It's pouring raining in Belgrade. Has been since we woke up, I don't know how long it's going to stay up. We got our only shoes all dripping wet while running to the bus station a few Stunden ago. The reason for this foolish event can be explained for buying the 1800 dinar bus tickets for tomorrow noon towards Pristina, Kosovo.
Yesterday night we experienced how quickly the night scene shifts in Belgrade. We had in mind a few bars & clubs to pilgrimage. Three out of the five joints didn't exist anymore, and it's not like this was some kind of gypsy crystal-ball intel we had, we looked them all up in city guides. Later, in the next morning, we looked up the printing dates of the guides. May 2010. Bullshit. So that's what I mean by swift; these guys are the three-minute-men of clubbing.
One other thing we found out: the club scene in the summer & winter are two entirely different worlds. During the winter the capital transforms itself into the Eastern heaven of deep, black, dirty underground clubs in basements & bombshells. You don't get to these places with a Lonely Planet guide, so some help from potential local ravers is warmly recommended. Damn shame that this scene goes to sleep-mode in the summer, because everything is moved outdoors. So now the best spots are the floating pontoons and moored ships sitting on the banks of Danube & Sava, with the most funkyzeit happening on the latter. (Ahem). The point is that the music & venues differ so drastically, the basements, soundsystem-bagging obscure tunes change to over-filled, open spaces putting on commercial house to thousands of groovers. Oh you know what we heard? Don't bother coming to Belgrade in August if you intend to party somewhere else than your hotel's Balkan folk-nights. Everybody runs away from the heat to the breezy coasts of Croatia & Montenegro, deserting Belgrade & its night scene.
So last night we were in three different ships on the banks of Sava river. Let's start with the thumbs up. Free entrance on all boats, so no commitments made: if you're not feeling a song, run quickly to check out the next ship & the song playing in there. Don't dig it either? Just sprint again to the original spot, where the crappy song has now ended. Not your cup of tea again? Well, at least you get some exercise. Also the actual thought of being on a boat & especially the views all over the river to Old Belgrade, with the huge bridges' shining green lights, really boost your feeling. This Freestyler club we got in first, even had this three-meter-high runway with half-naked women shaking their cute long-jumper-booties. Ay caramba!
That's where the positive stuff pretty much ends. Yeah well of course the place was full of gorgeous chicks, like all Eastern European cities, but I just found the place pretentious, not about the music (which by the way rubbish). These are places to bee seen, the €€€er Serb scoring the girls with the shortest skirts. On top, the place was over-filled, leaving almost no space to maneuver, talk about dancing..the whole boat was this big one space, lacking complete distinction between bar & dance-floor. Now this isn't always bad, but when a place is as full as it was, people end up struggling just to stand up. No one dances, no groove going on, no feeling; just shouting chatter over 100 Db of mainstream music. Doesn't work. Sure, there was a expensive-looking sofa area around the boat, of course reserved for a destined price. That's where all the scantily-dressed slav-women dug gold. The other two weren't that pretentious, but got still the same problem: no vibe, no character. Beer prices varied from 1,50-3,50€. One curious thing, though: the first time I walked through a metal-detector before stepping in a club. You don't want guns in these places, which is naturally understandable.
We didn't quite find the perfect club we were looking for. Instead we found this amazing bar/concept store/restaurant/art combo-space, just off one of the main booze-friendly streets, Strahinjica Bana. The place looked like this ex-Apple Store space, favoring white, simple designs. Open until 4am, you can stuff everything into your evening in the Supermarket, just like it's name suggests. Starting with having a haircut (yeah, they got even a barber-shop in there), working your way to the local designer clothes & gadgets, as well as architecture/music/fashion coffee-table books for shopping. By now you must be ravenous. Get a bite at Supermarket's cuisine just some 20m away. We actually didn't try the food, but glancing at the nearby tables, it at least looked damn good. Finish the evening in the bar, drinking local LAV beer, for 1,70 a piece (yesterday, we needed nine notes to pay for three beers=4,75€). For that kind of an artsy concept space, pretty fucking free. Oh, and just look at lighting solution they've got in there, pretty cool.
Here's still a photo that pretty much describes the traffic in here, survival of the fittest
And my two most valuable items on the crusade: a pair of Karhu Harlem Air sneakers (best clubbing & wandering shoes ever) & the mastermind invention of the Finnish army, LUHA. Believe it or not fork & spoon all in one. That tuna doesn't taste nearly as good as without this wonder.
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