Tuesday
It’s a gray, cold, rainy day in Vranje. I had assumed it would be this way everyday so have been pleasantly surprised to have had dry weather until today. It has been gray since Saturday. Yesterday I discovered I could put damp freshly washed clothes on the bathroom radiator and they would dry much sooner. Given that there aren’t dryers in this part of the world, I was pretty darn happy. Otherwise I wasn’t sure if our jeans would be dry before we leave on Friday!
I have been going to town daily for fresh rolls for breakfast and sometimes dark chocolate (my new health food) and water. I stand by the roadside and usually within five minutes a taxi comes by and flashes his lights, as a way to ask if I want a lift. These taxis pick up as many passengers as possible to increase their fare. It saves me money, is quicker than the bus and cost just a wee bit more than the bus. I am impressed with how honest people are here. I wasn’t sure how much to pay the driver today because there were only two of us in the car. So I held out 60 dinar and he gave me 10 back. He could have easily kept the extra given I was a foreigner. Ron called me today to say he had lost the flash drive to his computer. I looked outside to see if he had dropped it in the drive. Gorem, the taxi driver called me to tell me he had found it. Hooray for honesty!
I have been finding more places to eat and observe Serbians. I notice that men mostly patronize restaurants and cafes. They sit together, drinking shots of whiskey or vodka and visit. I don’t usually see them eating except at Kykyra. But all restaurants and some cafes have a full bar of hard liquor as well as beer and wine. Often I am the only woman present. I see older people on the streets that look like characters out of Zorba the Greek. They wear dark clothes, the men with berets or similar head coverings and the women with headscarves. There are a few beggars here, mostly children and occasionally women. They are all darker skin people so I assume they are Roma, people who originated in India and we use to call gypsies. There is a section of town populated by Roma and are said to be the poorest of those here.
There are no public restrooms here. Some cafes and all restaurants seem to have restrooms. For those of us with tiny bladders this is a major concern when you live five miles out of town. Today I discovered that Ivan has a restroom in the space between his shop and his mother’s clothing shop in front. What a relief, literally. I told Ivan I had been reading the history of Croatia and Serbia and was struck by how often there have been wars in this part of the world where each country fought for independence. He told me he lived in Croatia when the war broke out in the early 1990’s and his best friend stabbed him because he was a Serb. Ivan wasn’t expected to live but after 40 days in the hospital he was released and left Croatia to return to Serbia, where his mother’s parents lived. It is hard to imagine such an incident yet it happens all over the world, where we kill one another because of our differences rather than celebrating those differences. We are a strange breed indeed.
Last night we found out that the average salary in Serbia is 300 Euros, about $420 a month. Salaries are higher in Belgrade, the capital but so is the cost of living. Income taxes are about 50%. Ouch!
Gorem, the taxi driver is one of the three Serbs I have met who doesn’t smoke. Because I eat in restaurants, my clothes reek of smoke. I even noticed that when I use my handkerchief, it smells of smoke. Yuck!
I can’t remember if I have already mentioned this but Serbs don’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Wow, that’s pretty great after being in Sri Lanka where chemical fertilizers are subsidized by the government. What is really sad is that 80% of SL’s garbage is compostabe! Oy!!
This weekend when we were driving in the rural areas we spied small flocks of sheep attended by shepherds. Macedonia had lots of vineyards and we saw dead cornstalks vertically stacked in conical shapes. About 60% of the houses here are unfinished. They have the basic structure but no windows and no stucco covering on the exterior making them quite drafty. Window openings are covered with boards. We are assuming this is due to a shortage of cash and that they complete construction as they can afford it. We saw two houses with asphalt roofs in the 10 days we have been here. All the others have been terra cotta. I wish we had more access to people who speak English to explain some of these things. Then again it would be really swell if we spoke the language. Barbara who is working on this project with Ron speaks German, her native tongue, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Swahili! It is humbling to say the least.
Two of the Serbian consultants brought us two books from Belgrade this week. They are by the Serbian author Ivo Andric who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961. I am reading The Bridge on the Drina. I have also started Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje who is the Sri Lankan author better known for his work, The English Patient. I am so grateful to have more to read but am anxious about how heavy my suitcase will be. Ron and I always share books but I am two ahead of him at this point since I have all the time in the world to read while he is working.
Ron came from work and had inquired about the unfinished houses. It turns out that you pay a fraction of the property tax on an unfinished house. Pretty darn smart but seems that you pay with your discomfort!
That’s the blurbia from Serbia!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sunday
Today Gorem took us to a church and monastery about 40 minutes south of Vranje. We drove through tiny rural villages seeing some beautiful countryside. Farmers grow wheat here apparently. At this time of year the landscape is brown as nothing has been planted as of yet. It reminded us of Oregon in the winter.
The church is a Greek Orthodox structure built in the 11th century. It was relatively small and quite lovely. The exterior was white stucco and the entire interior was painted, frescoes I assume, the lower walls in a dark blue and brick red and from about eye level up there were numerous Biblical scenes and many icons of saints. Not knowing anything about the Orthodox religion, we didn’t know what the two small rooms behind the iconostasis were used for. I saw two bottles of oil each with a towel. I asked Gorem what they were for but his limited English prevented him from explaining the purpose of the oil. The floors were unfinished wooden planks. There were two ‘trays’ for lighting candles as you enter. I watched as Gorem approached an icon in the center of the church on a small stand about 3-4 feet high and kissed the icon that rested there then placed money on the stand. The setting was very isolated and the monastery was large with two huge wings. We never saw anyone there other than two people leaving as we were entering the grounds.
Next we drove on to Macedonia where we went to Skopje, a town of 870,000, about ten times bigger than Vranje. First we picked up Gorem’s cousin who lives in a nearby area because Gorem told us he was not familiar with Skopje. We visited an old fort, Tvrdina Kale that was built in the 11th century. All that remains are a few walls but you can get great views of the city from there. A river runs through the center of town. We had another gray and cloudy, cold day although not the bitter cold we had on Saturday.
We crossed the street to see a true gem of a church, Sveti Spas. The church was built below ground, since during Ottoman times it was illegal for a church to be taller than a mosque. The church has an iconostasis (a screen) 10 meters wide by 6 meters tall, beautifully carved in the early 19th century. We have never seen anything as lovely. The woodcarving depicted various scenes and had beautifully carved natural forms like vines and leaves. There were lots of icons on the walls and mounted on the iconostasis. Across the courtyard was a small museum and tomb dedicated to Goce Delcev, a national hero who fought for independence from Turkey and was killed in 1903 by the Turks.
We walked through the Turkish bazaar that was filled with all kinds of shops and almost all were closed. We headed for lunch and had a delightful experience in a restaurant that was housed in what used to be a caravanserai or inn where traders would stop off and rest during Ottoman times. The building dated from 1472 and in 1976 the building was restored. The restaurant had exposed brick and stone walls with arched ceilings and little niches. The bottom floor on an inn was used as a stable and the upper floors housed the travelers. We had a fabulous meal: mine was veal and mashed potatoes with gravy to die for and Ron had a vegetarian dish of roasted veggies that was equally good.
We ran out of time to see anything else as we were picking up Barbara who had spent the weekend in Skopje with friends she used to work with there. We drove home, went back out for dinner for the fourth or fifth time to Kykyra because the other restaurant was closed. Since we had had a large lunch we had soup and salad for dinner.
That’s the blurbia from Serbia.
Today Gorem took us to a church and monastery about 40 minutes south of Vranje. We drove through tiny rural villages seeing some beautiful countryside. Farmers grow wheat here apparently. At this time of year the landscape is brown as nothing has been planted as of yet. It reminded us of Oregon in the winter.
The church is a Greek Orthodox structure built in the 11th century. It was relatively small and quite lovely. The exterior was white stucco and the entire interior was painted, frescoes I assume, the lower walls in a dark blue and brick red and from about eye level up there were numerous Biblical scenes and many icons of saints. Not knowing anything about the Orthodox religion, we didn’t know what the two small rooms behind the iconostasis were used for. I saw two bottles of oil each with a towel. I asked Gorem what they were for but his limited English prevented him from explaining the purpose of the oil. The floors were unfinished wooden planks. There were two ‘trays’ for lighting candles as you enter. I watched as Gorem approached an icon in the center of the church on a small stand about 3-4 feet high and kissed the icon that rested there then placed money on the stand. The setting was very isolated and the monastery was large with two huge wings. We never saw anyone there other than two people leaving as we were entering the grounds.
Next we drove on to Macedonia where we went to Skopje, a town of 870,000, about ten times bigger than Vranje. First we picked up Gorem’s cousin who lives in a nearby area because Gorem told us he was not familiar with Skopje. We visited an old fort, Tvrdina Kale that was built in the 11th century. All that remains are a few walls but you can get great views of the city from there. A river runs through the center of town. We had another gray and cloudy, cold day although not the bitter cold we had on Saturday.
