Serbia 02.08.2014 - 14.08.2014

August 2nd : Day 1 - Arrival and first casual meetings

What a heat! Upon our arrival, Belgrade salutes us with 33 degree celsius. The participants arrive gradually: First to reach Belgrade is Laura from Spain, she was there the night before the official trip started. Next are Nadine and Johanna, coming from Zurich with the very comfortable Air Serbia. By five o’clock, also Meret and Elisabeth reach the hostel right next to the famous fortress Kalemegdan. We meet up with our organizers, Stefanie and Marijana. Fredy, arriving also from Switzerland, will join us during the later course of the evening. The first meeting on our program is a photo tour around the old town of Belgrade, together with the couchsurfer group of Belgrade. It’s the first opportunity to talk to locals: We are joined by about 15 people, most of them students, but also a real‐estate agent and a guy who trades with flavours. They tell us about the embargo in the nineties, where the shops were virtually empty in all of Serbia and the money devaluated faster than you could say „supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“.
At a quarter past ten, we got picked up at the hostel by a group of young Serbian boys and girls. Under the name „Belgrade Bleya“, they organize night tours around the city, showing tourists bars and viewpoints they otherwise wouldn’t find. We get to see lovely views of Belgrade by night, hear amazing live music in bars that are situated on ships at the borders of the river and we of course get to taste Rakija, the famous Serbian liquor. At three o’clock in the morning, we come home with plenty of impressions of our first day in the amazing Republika Srbija.

August 3rd: Day 2 - Center for the Integration of Youth

After a quiet morning with a late breakfast we started to walk through the old town. We passed hotel Moscow, the government building and the huge post office of Belgrad and finally reached the Tasmajdan Park. There we met Stefanie again and did our first presentations, where we updated each other about our personal knowledge of Serbia. From the park we travelled towards our next aim, the Center for the Integration of Youth. There the coordinator gave us an overview about the aims and the work that was practised in this Drop In Center for young people, especially Roma children. We were also informed about the difficulties of getting accepted by the Serbian government, which causes problems to reach money sources. It was really impressive to hear about the work of this engaged people! After the Information Block of the coordinator our group prepared a chocolate Fondue with the children, which became a big attraction! Afterwards we went to Ada Ciganlija to swim in the river and enjoy the atmosphere. Our evening ended in the nice restaurant Opusteno with a view over the lake.

August 4th: Day 3 - Workshop on the EU-integration of Serbia

While the other group members were enjoying some omelettes at the hostel, we arranged the paper-work to rent a mini-bus for out trips out of Belgrade and the group rejoined us at the ДВЕРИ media conference room (picture 1). They informed us in Serbian about their point of view of Europe, the EU and the NATO. In the beginning Mariana translated us the party program to English, but was after half an hour no longer able to translate all the long parts of the speech, so the secretary of Dveri joined us to explain us more on the more friendly relationship Dveri see with Russia and the problems of the pressure from the EU on the Serbian members of parliament and we discussed problematics of monoobjective medias and how humilating the bombardement of Serbia was and still is for its citizens. After this meeting we walked up the city of Belgrade and visited the memorial of bombed buildings on Немањина street. Then we had a short lunch brake at a bakery and visited Emins, the European Movement in Serbia. They are the first non-govermental organization for the EU-Serbian aproach and introduced us to their mission (picture 2) and to their projects such as the following exemplary one: They arranged 21-day trips for outstanding Serbian students in European countries that was fully funded and supported and that they also recruit researchers to find prooves for the beneifits Servia will receive by joining the EU. The most critical point to become an EU member state is still the integration of Kosovo. After a fruitful discussion we visited the Cathedral of St Sava and stoped for some pancakes. Then, we made our way up towards the Triangle bar, where we could occupy the entire indoor area for our discussion group on positive and negative aspects of EU-membership of Serbia and were joined by many locals who gave us their point of view too. While most of us supported membership of our country to the EU, most of the locals were more sceptic towards the EU. However, they don't see an alternative to preparing for the EU-membership. The discussion was so fascinating that it went on without the need for a structured lead and quickly was much longer than scheduled.
We then treated ourselves to some fine Serbian food at the oldest tavern in Belgrade named just "?". The rumours say, because they could just not find a proper name for this location.

Meeting at Двери. Photo by Stefanie Kropf	Meeting at Emins. Photo by Fredy Siegrist

August 5th: Day 4 - Politics, Bikes and History

After another very tasty and early breakfast at the hostel we went to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Serbia. We learned that the Cooperation has been present in Serbia since 1991, especially monitoring different supported projects. At the meeting were also some people from such projects present who told us about their work. It was really interesting how they for example work at getting the parliament more transparent or supporting muncipalities in improving the earning of taxes. After having heard so many things about the Serbian politics by citizens the day before, it was very interesting to hear about some processes going on on state's level.

After this meeting we traveled to Novi Beograd, where we met the OSCE Mission to Serbia, presently headed by the Swiss ambassador Peter Burkhard. He was actually present himself and told us (and another group of people from the United Nations Youth Association Switzerland, which were in Belgrade at the same time) about the history and work of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, which in its programme focuses on law enforcement, democratization & media development. We also got information about monitoring corruption in Serbia.

