I spent some time in Belgrade (7/10) in 2023, including day trips to Novi Sad and Sremska Mitrovica, just after Zuzalu 2023.

Serbian Cities

• Belgrade – 7/10 (2023)
• Novi Sad – 6/10 (2023)
•  Sremska Mitrovica – 5/10 (2023)

Belgrade is an excellent downshifting location, and has indeed become a major attractor for Russian and Ukrainian expats after 2022. The cuisine is a meat lovers paradise (e.g. pljeskavica) and has great coffee, although the soups and fish dishes are a northern thing. Culturally, it is far closer to Romania and other Balkan nations than the West and East Slavs, be it phenotypes or the wedding music.

Downsides: Belgrade is unaesthetic and quite dirty (including the parks), and the vibes are of Russia 10-15 years ago (e.g. smoking is still allowed within pubs and restaurants). Belgrade still needs a couple of decades to become a modern city. There is new infrastructure under construction, but it is often shoddy on account of corruption.

If something like “Russian privilege” exists anywhere in the world then it is Serbia. One gets favors and allowances just for being Russian that a Serb or other foreigners wouldn’t get, from being gifted an umbrella during a downpour to being allowed into a museum that was closed and left to wander unsupervised. (Amusingly, this is a case against learning Serbo-Croat to full fluency for Russians). Consequently, Serbia strongly overperforms its fundamentals for Russian digital nomads.