Making Belgrade Our Home for the Month

We’re slow travelers who spend a month or two in each destination. We love the excitement of landing someplace new. We love exploring new sights and getting to know the culture and the people and the food. But we also want to feel at home no matter where we are. Just because we’re traveling doesn’t mean that we want our lives to be in constant upheaval. After a day exploring a new city, we want to “go home” and be somewhere that feels comfortable.

That might seem a little impossible since we’re in a new city and a new Airbnb every month. As soon as we land, we need to get to know yet another neighbourhood and shop in all different stores. But we’ve found that, with a little effort, we can get settled in and make any city feel like home from the very first day.

We’ve just landed in the city of Belgrade after an overnight flight from Canada. We’ve never been to Serbia before. We really don’t know much about the country, city or the culture. And we certainly don’t speak the language except to say “good day” and “thank you.” That’s what makes our lifestyle exciting but also a lot of work. We need to set up for a month and give ourselves a crash course on living in Belgrade.

We were actually a little unsure about spending a month in Belgrade. Like many people, our impressions of Belgrade and Serbia in general were leftover from the conflict in the 1990s. We’ve heard that Belgrade is a very dynamic and vibrant city but we also have the impression that it can be a little rundown in some neighbourhoods. We were wondering if Belgrade was going to be a little too gritty and urban for our taste. Would we feel safe? Would we feel comfortable? Is it a place we’d want to call home for a month?

With that in mind, when we decided to come, the first thing we needed to think about was location. We usually like to be in a central location, within walking distance to cafes, shops, and all the major sights. At the same time, we don’t want to feel like we’re smack in the middle of a tourist attraction; it’s a fine balance.

The neighbourhood we chose is in the historic centre of Belgrade with some of the oldest streets in the city. It’s close to great views, the river, lots of dining and Kalemegdan park with the Belgrade fortress. It’s a charming area with cobblestones, lots of trees and a mix of old and slightly newer buildings.

So our neighbourhood was well selected, but what about our Airbnb? Since we’re going to be living here for a whole month, we would ideally like it to be just as comfortable as if we were in our own home. Of course, that’s a pretty high standard so we do need to be flexible about the details. Generally we look for lots of windows, stylish but minimal decor, and a clutter-free environment. That’s something we’ve become more picky about after spending too many hours decluttering apartments just to make room for our own stuff.

We love cooking so we also look for a well-equipped kitchen, ideally with a dishwasher although we don’t mind hand washing when necessary. We prefer to have a washing machine and, especially in weather like this — it’s a sizzling hot July in Belgrade — we want an air conditioner.

That’s our wish list and the apartment we scored does tick many of those boxes. It’s a compact space — the smallest we’ve stayed in — but very well designed. It’s light and bright with a stylish interior including charming art throughout.

But we are missing a few important things.

Most notably the kitchen is tiny — smaller than if we were living in a van and certainly too small for two full-sized people to cook at the same time. There’s no dishwasher, which we can live without, but the washing machine is missing as well. Fortunately the host confirmed that there’s a good laundromat down the street.

Clearly we did compromise on a few things with this apartment. But as we said, we often have to be flexible on a few points to get a place that suits us. For this place, we really liked the ambiance and the central location. Even more importantly, we found that it had glowing reviews from the other guests. However, the point that really tipped us over was the discount the host gave off her usual monthly rate.

Clearly finding the right apartment in the right location is a lot of work. Fortunately we have some tools to help us out. When we’re trying to find the ideal neighbourhood, we really depend on Google Maps. in fact, Gillian usually does a very deep and detailed map study to get a feel for potential neighbourhoods. She literally walks through the streets in street view — but this is only a research methodology for the truly committed.

Once we’re here, the other tool that is very helpful to us is Google Translate and where we use it the most is grocery shopping. We scan labels and try to figure out what the heck we’re buying although it doesn’t always work perfectly. When trying to buy butter, we’ve ended up with margarine and yeast.

Still, it’s an essential tool for another important day one activity: grocery shopping. We need to stock up every time we set up in a new location. The Maxi supermarket, the closest store to us in Belgrade, is typical of what we’ve seen in nearby countries like Croatia and Greece. There’s a decent range of packaged goods although the selection of produce and meat is pretty limited; most locals would go to a farmer’s market for those items. That’s what we’ll be doing too, but certainly the Maxi is sufficient in the meantime to get us stocked with basics.

That’s what day one looks like. We’re all set up in our apartment and we’ve gotten to know our neighbourhood. We have everything we need to feel at home and we’re ready to explore Belgrade over the next month. Of course, we had to be flexible on a few points, a full-sized kitchen, dishwasher and washing machine being the most notable. But we’re fortunate enough to be in Serbia. It’s a country we’ve never been to before, not everything is going to be exactly like it is at home and that’s what makes this adventure fun.

Of course, it’s still useful to have a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves when you pick your Airbnbs. After living in so many places over the past couple years, we’ve come up with a solid checklist of what will make us happy. If you want to see our list of essentials for our Airbnbs, you can check out the next post.