We crossed the street to see a true gem of a church, Sveti Spas. The church was built below ground, since during Ottoman times it was illegal for a church to be taller than a mosque. The church has an iconostasis (a screen) 10 meters wide by 6 meters tall, beautifully carved in the early 19th century. We have never seen anything as lovely. The woodcarving depicted various scenes and had beautifully carved natural forms like vines and leaves. There were lots of icons on the walls and mounted on the iconostasis. Across the courtyard was a small museum and tomb dedicated to Goce Delcev, a national hero who fought for independence from Turkey and was killed in 1903 by the Turks.
We walked through the Turkish bazaar that was filled with all kinds of shops and almost all were closed. We headed for lunch and had a delightful experience in a restaurant that was housed in what used to be a caravanserai or inn where traders would stop off and rest during Ottoman times. The building dated from 1472 and in 1976 the building was restored. The restaurant had exposed brick and stone walls with arched ceilings and little niches. The bottom floor on an inn was used as a stable and the upper floors housed the travelers. We had a fabulous meal: mine was veal and mashed potatoes with gravy to die for and Ron had a vegetarian dish of roasted veggies that was equally good.
We ran out of time to see anything else as we were picking up Barbara who had spent the weekend in Skopje with friends she used to work with there. We drove home, went back out for dinner for the fourth or fifth time to Kykyra because the other restaurant was closed. Since we had had a large lunch we had soup and salad for dinner.
That’s the blurbia from Serbia.
Friday
Last night we ate dinner with Barbara and two Serbian consultants at the restaurant where we ate on Monday with UNDP staff and consultants. Apparently there are only three good restaurants in town so we will be recycling our dining experiences here. It was the first night where everyone at the table was a non-smoker. Unfortunately we were the only non-smokers in the restaurant. The Serbs gave us some ideas of places we should see this weekend. I was glad we had the discussion because one of the places we wanted to see was Nis, a town that the NATO (US) had bombed in 1999 and I was worried about strong anti-American sentiment and had decided to forgo going there. They said there wouldn’t be any problems and we should go there.
Today was a great day, as I got a bit more adventurous. I was walking towards the bus stop when a taxi flashed his lights, a signal to determine if I wanted a ride. I hailed him over and discovered there were two other passengers in the cab. We proceeded towards Vranje and added yet another passenger, making a total of four, the maximum without sitting in someone’s lap. As we neared town, the driver asked each of us where we wanted to go. I said ‘taxi stand’, which is in the center of town. When I asked how much it was 40 dinar, considerably less than the 300 I pay when riding alone. Good tip to know for the future. I often see taxis with several passengers. I just didn’t realize they were separate individuals riding together. The driver’s name was Igor and spoke great English. I took his number in case Ron can’t find a driver for this weekend.
My first stop was the bakery. If I don’t get there before noon, the roll we like to eat for breakfast is sold out. They now know me and know what I want when I walk in., sort of like walking into your neighborhood bar where the bar keeper asks “your regular?” Next I went to the store I discovered yesterday with electrical supplies and found the adaptor Ron wanted. Then I stopped at another bakery to get a treat for Ivan, the computer shop owner who has been so kind to me. I went to Ivan’s and checked email and paid some bills online. He asked what I was doing here, my name and where was I from. We had a pleasant chat and I was on my way. By the way, Ivan’s brother’s name is Igor. Another common name here is Dragan.
Today was ‘eat in town’ day so I went to the restaurant where we had dinner last night. Since I have had difficulty finding anything but a hamburger stand in town, I had asked last night if they were open for lunch. I had a delicious soup with tiny bits of meat, potatoes, peas and carrots, a large roll and bottled water for $2.00. The restaurant has seven tables that seat three to six people. Very small by our standards. It has wide wood plank floors with a few hand woven rugs, resembling kilim rugs with cotton print tablecloths and paper napkins. The walls are decorated with old photos, an ox yoke, wooden wagon wheel, native dresses, a handloom, weavings, antique guns, and hammered metal cooking pots. The taped music is folk music with violins, accordions or concertinas. It is very rustic and attractive. It has a small village feel to it. The waiter wears what I assume is traditional dress, a woven cummerbund, shirt with woven braids on the cuffs and button tab and pants that end mid calf with a buttoned cuff.
Then I decided to go exploring and walked through an area of town where I hadn’t been before. There were old homes and brand new looking homes that were huge and complete with a satellite dish. I have been noticing sidewalks and cars here. Sidewalks are asphalt, concrete, stone or dirt. Most are in need of repair that requires you to look where you are stepping to avoid a stumble or fall. Cars are almost always parked on the sidewalk causing pedestrians to wind their way around them, frequently stepping into the road. Cars here are very small, frequently battered with missing parts or with paint that has turned dull, flat. There are some new cars but very few fancy cars. I haven’t seen an SUV. The taxis seem very tired and worn. On my walk I climbed up some hills and got a lovely view of part of Vranje, with its terra cotta roofs. I will start taking some photos and have Ron post them. That may take awhile since Internet access is so limited here. So if he can’t post photos here, perhaps in Croatia or for sure when we get to Sri Lanka.
Vranje is very small. I think I mentioned that there are no English newspapers, books or TV stations. Fortunately I haven’t run out of reading yet but I am trying to pace myself because I will go nuts if I do run out. The other day I walked over to the taxi stand to catch a cab home. No one understands me when I try to say ‘Bresnica’, where we are staying. But a cab driver that I had used the day before recognized me and told the driver I was engaging where to take me. Like I said it is a small town. So today I saw my helpful cab driver and used him again to bring me home.
Ron is very relaxed here. In Sri Lanka (SL) he was often under the gun with the schedule and wasn’t relaxed. I told him he seemed real relaxed here and asked him what made the difference. He said, “I’m not in charge and I’m not responsible for this program.” I must say I like him being so relaxed.
We ended the day with dinner at the other hotel in town, which sits on top of a high hill above Vranje. It is a lovely setting with the city lights down below. We ate with Barbara and one of the Serbian consultants.
Saturday
Today Ron and I started the day by visiting the local market, where the locals shop. This is an outdoor market with stalls selling everything from underwear, farm implements, and veggies. And yes, there was a ginzu knife demonstration. We saw women bent over with age, dressed in black complete with matching headscarves and looking like characters from the movie “Zorba the Greek”. Next we headed to Nis, a town about 60 miles north of Vranje. We hired a cab driver that we have used several times. Gorem speaks a little English. The drive was beautiful, passing through a river canyon some of the way. There were high hills on each side of the road and in other places agriculture land and small villages. All the houses here have terra cotta roofs.
Today was bitter cold and very gray. The wind increased the chill factor. I would have guessed it was around 16 degrees Fahrenheit. But it was dry. First we visited an old fort (18th century) that included some old Turkish baths from the 15th century. They are now shops and cafes. We ducked in out of the cold and had a rich dark cup of Serbia espresso.
Because of the cold, we went shopping for a wool sweater and cap for Ron. Because we had to pack for 82 days of travel in two distinct climates (Europe and Sri Lanka), we tried to minimize what we brought but today required some real warmth so shopping we went. Fortunately Gorem took us to a great shopping area and we were able to find what we needed in the third shop we tried. Ron got a great 100% lambs wool sweater for $20. Such a deal. It took another four shops to find a stocking cap. We did see a Nike cap that cost more than the sweater. As you can guess we didn’t get it!
Next we went to lunch in a neighborhood restaurant that had been recommended by one of the consultants from Belgrade. When you dine here, the waiter gives you one menu for the table. Well this one had no English so we relied on Gorem to help us out. We had hot, rich meat soup, salad and very spicy hot sausages. YUM!
Next came Skull Tower. Turks erected this grotesques memorial as an example to others of the folly of opposition to their rule. Following the Battle of Cegar in 1809, it was constructed at the time of the First Serbian Uprising when Serbian General Stevan Sindelic-The Falcon of Cegar-fearing ignominious defeat, blew up himself and his outnumbered troops, along with a large number of Turks, by igniting a gunpowder store. It is estimated that about 3,000 Serbs were killed in the explosion as well as about twice that many Turks.
The tower was the Turkish response to this defiant yet suicidal act. Serbian skulls were gathered from the battlefield, skinned before being mounted in rows of a specially built tower 3 meters high. Originally there were over 900 skulls in the tower. Now only 58 remain. In 1892 a chapel was built around the tower to protect it and it now is a monument to the spirit of Serbian courage.
After this experience we headed to a high speed Internet café, as Ron has been unable to access his SL email account in Vranje and needed to catch up. From here we headed home, stopping at Gorem’s request at a brand new Metro store, a Serbian version of Costco or Price Club. We headed back to Vranje into town and had dinner for the third time at Kykyra, one of the three decent restaurants in town. It was the first meal other than breakfast that we had alone.
