Tonight is Christmas Eve in Serbia and the last day of 40 fasting days before Christmas. According to tradition, today's lunch is a lenten lunch which usually consists of soup, fish, stuffed wine leaves, beans and salads and during the day we also eat dried fruit, walnuts, red wine and honey. Before lunch the tradition is to bring into the house a branch of an oak tree which symbolises the tree brought by a shepherd and given to Joseph and Mary to make a fire in the stable where Jesus was born. In the villages around Serbia the branch of oak is cut in the forest but in the big cities it's usually bought at the market or in church, and it is burned tonight to represent light and warmth bringing a new beginning. There are lots of traditions which symbolise Jesus's birth, for example, it's good to bring straw into the house to symbolise the crib in which Jesus was born, and to have coins scattered around the house similar to the gold coins given to Jesus by one of the Kings.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day and according to tradition, we go to the midnight liturgy, then in the morning a guest (ideally a young healthy male!) is allowed into the house on this day, bringing the new year. The greeting on the Christmas Day is Hristos se rodi which means Jesus is born - the reply is Vaistinu se rodi which means Verily is born. After returning from the morning liturgy the custom is to serve a Christmas lunch which means the end of the 40-day long fast. The feast starts with prayer, lighting a candle and incense. Lunch is different rotiserie meats, lots of cakes, salads and drinks, and a loaf of home-baked bread in which is hidden a coin - whoever finds it can expect lots more money during the coming year! The custom is to exchange presents and spend the whole day at home, visiting friends and family the next day.

Churches that follow the Julian Calendar celebrate Christmas Day on 7th January – Serbian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, Jerusalem Church, Egyptian Kopti, some Etiophians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Macedonias and Montenegrians.

Merry Christmas!

For more information about Serbia please check www.ReadyClickAndGo.com
 or email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com

What to see in Belgrade

Am I the only Yugoslavian who hasn’t visited the Flower House, the resting place of the last President of Yugoslavia, Tito? I was born and brought up under liberal communism and I should be grateful to him – Tito. But I was never confirmed into Tito’s youth organisation, the Pioneers, which had an initiation ritual which was almost religious, albeit without the live animals but a kid’s soul instead, and with no mention of God, only Tito. This was when you had to confirm your commitment to your homeland, brotherhood and unity and fellow Pioneers, but a few weeks before my big day I got appendicitis and was hospitalised and never again got the chance to declare my love for my country or see the communist light. When he died I didn’t feel obliged to pay my respects to his casket or visit his tomb, even though I was constantly pestered to. I just didn’t feel the need. Then 20 years later, after exploring the EC in depth by living in various countries, a friend decided to come to Belgrade and visit Tito’s tomb. Of course the guide was me. I wanted to see if I was still Yugoslavian.
Tito’s tomb is in the Museum of the 25th May, part of the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia, and is very close to Partisan Stadium, and at the beginning of December it was almost empty except for the coachload of visitors from Slovenia - the highest number of foreign tourists to Serbia are from Slovenia. Is this guilt or a desire to learn what they were part of for 46 years?

The old Museum is now a large exhibition space and its current exhibition is Polish and Russian official and dissident art, called “Behind the Iron Curtain”. It is divided into 3 sections, WWII, the rebuilding of the war-torn country and happy people, and this last section had numerous portraits – farmers in the field, the naval officer with a huge medal, an ordinary, good looking woman in a blue suit with the communist star proudly pinned over her heart. The most significant work is from 1936 and shows Stalin’s name in big red letters with Lenin’s face reflecting back in the red paint. 

After the exhibition we went to see the “Flower House” and Tito’s tomb. The complex of the buildings used by Tito during his life is now his resting place. There are lots of angry people who think that Tito’s resting place should move from Belgrade to Croatia as he was Croatian and also because he damaged Serbia by dividing her into three parts, Inner Serbia, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina. There is even someone so resentful that they keep trying to sell his tomb on the Serbian version of Ebay!

