Azbuka

Trip Start May 23, 2006
1
23
Trip End Aug 07, 2006


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Flag of Serbia and Montenegro  ,
Thursday, July 20, 2006

I arrived into a horribly hot Belgrade prepared for a cab to rip me off en route to my host family's place. Amazingly, I found an honest cabbie that charged me only 3 dollars for the ride and even carried my 30 kgs worth of luggage. Upon opening the door I was swept into a totally Serbian environment where I was forced to recall a language I last studied two years before. But a very nice host family, friendly classmates, and an exciting city made the adjustment quite easy and the past week of speaking and learning Serbian have been well worth it.

Not that Belgrade or Serbia are at all perfect. The Kosovo issue is all over the media, damage from the 1999 bombing is still present and resentment against the West remains. Luckly, this is now directed against the European Union, and not the US. Thanks to US neglect of the Balkans, the EU is the new target for nationalists here. But at the same time, so many people I met risked their lives and jobs to bring down the Milosevic dictatorship, a testiment to the positive things that can come from Serbia. The national charater of the Serbs can best be described at sarcastic; Serbs love a good parody or dark humor joke. I spent one evening here hanging out with former dissadents, most of whom (after several drinks) read their politician-mocking poetry aloud. Although I only understood about 50% of it, the image of jovial people laughing at the folly of their nationalist leaders gives me hope that democracy has a chance here. And the food is amazing, if you like huge portions of meat that is.
Belgrade hotels

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