Last night we ate dinner with Barbara and two Serbian consultants at the restaurant where we ate on Monday with UNDP staff and consultants. Apparently there are only three good restaurants in town so we will be recycling our dining experiences here. It was the first night where everyone at the table was a non-smoker. Unfortunately we were the only non-smokers in the restaurant. The Serbs gave us some ideas of places we should see this weekend. I was glad we had the discussion because one of the places we wanted to see was Nis, a town that the NATO (US) had bombed in 1999 and I was worried about strong anti-American sentiment and had decided to forgo going there. They said there wouldn’t be any problems and we should go there.
Today was a great day, as I got a bit more adventurous. I was walking towards the bus stop when a taxi flashed his lights, a signal to determine if I wanted a ride. I hailed him over and discovered there were two other passengers in the cab. We proceeded towards Vranje and added yet another passenger, making a total of four, the maximum without sitting in someone’s lap. As we neared town, the driver asked each of us where we wanted to go. I said ‘taxi stand’, which is in the center of town. When I asked how much it was 40 dinar, considerably less than the 300 I pay when riding alone. Good tip to know for the future. I often see taxis with several passengers. I just didn’t realize they were separate individuals riding together. The driver’s name was Igor and spoke great English. I took his number in case Ron can’t find a driver for this weekend.
My first stop was the bakery. If I don’t get there before noon, the roll we like to eat for breakfast is sold out. They now know me and know what I want when I walk in., sort of like walking into your neighborhood bar where the bar keeper asks “your regular?” Next I went to the store I discovered yesterday with electrical supplies and found the adaptor Ron wanted. Then I stopped at another bakery to get a treat for Ivan, the computer shop owner who has been so kind to me. I went to Ivan’s and checked email and paid some bills online. He asked what I was doing here, my name and where was I from. We had a pleasant chat and I was on my way. By the way, Ivan’s brother’s name is Igor. Another common name here is Dragan.
Today was ‘eat in town’ day so I went to the restaurant where we had dinner last night. Since I have had difficulty finding anything but a hamburger stand in town, I had asked last night if they were open for lunch. I had a delicious soup with tiny bits of meat, potatoes, peas and carrots, a large roll and bottled water for $2.00. The restaurant has seven tables that seat three to six people. Very small by our standards. It has wide wood plank floors with a few hand woven rugs, resembling kilim rugs with cotton print tablecloths and paper napkins. The walls are decorated with old photos, an ox yoke, wooden wagon wheel, native dresses, a handloom, weavings, antique guns, and hammered metal cooking pots. The taped music is folk music with violins, accordions or concertinas. It is very rustic and attractive. It has a small village feel to it. The waiter wears what I assume is traditional dress, a woven cummerbund, shirt with woven braids on the cuffs and button tab and pants that end mid calf with a buttoned cuff.
Then I decided to go exploring and walked through an area of town where I hadn’t been before. There were old homes and brand new looking homes that were huge and complete with a satellite dish. I have been noticing sidewalks and cars here. Sidewalks are asphalt, concrete, stone or dirt. Most are in need of repair that requires you to look where you are stepping to avoid a stumble or fall. Cars are almost always parked on the sidewalk causing pedestrians to wind their way around them, frequently stepping into the road. Cars here are very small, frequently battered with missing parts or with paint that has turned dull, flat. There are some new cars but very few fancy cars. I haven’t seen an SUV. The taxis seem very tired and worn. On my walk I climbed up some hills and got a lovely view of part of Vranje, with its terra cotta roofs. I will start taking some photos and have Ron post them. That may take awhile since Internet access is so limited here. So if he can’t post photos here, perhaps in Croatia or for sure when we get to Sri Lanka.
Vranje is very small. I think I mentioned that there are no English newspapers, books or TV stations. Fortunately I haven’t run out of reading yet but I am trying to pace myself because I will go nuts if I do run out. The other day I walked over to the taxi stand to catch a cab home. No one understands me when I try to say ‘Bresnica’, where we are staying. But a cab driver that I had used the day before recognized me and told the driver I was engaging where to take me. Like I said it is a small town. So today I saw my helpful cab driver and used him again to bring me home.
Ron is very relaxed here. In Sri Lanka (SL) he was often under the gun with the schedule and wasn’t relaxed. I told him he seemed real relaxed here and asked him what made the difference. He said, “I’m not in charge and I’m not responsible for this program.” I must say I like him being so relaxed.
We ended the day with dinner at the other hotel in town, which sits on top of a high hill above Vranje. It is a lovely setting with the city lights down below. We ate with Barbara and one of the Serbian consultants.
Saturday
Today Ron and I started the day by visiting the local market, where the locals shop. This is an outdoor market with stalls selling everything from underwear, farm implements, and veggies. And yes, there was a ginzu knife demonstration. We saw women bent over with age, dressed in black complete with matching headscarves and looking like characters from the movie “Zorba the Greek”. Next we headed to Nis, a town about 60 miles north of Vranje. We hired a cab driver that we have used several times. Gorem speaks a little English. The drive was beautiful, passing through a river canyon some of the way. There were high hills on each side of the road and in other places agriculture land and small villages. All the houses here have terra cotta roofs.
Today was bitter cold and very gray. The wind increased the chill factor. I would have guessed it was around 16 degrees Fahrenheit. But it was dry. First we visited an old fort (18th century) that included some old Turkish baths from the 15th century. They are now shops and cafes. We ducked in out of the cold and had a rich dark cup of Serbia espresso.
Because of the cold, we went shopping for a wool sweater and cap for Ron. Because we had to pack for 82 days of travel in two distinct climates (Europe and Sri Lanka), we tried to minimize what we brought but today required some real warmth so shopping we went. Fortunately Gorem took us to a great shopping area and we were able to find what we needed in the third shop we tried. Ron got a great 100% lambs wool sweater for $20. Such a deal. It took another four shops to find a stocking cap. We did see a Nike cap that cost more than the sweater. As you can guess we didn’t get it!
Next we went to lunch in a neighborhood restaurant that had been recommended by one of the consultants from Belgrade. When you dine here, the waiter gives you one menu for the table. Well this one had no English so we relied on Gorem to help us out. We had hot, rich meat soup, salad and very spicy hot sausages. YUM!
Next came Skull Tower. Turks erected this grotesques memorial as an example to others of the folly of opposition to their rule. Following the Battle of Cegar in 1809, it was constructed at the time of the First Serbian Uprising when Serbian General Stevan Sindelic-The Falcon of Cegar-fearing ignominious defeat, blew up himself and his outnumbered troops, along with a large number of Turks, by igniting a gunpowder store. It is estimated that about 3,000 Serbs were killed in the explosion as well as about twice that many Turks.
The tower was the Turkish response to this defiant yet suicidal act. Serbian skulls were gathered from the battlefield, skinned before being mounted in rows of a specially built tower 3 meters high. Originally there were over 900 skulls in the tower. Now only 58 remain. In 1892 a chapel was built around the tower to protect it and it now is a monument to the spirit of Serbian courage.
After this experience we headed to a high speed Internet café, as Ron has been unable to access his SL email account in Vranje and needed to catch up. From here we headed home, stopping at Gorem’s request at a brand new Metro store, a Serbian version of Costco or Price Club. We headed back to Vranje into town and had dinner for the third time at Kykyra, one of the three decent restaurants in town. It was the first meal other than breakfast that we had alone.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Tuesday
Tuesday was warm and sunny. I had asked Barbara who is a consultant who speaks five languages to ask our host, Meineke if there was a washing machine to use here. She spoke Italian to our host as she doesn’t speak Serbian. The next morning Meineke’s mother brought down two large plastic tubs so I washed jeans and shirts by hand, something I hadn’t done since hippie days in the log cabin where I lived. Later I found out there is a washing machine upstairs so I guess the answer is no to me or something got lost in translation…at any rate I was grateful for a sunny day that allowed the clothes to dry before nightfall.
We are staying in a private residence located about 5 miles from town. This is a common practice here since there is only one hotel that is expensive, very old and not so nice we have been told. I got brave and took a bus into town. It cost 30 dinar, about $0.40. It cost 250-300 dinar for a taxi. I was a little anxious since I had no idea where the bus would go into town and I only know one central area. Fortunately for me, the bus went right to the area I am familiar with. Some of the buses appear to be newer but don’t have a system for telling the driver where to let you off. The one I rode today was very old, dirty inside to the point I could have written my name on the dirty window with my finger. There was graffiti on the walls.
I am discovering that very few people speak English here. That makes ordering food in a restaurant or shop a trial. I hadn’t eaten lunch so was looking for a place. I saw a bakery and went in and pointed to something that looked like a savory pastry. It was pie shaped and was cut in half. Using sign language I asked if I could have a slice. After several tries the counter person took out an instrument that looked like a pizza wheel for cutting, did a mock cut to which I nodded and said yes. At that point she went into a long discourse and I had no idea what she was saying so gave up. I walked and walked looking for a restaurant. I finally saw a sign that said ‘slow food’. Cool I thought. Well it was another hamburger stand. I gave up and ate my second hamburger since I have been here.
