How is it here? Is it a chill place to stay for a while? Texan driving through with a dog... What am I in for?
>>2894881Seems pretty bad ass. I've only heard good things. Expect lots of cigarette smoke and alcohol consumption.
Like all of Balkan , it’s based.No political correctness .I’d say it’s probably like going back to the 80s in the west, culturally speaking.
>>2894881I've been there once in the summer of '22 as part of a larger Balkan / ex-Yu roadtrip. We visited the very southern area of the country, around the towns of Nova Varos and Novi Pazar.It was pretty fun. It's a very attractive region if you enjoy the outdoors. We did hiking around the Uvac river meanders, the Zlatar mountain area and the Sopotnički waterfalls. You can also do stuff like river cruises, ziplining, camping etc. We also saw the Mileševa monastery and the Crna Reka monastery, the former being famous for its well preserved medieval frescoes and the latter for being dug into a mountain. The town of Novi Pazar is also interesting by virtue of being home to the largest Muslim community in Serbia. I've never been to Belgrade or other parts of Serbia though.
>>2894885Works for me.>>2894887Hope so. Thought Hungary is based but I don't see it. Budapest is wasted on me.>>2894958Appreciate the tips, friend. Sounds like it was a great trip. I'm coming in through the north and headed towards Bosnia so I won't get that far south this go around. I'll loop back in from Montenegro later on. Big fan of waterfalls.How bad is the stray dog and muslim situation? Asking for the dog's sake.
Chill
>>2895070>stray dogI don't recall seeing many, but we were admittedly in a rather sparsely populated region.>muslim situationMuslims in Serbia are few and concentrated in the Sandžak region, around the town of Novi Pazar. You're unlikely to come across many muslims in other parts of Serbia. Also, like all Balkan muslims, it seems to me like they're extremely relaxed when it comes to the rules of islamic etiquette (regarding alcohol etc.). I have no idea how that relates with your dog though. Did you fall for the internet meme about muslims hating dogs?
>>2895129Cheers. I've not encountered the Balkan muslims before, but it's no meme with the Arabs... Muslim or not.
>>2895132I have been to multiple muslim countries, including a couple of Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle East. It's true that dogs are uncommon as pets - in general, they're regarded in the same way as we'd regard cattle or workhorses, i.e. as animals which are kept for utility and practicality rather than companionship, and are generally considered "dirty" animals which you're not supposed to allow inside the house. In islamic jurisprudence, dogs are generally considered unclean animals that are supposed to stay outdoors, which is why is generally rare to see them as pets (unlike cats or birds, which are everywhere in Arab houses). With that said, I did occasionally see people (Arab Muslims) keeping small pet dogs in the courtyard of their houses. In some muslim countries in central Asia (so non-Arab) I've seen people walk their dogs on a leash in the middle of town, albeit very infrequently. Also I have several friends who have lived and traveled extensively in the Muslim world, and never once have I heard about someone being harassed just because he's walking around with a dog. YMMV, of course, I have no idea how it is in Saudi Arabia or rural Pakistan or Mauritania, of course, but as a rule of thumb I wouldn't worry much about your dog, especially in the Balkans.
>>2894881I've visited it and it was alright. Vojvodina is architecturally very similar to Hungary and other former provinces of Austria-Hungary, it has a lot of cozy small cities, but I didn't like Novi Sad that much outside of the city square, it has too much communist and brutalist architecture.Belgrade is weird, but can be fun as it's a really large city. There is a lot of diverse food and groceries, there are a lot of Chinese people living there, so you'll find genuine Chinese restaurants and food, as well as Chinese groceries and products overall. There are also a lot of Russians (or at least were when I visited). You'll still see buildings that have been bombed and there's grafitti everywhere. The city square is nice, there's a nice view from the fortress and it overlooks a bunch of nature. There are a lot of fun things to do, but it's a significant downgrade from Budapest in terms of what you can do and historical buildings, as it was destroyed over and over throughout history and they built ugly communist architecture in its place, much like they did in Novi Sad. So, that brings me to my next point - I mostly enjoyed smaller cities in Vojvodina, but if you didn't enjoy Hungary and Central Europe in general, I don't really see why you would enjoy these, except that the people are a lot friendlier and more relaxed, there's a slower culture and people aren't pent up. I've visited Sombor, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Subotica, and Sremska Mitrovica, which was the capital of the Roman Empire in the 4th century.Beyond that, I've also been to Fruska Gora (I don't think this is a city but a national park) and Tara. The roads are surprisingly nice, the highways are much better than what I experienced in other Balkan countries.
>>2895160Also, there are a lot of biking trails alongside the river in Belgrade, it is really nice especially since you cross a LOT OF PARKS, but I was disrupted by construction work around the Belgrade Waterfront area, so I had to take detours. I'm not sure if that's different now. If you have a dog and can ride a bike, you can rent one for an entire day for about 15$ and enjoy it. There's loads of parks that I assume were built in the socialist era, they're very planned out, extremely large and some span across the entire river area, which is really nice if you want to bike around, as you can basically get from one side of the city to another while being in a park half of the time. It's a really friendly atmosphere and you can see people grilling, a nudist beach in an artificial lake, golf yards, tennis yards, and a bunch of rafts all along the river.
>>2894881My relatives tell me they had a blast in the Rtanj countryside, apparently there are some ancient settlements, aliens and /x/ type of shit. Even if you aren't interested in that the feel of the mountain invigorated them(especially the water and the tea)
>>2894881i live in subotica as a russian, AMA
>>2895135Inshallah. No plans for the Middle East anytime soon but I have faith in the Bosniaks.>>2895160Cozy and small is good. I've seen the Austro-Hungarian architecture in Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest this summer. It's a marvel but the city lifestyle is getting tired with the dog. We yearn for hikes and grilled meats.>>2895346Why Subotica? Any hidden gems? Favorite places to eat?
>>2895423>>2895423nta but if you like cozy and small look into sremski karlovci, it's beautiful imo. english proficiency is also pretty high in serbia, so you'd be fine with conversations (except for 60+, as they learned russian instead)
>>2895427https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQ9Sgiw3rc
>>2895427>>2895430picrel is about 200 eur per night, but it's a more premium location, within the city square you can find offers for around 50 eur per night
>>2895070>Hope so. Thought Hungary is based but I don't see it. Budapest is wasted on me.Budapest is a major international modern city. Belgrade was much more a local, regional one.
>>2895423Bosnia is a beautiful country. The best in the Balkans imo. People are also really chill. One time in Sarajevo we accidentally ended up having breakfast at a club of Bosniak war veterans. Despite the language barrier, the few old dudes there were really welcoming.
>>2895499as a serb, i wouldn't call belgrade more based than budapest in any way, from a tourist pov. i suppose it depends on your definition of based, people are more conservative, friendly and maybe more distinct, but as far as how much fun and sightseeing you'll have in each of them, it's not really comparable. belgrade is great if compared to other ex-yu and balkan capitals, but budapest simply retained too much of its historical heritage on top of being more developed throughout history as well
>>2895859it pretty much did become an international city, too, there's not a group of people you won't find in belgrade, whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to you. but if you do visit it, public transport within belgrade is free, so
>>2895160yes, i think belgrade has legitimately been destroyed by wars more than any other capital throughout history, and sadly after the last time it was completely destroyed (ww1), communist architecture became dominant. just in the last century alone there were 6 brutal wars: balkan war 1 1912-1913 (serbia, greece and bulgaria versus turkey), balkan war 2 1913 (serbia and greece versus bulgaria), first world war 1914-1918 (close to 30% of the population dies, 50% of males die), second world war (1939-1945), yugoslav wars (1991-2001), and then also the kosovo war during which nato bombed serbia and inflicted damages of $40-100 billion according to western sources40 billion in 1999$ = $80 billion todayhttps://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1990?amount=40000000100 billion in 1999$ = $200 billion today
>>2895427>english proficiency is also pretty high in serbia, so you'd be fine with conversations (except for 60+, as they learned russian instead)I’m surprised to hear that. How does the high English proficiency compare to surrounding Balkan countries? I know some basic Russian so I wouldn’t be totally helpless in areas that didn’t speak English but I’d hate to be caught unable to understand Serbian, as I know it’s a South Slav language
>>2895952i'd guess pretty similar to hungary, and wikipedia says so as well. english is mandatory since the first grade of elementary school, so 8 years minimum, but is taught in every program in gymnasium too, and even in trade schools for another 4 years, so most people end up learning it for about 12 years. the third mandatory language is either french or german (depending on what the student picks), and become mandatory in 5th grade (so mandatory learning for 4 years). english proficiency in the region generally isn't an issue, as the entire region has higher proficiency in english than countries like france, spain and italy, except for albania.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe
>>2895998Appreciate it! When I visited Poland last year I did notice they speak English pretty well.
