Tag: Balkans

Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (25): Belgrade’s lost public baths

Despite the city’s long periods under Roman and Ottoman rule, Belgrade currently does not have a single open public bath probably for the first time in the past 19th centuries. Although neither of them were opulent marble-clad pleasure palaces that can still be enjoyed in Budapest or Istanbul, they would certainly come in handy as atmospheric places to warm up in long winter months and … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (25): Belgrade’s lost public baths

Srdjan Garcevic1 Comment
Politics, Serbia

Serbia’s paradoxical affair with history

When pundits look for a culprit for instability in the Balkans, their fingers often point to history, or rather the great fondness the people here have for it. Visitors to Serbia are often baffled by Serbians’ tendency to explain contemporary actions and attitudes by referencing events that happened several centuries ago. For example, it is not uncommon for somebody to explain Serbia’s awkward teetering between … Continue reading Serbia’s paradoxical affair with history

Srdjan Garcevic8 Comments
Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (24): Bežanija airport

2017 marked the 90th anniversary of the opening of the now mostly forgotten, Belgrade International Airport, which was located next to the old Austro-Hungarian village of Bežanija, in what is now New Belgrade. This airport, however, was not the first airfield serving the city. The first airplane to fly from Belgrade took off in Banjica in 1910, close to where VMA, the military hospital complex, … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (24): Bežanija airport

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Balkans, Serbiana/Srpska posla, Travel

Sarma, Testicles and Kid-roasts: Rural Serbia’s Real Foodies

The global foodie trend made urbanites in Serbia more conscious about their consumption, and even inspired some of them to try their hand at making healthier, or at least, tastier food. In Belgrade, there are now numerous events devoted to producers of anything from Serbian truffles to Serbian tabasco. Although there are some misfires, Belgrade’s Cheese festival, Night Market and Wine Jam constantly deliver a … Continue reading Sarma, Testicles and Kid-roasts: Rural Serbia’s Real Foodies

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Serbiana/Srpska posla, The Belgradist

Start-ups in Serbia: Going Against the Gloom

Serbian entrepreneurs face more than economic and administrative challenges when launching new businesses Trying to make it on your own is nerve-wracking even in the most orderly of countries, but all the start-up Kool-Aid that Silicon Valley serves up nowadays is only slowly seeping into the Serbian water supply. This, of course, is primarily a result of real economic constraints, where few have sufficient capital … Continue reading Start-ups in Serbia: Going Against the Gloom

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Pokretači, The Nutshell Media

Pokretači 1.18 Via Serbia

Gosti poslednje epizode prve sezone Pokretača, Aleksandra Cvetković (koju znate iz 12. epizode) i Nemanja Potrebić iz Via Serbia, prirodnjačkog kluba koji stremi povezivanju ljudi u Srbiji, i šire, sa prirodom. Naši gosti su takođe podelili i par saveta o tome kako uživati u prirodi zimi, kao i svoja omiljena mesta u Srbiji (moja su ovde, a i moja drugarica Jelena je napisala zašto treba da … Continue reading Pokretači 1.18 Via Serbia

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Balkans, Culture, Travel

Serbian New Year: the perfect time to start appreciating Turbofolk

The extended holiday season in Serbia finally ends with a bang and a hangover on Serbian New Year’s day, on January 14. Like our belated Christmas, it is a consequence of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s continued adherence to the old Julian calendar, which lags 13 days behind the predominantly used Gregorian calendar. Unlike Christmas, Serbian New Year’s eve is a very raucous affair and a … Continue reading Serbian New Year: the perfect time to start appreciating Turbofolk

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Pokretači, The Nutshell Media

Pokretači 1.17. Burger House Beograd

“Ako uspete u Srbiji, možete uspeti bilo gde drugde” Braća Mirko i Stefan Lazar Larazervić su ljudi iza, po mom mišljenju, najbolje hamburgerdžinice u Beogradu: Burger House-a (FB, Instagram). Pričali su o tajnama iza njihovih preukusnih burgera, ne samo o sastojcima koje brižljivo biraju i često prave sami, već i kako su se od svojih početaka u 2013. marljivo i promišljeno bavili izazovima ugostiteljtva u … Continue reading Pokretači 1.17. Burger House Beograd

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Uncategorized

Understanding Marina Abramovic

For a nation that takes immense pride in its famous sons and daughters, the Serbian public’s apparent disinterest in Marina Abramovic’s global success as an artist is an aberration. Despite the fact that Abramovic is by far the most acclaimed living artist from the former Yugoslavia, the average Serb would probably not know her name. She is mostly absent from the Serbian press, there are … Continue reading Understanding Marina Abramovic

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Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

The Refugees Who Built Modern Belgrade

A century ago, twin revolutions enveloped Imperial Russia, already weakened by participation in World War I. The February Revolution dismantled the centuries-old autocratic system by ousting the Tsar, while the October Revolution marked the rise of the Bolsheviks who were to emerge victorious from a five-year civil war against the remaining royalists and other opponents, and ultimately proclaim the Soviet Union. This turmoil, which set … Continue reading The Refugees Who Built Modern Belgrade

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Balkans, Politics, Serbia, Travel

