Serbia Tennis
Serbia | Country 24 | 5 day |
My first time really exploring Eastern Europe - and oh boy, was Serbia a really interesting experience.
Some aspects of the Serbia trip that I find really unique:
- Quite a contrast to Western Europe in terms of culture, values and prices
- Monasteries of the Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire
- Tension with the EU because of history (and of course Kosovo)
- Links to WWI where a Serbian was involved in the neighboring Sarajevo
- Median salary is around 500 Euro in 2023 (and many expats live here because of the affordability)
- Eastern Roman Empire -> Ottoman -> Yugoslavia -> modern Serbia
Belgrade
I arrived in Belgrade at 3am in the morning. Because it was so late, I decided to take a nap at the airport before taking a bus to the city. I dropped off my luggage at the Holiday Inn Express and went about exploring.
People are so kind here, from the amazing small business vendor that helped change my bill to the girl who gave me the code to the bathroom.
City Square | House of Assembly (where a press conference was happening)
I quickly found a new favorite (unhealthy) food called the burek. Serbian bureks have layers and layers of dough along with cheese and meat fillings, like a layered pizza. Oh how wonderful a refresh burek tastes like out of the oven! Watch this!
Their favorite national dish is the Ćevapčići, grilled lamb mince meat. It’s from the Ottoman period, so it’s probably similar to Turkish kebabs.
The other amazing food is called the sarma, with the leaf wrapped meat. It tastes amazing alongside mashed potatoes.
Kosovo and NATO Bombing
This is definitely a point of tension. Kosovo was a Serbian holy city that seceded because of high concentrations of Albanians. NATO and Bill Clinton played significant roles in shaping the current situation there.
Many people in Belgrade died due to the bombings, and the memory of those events is still bitter.
Yugoslavia and the Brutalist architecture
After WW2, Yugoslavia was established as a communist state, yet it was not aligned with the Eastern Bloc.
The brutalist architecture reflects the socialist values of the time, with concrete and style symbolizing equality and hard work.
Yugoslavia was at a time successful in its own right. I have to remind myself that the country had to unite six groups of people with their own agendas; balancing is hard.
Foreign aid from the USSR and the West was significant. However, when the USSR collapsed, the West ceased to have a reason to continue the aid.
Tito was the president of Yugoslavia and when he passed away, the country broke apart. His museum recorded his achievements.
Novi Sad daytrip
I joined a tour to visit Novi Sad. There weren’t many tourists and our group consisted of a Phillipino America expat from England, an Egyptian architect from Dubai and a Brazillian on his holiday.
We visited an old Christian Monastery. I found it interesting that priests here must get married and cannot divorce. There are also monks, who rank above priests and lead the church.
We also visited Novi Sad, a beautiful and chill city that’s about an hour away from Belgrade. Our tour guide, an early 30s lady, actually lives in Novi Sad, and she commutes to Belgrade for the job. She had a joke that Serbian athletes win at everything because only the strongest amongst the strong survived the numerous wars in the past centuries.
Local Life
Tesla is from here and the airport is named after him.
There are many nightlife venues / clubs on the water.
Novak Djokovic is of course from here, and he is a national hero. I visited his restaurant, which unfortunately wasn’t ready for lunch time yet.
The Belgrade fortress overlooks the Danube and Sava rivers.
The food really grew on me as the days went by. I find them humble and honest. Of course it also helped that the food is really affordable :)
The trip was really memorable and I’d like to visit Kosovo and other parts of the Balkans soon.
Our walking tour guide showing us the most important church in Belgrade called Saint Sava
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