His tomb is very simple, plain white marble with his name and dates of birth and death engraved in gold. Sceptics are commenting on the absence of the red star, a symbol of communism, convinced that he was a Mason, although no one proved this yet. His tomb is positioned so that he can see the biggest working Church in Europe, St Sava. I am sure Tito didn’t want a view over a church especially when proclaiming that “Religion is the opium of the people” and went on to close down so many Orthodox churches, prosecuting priests and abolishing all religious gatherings. 

His office is filled with Ching dynasty furniture, generously given by a Slovenian family which made me wonder about the  combination of the two. But of course there are lots of unanswered questions about the communist time. There is a huge collection of batons which were used on mass relay races throughout Yugoslavia when all sorts of people would run – housewives, pioneers, workers, peasants, reformed political dissidents – and at the end present their batons to Tito at the Partisan Stadium on his birthday, 25th May. There would be a huge ceremony and half the schools and Universities in the country were closed. Did I go to any? No. My mum keeps saying that I am an antisocial person. 

Next to the Flower House there is a permanent exhibition of official gifts presented to Tito. Some are very bizarre such as the face towel, handmade and inscribed with “to dear Tito”. The art is beautiful but purpose wrong. I stayed the longest in front of a sword from XVII century brought to Sarajevo by the great great great grandchildren of Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic who got it from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The sword is beautifully worked with Arabic inscriptions described by Orhan Pamuk in his book “My Name is Red”. There a good display of national customs from different parts of the former Yugoslavia, and it was nice to see them today when we are all dressed the same jeans and leather jackets. All the exhibits have an English description and the staff are very helpful. The atmosphere is very laid back and very organised. I bought a great souvenir, Tito’s cookery book with recipes for the meals served to his famous guests, Kennedy, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lolobridga, Kissenger and so on. 

We spent a good three hours at the museum altogether.  Entry tickets are 300 dinars, about £2.50.
ReadyClickAndGo offers private day trips and sightseeing excursions throughout Serbia, with your own English-speaking local guide, car and driver. A private city tour of Belgrade with a private car, driver and English-speaking local guide is £65 per person.
For more information please email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com or check our website at www.ReadyClickAndGo.com
Tara

Belgrade's newest attractions

ReadyClickAndGo, a travel company specialising in private day trips, spent a few days in Belgrade last week to discover more about this fast-changing city’s latest highlights:

1. Virtual Tourist has recently declared Belgrade’s Ada Ciganlija Island to be the 3rd best island within a city, behind Paris and Prague. Perfect for picnics and watersports, the island is covered by trees that muffle the sounds of the city, and it is also the site of Serbia’s first golf course. The beautifully clean waters of Sava Lake that lap its gravel beaches are home to many varieties of carp, and can reach 24 degrees C in the summer, thanks to the warm microclimate here http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B229Z20101203

2. At the tip of the island you can watch one of Belgrade’s most eye-catching landmarks taking shape, a new bridge across the Sava River that will be the largest asymetric single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the world. The main span of 376m has no supports actually in the Sava so as not to restrict shipping even during construction, and the deck is anchored by 80 stay cables as thick as a man’s arm and a single pylon 200 metres high – one of the highest points in the city. The whole bridge including the main span will be nearly a kilometre long and 45 metres wide with 6 road traffic lanes, 2 railway lines and 2 cycle and pedestrian paths, and it is due for completion in September 2011. http://www.savabridge.com/project.htm

3. Just a few metres higher than Sava Bridge is Mount Avala’s TV transmitter tower, reopened earlier this year and a popular out-of-town picnic spot for locals. This new tower is almost identical to the original that was bombed by NATO in 1999, and money for its reconstruction was raised by donations from over a million people. It is slightly taller and much better built however, and is one of few built as a tripod anywhere in the world. http://serbiatraveller.blogspot.com/2010/11/avala-mountain-and-national-park-near.html

4. Another tower in Belgrade has been restored and will re-open any day now, and that is the medieval Nebojsa Tower at the foot of Kalemegdan Fortress. Renovations were partly funded by Greece as one of their revolutionary heroes was executed in the tower when it was a prison, and one of the exhibitions will feature his life. Other exhibitions will be on the shared history of Serbia and Greece under Turkish occupation.

