Zeleni Venac Market Belgrade – Fresh produce in the center

Eating out in Belgrade is a wide term – choices are aplenty, but nothing compares to visiting a local green market. Besides obvious reasons like getting the fresh produce and saving money that you would normally spend in a restaurant, it's a nice way to feel the atmosphere of a busy Belgrade morning (but not the one in traffic jams). Belgrade has many cool green markets, but perhaps Zeleni venac (Zeh-lenny when-atz) is the easiest to reach, because it's near the very heart of the city.

If you happen to rent an apartment or are staying at a hostel in the center, you cannot pick wrong with going to Zeleni venac and meeting the locals who sell their greens, cheeses, or actually anything that might occur to you.

So, instead of starting a day with a bakery breakfast, I love strolling through the green market, getting some nice and fresh arugula, mint, spinach, tomato, olives and almonds, and making a perfect salad in 10 minutes. There are also nice choices of goat cheese and other dairies, and meat of course.

A perfect spring day may also start with a big glass of raspberries (they sell them in big plastic glasses). You can just buy a cup and go straight to the nearest park and enjoy it.

Besides a typical array of fruits and veggies, you can browse through stands with various obscure watches, VHS tapes, memorabilia, household items, clothes and basically everything that one may find on any kind of flea market.