Hello, everybody and welcome to another video. Today, we are in Belgrade Serbia. We're so excited to be in Serbia. I think when most people travel through Europe, they don't really have Serbia on their radar, but we always love exploring some of the hidden gems when it comes to countries. We've been to Croatia on Bosnia in the past, and they are neighboring countries of Serbia, and we loved it there. So I'm sure it's gonna be amazing here as well. And we're especially excited for the food. Because I already know it's gonna be fantastic. So let's explore the capital, Belgrade, today. Something really quirky and weird is that we were walking around Republic Square, and there's actually a Christmas market, and this is the end of January. It's the 25th of January. There's still a Christmas tree. There's all these hats, and I've noticed elsewhere that they still have Christmas decorations and stuff. So I don't know if Serbians just really love Christmas, but we found some hot rakija. Which is the, I don't know if it's a national drink, but in Serbia, they drink Rakija, which is like a very strong, maybe brandy as well. Kind of like, Palinka in Hungary, and here they have a hot version. So we couldn't pass it up even though it's from a Christmas market way after Christmas. Two hundred, which is like $1.75. It smells like Palinka, yeah. Oh, it's strong. She said it wasn't. The woman said that they call this tea. Serbian tea. It’s mixed with, water and sugar, and it's not that strong, but it really tastes strong. It tastes good though. It’s delicious. I can totally imagine drinking this during Christmas when it's cold. Oh. It’s strong. So basically the joke, Serbian tea, I assume it's because Serbian like to drink alcohol, and I like to drink alcohol, and it looks like diluted tea. Holy hell. That's delicious. Totally tastes like Hungarian Polinka, strong, hot, and on a cold day like this in January, it is perfect. Oh my god. This was the most boozy Christmas drink I ever had. I feel like I'm already drunk and I didn't think this video would start like this. It's only like noon. But I guess when in Belgrade, right? Like, I don't know. Do you think Serbian start their days like this? I don't know about that, but I like it. So now we're gonna have some pizza, which is, I guess, perfect when you're a little bit drunk. Yeah. Let's go get some pizza! We're walking down Knez Mihailova Street . I think that's what it's called. It's, I think, the most popular shopping street in Belgrade, and it kinda reminds me of the street in Istanbul, at Taksim Square. It's really nice. It's a pedestrian walk, so there's no cars, and there's lots of people out today. And now I think we're gonna get maybe a magnet, because we get a magnet of every city. Got one. Of all the Belgrade videos that we watched before coming here seemed like this place was an absolute essential. We saw YouTubers come here. It's very popular. And I guess this place is called called Bucko. And as you can see, it is a pizza place, but what's different here is that they cover it in, I guess, it's called dressing, salad dressing? They call it salad, but I don't know. It's obviously dressing, salad dressing, and you can get a couple different types of flavors. There's like beef chicken, a mushroom one. A purple one? Yeah. There was all sorts of different ones, but we went with beef because I even saw in the comments section of other people's videos that that is one of the best ones to get. So we decided to try it out. Now, this is saucy as hell. I love sauce. I like dipping my pizza, but this is insane. I don't even know to go about eating this. This is very messy. It's very hard to handle, so let me try my best and not get it all over my face. Whoa. Now that is saucy. Honestly, I was not sure about this because there is a lot of this dressing on here, but it's amazing. It's so creamy. It's sweet. The pizza is actually better than I thought it was gonna be. A lot of people said it is just basic pizza, but it's basically like any kind of sliced pizza shop that you would find in North America. It's not the best pizza, but it's definitely not the worst. This would be a great drunk food for sure. You need to try this right now. This is so much better than I expected. For one, I think this dressing is not even really cold. Maybe it's just because it's cold outside, and therefore, the temperature feels different to me, but it's almost a bit warm. This is also really fresh, so you feel it is warm. I saw the pizza coming from the tray. It looked delicious. It’s really good. Very creamy. Garlicky. I like it. And I don't even think there's too much sauce. I mean, I always dip my pizza in like mayonnaise or ranch and stuff like that. I think this is good. Yeah. This is delicious. We're now at St. Michael's