Next I tried to find an Internet café. I finally found a café that had Internet but neither machine was working. So I returned to my little shop where I can use the shopkeeper’s machine. A different man was there today but must have known about me because he spoke no English but knew what I wanted. I was unable to access our blog site so may have to wait until we get to Croatia to post. I will try again Wednesday..
Without refrigeration it isn’t possible to bring home much in the way of groceries: a little fruit and bakery items for breakfast. Since it has warmed up I don’t trust using the cold pantry as a source for cooling items. But because finding restaurants is difficult and I really don’t want to eat HUGE hamburger everyday, I will alternate eating in town for lunch and bringing home something simple to eat. Last night we went out with Barbara who is staying upstairs and another consultant on the job. A staff member had recommended a restaurant where we could get something ‘light’. The cuisine here is very heavy with huge portions of meat. So Ron, Barbara and I get to the restaurant first. The waiter spoke no English but with trial and error we ordered drinks. Fortunately about half of the menu was in English. Because we had not made a reservation and ordered over the phone about two thirds of the items were not available. Any grilled meat was available of course. So Ron and I ordered a ‘green salad’ that turned out to be roasted vegetables, cheeses, cheese spreads and two lettuce leafs. We split one entrée of grilled chicken that came with a small helping of fries and three huge chicken breasts. Good lord, Serbs should weigh a ton. Or maybe this is a version of the Atkins diet that was a rage a while back. The worst thing about eating here is the smoke. Serbs love to smoke and they smoke throughout a meal without even thinking about asking other diners at the table if they mind. The other consultant whose name I don’t know is Croatian but lives in Serbia and smoked the entire time we were dining. Oy. Cafes were very plentiful here. They don’t serve food for the most part, just coffee and alcohol and everyone smokes. Barbara doesn’t smoke either so we were hopeful that we would be spared. No such luck. Food is cheap and plentiful here. My hamburger was about $0.50. I bought some dark roasted coffee that was freshly ground and that was about $1.50. Turns out that dark roast could be called ‘burnt’ roast.
Wednesday
I didn’t get up with Ron this morning, as I hadn’t slept well. He came into the bedroom to visit before leaving for work and said he had made the worst coffee of his life then told me he had used the Serbian coffee. I tried it later mixed with the Peets coffee I had brought with us and he is right. Kah kah! That is going to be thrown out.
Today I slept until noon, which is unheard of for me but I have only had one full night’s rest since last Thursday so wasn’t surprised. Plus our apartment is too hot and I tend to feel drugged when sleeping here. Anyway, I was awakened when someone stuck her head in the door and yelled out for the person who normally lives here. This has happened four times since we have been here. I take it must be a local custom. Open the door and yell out the person’s name. Best to be dressed at all times.
So I ventured back into town to mail a book and try my luck on the Internet again. I returned to my little computer shop and discovered six men standing around drinking and smoking. Six people completely fills the shop. I offered to come back at a more convenient time but Igor insisted that I stay. He offered me vodka or whisky but I declined. Yuck! It turns out that today was his open house for his brand new shop so friends were coming by to celebrate. One man walked in and threw coins into the air. I later asked about it and was told it is done to bring luck. When I got up to leave I saw that there was paper money on the floor also but Igor said the coins are better because of the ringing sound they make. I threw a handful into the air and wished him luck.
So far all the street signs in town are in the Cyrillic alphabet making it impossible to me to use my map that uses the Latin alphabet. I’m not sure if I had ever been in a place where I felt more unable to communicate. I did find a chocolate shop where the sales clerk spoke some English. I now consider dark chocolate health food and I have only been able to find milk chocolate. However the clerk showed me some dark chocolate she had behind the counter. Score!
Thursday
Last night we walked to a restaurant that is about 10 minutes from here. The owner didn’t speak English but asked if we spoke German or Italian. We told him our friend, Barbara, would be joining us and she spoke Italian. It turned out he knew about as much Italian as we know Serbian, not much! So ordering became a challenge. Since we had had our fill of beef we asked if he had chicken. When he didn’t understand in Italian, I tried clucking and miming a chicken and he got it. I have lost whatever vanity I may have had and don’t mind making a fool of myself. It worked. But of course he sent two breasts per person, exactly twice what any of us could eat. So we asked him to wrap up the leftovers so Barbara and Ron could have them for lunch today. Our clothes reek of cigarette smoke. It is impossible to find any place where people don’t smoke. I am amazed at how many people smoke here and how many are heavy smokers.
Vranje is a small town of about 87,000. So far we have not been able to find a commercial laundry where we could have a sweater dry-cleaned. Ron even asked some staff at the UNDP office and no one knew of one. That is a first for us. Today I am going to try and find a hardware store to replace a light bulb that has burned out in the bathroom.
I have been reading in the tour book about places to visit in the region. We want to do two one-day trips this weekend if we can hire a car and driver. In Sri Lanka this was easy just about anywhere we went. A staff member at UNDP will inquire as to whether any of the UN drivers would be interested. If that doesn’t work, he was going to see if he could find some taxi drivers who might be interested. Given how old most taxis are here, I would think someone would jump at the chance to have an all day fare. We would love to see more of the countryside and some old castles, forts, or monasteries. We thought about going to Nis to see some ruins but NATO (ie the US) bombed Nis in 1999 and I think Americans would not be welcomed there. Apparently during the time we were bombing Serbia, we destroyed the airport, tobacco factory and industrial area in Nis. So we are looking at other areas that are within a day’s drive of Vranje. In Pirot there are about 15 women who still make kilim rugs. We may try to go there just to see how they are made.
We are staying in an area outside of Vranje called Bresnica. It is somewhat rural and at least half of the houses here are half finished. Most homes here are stucco and a few are brick. The unfinished houses have the terra cotta bricks/blocks in place but the walls have never been finished with stucco. Consequently the homes would be quite drafty. Some have boards over the openings for windows, as windows have never been installed. In South Africa we were told as people got a few dollars together they would complete the next step in construction of their homes. Perhaps it is the same here. Unfortunately, we are in an area not frequented by tourist so there are no English newspapers or books and no English channels on the TV. The US could have fallen into the ocean and we would not know about it. Today’s trip into town was uneventful. I did go shopping for a light bulb for the bathroom and had to go to five stores before I found one. One of the stores was somewhat like a department store although more primitive. I was surprised to see merchandise with a heavy coat of dust. I guess things don’t move too quickly here.
In the meantime, that’s the blurbia from Serbia.
Tuesday was warm and sunny. I had asked Barbara who is a consultant who speaks five languages to ask our host, Meineke if there was a washing machine to use here. She spoke Italian to our host as she doesn’t speak Serbian. The next morning Meineke’s mother brought down two large plastic tubs so I washed jeans and shirts by hand, something I hadn’t done since hippie days in the log cabin where I lived. Later I found out there is a washing machine upstairs so I guess the answer is no to me or something got lost in translation…at any rate I was grateful for a sunny day that allowed the clothes to dry before nightfall.
We are staying in a private residence located about 5 miles from town. This is a common practice here since there is only one hotel that is expensive, very old and not so nice we have been told. I got brave and took a bus into town. It cost 30 dinar, about $0.40. It cost 250-300 dinar for a taxi. I was a little anxious since I had no idea where the bus would go into town and I only know one central area. Fortunately for me, the bus went right to the area I am familiar with. Some of the buses appear to be newer but don’t have a system for telling the driver where to let you off. The one I rode today was very old, dirty inside to the point I could have written my name on the dirty window with my finger. There was graffiti on the walls.
I am discovering that very few people speak English here. That makes ordering food in a restaurant or shop a trial. I hadn’t eaten lunch so was looking for a place. I saw a bakery and went in and pointed to something that looked like a savory pastry. It was pie shaped and was cut in half. Using sign language I asked if I could have a slice. After several tries the counter person took out an instrument that looked like a pizza wheel for cutting, did a mock cut to which I nodded and said yes. At that point she went into a long discourse and I had no idea what she was saying so gave up. I walked and walked looking for a restaurant. I finally saw a sign that said ‘slow food’. Cool I thought. Well it was another hamburger stand. I gave up and ate my second hamburger since I have been here.
Next I tried to find an Internet café. I finally found a café that had Internet but neither machine was working. So I returned to my little shop where I can use the shopkeeper’s machine. A different man was there today but must have known about me because he spoke no English but knew what I wanted. I was unable to access our blog site so may have to wait until we get to Croatia to post. I will try again Wednesday..
