Who goes to Serbia? Not many people. We went for the adventure and the experience, and found that Serbia is an interesting country for many reasons:
1. Serbia used to be part of Yugoslavia and you see still "Yugoslavia" mentioned everywhere. The word "Yugoslavia" means "Land of the South Slavs," which although the country has broken up I suppose the description is still accurate.
2. Serbia was bombed by NATO in 1999 and evidence of the bombings is still visible.
3. Time has stood still in Serbia: in many ways it feels like Communism is still present, as the economy is stagnating, tourism is basically non-existent (we could not stay the night in Novi Sad because there were no hostels!), buildings are crumbling and the majority of ca
rs are older than I am.4. There is a lot of Croatian and Italian influence- in fact Serbia is known for its amazing pizzerias. In the northern part of the country (including Novi Sad, one of the cities we visited) there is a lot of Hungarian influence, with a large and active Hungarian-speaking community. In fact, while the majority of the population are Serbs, an additional 37 nationalities reside in Serbia.
5. We saw a variety of languages in use (which was a bit confusing). According to the internet, the office language is Serbian and the alphabet in official use is Cyrillic, as well as Latin. In the areas inhabited by national minorities, the languages and alphabets of the minorities are in official use as well (as provided by law). Like I found in Poland, many people spoke fluent English as well, although Serbia isn't exactly tourist central.
6. The dominant religion is Christian Orthodox, and there are some beautiful Christian Orthodox churches. In fact, in visiting one we walked in on a wedding, and were highly amused by the band playing outside that would literally attack those entering the church, playing music in their faces (as you can see from the picture) and asking for money.
7. I still can't figure out whether Serbia and Montenegro and in fact one country or two; my guide book describes their relationship as a "fragile union;" Serbia uses the dinar, Montenegro the Euro. Very confusing.
8. On the outskirts of Belgrade we saw poverty as we I have not yet seen in Europe: a real-life shanty town, with houses made of cardboard boxes, children running around in winter with no shoes on and trash everywhere... and I mean everywhere. Obviously I came across this kind of poverty in Latin America but it was a bit shocking to see it here in Europe.
1 comment:
Interesting post. I am an American, living in Novi Sad. I've been here since Sept. 2006. I am surprised that you, having visited Novi Sad did not notice the tremendous amount of construction that is going on here on a daily basis. I would also point out that in the town center on a warm day in October, I heard many tourists speaking German, English and more as they walked around sight seeing in the town. I see tourists whenever I am in town for events, such as New Years celebrations, etc. People here have been tremendously welcoming to me.
I have not been to Belgrade, other than to fly into that airport, so I can not speak about that. But, I will say, being from Louisiana originally, the highway from Belgrade airport to Novi Sad is much nicer than most of the roads where I am from...haha.
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