Given that Belgrade was battered by bombs in the 1990s and bruised by inflation in recent years, you would hardly expect it to be saluted in 2010 as the world's party capital. But its vitality is on display 24 hours a day. It's a city of surprises. There are many stodgy communist-era buildings and dignified early 19th-century ones, but also surprising art nouveau structures worthy of Vienna.
The airport provides a hint to expect the unexpected as it is named after Nikola Tesla, 'the man who invented the 20th century'. He emigrated to the United States and competed with Thomas Edison in pioneering research into electricity. It is worth visiting the Nikola Tesla museum (Krunska 51), which explains his inventions in the field of electricity, wireless and robotics and has a huge collection of documents, photographs and personal effects.
The largest Balkan city, with 1.7 million inhabitants, Belgrade seems a scarred, feisty battler astride the fault line between East and West, reflected in the use of both Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. The future may be indicated by a prevalence of Roman characters in adverts.
Best breakfast
A journalist tells me the first rule in Belgrade is 'Thou shall eat at all times'. Bakeries, which open at 5am, serve a variety of tasty bread and pastries. There are also satisfying breakfast venues such as Le Petit Paris in Nemanjina Street which, despite its name, serves Serbian specialities at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfasts include hearty items such as burek, a flaky pastry with fillings of meat, cheese or even pizza toppings.
Influences seen in the food include those of the Ottomans, who occupied Serbia for more than 400 years, and Austrians. The Ottoman influence is evident in very sweet sweets such as honey-drenched baklava, in the use of yoghurt and even in that of pork: traditionally Serbs ate mainly beef but farmers turned to pork production because the Muslim overlords seized cattle but not pigs. Foreign food has a local twist: schnitzel Karadjordjevic, rolled pork stuffed with cream cheese, differs from Viennese schnitzel.
