Belgrade: A City with a Peanut Butter Center
Within the first few days of arriving in Belgrade I had two surprise food encounters. The first was when I bought what I thought were pretzel sticks but to my surprise inside was peanut butter. Similarly I ordered "rolled chicken" from a questionably translated menu to find that they were rolled in...bacon. Weirdly these two events represent my general experience in Belgrade. It's a city full of hidden gems and it will certainly surpass your expectations especially if, like me, you didn't have any.
I was surprised how much I enjoy the people, the history, and even the overwhelmingly grey streets that were often lined with mature trees. The people aspect is partly due to a fourth-degree Belgrade connection that I'll discuss in my next post and part is due to the two city leads we had in Belgrade. The program I'm traveling with set us up with two local points of contact. I mentioned one in my last post - the one who seems to be always impersonating a 19th century sommelier. He also happens to be a law professor and food tour operator with an extensive knowledge of french greetings.
The other is a female entrepreneur who owns a leather accessory business and does marketing for some large organizations throughout Serbia while finding time to play poker at a semi-professional level. Both seem to be in their early thirties and make me wonder why I've been leading such a painfully dull existence. Below is a picture of our female city guide and me on halloween. Little did I know that in Belgrade they go big on halloween and by big I mean terrifying. You can't tell from this picture but I was Melania Trump for halloween, specifically Melania Trump in stilettos in the aftermath of a hurricane.
This hustling thing is something I found throughout my time in Serbia that everyone does multiple things - everyone we met seemed to be either working and going to school or holding down multiple jobs. Unfortunately even though Serbia is a candidate to join the EU, salaries are still low and many young educated people are trying to leave for more economically prosperous countries. Compounding this is the influx of refugees who are continuing to come over from war-torn parts of the middle east and become stuck in Serbia at the border of the EU. National Geographic happened to do a poignant series on young refugees in Serbia while we were there.
I was surprised how much I enjoy the people, the history, and even the overwhelmingly grey streets that were often lined with mature trees. The people aspect is partly due to a fourth-degree Belgrade connection that I'll discuss in my next post and part is due to the two city leads we had in Belgrade. The program I'm traveling with set us up with two local points of contact. I mentioned one in my last post - the one who seems to be always impersonating a 19th century sommelier. He also happens to be a law professor and food tour operator with an extensive knowledge of french greetings.
The other is a female entrepreneur who owns a leather accessory business and does marketing for some large organizations throughout Serbia while finding time to play poker at a semi-professional level. Both seem to be in their early thirties and make me wonder why I've been leading such a painfully dull existence. Below is a picture of our female city guide and me on halloween. Little did I know that in Belgrade they go big on halloween and by big I mean terrifying. You can't tell from this picture but I was Melania Trump for halloween, specifically Melania Trump in stilettos in the aftermath of a hurricane.
This hustling thing is something I found throughout my time in Serbia that everyone does multiple things - everyone we met seemed to be either working and going to school or holding down multiple jobs. Unfortunately even though Serbia is a candidate to join the EU, salaries are still low and many young educated people are trying to leave for more economically prosperous countries. Compounding this is the influx of refugees who are continuing to come over from war-torn parts of the middle east and become stuck in Serbia at the border of the EU. National Geographic happened to do a poignant series on young refugees in Serbia while we were there.
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