Entertainment and Nightlife
Rich cultural life of Serbia's major cities guarantees expats an enjoyable stay in our country. A great variety of cultural events reflect a vibrant creative force and spiritual wealth of our nation. Each year there are numerous festivities cherishing Serbia's tradition, customs, folklore, and handicrafts, including the famous Dragacevo Trumpet Festival in Guca (www.guca.rs). Belgrade hosts a number of important festivals, such as: Belgrade International Theater Festival- BITEF (www.bitef.rs), International Film Festival- FEST (www.fest.rs), Belgrade Summer Festival- BELEF (www.belef.org), and Belgrade International Music Festival- BEMUS (www.bemus.rs). There are also one of Europe's most massive outdoor concert events Exit Festival (www.exitfest.org), which attracts over 200,000 people and MTV broadcasting, and a series of film and theater festivals in other cities, like Novi Sad, Nis, Uzice and Palic.
Belgrade boasts some of the greatest nightlife in Europe with a variety of performance arts, including world class operas, concerts and theater performances. There are numerous theaters featuring various artistic directions: from the theater of movement and contemporary dance to the latest local and international plays. For a night out, one can choose between the dinner with live music in the Bohemian Skadarlija district, relaxing at one of the city's modern cafes, on a house boat, or enjoying the burgeoning club scene.
Delicious Food
Serbian national cuisine reflects strong Turkish, Hungarian, and Austrian influence, particularly in a wide range of grilled meat available. In Serbia, one should not miss to taste traditional specialties, like kebab ("cevapcici"), bread meat patties ("fasirane snicle"), mixed meat ("mesano meso"), Karadjordje escalope ("Karadjordjeva snicla"), stuffed peppers ("punjena paprika"), musaka, or stuffed grape leaves ("sarma"). In addition, unique appetizers, such as ajvar, thick jam ("slatko"), clotted cream ("kajmak"), or cornbread ("proja"), as well as delicious baked delights (cheese pie-"gibanica", for example) are warmly recommended. An abundance of fruit grown in Serbia represents a raw base for excellent alcoholic drinks. Plums, apricots, pears, apples, grapes, and other are distilled into a brandy, known as "rakija", while local beer and wine are also worth tasting.
Belgrade abounds with restaurants, cafes and bars for all tastes. Most of the international cuisine is Italian, but one can also enjoy French, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, and other national cuisine. Some of the world's largest fast food chains are also present in Serbia like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC etc.
Usual working hours of the restaurants are from 8am to 11pm, but some are open from noon to 1am.
Great Shopping
Shops in Serbia are normally open from 8am to 8pm from Monday to Friday, 8am-3pm on Saturdays, and some are also open on Sundays. At local or international hypermarkets and other stores most of the items that one can find in a home country are readily available. Payments can be made with all major types of credit cards, including Visa and MasterCard.
With its 1.5 million population, Belgrade is a highly attractive market for many world famous store chains. There is hardly any top international brand that cannot be found in some of the Belgrade's shopping zones and shopping malls at prices lower than in western cities. Pret-a-porter lovers, for example, can choose between latest collections by Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Prada, Pal Zileri, Max Mara, and many other world top designers.
