We got out of the car, but it's cold in Belgrade! And why didn't we guess that it would be colder there than in Montenegro? In general, it was somewhere +3, and we are in light jackets and summer shoes, horror. I think because of this our understanding of Serbia has been greatly spoiled ...
Serbia, unlike Montenegro, has its own currency - the dinar; 1 euro = 110 dinars. I do not advise you to change money right at the station, because. the course there is not particularly favorable; "money changers", i.e. there are exchange offices on every corner, so it's better to walk a bit and change money elsewhere. By the way, at the station itself, or rather at the exit from it, there is a tourist center where you will always be helped; there you can also get a free map of the city and a newspaper with the latest news in English. lang.
So, we went to the nearest store, where, as we were told, there should be photographic equipment. Indeed, the store had photographic equipment, but we learned that Sigma lenses are “too professional equipment” and they are not available in Serbia at all. So the news ... We had to drastically change our plans and switch to a lens from another manufacturer, to Nikon (we couldn’t leave empty-handed). Let's go to another store; Fortunately, it was located almost in the center of the old part of the city, where there are many sights. By the way, you can get to it like this: from the station you need to take tram number 2, which goes to the left at the exit from the station, and get to the Kalemegdan stop; and there are already many interesting sights to be found following the signs.
We quickly found our Nikon store, bought the right lens and went for a walk through the streets of Belgrade. Something didn’t work out for us, because. we were definitely cold, so we walked from one cafe to another in order to somehow warm up. In one of the cafes called Snezhanna, we especially liked hot chocolate - thick and with whipped cream, it warms well.
Then, finally, the sun came out, and we went to the nearest park, which was once a fortress.
When buying any product, a foreign citizen, when leaving the country, has the right to return part of its value in the amount of VAT, usually from 10 to 17% percent. When buying a lens, we completed all the necessary documents, and we only had to put a seal at customs. Therefore, we decided to go early to the station and find out where this customs office is located. To our great surprise, neither the tourist center, nor the station workers, nor even the police knew where the customs was! We have already begun to worry, we also did not want to lose 160 euros. Then we began to reassure ourselves that customs officers should be at the border crossing, and that's where they will definitely put a stamp on us. Yes, at about two in the morning we stopped at the border checkpoint, customs officers came in and checked the documents. I give them my piece of paper so that they put a stamp, and they - “no, we don’t put such stamps, now, if you went by bus, you would have been given such a stamp.” We were just in shock.
I still can't tell you about how we drove back. This time we decided to save money and took seats for 40 euros for two. How much we later regretted it! Each compartment had 6 seats. In our compartment there was a company of 4 cheerful architects, whose mouth did not close even at night. Well, okay, this is nonsense. The most annoying thing was that it was very cold in the compartment, the batteries practically did not heat up. A few compartments away from us, some brave Serb staged a concert on request and bawled for three hours. With all this, falling asleep was simply unrealistic, even in a sitting position.
After this trip, my husband caught a cold in his neck, and I got a cold in my tooth, now it hurts all the time 🙁
