I went to Serbia so you don't have to!

Serbia highlights are up (click this).

As a refresher, here's the best of my posts from Serbia:
Belgrade: a balmy 97 degrees.
It's 1979 here in Belgrade! (or why Belgrade=Pittsburgh)
Belgrade bomb damage....
Which makes this picture understandable
Belgrade wrap-up


First stop on my tour of the Balkans was Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, the former capital of the former Yugoslavia, and center of all things Serbdom. (Just to show you how life is determined by perspective, before this trip I wouldn't have listed Serbs as a dedicated identity group when compared to groups with great scale, like the Chinese, or greater historical impact, like the Scots. But the Serbs think they're the big deal of the neighborhood, which partly explains why chunks of their city had been obliterated by airstrikes by real big deals- the USA and NATO.)


Visiting Belgrade on a trip to Europe is a bit like coming to the USA and visiting Roanoke, VA - notable, but far exceed by other destinations in interest and attraction. My time in Belgrade, Serbia was limited to ~24 hours, which was just about the right amount of time. Belgrade wasn't a bad place, but compared to my beach destinations, I wouldn't have wanted to spend more time in Serbia. 


Belgrade has 1 impressive site to see for any traveler in the area - the Kalemegdan, a large, almost 1,200 year old fortress overlooking where the Danube and Sava rivers. Not only is the fortress impressive when viewed and toured, it also provides some dramatic views. There's also some quirks - the fortress also hosts a local basketball club ("KK Partizan") and a tennis club who's clay courts are located in the fortress' now unused moats.

Besides the Kalemegdan, my other recollections of Belgrade are war damage (covered in an earlier post), and impressions of the people.


My friend Scott H has posited that the Koreans are the toughest people on Earth. He might be right, but I'd also nominate the Serbs as toughest, and they might edge the Koreans with their advantage in meanness. Perhaps it is the fact that life in Serb is hard - it's a poor country after all. Or perhaps it was the fact that most Serbs still seemed to wear the war on their faces, or perhaps because of the anti-NATO protest, I got the distinct impression that most Serbs still consider themselves superior to the other Balkan inhabitants, and that it would make most Serbs very happy to be at conflict again, against the Catholic Croatians, Bosnian Muslims, the Kosovars, the Albanians, the Bulgarians, or perhaps the Turks. (This is especially true compared to the people I saw and met in Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro.) The Serbs definitely all carry around a chip on their shoulder, but this isn't crazy, since the country has purportedly never, ever been at peace for 50 continuous years since the dawn of civilization.


At this point, though, Serb aggression is cultural, as is evident while tripping around town. In Belgrade, I didn't see any statues to great statesmen, but rather people with swords or guns drawn, as you can see here and here.


Click here to see the picture highlights of Belgrade, Serbia.
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May have used up all of my travel karma....

So here's the situation: I'm sitting in the Tivat (Montenegro) airport, with the first leg of my flight to Sarajevo to begin in a half hour, connecting thru Belgrade. Once I make it to Belgrade, I have a 45 minute connection. Problem: the JAT Airways (Yugoslav flag carrier) couldn't print my connecting ticket, and I'm not sure why.

This might be something handled easily when I connect, but there's a huge downside ifnot: there's only one flight a day to Sarajevo. (for a country that broke apart, you'd think therewould be more intra-country flights, but I guess that tells you how much distaste there remains.

For example, there are no flights between Belgrade and Zagreb, two national capitals located as far apart as Boston and DC, distance wise.

So, if I make the connection, I get a happy face. If not, big time sad  face- I'd spend 24 more hours in Belgrade and some more interesting  part of my trip would have to be skipped.

But things have gone well today otherwise. I'll sum up today's activities in another email.

Photo of the day

Parts of a USAF stealth fighter blown to bits over Serbia in 1999 in a Belgrade
museum.

Belgrade wrap-up

Am in Belgrade airport waiting for flight to Montenegro with a few thoughts:

-some countries have multiple official languages, like Switzerland. Serbia has multiple official alphabets (for the same language). I'd say 50% of signs were in Cyrillic (like Russian), while the remainder were in Latin (like ours) or outright English. What meager amount of Serbian that picked up for the trip was toast once the writing was in Cyrillic.

