Beograd Beer Fest

Beograd Beer Fest
Friday, August 14, 2009
3:57 AM

After arriving off the night train back at Marko's Aunt's house we both took the opportunity to get a bit more rest. In the early evening Marko had some errands he needed to run and I wanted to take a run so we both took advantage of that. I was told to simply 'take a left at the intersection and that'll lead you straight to the fortress'. In a lack of foresight I didn’t realize that the left I was taking was down the main promenade. Once I hit the crowds my run turned into a brisk stroll.

Belgrade's population hovers around the three million mark with the metro being a fair bit larger. Every evening the promenade is packed with vendors, street performers, people sipping at cafes, and foot traffic cruising around - the weekend is just a bit worse. After I reached the fortress I was able to pick up my pace again and I cruised down to the fields off the Danube and watched a bit of what looked a lot like a high school football team practicing. Apparently football has started growing in popularity a bit with the younger kids and given the massive builds of Serbs it seems like a natural sport to excel in.

When I got back we readied up and met with Sanya, a dancer from Belgrade, and went over to Mark's, an expat from San Diego. After chatting a bit over there we cruised down to the legendary Beograd Beer Festival which was, like Guca, unlike any festivals in the states mostly because they didn't gouge you on food or drinks. The focus of Beer Fest was definitely the music and they had some great bands up on a huge stage with at least a solid 50k people in the crowd.

The most interesting development of the night was when Mike Cavic and a few of his buddies met up with us. Mike was a swimmer at Tustin HS and Berkeley, but chose to swim for Serbia rather than for the US. The world championships just finished up and Mike won a medal, he was on billboards all over Belgrade, in the newspaper, and in all the tabloids. I'd known him through Marko from playing video games with him back home so it was crazy to see people constantly harassing him, asking for pictures, and buying him drinks. His brother Danny, who is the same age as Marko and I, played basketball at USF and plays professionally in Croatia now, got to take care of bodyguard duty. Eventually we headed down to one of the barge clubs where Mike had a table and we had a solid night.