Europe
Woke up with a plan to try out the hotel breakfast at the Courtyard by Marriott (as it was included with my stay), but instead decided to skip that (and the bus ride) and take a cab straight to the airport instead. Turns out there actually is a motorway between the city center and the airport, and the cab ride took less than a third of the time of the bus the previous day. Skipping hotel breakfast worked out as well, as it turns out there was a Serbian pastriy shop at the airport that wasn't too bad. The shop actually had a food truck parked outside so I could enjoy the beautiful morning, although I did not realize just how much smoking still happens-- even a hundred feet away I found cigarette butts scattered everywhere.
The departures area of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is actually pretty nice-- a very different impression than the arrivals area yesterday. The curbside drop off area is not large, but is sized appropriately given the size of the airport. Check-in desks are kind of cramped and crowded, I think I saw a huge presence from China Southern (?), but once you cross air-side the impression of a comfortable, spacious, and modern airport returns. Had enough time to linger outside duty-free and do some shopping before boarding an Air Serbia A320 to London, and overall it was a very comfortable experience for a short flight. Boarding was a bit of a surprise as passengers were very organized as they boarded by zone, I was impressed.
Onboard, a bottle of water and a good-sized chicken sandwich were unexpected complimentary amenities for the ~2.5 hour flight, although otherwise things were decidedly ultra-low-cost carrier vibes. In fact it felt as austere as my experience on LATAM, which on a similarly aged Airbus A321 and with identical seats. Still, the flight arrived on-time and was affordable, so hard to complain too much.
Stayed at a much nicer hotel for this layover, the Montcalm Mayfair. Declined the offered room upgrade (the base room is still very nice, if a bit dark), then ran off to the Science Museum to meet up with Sam. Turns out the Star Trek 60 exhibition is just a bunch of small individual displays scattered about the museum, but still fun to see, and was a good way to keep you actually exploring the rest of the museum. Lots of focus on the uniforms and whatnot throughout the show, including both regular crew uniforms as well as more exotic ones, such as the Red Angel suit see in Star Trek: Discovery. Unlike most other science museums I've been to, this one actually was quite diverse, with large sections on spaceflight (hello BepiColombo and GPS IIF mockups) as well as areas of human health and medicine rarely touched on in a general science museum in such detail; the area on surgery was quite a surprise.
Ended at the museum's gift shop, which had two final Star Trek exhibits, including the bridge chair from Star Trek: Discovery, then wandered around with Sam the rest of the afternoon, ultimately ended up at dinner with both Sam and his wife at the still-delicious Cyprus Mangal. They've expanded since my last visit, and were much nicer than I remembered-- glad to see such success. Wrapped up the night with tiny cups of gelato at Gelupo before parting ways.