-There's no row#13 on my plane (I'm in #14.)

-guidebook tidbit: Serbia was a possession of Turkey for 500 years until 1867. I kinda see why they are very, very nationalistic, as measured by how many flags, signs, and traditional clothes that you see.

-dined well today. Wandered into the Skadarskija area of Belgrade, an area with old cobble streets dating back hundreds of years. Found a restaurant and ordered something off of the grill menu ("grill" was the only word that I could translate.)

But I figured you can't go wrong with anything grilled, and I wasn't disappointed - the main course was a frisbee sized and shaped piece of beef (gurmanesh vjelvasic(?)). I chased it with a salad of cabbage, lettuce, very fresh tomato and cucumber. Also tried the rakia, a local fruit brandy/jet fuel (waiter's suggestion) -wow!

The Yugoslavian cuisine is 90% grill, 10% stew. Every entree on every menu is in one of these 2 categories, which is great, until you realize that Yugoslavian cuisine hit its' apex just after the invention of fire.

But I like grilled foods so I am much happier than if I happened to be in India.

One other good thing about the cuisine: all food is local, organic, and free range. It's not a movement, it's just how things are grown here.

Finally, one experience that sums up Serbia: I had a Serbian salad the othe night (Srpska salate). I dug into it and enjoyed the first bite of tomato, cuke, and onion. Then the next bite. Then HOLY $@$)$&!!!!! Who put the Hungarian wax (hot, white) pepper in my salad?

I mention this not for culinary reasons, but because this is the perfect analogy for Belgrade -90% harmless, looking no different that any other Eastern European city, but also 10% don't-take-it-for-granted ka-BOOM!

Next stop: Budva, Montenegro, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea. Posting might be light, as I plan a beach day tomorrow.

Which makes this pic understandable...

I saw this protest in one of the main squares. The banner says, basically "butt out NATO."

update: my friend Dana translates the sign as "Stop NATO Fascism."

That the locals are anti-NATO makes sense, but accompanying the banner was a photo exhibit with English translations detailing NATO atrocities in the Balkans, even intimating that we were collaborating   with Muslin extremists. More troubling was the fact that many people stopped and read the exhibits with much seriosness. I wish I could have understood what they were saying to each other.

Exterior redecoration courtesy of NATO & USAF

It's 10 years on, but you can't miss the signs of NATO bombing here in Belgrade. This is the former Ministry of Defense. (Actually half of the former MoD - this half used to be connected across the street to an identical building, all now bombed out.)

This building was located in the heart of Belgrade, and next to many other government buildings. Thanks to smart bombs, there did not appear to be any damage to any other surrounding area buildings.

What's odd about this building, though not visible in the picture, is that the building is under armed guard by the Army 24 hours a day. I was a bit afraid that the guard might confiscate my camera, so all of my pictures of this building were taken on the sly.

It's 1979 here in Belgrade

No, 1979 isn't the temperature -it's what year it feels like. With the
exception of LCD tv's at every cafe showing either soccer or the
summer ski-jumping championships(!?!), you'd think that Belgrade was still on 1979.

I was around for the first version of 1979, though enjoying 3rd grade, so I'm probably not the best judge, but still, everything - starting with my hotel - feels and looks like it has been stuck in time for 30 years.

(or maybe it's just sleepy like I was last night. I finally gave in at 9pm last night, and woke at 3am. After a half hour of tossing and turning - and worry about how badly my body clock might be screwed up
- I fell back asleep until 9am. Result: a bit more sleep than I thought  wanted, but hopefully my body is now on local time, 2009-style.)

One other observation: Belgrade=Pittsburgh. Some of the connections are obvious: both cities are located where 2 pretty big rivers join, with the Ohio and Danube rivers resulting. Both also feature land on one side of the river rising quickly to about 1,000 feet, with great views from the top. Both are about 400 miles inland. Both cities also have a heavy Slavic influence, and are both trying to escape a past focus on heavy industry. Both cities also think they are the center of the universe, though they are just regional capitals. (Ross, Scott, and Doug - please post your defense of da Burgh in the comments section.)

Finally, both cities have been lead by men with self-destructive behavior - Slobodan Milosovic, who made enemies with everyone, and Ben Roethlisberger, crashing his motorcycle into stationary objects, and with a questionable dating life.

