Belgrade: The Beginning
When I landed in Belgrade I went to the ATM and was met with the ability to only take money out in denominations of 2,000. I realized that I had forgotten to look up the exchange rate and I had a better idea of knowing what 2,000 monopoly dollars were worth. So I took out 10,000 of this mystery Serbian currency and hoped there wasn't a 1-for-1 conversion with USD. Things got exponentially easier though when I collected my baggage and entered the arrivals area at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport and was greeted by a driver holding a sign with my name on it. He drove me to a leafy street right outside of the center of the city.
When I arrived one of the We Roam program leads was waiting for me. He took me through a giant wrought iron gate (see below) and a courtyard into my duplex where my new roommate was waiting for me. After I unpacked she took me to the coworking space in the center of the city where I got to chat with some of the other people in the program. Before we left they gave me a SIM card with unlimited data for a week. From there a few of us went to the Belgrade Fortress to watch the sun set and then found a bar inside the fortress with swings (see pictures on instagram). So...yeah. Easiest and best transition to a foreign city I've ever had by far, which I suppose is what you pay for. And in a place where they use the cyrillic alphabet it was worth it.
Day two I was trying to find a cafe and stumbled on the Danube riverfront. That's why I love traveling - you can just happen upon the Danube. I sat there for far longer than I planned partly because it was beautiful and partly because they were playing killer motown at the restaurant nearby. That night we had our welcome party where I met all the other people I would be stuck with on the trip. The first person I started talking to had interned at a lobbying firm in DC and was a repentant Trump voter. Repentant or not this was not off to a good start.
As it turns out he was in the minority politically. That night I met almost everyone on the trip and remembered almost no one's name. I also got to meet one of our city guides who dresses like a 19th century sommelier - in a good way. As you might imagine he has a flair for the dramatic and scored us seats to opening night of the ballet Giselle at the beautifully gilded national theater, where I took mirror selfies (naturally).
When I arrived one of the We Roam program leads was waiting for me. He took me through a giant wrought iron gate (see below) and a courtyard into my duplex where my new roommate was waiting for me. After I unpacked she took me to the coworking space in the center of the city where I got to chat with some of the other people in the program. Before we left they gave me a SIM card with unlimited data for a week. From there a few of us went to the Belgrade Fortress to watch the sun set and then found a bar inside the fortress with swings (see pictures on instagram). So...yeah. Easiest and best transition to a foreign city I've ever had by far, which I suppose is what you pay for. And in a place where they use the cyrillic alphabet it was worth it.
Day two I was trying to find a cafe and stumbled on the Danube riverfront. That's why I love traveling - you can just happen upon the Danube. I sat there for far longer than I planned partly because it was beautiful and partly because they were playing killer motown at the restaurant nearby. That night we had our welcome party where I met all the other people I would be stuck with on the trip. The first person I started talking to had interned at a lobbying firm in DC and was a repentant Trump voter. Repentant or not this was not off to a good start.
As it turns out he was in the minority politically. That night I met almost everyone on the trip and remembered almost no one's name. I also got to meet one of our city guides who dresses like a 19th century sommelier - in a good way. As you might imagine he has a flair for the dramatic and scored us seats to opening night of the ballet Giselle at the beautifully gilded national theater, where I took mirror selfies (naturally).
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