After the interesting morning we had a lunch at our restaurant in the middle to the "big stairs" next to the hostel. Then we rented some bikes and went to a nice ride along the river Dunav (Danube) to the part of Belgrade which is called Zemun and was an independent city in earlier times. In Zemun we met Mattia who showed us around and explained plenty of historical things. We were very impressed by his knowledge and lovely Zemun! At the end of the tour we climbed the Millennium Tower on the top of Zemun (built 1896), from where we had a great view over Belgrade. Then we took our bikes and went back to Belgrade, where we had dinner before falling asleep after this very interesting day full of politics, bikes and history.

August 6th: Day 5 - Novi Sad

It was a cloudy day. We got an abundant breakfast. We walked to the train station. At 10:15 we catched the train. The outside of the train was painted with colourful graffiti. Inside we realized that it was an old train with a nice, and also colourful tapestry. In our wagon, the seats were all of them in the wrong side. It was as we were living the past in the present. After a few minutes the controllers appeared. It was a very noisy train, but we got fantastical views.

At 12:05 we arrived at Novi Sad. We visited the historical city centre.

At 14:15 we visited the Omladinska centar CK13 (Youth centre CK13), an alternative youth centre. They were very kind. First of all they showed us their house. It’s painted basically in yellow and green. Before it belowed to a family, and a German foundation from Berlin bought it for them. They exist since 2007 and offer its space for free for people and organizations with diverse interests. They also have programmed activities: concerts, workshops of photography, writing, human rights, art by women, etc. There’s also a public library. The organization is interested in people with political background. They are basically 7 people and 1 voluntary. The majority of the participants are students from the University. They have contact with similar organizations in the country. At night some voluntaries cook vegan and fresh meals. Between 19:00 and 20:00 they serve dinner. At this time usually 10 or 20 persons come to the center to eat.

After the meeting we visited the Petrovaradin Fortress and we had lunch. We went for a walk together and some of us decided to came back to Belgrade. The other part of the group stayed there to do some shopping and to go to the vegan dinner at the CK13. Exceptionally, this day was much more crowded than usually, and as we arrived 30 minutes late, we only got a desert, a good cake. We also bought some nice pins. Afterwards we took the train to Belgrade at 22.20 pm.

August 7th: Day 6 - Uzice and Zlatibor

To day we leave Belgrade. We travel in a little bus to Uzice. Our group member Fredy will be our driver during the whole trip through Serbia. Green, beautiful, hilly landscape, many woods, but heavy pouring rain. Everywhere blood soaked ground of the second world war. Arriving in Uzice the nature change, we now are in a deep valley, surrounded by mountains. Alex, another couch surfer, is waiting. Fortunately he surfs couch not in a psychological sense. This means: he is not a person who often change his psychoanalyst. Fortunately he is member of the couch surfer group, who organise meetings with tourists to Serbia. He shows us a lovely orthodox wooden church. Then we walk to the old town fortress. It is located on a prominent rocky ridge on three sides surrounded by the river Djetinja. By walking back to the city of Uzice we see a graffiti on a wall, painted - as I guess - by a nationalist: a picture of a orthodox priest with a barb. I ask Mariana to translate the text which is written below the picture. It is the text of an old song: “A Serb who is not fighting for Kosovo will be an unhappy man, his fields will never have fruits, he will never have children, he will perish.” We discuss with Alex about the famous battle of Kosovo Polje in the year 1389 and the humiliating defeat of the Serbs. Slobodan Milosevic often used the defeat in this battle as argument to rescue the honour of the Serbs. Alex says, that this battle had influenced the passed six centuries. A participant of our group ask: “The future six hundred years will they also be influenced by this battle?” A very good and indeed important question. Let us hope, that Alex didn’t feel injured by this unwillingly ironic comment. Not only the young locals whome we met in Belgrade also Alex seems quite pessimistic about the economic and political future of Serbia. In the evening we travel to Zlatibor, where we spend the night in a little nice hotel.

August 8th: Day 7

Today's excursion was dedicated to Küstendorf and Mokra Gora, one of Serbia's national parks. Küstendorf is a little village situated on one of the park's numerous green hills and consists of traditional Serbian huts and houses. Contrary to what you may think though the village hasn't been there since many centuries; it was artificially built up at the beginning of the new millenium by Emir Kusturica, the famous film director. He took those unused old houses from the region nearby and assembled them. They were initially used as a film set to his movie "Life is a Miracle". Later on they became Kusturica's personal residence, the location for an international film festival, a hotel and a tourist attraction - all at once. Küstendorf is also an important economic factor for the region: A lot of people are involved in the construction and maintenance of the village. They work in the gastronomic area and on the market that is situated in the village center. The guests are received by the monarch of the place and representative of Kusturica while he is away on some film set or promotion tour: Cicero, Kusturica's persian cat strolls around Küstendorf and casually glances at the visitors in a royal and slightly snotnosed manner. In the afternoon we took a historic train that passes through the national park. The park touches the borders of Bosnia and hosts a diversity of animals and plants. Bears live there next to wolves, hares and deers - of the last we were able to perceive several. After the tour we were led to a hotel within Mokra Gora. The woman who runs the hotel had already shown us around Küstendorf in the morning and now also gave us a lot of interesting information on the national park over dinner. Her name was Snežana, which means Snowwhite in English. We were served a traditional bean soup and fried lamb, both of which were delicious. After the meal we went to a beautiful viewpoint from where you could watch the sun setting over Mokra Gora. The park looked just like the Emmental in Switzerland, except that there were no houses to be seen anywhere. But we have no time for getting homesick: Tomorrow we will finally go to Guca, the famous traditional trumpet festival or "Ethno Glastonbury", as the locals like to call it.