A couple other pts:
-had national dish "cevapcici" for dinner last night. We'd probably
call it "hamburger fingers." pretty tasty.
-touring the city today until a 5pm flight to Tivat, Montenegro. Will be spending the following 2 days between Kotor (walled city on a fjord) and Budva, which is a big sea resort town. Many highlights expected, which is amazing since I'd never heard of the country of Montenegro until 2 months ago.

Belgrade: a balmy 97 degrees

Just arrived. City looks interesting - a mix of dour communist-era apartment buildings, a HUGE Eastern Orthodox church, and buildings bombed by Americans just 10 years ago. (and still not repaired) Had a fun time at the airport negotiating a taxi ride into town. As you might guess, I blend in here about as well as I do in China, so the taxi drivers see me as some easy money.

But, there's a handout in the airport that says that licensed taxis can't charge more than 1200 dinars for a ~12 mile ride downtown. So of course, i got a "special" price -the taxi's opening bid was 2,500 dinars.

I love this-getting local, trying some of the language, and ultimately just trying to win- so it's on!

I played the game well - dropping some numbers on them in Serbian (and hoping I didn't accidentally say a really huge number), but finally realized that I was arguing over a difference of 100 dinars - about 60 US cents! (and in every other way the Serbian Dinar is like monopoly money. The locals prefer Euros. I just bought a bottle of water (40 dinars, or about 25 cents). The cashier gave me a sneer when I paid with a new 1000 dinar note that I had just gotten from an ATM.)

Next up: quick shower, then touring.

Follow me on my way to the former Yugoslavia!

Hi-

I'm off on vacation in a matter of hours but wanted to invite you along - virtually. 

I'm heading on a very aggressive backpacking tour of 6 countries in 10 days, including the exotic countries of the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Montenegro), plus 4 hours in Switzerland, and a couple of days in Munich, Germany at the end of the trip. During the trip, I will be posting stories, pictures and video to my blog (and YouTube) using my iPhone. To keep up with me, simply visit this link:

Tim's blog

Also, here's my home on YouTube and picture gallery from this trip.

If you do check in on my trip, please feel free to leave comments or questions - they'll be automatically forwarded to me. Also, this email address will be active, and I'd like to hear from you.

This trip is much more than the standard vacation. (I haven't taken one of those in years, as you can see from the trips that I've blogged about in the past, like Asia in 2007, or 2008 road trip across America.) For one thing, I'll be living out of a backpack small enough to qualify as carry on luggage, and this trip is so free-form that although I take off in 2 hours, I have yet to make a single hotel or other overnight arrangement.

(Rough guess at itinerary shows 6 different beds/hotels over 10 days, with stops in Belgrade, Serbia, Kotor and Budva, Montenegro, Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Hvar, Korcula, and Dubrovnik, Croatia.)

But what will really make this trip will be the experiences, from seeing a country the US was bombing less than 10 years ago (Serbia) to sea-kayaking around an ancient walled city with a former Miss Universe contestant.

So why Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro? The area has always fascinated me for its' combination of recreation and culture. With thousands of islands on the Adriatic Sea, you can guess that there are some great beaches to visit, and with thousands of years of inhabited history, there are some amazing sights to visit, like the walled city of Dubrovnik. 

The thousands of years of history has also produced an area second only to the Middle East for ethnic conflict. The area that I'm visiting was conquered and held by literally dozens of cultures, and has never gone more than 40 years without intense war. As the crossroads of the Muslim Middle East, Catholic central Europe, and Russian and Balkan Eastern Orthodox, there's always somebody upset about something, as we all saw in the 1990s. (The war is very much present today, as I expect to see in Sarajevo, even to the extent of guidebooks warning about avoiding fields of land mines. (btw, this isn't my first trip near active land mines.))

(The mix of cultures has its' benefits, though, as the food, combining the best of seafood, paprika and other Eastern European spices,  grilled meats (Turkish influence), and the Italian influence should be very, very interesting.)

So, it should be an interesting adventure. Please join me on this trip via my blog, and please keep in touch, especially if you'd like a postcard.

Cheers,

Tim Gallagher

434-227-0718

timothy.gallagher@gmail.com