Without refrigeration it isn’t possible to bring home much in the way of groceries: a little fruit and bakery items for breakfast. Since it has warmed up I don’t trust using the cold pantry as a source for cooling items. But because finding restaurants is difficult and I really don’t want to eat HUGE hamburger everyday, I will alternate eating in town for lunch and bringing home something simple to eat. Last night we went out with Barbara who is staying upstairs and another consultant on the job. A staff member had recommended a restaurant where we could get something ‘light’. The cuisine here is very heavy with huge portions of meat. So Ron, Barbara and I get to the restaurant first. The waiter spoke no English but with trial and error we ordered drinks. Fortunately about half of the menu was in English. Because we had not made a reservation and ordered over the phone about two thirds of the items were not available. Any grilled meat was available of course. So Ron and I ordered a ‘green salad’ that turned out to be roasted vegetables, cheeses, cheese spreads and two lettuce leafs. We split one entrée of grilled chicken that came with a small helping of fries and three huge chicken breasts. Good lord, Serbs should weigh a ton. Or maybe this is a version of the Atkins diet that was a rage a while back. The worst thing about eating here is the smoke. Serbs love to smoke and they smoke throughout a meal without even thinking about asking other diners at the table if they mind. The other consultant whose name I don’t know is Croatian but lives in Serbia and smoked the entire time we were dining. Oy. Cafes were very plentiful here. They don’t serve food for the most part, just coffee and alcohol and everyone smokes. Barbara doesn’t smoke either so we were hopeful that we would be spared. No such luck. Food is cheap and plentiful here. My hamburger was about $0.50. I bought some dark roasted coffee that was freshly ground and that was about $1.50. Turns out that dark roast could be called ‘burnt’ roast.
Wednesday
I didn’t get up with Ron this morning, as I hadn’t slept well. He came into the bedroom to visit before leaving for work and said he had made the worst coffee of his life then told me he had used the Serbian coffee. I tried it later mixed with the Peets coffee I had brought with us and he is right. Kah kah! That is going to be thrown out.
Today I slept until noon, which is unheard of for me but I have only had one full night’s rest since last Thursday so wasn’t surprised. Plus our apartment is too hot and I tend to feel drugged when sleeping here. Anyway, I was awakened when someone stuck her head in the door and yelled out for the person who normally lives here. This has happened four times since we have been here. I take it must be a local custom. Open the door and yell out the person’s name. Best to be dressed at all times.
So I ventured back into town to mail a book and try my luck on the Internet again. I returned to my little computer shop and discovered six men standing around drinking and smoking. Six people completely fills the shop. I offered to come back at a more convenient time but Igor insisted that I stay. He offered me vodka or whisky but I declined. Yuck! It turns out that today was his open house for his brand new shop so friends were coming by to celebrate. One man walked in and threw coins into the air. I later asked about it and was told it is done to bring luck. When I got up to leave I saw that there was paper money on the floor also but Igor said the coins are better because of the ringing sound they make. I threw a handful into the air and wished him luck.
So far all the street signs in town are in the Cyrillic alphabet making it impossible to me to use my map that uses the Latin alphabet. I’m not sure if I had ever been in a place where I felt more unable to communicate. I did find a chocolate shop where the sales clerk spoke some English. I now consider dark chocolate health food and I have only been able to find milk chocolate. However the clerk showed me some dark chocolate she had behind the counter. Score!
Thursday
Last night we walked to a restaurant that is about 10 minutes from here. The owner didn’t speak English but asked if we spoke German or Italian. We told him our friend, Barbara, would be joining us and she spoke Italian. It turned out he knew about as much Italian as we know Serbian, not much! So ordering became a challenge. Since we had had our fill of beef we asked if he had chicken. When he didn’t understand in Italian, I tried clucking and miming a chicken and he got it. I have lost whatever vanity I may have had and don’t mind making a fool of myself. It worked. But of course he sent two breasts per person, exactly twice what any of us could eat. So we asked him to wrap up the leftovers so Barbara and Ron could have them for lunch today. Our clothes reek of cigarette smoke. It is impossible to find any place where people don’t smoke. I am amazed at how many people smoke here and how many are heavy smokers.
Vranje is a small town of about 87,000. So far we have not been able to find a commercial laundry where we could have a sweater dry-cleaned. Ron even asked some staff at the UNDP office and no one knew of one. That is a first for us. Today I am going to try and find a hardware store to replace a light bulb that has burned out in the bathroom.
I have been reading in the tour book about places to visit in the region. We want to do two one-day trips this weekend if we can hire a car and driver. In Sri Lanka this was easy just about anywhere we went. A staff member at UNDP will inquire as to whether any of the UN drivers would be interested. If that doesn’t work, he was going to see if he could find some taxi drivers who might be interested. Given how old most taxis are here, I would think someone would jump at the chance to have an all day fare. We would love to see more of the countryside and some old castles, forts, or monasteries. We thought about going to Nis to see some ruins but NATO (ie the US) bombed Nis in 1999 and I think Americans would not be welcomed there. Apparently during the time we were bombing Serbia, we destroyed the airport, tobacco factory and industrial area in Nis. So we are looking at other areas that are within a day’s drive of Vranje. In Pirot there are about 15 women who still make kilim rugs. We may try to go there just to see how they are made.
We are staying in an area outside of Vranje called Bresnica. It is somewhat rural and at least half of the houses here are half finished. Most homes here are stucco and a few are brick. The unfinished houses have the terra cotta bricks/blocks in place but the walls have never been finished with stucco. Consequently the homes would be quite drafty. Some have boards over the openings for windows, as windows have never been installed. In South Africa we were told as people got a few dollars together they would complete the next step in construction of their homes. Perhaps it is the same here. Unfortunately, we are in an area not frequented by tourist so there are no English newspapers or books and no English channels on the TV. The US could have fallen into the ocean and we would not know about it. Today’s trip into town was uneventful. I did go shopping for a light bulb for the bathroom and had to go to five stores before I found one. One of the stores was somewhat like a department store although more primitive. I was surprised to see merchandise with a heavy coat of dust. I guess things don’t move too quickly here.
In the meantime, that’s the blurbia from Serbia.
Part B 2-19-07
I forgot to mention since we were staying out of town about five miles and had no groceries we asked the driver if we could get a bite to eat before going to the apartment on Sunday night. Not much was open but he took us to a ‘fast food’ place. It was a hole in the wall place and had a chalkboard menu with about ten items. You could have anything on the menu as long as it was the first thing on the menu-hamburgers. Ron and I stopped eating beef in the early 1990’s and average beef about for-five times a year. We almost never eat hamburgers, averaging one about every 8-10 years. We had a hamburger last night but it was good. It cost about $1.50 and was huge. You got to pick your toppings: shredded cabbage, lettuce, mayo, mustard, and ketchup, and a concoction of minced onions and chilies and pickles.
So on Monday I rode into town with Ron and I got let out in the heart of Vranje, a town that has a distinct village feel to it. Easy to get around on foot, filled with small shops and many street vendors with a small cot or trap on the ground, selling socks and underwear mostly. I can’t imagine how they survive.
First thing I did was find a bank that took my ATM card and gave me dinars, about 72 or 73 to a dollar. Yippeeeeee! It was a big relief. Then I just walked around the area. I found the taxi stand, bakery, a place to buy a card so my SL cell phone would work here and a grocery store. I found a café as I needed a bladder break and ordered a coffee. They have fabulous strong coffee here. I got an espresso and had him add some hot water, an Americano if you were at Starbucks, which is not to be found in Vranje. I had been given directions to an Internet café that I never found but stumbled across an Internet sign that pointed down a stub alley. It turned out to be a small shop that sold computer stuff and the shopkeeper had a laptop on his desk and let me use it. He stood around while I checked email, and then took a smoke break outside after offering me coffee and cigarettes. When I finished about 30 minutes later, he asked me to come back anytime I wanted to use the Internet and then told me he wouldn’t take any money. My word, I was floored. Folks are not well off here yet he was being very generous. I was touched. I finished my shopping and came home. I made a light lunch of scrambled eggs using a saucepan, as there is no frying pan, but heck it works. I also had some dried salami to season the eggs as I discovered there wasn’t any salt or pepper here and some bread that Vibeke had given us. Yum. I read and tried to nap unsuccessfully.
Now for a very brief history lesson. My book on Serbia dedicates 18 pages to history. Yikes. This will be sketchy so bare with me. The oldest Neolithic site in Europe is in Serbia near the Romanian border. It dates to the 7th millennium BC. From what remains it appears to be a reasonably developed civilization and strange life-size stone sculptures that appear to represent fish-headed men. No doubt the early settlers took advantage of the river’s plentiful fish supply and so the figures may represent some form of fish divinity totem.
As the Roman Empire disintegrated in the 5th century AD, Barbarian raiders started to appear-Huns, Goths and Avars from the central Asia steppe. It is also at this time that the Serbs started to arrive. By the time they started to colonized the Balkans, they could be recognized as two distinct groups according to the routes of their migration. The Slavs who would later become the Croats had migrated from Poland and the proto-Serbs had moved from the region now known as the Czech Republic. These became quarrelsome cousins who spoke an almost identical language and who displaced or absorbed the ethnic groups who had been here.
