As a tourist in my own city

Thanks to the upcoming winter to the northern hemisphere and the shortened day, some #wednesdaywalk have to be done at dusk, already at 4 pm 😀

I arranged for a walk around the center of the city where I have lived for almost half a century, but in which I rarely photograph the streets and buildings.

When they asked me: "Are you going to photograph the streets and buildings in Belgrade, which you have seen a thousand times", I answered: "Why not. I will share the pictures with those who may have never seen this city".
With you! 😀

Only when we returned from the walk and when I looked at the photos on the big 55" TV screen, I heard comments: "If I didn't know where you took these photos, if we hadn't just returned from the city and if I didn't recognize certain streets and buildings, I would have thought that it was some city in the world, not our Belgrade".

I smiled and flipped through all the pictures, which I am now sharing with you here.

We started our walk through Skadarska Street, also known as Skadarlija. At the beginning of Skadarlija, there is Sebilj, a replica of the fountain found on the square in Baščaršija in Sarajevo, as well as a famous tavern.

In fact, the whole of Skadarlija is a street of cafes and restaurants, and if you are a tourist in this city, I believe that this is one of the must-see points, so I will help you and mark it with a pin in my #worldmappin map, so that you can find it easier 🙂

The wall of the old brewery is painted with pictures of facades, so even though there are only a few windows or doors on it, it seems as if there is a door and there are many more windows.

That it is a part of the industrial complex is proved by the old tall chimney.

A walk along the cobbled street brought us to the house of the poet Djura Jaksic, in front of which is his sculpture, identical to the one in Danube Park in Novi Sad.

When it gets dark, the shadow of the sculpture on the wall of the house looks spooky 🙂

Further along the street, we come across restaurants, from which hostesses come out and invite us to lunch.

Although I like to walk around Skadarlija, I usually avoid visiting restaurants, because when you stop by one of them for lunch, with a lot of alcohol and a musical orchestra playing acoustically, I usually spend all the money I have, ordering my favorite songs 🙂

At the top of the street, right next to Spasa's bakery where I ate the most delicious bun with cream, there is an old fountain, from which for years I used to drink water whenever I passed by.

I don't think I ever looked at the treetops in Skadarlija, my view was always there directed towards other passers-by and happenings in the gardens of the tavern.
Now I really liked the yellow color of the leaves in the canopy.

There is also a Craft Pub in Skadarlija, which I haven't been to until now, because I didn't know it existed, but I will definitely visit it.

A further walk, past the "Dom Vojske"(Home of the Army), leads us to Republic Square and as we pass by the National Theater building, I look at the large space in front of the monument to Prince Mihajlo.

Behind the back of the Prince on a big horse, there is a beautiful building of the National Museum.

This walk, through the central city streets, will serve me to photograph some interesting buildings, facades and details on them.

The building above the French language institute, with the inscription L'UNION, hints at what has been inside it for a long time. Across the street, the Spanish flag on the building of the Spanish Institute Sarvantes.

And between them, a white marble fountain, installed in this place during the reconstruction of Knez Mihajlova Street in 1987, served me many times for refreshment.

Now the water fountain is not working, and I certainly don't need refreshment because it has started to get dark and the temperature is approaching zero...

There is also a beautiful SANU (Serbian Academy of Science and Arts) building near the fountain, as well as the endowment buildings of some influential people of the past. Nikola Spasic is one of them and there is a bust of him on one of the buildings he donated to the state.

As a person who has lived in this city all my life, I was very pleased by the lights inside the Greek Queen, a tavern that was built in 1835 and was closed from 2007 to 2025.

Now it shines with its old glory 🙂

There are some beautiful buildings in Knez Mihajlova Street, with shiny and neat facades, but some of them could use a little "makeover".

We pass by the buildings where the National Bank, hotels, primary schools are located and, making a circle, we pass by Saborna crkva and Serbian Patriarchates.

And opposite the Church, an old building, with imperfect white walls, with old windows and doors. It is the "?" tavern, the oldest Serbian tavern, located in a building built in 1823, where tavern life has been conducted for two centuries.

Not far from the oldest tavern, there is the residence of Princess Ljubica(Konak), the wife of the Serbian prince and ruler Miloš Obrenović, who is most responsible for the creation of the modern Serbian state after liberation from Ottoman rule.

Konak, which is only slightly younger than the tavern, was built in 1830 and is also an interesting location for visiting tourists.
Considering that during this walk, I saw my city "through the eyes of a tourist", I will present this Konak to you in a future walk.

After a long walk, we stopped by our favorite cafe "Šećer", to rest and warm up.

After drinking coffee, we had to go back to the place where we left the car, and while doing so, we passed through relatively empty central streets without crowds, and we again passed through Republic Square, and past the Dom Vojske, and I took advantage of the moment to take a few more photos.

I hope that you liked the presented photos of my walk in the center of Belgrade and that I have interested you in them, so that, if you are passing through Serbia and Belgrade, you will stop by for a visit.

If you need company for a walk, drinking coffee or visiting a restaurant, contact me, I'm here for you 🙂