Blogs from Serbia, Europe - page 12

It was a country (that used to be), which I came to know about from playing erasers with country flags on them. Basically each eraser has a country’s flag and name imprinted on it and the game revolves around getting one’s eraser on top of opponent’s one, thus ‘conquering’ it. That’s also how I got introduced to many countries that still would sound foreign to some. Hah, childhood game with educational value! Anyway, the story would not be about the childhood but about the concretizing and then materializing of plans to visit parts of former Yugoslavia. I was intrigued by the history of the country that used to be. I was puzzled why that word Yugoslavia was consigned to history textbooks, especially when I grew up with the notion that it is (was) a great kingdom. ... read more

As a certain former manager of a team in the North West once said: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that" And so it is with the eternal derby of Serbia. At least twice a season, to the supporters of both Red Star and Partizan, this fixture becomes much more important! The 143rd meeting on 17 November was no exception, so it was with much excitemnt and a little trepidation that we finally left the comfort of FK Rad's bar and took the 10 minute bus ride down the road to the Marakana. The bus took a slight diversion from it's normal route and skirted past the ticket offices of Partizan. They were ... read more

The rain had cleared the next morning. Breakfast in the hotel was a lot busier. The weekend had almost arrived and the foreigners were beginning to surface for the big match. A hefty looking German sported his Grobari t-shirt. We worried for his future out in the real world. After breakfast, we went on our own military mission .... back to the Military Museum in the Belgrade Fortress. We skipped the bows and arrows bit and went straight to the sections on the First Serbian Uprising and the First World War. A group of Serbian military were on a guided tour. They seemed oblivious to the temperature and kept their thick winter coats on. An afternoon followed in the Melody Bar. It was meant to be a pub crawl, but we got comfortable. The beer was ... read more

July 23rd Ah the joy of cockroaches; there’s nothing like turning on the light and seeing them scurry away. Made my way down to the sports store where Ildiko works to say goodbye. she has been great and I’m really going to miss her; she has been guide, translator, animal sympathiser :p the train isn’t exactly the Ritz, it’s grubby, a couple of the seats are busted, and there’s a faint aroma of urine on the air… but hey, it’s cheap, I’m on the right train, and the ticket collector DIDN’T frown at my ticket and tell me I was in the wrong place, so I’m happy. There is an interesting mix of old and new in Serbia; I just saw a horse drawn wagon full of hay amongst all the cars stopped at the railway ... read more

July 21st Whew! I accidentally turned my alarm off instead of putting it on snooze; luckily I still woke up with an hour till my train, plenty of time to shower, pack and walk naked out of the hostel (because I clearly missed “getting dressed” on my list there) to make the 5 minute walk to the train station. A nice cheesy Cro pastry for breakfast and we’re off! Another ‘whew!’ it turns out that the carriage I was in didn’t go all the way to Stara Pazova (where I have to change trains for Subotica). The ticket collector didn’t speak English so he asked the guy in the carriage with me to translate the information… unfortunately he didn’t speak much English either… but he DID speak Italian, so we were able to communicate that way ... read more