Westsplaining the Balkans

Twenty years ago, while the embers of war in Bosnia and Croatia were still smouldering, Bulgarian historian Maria Todorova published “Imagining the Balkans”. In this seminal work, she detailed the ways in which the Balkans have been perceived and documented for centuries both home and aboard – most often as a somewhat brutal and uncivilised forecourt of Europe. Todorova called this discourse “Balkanism” as homage … Continue reading Westsplaining the Balkans

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The Belgradist

Christmas in Serbia: A Beginner’s Guide

Probably the most confusing thing about Serbia to foreigners —after the fact that it is not Siberia— is that Christmas is celebrated on 7 January. Technically, however, it is not. It is celebrated on 25 December according to the Julian calendar, which is still in use by the Serbian Orthodox Church. However, this calendar is 13 days out of sync with the more commonly used … Continue reading Christmas in Serbia: A Beginner’s Guide

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Guide to Belgrade, The Belgradist

10 ways to win at winter in Belgrade

There is no denying that Belgrade is a city best enjoyed from April to October. Apart from the cheer over the extended holiday season (lasting roughly from Gregorian Christmas on 25th December to Julian New Year on 14th January), between November and March, the city is quieter, people are more irritable, while grey dilapidated facades and rusty infrastructure show themselves more against the gloomy winter … Continue reading 10 ways to win at winter in Belgrade

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Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (23): Jalija, Belgrade’s lost Jewish neighbourhood

“Immediately connected to Dorćol, which […] had a completely oriental look, there was a Jewish mahala [district], which was mostly inhabited by Jews from Spain (…). However, even though next to Solunska [Thessaloniki street], whose name reminds us Serbian pretensions, we find Jevrejska [Jewish], Mojsijeva [Moses] and other streets with names from the Old Testament, there is no ghetto in Belgrade. The Serb, who was … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (23): Jalija, Belgrade’s lost Jewish neighbourhood

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Pokretači, The Nutshell Media

Pokretači 1.13 Kukica

  rva regionalna emisija sa Kukicom iz Podgorice! Beleške i linkovi Kukicu možete kontaktirati preko njihovog sajta, Facebooka i Instagrama. M:telova start-up akademija i novi hub “Digitalna Fabrika”, se nalaze ovde. Zanimljivu priču o The Badgeru, start-upu sa bedževima možete pročitati ovde. Priča o Beeand.me, startupu sa pametnim košnicama, je ovde Pinjate iz Kotora su ovde. Sviđa vam se šta ste čuli? Lista prethodnih epizoda Pokretača je ovde.  … Continue reading Pokretači 1.13 Kukica

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Uncategorized

Why So Doomed? Serbia’s Depressing Exceptionalism

“So, how is that different compared to any other country?” a Finnish visitor interrupted my wine-fuelled autopilot list of Serbia’s social ills: lack of strategic direction, ever-increasing inequality and cronyism. I paused. Weirdly, my list was not all too different from the headline issues in the Trump US , never mind the complaints you hear in any cab in the ex-Yugoslav states. My instinctual rant … Continue reading Why So Doomed? Serbia’s Depressing Exceptionalism

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Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist

Hidden Belgrade (22): Pištolj-mala and Lower Dorćol’s lowly days

Now a budding foodie hub, attracting Belgrade’s fashionable creatives, Lower Dorcol was the site of Belgrade’s most notorious shanty town, Pištolj-mala (“Pistol slum”), some 90 years ago. As Serbian architect and historian of Belgrade’s urbanism, Dr Zlata Vuksanović Macura, notes in her research(with some great photos), at its peak this shantytown housed about 1,500 souls in about 300 houses , spread in the area around … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (22): Pištolj-mala and Lower Dorćol’s lowly days

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Life

The Agony and Ecstasy of Serbian ‘Repats’

At some point you decided to leave for foreign lands, with the aim, perhaps, of getting an education, pursuing a career in a better organised place, or just seeing what life is like outside Serbia. Eventually, overworked and frazzled, probably in a cramped room somewhere in a big international city, you started thinking of Serbia. 1. The siren call You went there recently and found … Continue reading The Agony and Ecstasy of Serbian ‘Repats’

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Hidden Belgrade, The Belgradist, Uncategorized

Hidden Belgrade (21): The rise and fall of the Friendship Park

There are a few testaments of Socialist Yugoslavia’s global ambitions dotted around Belgrade, from the obelisk by Branko’s bridge commemorating the first meeting of the Non-Aligned movement in 1961, to Sava Centar, built to host conferences of OSCE and Non-Aligned Movement in 1977 and 1979, respectively. However, the most striking and poetic memorial to rise and disastrous fall of Yugoslavia’s international clout is the Friendship … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (21): The rise and fall of the Friendship Park

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Balkans, Travel

Tirana Transformed

My first impressions of Tirana in 2008, were that the city did not look like anything I’ve ever seen before. Outside of the planned central core, buildings, new and old, were shooting up randomly, making the drive around the outskirts a vertiginous experience. The whole city was marked by almost five decades of Enver Hoxha’s Stalinist isolationism and its chaotic aftermath. There were bunkers, grand … Continue reading Tirana Transformed

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