The Serbs came under the influence of the Orthodox missionaries from Constantinople in the same way Rome proselytized to the Croats. The first three centuries of Serb presence was characterized by conflict, with constant power struggles taking places between competing princes. The first Serbian kingdom took place in the present day Montenegro in the 11th century. This first king renounced his allegiance to Constantinople and pronounced himself in favor of Rome. The state expanded to include Serbian tribes in Herzegovina, and Albania. Next comes the Nemanjic dynasty for two centuries with lots of killing of kin for power. I told you this would be sketchy. During this period Serbs shared a common identity, a national spirit and sense of destiny. This is also an era when Serbia’s close association with the Orthodox Church was at its peak. After some big battles, (I’m taking a lot of liberties here) large scale Serb migration to the north (Hungary) and the west took place. Fear of the Ottomans was tangible and as the Ottoman Empire was a strict Islamic theocracy, religious persecution was rife. Some Serbs converted to avoid persecution. Tens of thousands of Serbians who did not convert were taken into slavery. Children were forcibly taken from their families, converted to Islam and trained to be elite troops of the Ottomans. These Janissaries became in time a self-determining elite that protected its own power and influence with spectacular savagery and cruelty.
In 1521 Belgrade was burnt down by Suleiman the Magnificent.and remained in Turkish hands until 1717. By the turn of the 19th century the Ottoman leadership was corrupt and in decline. The Janissaries had become unruly and self-perpetuating elite that were a law unto themselves. The First National Uprising against the Turks took place in 1804. This was followed by the Second National Uprising in 1815. From the 1830s onward Serbia started to develop an identity more akin to central Europe than to that of a peripheral province of a flagging empire.
A coup d’etat in 1903 brought King Petar l to the throne. He introduced a democratic constitution and initiated a period of parliamentary government that encouraged political freedom. The whole of the Balkans region underwent rapid change as new Balkan states were created in the vacuum left by the Turks. With backing from Petar l, the League for Liberation of the Balkans from Turkey was set up in which Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro all cooperated to drive the Turks from the region. The First Balkan War of 1912 forced the Turks to concede Macedonia and Kosovo to Serbia. However the new allies soon fell out over Macedonia and Bulgaria attacked Greece and Serbia in an attempt to claim sole possession. This led to the Second Balkan War in 1913. Serbia acquired western Macedonia as part of the settlement to this conflict.
By the end of World War l Serbia had lost 28% of its pre-war population and 58% of its total male population. As the war ended and Eastern Europe reshaped itself, Serbia became incorporated as just one component in a greater South Slav nation. On December 1, 1918 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes came into existence, which unitied the territories of three republics along with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. This short-lived federation would become the blueprint for the future Yugoslavia.
In the intervening years between WWl and WWll the Communist Party was emerging in Yugoslavia. In 1939 Josip Broz, who became known as Tito, was elected chairman of the party. He played a crucial role in uniting resistance against Nazi occupation. During the war Croatia adopted an extreme policy of racial purification and created extermination camps. They killed 750,000 Serbs, Roma and Jews over a three-year period. By the end of the war, one tenth of the population (1.7 million) of Yugoslavia had perished either in combat, reprisals or concentration camps. By the end of 1945, the Communist Party was in power and socialist Yugoslavia was established as a federal state made up of six republics-Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro-together with two autonomous regions within Serbia-Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija. Tito had his own vision of socialism and gave each of the constituent republics individual autonomy for its internal affairs.
Tito died in 1980 and by 1991 the tensions between the republics had grown to a crisis point. By 1992 only two of the republics remained, Serbia and Montenegro and they formed the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By 1995, 200,000 Serbs had left Croatia as racial tensions grew. In 1998 The Kosovo Liberation Army came out in open rebellion against Serbian rule. NATO launched air strikes against Serbia in March of 1999 when they boycotted the peace talks in Paris. Last night at dinner when we were talking about how much we disliked Present Bush, one of the diners stated that Serbians liked Bush better because at least he didn’t bomb Serbia like Clinton.
One more interesting note here is on inflation under the Milosevic rule. In Dec 1993 inflation was so acute the central bank was printing a 500 billion-dinar banknote. It was worth about $6.US. By that evening it was worth half that much. We complain if inflation is 3%. Here it was going up at the rate of 3% an hour and topped out at the highest ever recorded: 600,000%. That is today’s brief history lesson of this area. As Ron likes to say ‘That’s the blurbia from Serbia.’ Oy!
I forgot to mention since we were staying out of town about five miles and had no groceries we asked the driver if we could get a bite to eat before going to the apartment on Sunday night. Not much was open but he took us to a ‘fast food’ place. It was a hole in the wall place and had a chalkboard menu with about ten items. You could have anything on the menu as long as it was the first thing on the menu-hamburgers. Ron and I stopped eating beef in the early 1990’s and average beef about for-five times a year. We almost never eat hamburgers, averaging one about every 8-10 years. We had a hamburger last night but it was good. It cost about $1.50 and was huge. You got to pick your toppings: shredded cabbage, lettuce, mayo, mustard, and ketchup, and a concoction of minced onions and chilies and pickles.
So on Monday I rode into town with Ron and I got let out in the heart of Vranje, a town that has a distinct village feel to it. Easy to get around on foot, filled with small shops and many street vendors with a small cot or trap on the ground, selling socks and underwear mostly. I can’t imagine how they survive.
First thing I did was find a bank that took my ATM card and gave me dinars, about 72 or 73 to a dollar. Yippeeeeee! It was a big relief. Then I just walked around the area. I found the taxi stand, bakery, a place to buy a card so my SL cell phone would work here and a grocery store. I found a café as I needed a bladder break and ordered a coffee. They have fabulous strong coffee here. I got an espresso and had him add some hot water, an Americano if you were at Starbucks, which is not to be found in Vranje. I had been given directions to an Internet café that I never found but stumbled across an Internet sign that pointed down a stub alley. It turned out to be a small shop that sold computer stuff and the shopkeeper had a laptop on his desk and let me use it. He stood around while I checked email, and then took a smoke break outside after offering me coffee and cigarettes. When I finished about 30 minutes later, he asked me to come back anytime I wanted to use the Internet and then told me he wouldn’t take any money. My word, I was floored. Folks are not well off here yet he was being very generous. I was touched. I finished my shopping and came home. I made a light lunch of scrambled eggs using a saucepan, as there is no frying pan, but heck it works. I also had some dried salami to season the eggs as I discovered there wasn’t any salt or pepper here and some bread that Vibeke had given us. Yum. I read and tried to nap unsuccessfully.
Now for a very brief history lesson. My book on Serbia dedicates 18 pages to history. Yikes. This will be sketchy so bare with me. The oldest Neolithic site in Europe is in Serbia near the Romanian border. It dates to the 7th millennium BC. From what remains it appears to be a reasonably developed civilization and strange life-size stone sculptures that appear to represent fish-headed men. No doubt the early settlers took advantage of the river’s plentiful fish supply and so the figures may represent some form of fish divinity totem.
As the Roman Empire disintegrated in the 5th century AD, Barbarian raiders started to appear-Huns, Goths and Avars from the central Asia steppe. It is also at this time that the Serbs started to arrive. By the time they started to colonized the Balkans, they could be recognized as two distinct groups according to the routes of their migration. The Slavs who would later become the Croats had migrated from Poland and the proto-Serbs had moved from the region now known as the Czech Republic. These became quarrelsome cousins who spoke an almost identical language and who displaced or absorbed the ethnic groups who had been here.
The Serbs came under the influence of the Orthodox missionaries from Constantinople in the same way Rome proselytized to the Croats. The first three centuries of Serb presence was characterized by conflict, with constant power struggles taking places between competing princes. The first Serbian kingdom took place in the present day Montenegro in the 11th century. This first king renounced his allegiance to Constantinople and pronounced himself in favor of Rome. The state expanded to include Serbian tribes in Herzegovina, and Albania. Next comes the Nemanjic dynasty for two centuries with lots of killing of kin for power. I told you this would be sketchy. During this period Serbs shared a common identity, a national spirit and sense of destiny. This is also an era when Serbia’s close association with the Orthodox Church was at its peak. After some big battles, (I’m taking a lot of liberties here) large scale Serb migration to the north (Hungary) and the west took place. Fear of the Ottomans was tangible and as the Ottoman Empire was a strict Islamic theocracy, religious persecution was rife. Some Serbs converted to avoid persecution. Tens of thousands of Serbians who did not convert were taken into slavery. Children were forcibly taken from their families, converted to Islam and trained to be elite troops of the Ottomans. These Janissaries became in time a self-determining elite that protected its own power and influence with spectacular savagery and cruelty.
In 1521 Belgrade was burnt down by Suleiman the Magnificent.and remained in Turkish hands until 1717. By the turn of the 19th century the Ottoman leadership was corrupt and in decline. The Janissaries had become unruly and self-perpetuating elite that were a law unto themselves. The First National Uprising against the Turks took place in 1804. This was followed by the Second National Uprising in 1815. From the 1830s onward Serbia started to develop an identity more akin to central Europe than to that of a peripheral province of a flagging empire.
