Dean Christakos: Stopover in Niš, pictures from Belgrade

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July 12, 2006

Stopover in Niš, pictures from Belgrade

At present I am in Niš in southern Serbia, where I decided to take a pit stop on my way from Belgrade to Sofia. Now, it just so happens that there is a city-wide strike going on in Niš's hotel industry, leaving the My Place Hotel as the only open hotel, and I seem to have gotten the last available room. My misfortune, however, is the gain of you, my loyal readers, because this swanky hotel has free internet access, which allowed me to upload all of my photos from Belgrade to my photo archive.

At issue is the fact that my tolerance for travel starts to wane after about 6 hours or so. Since a trip directly from Belgrade to Sofia would take at least 8-10 hours, I figured I would break the trip up into two pieces. I think this turned out to be unwise, but there are some things I wanted to see in this city before heading over to Sofia, so I hope to be able to see more of Niš in the morning.

Rushing over to the train station to catch my train to Niš resulting in my losing my "Europe on a Shoestring" Lonely Planet Guide. By mid-afternoon, after having gotten lost trying to find Tito's grave, it was extremely hot, but I gathered my things from the hostel and made my way down to the bottom of Belgrade's hill where the train station is. At this point, I realized that I should get some supplies for my trip to Niš, and in my rush to pay for them, I left my guidebook on the counter. No big loss. The book had no entry for Niš, and my friend will be showing me around Sofia, so I no longer need it. It did turn out to be extremely useful while I had it, and it was a good traveling companion. I hope that the book gets passed on to someone in Belgrade who needs it.

Meanwhile, I have some pictures of Belgrade after the jump...

The pedestrian-downtown district: