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Published: September 16th 2010
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Beograd
Well, I obviously had no chance here. The most memorable thing about travelling is getting a local touch. Unfortunately for the romance seekers out there (you know who you are), I'm not referring to meeting local girls. I mean nothing beats meeting people who live in the place you're visiting, and who take the time to welcome you into their houses, their lives, their worlds.
This was especially the case with Serbia. Through a distant contact, we were given the address of a woman in the capital, Belgrade, and she was expecting us. Her name was Violeta and that was all we knew. Getting to her apartment from the station was a major problem, the streets on our map were written in familiar Latin letters, while the actual street signs were written in Cyrillic. Plus it was dark. That photo on the right says Belgrade in some kind of a sick Cyrillic joke of a way.
When we finally arrived, Violeta opened the door and her heart to us, taking us in under her wings and giving up her bed while she slept on the sofa. She was a magnificent host, a charming woman. A woman who'd lived through civil wars tearing her country apart, who'd
travelled further than we could imagine, and who now spent her days filling her apartment with cigarette smoke and laughter. Plus, due to the popularity of basketball in Serbia she had an opinion on the NBA. I couldn't have been happier really. She was such an interesting woman that we found we preferred spending time in her company than getting out and about in the city.
Violeta's friend, one Nada Pavlovic, was perhaps the biggest surprise package I've come across in all my days. At first glance, one might describe her as a typical Serbian woman. Middle aged with broken English, you might even say she had a graceful corpulence. Your typical next door neighbor in Belgrade.
When I look back on it, it was completely by chance that we ended up finding out her story. Karina, still obsessed with the Serbian entry in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest (kill me now), was searching for common ground. Did Nada enjoy that kind of music? "No" (no surprises, does anyone?). "I like love songs, romantic songs." she said. "She is a singer" chimed in Violeta.
A singer, eh? I thought. Now what does that mean, exactly? I like
Bombing in Belgrade
There are still remnants of bombings from the war to write travelblogs, does that make me a writer? I like to whistle in the bath, does that make me a whistler? I had to find out more. I asked her what she sings and got the old famous 'all sorts' answer (with a tendency towards 'songs for two'). Very vague, I thought. I imagined her singing soft Serbian lullabies while hanging out the washing or making dinner.
Karina asked for a live demonstration, and we got the typical "Oh, not now, I couldn't now" response. Then she added: "I'm out of practice, my band and I are on holiday for summer". Her band? My curiosity was aroused. "Your band?" I asked. For some reason, I was still dubious. The whole thing seemed strange. Anyway, one of my friends is in a band but the only interesting thing about them is their lyrics (and I use the term 'interesting' very liberally). They've never done anything like, say, going on tour or releasing CDs. But middle aged Serbian women don't usually have garage bands, do they?
"Yes, my band," she said. "We go on tour in Autumn. Violeta has my CDs if you want to hear."
On tour?
CDs? Two minutes later the CDs were found and an achingly beautiful rendition of Moon River was melting me. It was a tiny apartment, the sound was bouncing all over the place and filling every corner. Even Frida, the psychotic cat, was temporarily soothed into a blissful submission. It was the kind of powerful diva-esque voice that belonged at the beginning of a James Bond movie. I mentioned this to Nada. Yes, many people tell her she sounds like Shirley Bassey. Except she said Shirley Bazzy, which I liked.
Well, after hearing such beauty I didn't need to probe any deeper, but I did, and that's how I came upon my favourite part. The following link is the video she showed us of her latest big success.
Nada's Song: Uzmi ili Ostavi (Click on the blue words to watch it). Apparently this song was at the top of the pop music charts in Serbia for almost two years. I highly recommend you watch it, it's quite a catchy song even if you don't speak Serbian. If that doesn't tempt you, there are loads of Serbian women in bikinis. Who knows what the song is about, but the two guys are famous actors and
Lady Nada Herself
Serbian Musical Royalty TV hosts here and Lady Nada definitely holds her own.
So there you go, you've heard of Lady Gaga, now you've heard of Lady Nada. Fans stop her on the street for autographs, she has performed for the most important people in the country, and has sung Killing Me Softly on stage with Roberta Flack on piano. Who'd have thought it? It just goes to show that the best surprises are where you least expect them. A local touch, and one of Serbia's finest to share it. How lovely.
In terms of Serbia itself, I have purposely decided not to include anything about its very recent and shocking history involving Kosovo and Croatia. And I must say I didn't know much about it before coming here. Zoran, a man we stayed with in Vrsac in Northern Serbia (more on this later) gave me a very good grounding on the whole thing, and it was a terrible, tragic conflict. But, as he suggests, their troubled history is a very dark shadow, and sometimes it's better not to turn back and look.
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Lady Nada Rocks
Not sure what the Serbian word for babelicious is but book me a one way ticket to Lady Nada's next video shoot!!