splav

(Translation, Yugoslavia)

Raft with a restaurant on it. Most of the coast of both rivers in Belgrade is stuffed with them. They usually float on barrels or sheet metal boxes, then above it's wood for the decks and the building, and metal for the parapets and gangplanks. YMMV - there are fancy ones where you get a tidbit of designer food, nice to look at and remain hungry afterwards, usually at least 20% more expensive than others. Then there are less fancy ones where the food is great, plentiful and prices are regular, and then the small operations, family businesses, with little staff, short menu - but what they have is excellent.

Beware that some percentage of them are owned by one of the local mafias; a percentage may be frequented by mix of mafia bosses, businessmen, showbiz guys, politicians (more or less the same crowd) and their gorillas/thugs. The trouble may range from being on a photo with some of them in a tabloid to being pushed away by the thugs to catching a stray bullet (which doesn't really happen as often now as it did in the 90s).

Falling into the river is a personal choice and mostly unrelated to the above.

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Mentions: 24-VII-2014., 13-V-2016., 12-VIII-2016., 19-X-2017., 11-III-2018., 04-V-2019., 26-V-2021., 10-VII-2021., The wedding, 12-VII-2021., in serbian