Our host country asked us not to say where we were until after the signature came through-- so now we can say YES-- We are in Belgrade, Serbia--- BEO-GRAD-- the "White City". That is not more true than today as the snow keeps coming-- up to about 20 inches now.
Some thought on Belgrade--
(our perspective comes from travelling through Western Europe a lot---a couple of times a year-- PLUS our 2 adoption trips and one vacation Ukraine)
The Good-
The Bad
Some thought on Belgrade--
(our perspective comes from travelling through Western Europe a lot---a couple of times a year-- PLUS our 2 adoption trips and one vacation Ukraine)
The Good-
- Clean Running water 24/7 (yes its okay to drink the tap water)
- Lots of reasonably priced apartments (Vlado can help you there vlado@domovina.com)
- pretty modern infrastructure-- roads, public transport, electricity all work to western standards.
- lots of good local and international food options for eating out
- small but modern well stocked grocery stores are everywhere.
- there are "real toilets" here in Belgrade-- no "squatters"
- If you like nightlife-- there is a LOT of it-- Belgrade has become to "go to" spot for many western Europeans to come party.
- A fair amount of neat sights-- no it ain't Paris (and for us that is a good thing)
- A very compact and easily walkable center-- were it summer we probably would have walked the couple of miles to the orphanage at least once a day
- Very Safe feel to the city. Other than for the soccer game on Saturday night where we were careful to avoid the hooligans we have never felt unsafe -- day or night. (we would not feel as safe in downtown Cincinnati)
- Many English speakers. We really did our homework and spoke a fair amount of Russian and Ukrainian prior to those adoptions-- I speak German and we can be polite in French, Italian and Spanish--but we came here with NO Serbian skills. We have picked up "polite Serbian" but can easily get by with hand gestures and the English skills of the locals.
- How cool is it that they have Paul McCartney on their 10 Dinar Bank Note?!?!?
The Bad
- Expensive-- okay not as bad as Western Europe, but expect to pay about the same for everything here as in a medium sized US city.
- Belgrade lacks some of the "wild, wild west" feel of Ukraine (most people would probably consider this a "good")
- While we have seen NO animosity toward us, you have to think that since NATO bombed the snot out of this city in the 90s there are still people here who are not wild about Americans. Some of the buildings are still in ruins.
- it sure snows a lot---well okay that's not fair-- it is December and this IS the first snow of the year!
Posts
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have already commented about this article, but on the other site (here: http://www.ambassador-serbia.com/2009/12/17/belgrade-good-or-bad-for-americans/ ), but I would like to say to you personaly, as possible as it can be. I love your humanitarian act, to adopt special child. All I can say is that I admire you, you are very brave and noble person(s), because it takes much of dedication and commitment. Anyway, I always support love acts, and this is (I think so) one of them. I love your impressions about Belgrade and Serbia, and I found very funny your comment about "Paul McCartney" on 10 dinars, it is actually Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, very important person in Serbian history.
Wish you and Milos all the best in the future, Stefan from Serbia.
Are you interest to know about Dinar so click the links and know your dream interest.
ReplyDeleteDinar
My name is Milan I live in Serbia, and for me its very good to see good comments like this for my country. I can tell 1000 good and 1000 bad things about my country but when I see someone who does not live in Serbia tell about her so nice I'm glad to be a SERBIAN. Thank you very much ! :))))
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