a superb Brunning & Price in the future.
NCSS 4.5, we reckoned, only slightly miffed by the fact we didn’t quite catch its white stone at dusk.
Time for a pub; what’s top of the European Beer Guide then ?
retiredmartin 