A coup d’etat in 1903 brought King Petar l to the throne. He introduced a democratic constitution and initiated a period of parliamentary government that encouraged political freedom. The whole of the Balkans region underwent rapid change as new Balkan states were created in the vacuum left by the Turks. With backing from Petar l, the League for Liberation of the Balkans from Turkey was set up in which Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro all cooperated to drive the Turks from the region. The First Balkan War of 1912 forced the Turks to concede Macedonia and Kosovo to Serbia. However the new allies soon fell out over Macedonia and Bulgaria attacked Greece and Serbia in an attempt to claim sole possession. This led to the Second Balkan War in 1913. Serbia acquired western Macedonia as part of the settlement to this conflict.
By the end of World War l Serbia had lost 28% of its pre-war population and 58% of its total male population. As the war ended and Eastern Europe reshaped itself, Serbia became incorporated as just one component in a greater South Slav nation. On December 1, 1918 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes came into existence, which unitied the territories of three republics along with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. This short-lived federation would become the blueprint for the future Yugoslavia.
In the intervening years between WWl and WWll the Communist Party was emerging in Yugoslavia. In 1939 Josip Broz, who became known as Tito, was elected chairman of the party. He played a crucial role in uniting resistance against Nazi occupation. During the war Croatia adopted an extreme policy of racial purification and created extermination camps. They killed 750,000 Serbs, Roma and Jews over a three-year period. By the end of the war, one tenth of the population (1.7 million) of Yugoslavia had perished either in combat, reprisals or concentration camps. By the end of 1945, the Communist Party was in power and socialist Yugoslavia was established as a federal state made up of six republics-Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro-together with two autonomous regions within Serbia-Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija. Tito had his own vision of socialism and gave each of the constituent republics individual autonomy for its internal affairs.
Tito died in 1980 and by 1991 the tensions between the republics had grown to a crisis point. By 1992 only two of the republics remained, Serbia and Montenegro and they formed the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By 1995, 200,000 Serbs had left Croatia as racial tensions grew. In 1998 The Kosovo Liberation Army came out in open rebellion against Serbian rule. NATO launched air strikes against Serbia in March of 1999 when they boycotted the peace talks in Paris. Last night at dinner when we were talking about how much we disliked Present Bush, one of the diners stated that Serbians liked Bush better because at least he didn’t bomb Serbia like Clinton.
One more interesting note here is on inflation under the Milosevic rule. In Dec 1993 inflation was so acute the central bank was printing a 500 billion-dinar banknote. It was worth about $6.US. By that evening it was worth half that much. We complain if inflation is 3%. Here it was going up at the rate of 3% an hour and topped out at the highest ever recorded: 600,000%. That is today’s brief history lesson of this area. As Ron likes to say ‘That’s the blurbia from Serbia.’ Oy!
Bad things happen in threes-we’re done for now
We are on the road again and excited about what this adventure will hold for us. I couldn’t sleep the night before we left but that is typical for me. I seem to love to worry about minutia prior to trips. We flew from Portland to Chicago then on to London. The EU has a new policy that only allows one carryon. We each had two so were not allowed to transfer to our flight once we arrived in London. We were directed to the terminal where we were to check our extra carryon. When we approached the Lufthansa counter, we were told we were too late to make our connecting flight although it was still on the ground and about 25 minutes prior to takeoff. We were then directed to a different counter to reschedule. Here we were told by a very unsympathetic agent we would have to buy a new ticket to the tune of 700 Euros, about $1000 for us to fly to Frankfurt. HA! In their dreams. I should back track here. Because we are traveling to six destinations in 82 days and Ron is working for two employers on this trip we have a very complicated itinerary with 10 carriers and multiple round trips to ensure an easier reimbursement. So we went to two other carriers and British Air sold us cheaper tickets and the agent took pity on us and even tricked the computer to get us a further discount of $140. Two hours later we were on our way to Frankfurt. Our second and third bad thing happened on arrival in Frankfurt. Ron’s luggage didn’t make it. He spent about 45 minutes working with an agent to locate it and make sure it was delivered to our hotel in Frankfurt. After we left the luggage area, we discovered a wheel had been busted off my bag. We couldn’t get back in to make a claim but found a security person who got us back in. Then we discovered airlines no longer take responsibility for damaged luggage as long as it is ‘usable’. Ha! That would be a matter of opinion but obviously their opinion counts and ours doesn’t.
So Ron, the sweetest guy in the world, carried my luggage and his very heavy carryon with two computers and I carried the lighter two carryons and my purse. We took a train into town and our hotel was conveniently located right across the street from the station. We were dead tried since neither of us had sleep well on the plane. Something about sitting up in a cramped chair. I shouldn’t complain because we had been upgraded to business class when we had asked for exit rows on the Chicago to London leg. Regardless, we couldn’t sleep. So when we got to the hotel we rested for 30 minutes but decided we had better not go to sleep or we wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. Off we went in search for a new suitcase. Ca-ching, Europe is not cheap! After finding a bag, we headed to a restaurant and had a decent Italian meal within easy walking distance of the department store. This restaurant was laughing all the way to the bank. They got you in and out quickly, there was a constant flow of folks into the place and they had you packed like sardines. And guess what, Europe still smokes! Yuck!
We managed to stay awake until 8:00 or 8:30 and fell asleep until 2:00 a.m. and read until 3:30. There’s no way around sleep interruption when you travel these distances. I managed to stay awake another hour and we got up at 7:00 to shower, dress and eat and head out to the airport. We have been lucky thus far. No rain, although it has been somewhat cloudy most places. So we flew from Frankfurt to Milan and from there to Skopje Macedonia. We got a regular size of bottled water in the Milan airport for $5.00 ca-ching. Get me outta here. I like those Sri Lanka prices much better!
We flew over the Swiss Alps. So beautiful and into Skopje with rolling hills dotted with little villages of stucco houses and terra cotta roof tiles. So romantic…We were met by a UN Development Program (UNDP) driver and Barbara, another consultant on the project who lives in Milan but is from Austria. We were on the same flight from Milan. She speaks five languages, which embarrasses the heck out of me! It took us about an hour to cross the two borders with stops for passport checks. They have real roads here, unlike Sri Lanka (SL). But they have litter here very similar to SL. People dump their garbage near bridge embankments for some reason but ugly plastic bags and its contents that get strewn here and yon mar the countryside. It’s the bane of my environmental existence!! I’ll try not to bore you with my usual tirades on this score. I think I overdid it in SL.
The area appears to be largely agricultural. Vranje, a small town in southern Serbia where we are staying for two weeks is right over the border of Macedonia and near the contested region of Kosovo. I will give you some history of the region with my next installment. So the driver took us to Vibeke’s house first. She’s the program director here. She gave us a loaf of bread, butter, coffee, yogurt, muesili, bottled water, a map and a guidebook for me to use while here. We tried to get a book on Serbia before we left but the only one we found was on the Balkans, not specifically Serbia and it didn’t even mention Vranje. We couldn’t get over her thoughtfulness. Then we were taken about 5 miles out of town to the apartment where we are staying. We had been told that the one hotel in town wasn’t so great and we would be better off renting the apartment from another employee at the UNDP. We were pleasantly surprised, as it appears to be brand new and spotlessly clean. It lacks a refrigerator and the shower is a small tub, no shower curtain so we surmised that you sit in the tub and use the handheld shower head to bath yourself, otherwise you would get the entire bathroom wet including all the cabinetry. Let’s not take our American luxury for granted, folks.
The tap water here is safe to drink but when you turn on the tap, it smells like sulfur. Yuck. I’m fixing myself a cup of decaf now and can’t get the new bottle opened with my weenie hands so will try the sulfur flavored water and report in a moment. The apartment is light with lots of windows, quite near the main highway and is part of Minke’s house. She lives upstairs and I think this apartment might be her mother’s. She must move in with her daughter when she rents it out. We are using a cold pantry, chilled by an open window, for refrigerated items but I am going to be cautious and buy refrigerated items daily as I’m not interested in getting sick here. We managed to stay up until 9:30 and Ron woke up at 1:30. I recommended that he take a sleeping pill since he had to go to work today. I didn’t take one as I had been sleeping well up to that point. Unfortunately, when Ron fell asleep he started snoring loudly and it didn’t matter what position he was in. So I stayed in bed until 3:30 and decided I really wasn’t going to get to sleep. I went into the living room, tried to sleep, got up and read about Serbia in the bathroom so the light wouldn’t bother RB. After reading I felt assured that we would be able to find an ATM that would take one of our three ATM cards. After our problems in SL, we are a little paranoid about travel to rural, remote or exotic places and access to cash. Last night we tried one bank and had no luck so I obsessed prior to reading the book.
By the way, sulfur flavored coffee is not bad. It’s not good but not too bad. While making it, I managed to knock over the drip cone when it was full of hot water and grounds and make a frigging royal mess in the kitchen. And Ron says I’m not clumsy. Love is blind, folks!