August 9th: Day 8

We started the day with a homemade coffee from the hotel owner in Zlatibor and drove to the famous Potpeć Caves where we had breakfast and were listening to Elisabeths speech about her work for the OSCE in Kosovo in 1999. After this very interesting lecture we visited the caves and were impressed by its size. Some appreciated the nine degrees inside the cave others were happy to be back at the sun soon again. We travelled on and after noon we arrived in Požega were one part of the group had a rest and the others took a walk through the beautiful little town.
In the afternoon we took two taxis and went to the famous trumpet festival named after the host village: Guča. The group splited up again, as it was very crowed and difficult to stay together. We enjoyed great local food, beautiful trumpet music and the craziness of a real Serbian party. In the evening there was the trumpet competition in the stadion and we had all lot of fun by jumping around and we met a lot of people from Serbia but also from many other countries.

August 10th: Day 9 - Traveling from Poshega to Niš

The day began for most of the members still at the main concert area in Guca, where we found more or less expensive taxis back to our hotel. After a refreshing breakfast late on Sunday morning, we assembled to go on the road again, heading for Nish. After a short stop at the Манастир „Ваведење“ (image 1), where we were not properly dressed to enter the chapel for the upcoming baptism ceremony. After driving through the Ovcar-Kablar-'grand canyon' of Serbia, we continued our route to Kralijevo for a short lemonade or coffee stop and to buy our lunch. Then, we took a short diversion to take a swim in the Језепо Ћелије and enjoyed a picnic at the beach (image 2). The images of the saints to protect us on our way, that we got from a sister at the monastery, fortunately helped us to arrive at our hostel hidden in a backyard near the city center of Nish. After a refreshing shower, I decided to write the (non-) happenings of this day while the others went out to get some food and enjoy their 'girlie-evening'. At least for me as driver, this day brought new experience in mini-bus driving through the thicket and concrete-jungle of Southern Serbia. Happy greetings out of Ниж.

Monastery Vavedenje	Lake Celije - Photos by Fredy Siegrist
On the road

August 11th: Day 10 - Civil Society, Birtday Party, Niš

In the quite early morning, we headed to the city center of Niš to meet up with PROTECTA, Center for Civil Society Development. In their office, we first got a short introduction about their work. One of their main goals is to develop youth policy, education, activism and voluntarism. They pursue this goal by supporting projects in this field. Afterwards Milan, who is working at PROTECTA, joined us in our bus and we all together drove to a village nearby called Doljevac. There PROTECTA supports the international voluntary project "Flood Relief Workcamp". Several volunteers are working there at renovating a home for elderly and adults with disabilities which endured damage from the floods that recently happened in Serbia. Furthermore they spend time with the residents of the home. We met the volunteers working there and joined a birthday party for a 94-years old resident at the home. After this interesting insight into the volunteer work we returned to Niš. In the afternoon, we discovered the city, which is the third-largest city in Serbia. We went to have a look at the Fortress of Niš (built in the beginning of the 18th century) and the big park nearby and also enjoyed the large shopping area. After dinner some of us went out for some drinks and in the end of the evening, we also visited a pool party organized by and for youth and volunteer organizations in Niš.

With volunteers at a home for the elderly

August 12th: Day 11 - Niš / Journey back to Belgrade

Niš is the town, where Constantin the Great, the roman emperor was born. In the morning we visit the skull tower, a monument probably unique in the world, a tower made of human skulls. After the battle of Cegar in 1809, the Turkish commander ordered that the heads of Serbian soldiers be skinned and the skins stuffed with cotton and sent to Constantinople. From the heads of the dead soldiers was built a tower to retaliate for the huge number of Osmanic soldiers who had been killed in the battle, but also to instill fear in the local Serbian population. Today 59 skulls remain.

In the evening we celebrate a farewell party in the best restaurant in Belgrade in the old town, with very lively, flamy and cheerful Serbian folk music. Regrettably Fredy, the unique man in our group, cannot dance. Therefore we all are condemned to stay without movement.

August 13th: Day 12 - Time to say goodbye.

Today is our last day together. We had breakfast in the hostel. Some of the group members have already left and taken the aeroplane. We spent our day in the city walking around Belgrade and going shopping, breathing the Serbian air for the last time.

In the evening it was time to go to the "Belgrade Beer Fest", to cheer on the great trip we've had.

It has been a very good experience. We had a very nice group and also the people of the host country were very kind. We have been in Serbia like at home.