cathedral, and it's one of the most important places of worship in Belgrade. It was built in 1830s, and it's one of the best preserved monuments in the city. Even though we don't consider ourselves to be religious people at all, anytime we go to a new city, we always try to check out the local churches or mosques or synagogues because that is where some of the most beautiful architecture is, and, of course, some of the most important history. And this place as well does not disappoint. It looks absolutely beautiful. We are now at the Belgrade fortress, enjoying the spectacular views of the city, and that's one thing that we really have enjoyed about the city so far. It's so beautiful. They architecture here is absolutely stunning. It's like this mix of ottoman and medieval, but it's also got this Art Nouveau style and brutalism. It's this very eclectic mix. And everywhere you go, the buildings look different. And that is one thing that I really really like about Belgrade so far. From up here where the fortresses, you have the most amazing view of the Danube River, and I think the Saba meets the Danube right here. And there's all these house boats, which is pretty common in Belgrade, kind of like in Amsterdam and in London, I supposed. There's all these houseboats, and I think some of them are even bars and restaurants. I even saw some Airbnb on these houseboats, and they looked really cool, but we couldn't afforrd them. Maybe one day. And this fortress is very old. It was built by the Romans in 279 BC. And in general, Belgrade is one of the oldest capitals in Europe. It's over seven thousand years old, apparently. That's very. That's very old. The Belgrade fortress also has a military museum attached to it, and there's all sorts of tanks and artillery and weaponry all over the place There's a big museum behind me as well. I'm not sure if it costs anything to go into. The fortress itself was free, so I imagine maybe not. We don't have time for that today. We have so much more to see in the city, so let's go. We are now at Beograd or Belgrade Cafe for a little bit of a pick me up, and I decided to get some Serbian coffee or Turkish coffee. Also refer to it as domestic coffee here, and it looks exactly the same as normal Turkish coffee, very dark in color, very finely ground, coffee. Yeah. We're in Serbia. So it's Serbian. But reminds me of our days back in Turkey. Oh, it smells so strong. Oh, rich, dark, very strong coffee, absolutely delicious, and I can't think of a better way to continue our day than with a nice coffee. I tried to get a drink as well because I don't drink coffee, and they didn't really have anything too special apart from alcoholic beverages. So I guess I got another one. This one is called Pelinkovac, and it's a wormwood brandy, and I think it kind of tastes like absinth. It's supposed to be quite bitter. The waitress said she didn't really like it, but let's see. It's such a huge shot. That's not what I expected. Oh it's super bitter. Never had anything like this before. It's kind of sweet but so bitter. It's interesting. It's still my mouth, like the bitterness. It's crazy. I wonder if people actually drink it in one shot because that would be insane. So coming from a Western country, I'm from Canada. I didn't exactly grow up knowing a lot about Serbia or this part of the world in general, but after traveling to a lot of the Balkan countries, I'm very shocked and surprised, particularly here in Belgrade, how friendly the Serbian people are. Like, it's kind of ridiculous. Our server was super nice. Pretty much everybody at every restaurant or snackspot we've been to so far has been super friendly, and they're very hospitable here as well. So that's something that we've been loving about this city. Yeah, and everybody speaks really good English here as well, which, yeah, has been very helpful to us because we're useless with Serbian. Let me try this. Holy crap. Yeah. That is bitter. Not my favorite either. I definitely don't like bitter taste that much, but not bad. It's still alcohol, so it'll do. One thing that we've noticed and that you can't help but noticing when you're in Belgrade is that there's these popcorn stands everywhere selling fresh popcorn. Apparently you can get all these different seasonings on top. There were chicken, garlic, and chili, and we've got curry. So we had to stop. We absolutely love popcorn. The curry is really good. Perfect snack when you're drinking a little bit too much in Belgrade, I guess. And the pigeons agree. Yeah. They agree. I feel like there's quite a charm to Belgrade because there're a lot of really new buildings, and there's a lot of construction, and they're building skyscrapers, but then there's a lot of buildings are kind of run down and destroyed by the war, I assume. So there's