So at 4:45a.m.I went back to bed because I couldn’t hear Ron snoring. I forgot to mention we have a comfortable double bed that fills three-fourths of the bedroom. My side is against the wall and I have about six inches between the wall and the foot of the bed so I do acrobatics getting in and out, a challenge for a big clumsy woman. We slept until 6:30 when it was time to get up and get going. Since we are so far out of town, I decided to hitch a ride into town with Ron and our landlady this morning.
Since this is getting so long, I will end here and do a part B so you don’t fall asleep reading. So Ron says “That’s the blurbia from Serbia”. Where did I get this guy?
We are on the road again and excited about what this adventure will hold for us. I couldn’t sleep the night before we left but that is typical for me. I seem to love to worry about minutia prior to trips. We flew from Portland to Chicago then on to London. The EU has a new policy that only allows one carryon. We each had two so were not allowed to transfer to our flight once we arrived in London. We were directed to the terminal where we were to check our extra carryon. When we approached the Lufthansa counter, we were told we were too late to make our connecting flight although it was still on the ground and about 25 minutes prior to takeoff. We were then directed to a different counter to reschedule. Here we were told by a very unsympathetic agent we would have to buy a new ticket to the tune of 700 Euros, about $1000 for us to fly to Frankfurt. HA! In their dreams. I should back track here. Because we are traveling to six destinations in 82 days and Ron is working for two employers on this trip we have a very complicated itinerary with 10 carriers and multiple round trips to ensure an easier reimbursement. So we went to two other carriers and British Air sold us cheaper tickets and the agent took pity on us and even tricked the computer to get us a further discount of $140. Two hours later we were on our way to Frankfurt. Our second and third bad thing happened on arrival in Frankfurt. Ron’s luggage didn’t make it. He spent about 45 minutes working with an agent to locate it and make sure it was delivered to our hotel in Frankfurt. After we left the luggage area, we discovered a wheel had been busted off my bag. We couldn’t get back in to make a claim but found a security person who got us back in. Then we discovered airlines no longer take responsibility for damaged luggage as long as it is ‘usable’. Ha! That would be a matter of opinion but obviously their opinion counts and ours doesn’t.
So Ron, the sweetest guy in the world, carried my luggage and his very heavy carryon with two computers and I carried the lighter two carryons and my purse. We took a train into town and our hotel was conveniently located right across the street from the station. We were dead tried since neither of us had sleep well on the plane. Something about sitting up in a cramped chair. I shouldn’t complain because we had been upgraded to business class when we had asked for exit rows on the Chicago to London leg. Regardless, we couldn’t sleep. So when we got to the hotel we rested for 30 minutes but decided we had better not go to sleep or we wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. Off we went in search for a new suitcase. Ca-ching, Europe is not cheap! After finding a bag, we headed to a restaurant and had a decent Italian meal within easy walking distance of the department store. This restaurant was laughing all the way to the bank. They got you in and out quickly, there was a constant flow of folks into the place and they had you packed like sardines. And guess what, Europe still smokes! Yuck!
We managed to stay awake until 8:00 or 8:30 and fell asleep until 2:00 a.m. and read until 3:30. There’s no way around sleep interruption when you travel these distances. I managed to stay awake another hour and we got up at 7:00 to shower, dress and eat and head out to the airport. We have been lucky thus far. No rain, although it has been somewhat cloudy most places. So we flew from Frankfurt to Milan and from there to Skopje Macedonia. We got a regular size of bottled water in the Milan airport for $5.00 ca-ching. Get me outta here. I like those Sri Lanka prices much better!
We flew over the Swiss Alps. So beautiful and into Skopje with rolling hills dotted with little villages of stucco houses and terra cotta roof tiles. So romantic…We were met by a UN Development Program (UNDP) driver and Barbara, another consultant on the project who lives in Milan but is from Austria. We were on the same flight from Milan. She speaks five languages, which embarrasses the heck out of me! It took us about an hour to cross the two borders with stops for passport checks. They have real roads here, unlike Sri Lanka (SL). But they have litter here very similar to SL. People dump their garbage near bridge embankments for some reason but ugly plastic bags and its contents that get strewn here and yon mar the countryside. It’s the bane of my environmental existence!! I’ll try not to bore you with my usual tirades on this score. I think I overdid it in SL.
The area appears to be largely agricultural. Vranje, a small town in southern Serbia where we are staying for two weeks is right over the border of Macedonia and near the contested region of Kosovo. I will give you some history of the region with my next installment. So the driver took us to Vibeke’s house first. She’s the program director here. She gave us a loaf of bread, butter, coffee, yogurt, muesili, bottled water, a map and a guidebook for me to use while here. We tried to get a book on Serbia before we left but the only one we found was on the Balkans, not specifically Serbia and it didn’t even mention Vranje. We couldn’t get over her thoughtfulness. Then we were taken about 5 miles out of town to the apartment where we are staying. We had been told that the one hotel in town wasn’t so great and we would be better off renting the apartment from another employee at the UNDP. We were pleasantly surprised, as it appears to be brand new and spotlessly clean. It lacks a refrigerator and the shower is a small tub, no shower curtain so we surmised that you sit in the tub and use the handheld shower head to bath yourself, otherwise you would get the entire bathroom wet including all the cabinetry. Let’s not take our American luxury for granted, folks.
The tap water here is safe to drink but when you turn on the tap, it smells like sulfur. Yuck. I’m fixing myself a cup of decaf now and can’t get the new bottle opened with my weenie hands so will try the sulfur flavored water and report in a moment. The apartment is light with lots of windows, quite near the main highway and is part of Minke’s house. She lives upstairs and I think this apartment might be her mother’s. She must move in with her daughter when she rents it out. We are using a cold pantry, chilled by an open window, for refrigerated items but I am going to be cautious and buy refrigerated items daily as I’m not interested in getting sick here. We managed to stay up until 9:30 and Ron woke up at 1:30. I recommended that he take a sleeping pill since he had to go to work today. I didn’t take one as I had been sleeping well up to that point. Unfortunately, when Ron fell asleep he started snoring loudly and it didn’t matter what position he was in. So I stayed in bed until 3:30 and decided I really wasn’t going to get to sleep. I went into the living room, tried to sleep, got up and read about Serbia in the bathroom so the light wouldn’t bother RB. After reading I felt assured that we would be able to find an ATM that would take one of our three ATM cards. After our problems in SL, we are a little paranoid about travel to rural, remote or exotic places and access to cash. Last night we tried one bank and had no luck so I obsessed prior to reading the book.
By the way, sulfur flavored coffee is not bad. It’s not good but not too bad. While making it, I managed to knock over the drip cone when it was full of hot water and grounds and make a frigging royal mess in the kitchen. And Ron says I’m not clumsy. Love is blind, folks!
So at 4:45a.m.I went back to bed because I couldn’t hear Ron snoring. I forgot to mention we have a comfortable double bed that fills three-fourths of the bedroom. My side is against the wall and I have about six inches between the wall and the foot of the bed so I do acrobatics getting in and out, a challenge for a big clumsy woman. We slept until 6:30 when it was time to get up and get going. Since we are so far out of town, I decided to hitch a ride into town with Ron and our landlady this morning.
Since this is getting so long, I will end here and do a part B so you don’t fall asleep reading. So Ron says “That’s the blurbia from Serbia”. Where did I get this guy?
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Well my husband has fallen in love with long distance! We are off on a new adventure. We leave Friday Feb 16th and fly to Chicago, London and Frankfurt where we will spend Saturday night. On Sunday we fly to Skopje Macedonia where a rep from the UN Development Program will pick us up and drive us 60 miles over the border to Vranje Serbia where Ron will work for two weeks, helping to identify the scope of work. Thirteen cities are involved with the program and as we understand it at this point, the program will create curriculum to help the cities improve general management. More on that after we arrive and learn more. But the bottom line is he was hired because of his experience in Sri Lanka. The work will be similar as we now understand it.
We will be gone for 82 days. We will go to Croatia to visit friends, then head back to Sri Lanka (SL) for Ron to do a two week stint on the project there. Afterwards we head to Thailand to goof off and work on the house there. We are going with a great landscape design in hand, done by the lovely Tess Beistel. This design will take several visits if not years to implement but what fun!
After Thailand we will head to London for a night and then on to Dublin where Ron has his annual International Committee meeting. Back to the east coast to see our family and next to Chicago to attend a wedding before coming home on May 7th.
We will blog as much as possible depending on Internet access. I have no idea of availability in Serbia as Vranje is a small town. So stay tuned.
We will be gone for 82 days. We will go to Croatia to visit friends, then head back to Sri Lanka (SL) for Ron to do a two week stint on the project there. Afterwards we head to Thailand to goof off and work on the house there. We are going with a great landscape design in hand, done by the lovely Tess Beistel. This design will take several visits if not years to implement but what fun!
After Thailand we will head to London for a night and then on to Dublin where Ron has his annual International Committee meeting. Back to the east coast to see our family and next to Chicago to attend a wedding before coming home on May 7th.
We will blog as much as possible depending on Internet access. I have no idea of availability in Serbia as Vranje is a small town. So stay tuned.
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