Getting Around Belgrade: Free Transport, Taxis, and No Uber
There is no Uber in Belgrade, and the city buses and trams cost nothing to ride. What that changes about taxis, a monthly budget, and owning a car.
Category
Living It
The Timezone Problem: Working for a Northern Employer From CET
Belgrade is in the same hour as Berlin and an ocean from Chicago. The timezone problem is not the offset, it is which end of your day it eats.
The Working Calendar: Holidays, Slava, and When Counters Are Shut
Serbia holidays close counters for two days at a time, and a slava closes one clerk's desk. Count your deadline in working days, not calendar days.
Cyrillic Where It Matters: Reading the Signs You Actually Need
Serbia uses both alphabets, and the split is not random. Learn the thirty letters in an evening, then the forty words that appear on the signs you need.
How Much Serbian You Actually Need, by Situation
Does Serbia speak English? In a cafe, yes. At a MUP counter, no. The amount of Serbian you need depends entirely on which room you are standing in.
Serbian That Gets a Counter to Help You: Twenty Sentences
You do not need to learn Serbian to get through a Belgrade counter. You need twenty sentences, in the order the window asks for them.
Living in Belgrade, Month Three: What Nobody Tells You First
Living in Belgrade gets harder at month three, not easier. The things that go wrong by then, ranked by whether you can still fix them.