quite a bit contrast, which is quite cool. So we went to the farmer's market, which is kind of in the middle of Belgrade. There's all these stands with fruit and vegetables, meats, and they also have clothes and remote controls, everything you could need. And we saw this shop that was selling cakes and cookies, and these I think are called Vanilice, and these ones come with walnut. No idea what they like. They kinda look like these cookies from Argentina. Please tell us in the comments, are they cookies? What are they? Is it considered a cookie? It's like short bread. Very sweet and there's kind of like a jam inside. A bit dry. But delicious. Would go very well with some tea. They taste like apricot. So before coming here, we noticed an article that said that Belgrade was actually one of the up and coming cocktail capitals of Europe. So we had to at least go to one place and try some cocktails. So here we are at a place called Kultura bar. Unfortunately, it's pretty dark in there, and they are blasting copyright music. So we're gonna have to skip past that part. We're gonna go in, have some drinks for ourselves, and then we will meet you all at the next location soon. We're finally gonna end this amazing day with some Serbian food and right now, we're at Cevaplija, and our first dish is actually technically a Bulgarian dish. We ordered some shopska salad, which is salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and this white sheep's cheese. And it looks amazing. Delicious. It's really fresh. It has a sharp, sheep cheese. Tomatoes, cucumbers, the onions. It's just a perfect combination. It's a great way to start a meal, especially with a lot of fatty meat, like we're gonna be having very soon. I guess this is very similar to a greek salad, but maybe better. The next dish we're gonna try is something called Gibanica, which I think means pie or I don't know if it means cheese pie, but in this case, it has cheese. It's kind of similar to a burek, which we're gonna try in our food tour video. So make sureto subscribe, so you don't miss that. But it's basically this pie made of layers of dough filled with cheese and egg. And I think it's more of a breakfast thing, but we were still able to order it. It's very hefty. It's very heavy. It's really salty from the cheese. It's eggy, it’s delicious. We've actually had börek in bulgaria and in Turkey. So this looks different than that for sure, especially because of how eggy it is. It's absolutely delicious. So soft. The cheese is really salty. It's very spongy, as you said. Very, very good, and definitely different than the börek, but amazing nonetheless. Another one we ordered is a bowl of meat balls. They're called Jastucici, I think. And, they’re mixed meat. I think it might be veal and lamb or something, but I'm not quite sure. And it comes with a ball of kaymak, which is this clotted cream, that’s similar to sour cream, but more thick, I think, which they eat here with everything, I think. And it came with this delicious looking bread, freshly baked. It also comes with, caramelized onions with seems delicious. The perfect bite. Wow. That meat. If you love grilled meat, then is like your heaven. It tastes so char grilled and it does taste a bit gamey, I think. And the bread is just delicious in that cream, the kaymak. It just kinda gives it like a coolness, and it just perfectly goes with it. It's really almost like a whipped cream on top. It's so good. Yummy. We also got ours served with Ajvar, which is a roasted red pepper dip that is also very popular here. And one of the things that everybody said that we should try, and also something called Serbian sauce. Now, I don't know if this is a very traditional thing, looks like it's got like olive oil and peppers cut up and onions and things like that. So I've got my perfect bite here. Meat, onions, kaymak, Ajvar, everything. It's just this perfect harmony of flavors. The char grilled meat, the sweetness from the caramelized means, a smokiness from the Ajvar, and this bread is so fresh and soft. This is like one of the perfect meals, honestly. Serbia really knows how to do grilled meat. This definitely does not disappoint. Amazing. This is the end of our first day in Belgrade. So far, we love it here. The people are super friendly, and the city is pretty cool, and the food is just to die for. It's so delicious, and we can't wait to eat more. So if you like this, please follow along, like, subscribe, write us a comment, everything like that because we actually have a couple more videos in Serbia coming up, including a food one, and also we are going to see two other cities while we're here. So make sure that you stay tuned and subscribe. But for now that is it, we are done. We hit an amazing time, and we will see you all in the next one. Bye bye.