5. The Museum of Yugoslav History is hosting an exhibition of modern art until the 15th February 2011 in the Museum of 25th May, called Beyond the Iron Curtain. Painting and sculpture by Soviet and Polish artists from 1945 to 1989, both official and dissident, is on display, and you can also visit Tito’s tomb, ironically with a great view of the vast new St Sava Church.

Whilst travelling around Belgrade can be straightforward on public transport or on foot if you can master some Cyrillic script first, getting out of the city is often a little more challenging. ReadyClickAndGo offers private day trips and sightseeing excursions throughout Serbia, with your own English-speaking local guide, car and driver. A private day trip from Belgrade city centre to Avala Mountain and the nearby Vinca archaeological site with a private car, driver and English-speaking local guide is £75 per person.

For more information about Serbia please email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com

A Serbians second home, the kafana

Kafana Albanija in Belgrade, Serbia 1933

The English have pubs, the French their cafes, Italians their ice cream parlours, the Greek Tavernas and we, Serbians, have Kafanas or second homes as we spend more time there than at home. The word Kafana is derived from the Turkish kahvehane (“coffee house”) which is in turn derived from the Persian term qahveh-khaneh and the first kafana in Serbia was opened by the Turks in the part of Belgrade called Dorcol, in 1522, at the start of their 400 year occupation of the Balkans.

Kafanas are a cult for Serbian people and any self-respecting Serb has kafana or two. Maybe three depending on what your average Serbian citizen needs one for at any given time in his social life.In the past a kafana always had red or blue checked tablecloths and tin ashtrays but today many kafanas masquerade as restaurants or cafes or even clubs, but at heart they are simply a kafana. So there is a kafana for a social gathering which includes lots of alcohol interspersed with breaks for tasty food, loud live folk music, with smashed glases on the floor and dancing on the tables.

There are kafanas near the office where all the office games and intrigue take place, always described however as ‘business meetings’.  There are a few kafanas which are always full even though there is never any live music or good food, but which still live on their reputation as a haunt for long-ago heroes or intellectuals who would freely discuss politics during the communist era when there was no reliable information except what could be gleaned in such places – nowadays people still go there to be seen and to gossip. And there is a new breed of family kafanas where there is no live music only a kids’ garden in the back, and very good food!

You know you have succeeded in life if the waiter of your kafana knows you by name, your favourite table has a reserved sign on it just for you and when you get your favourite drink served before you even take your jacket off. If you are well known and short of money you can drink and eat free and pay when you get money.  You waiter is your best friend and confidant as he knows where you are and never tells anybody. Not even your other half.

Skadarlija, Belgrade, Serbia

If you are coming to Belgrade you must explore a bohemian part of town called Skadarlija where live music and good food last until the early hours. The most famous kafana here is Tri Sesira (the three hats) but there are many others, such as the Dva Jelena ( Two stags ), Ima Dana and the famous Znak Pitanja (the question mark, the kafana with no name). This is in an old traditional house, typically Serbian, very rustic, with laid-back service and good food.

A small tip for foreigners going to a kafana with Serbians – your host will never allow you to pay for dinner or drinks, so don’t even try to pay. Just raise your glass, look at your host and shout cheers – ZIVELI!!!!! 

For more information about Serbia and private dat trips in Serbia please email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com or check our website at http://www.readyclickandgo.com/

Avala, a mountain and National Park near Belgrade, Serbia

Another weekend of very warm weather in Belgrade for this time of year (November and it's 20 C) brought a huge number of people out to visit Avala, a mountain and National Park 16 km from Belgrade. Avala was a part of my upbringing. I would visit at least once a year, mostly with my family - we had vast numbers of relations who'd visit us in the city, and we'd run out of ideas where to take them and always end up doing a day trip to Avala, sometimes with a picnic in one of the many hidden spots on the mountain, sometimes having lunch in the restaurant in Avala Tower. At school there were day trips to Avala for every pupil to learn about the Monument to the Unknown Hero and as a university student I had some field work there, learning everything about the geomorphology of Avala and orienteering in the forest. 

The reason for the huge number of visitors last weekend is the newly opened Avala Tower, one of Belgrade's landmarks, which has been restored and reopened in April this year after the NATO bombing of in 1999 which wrecked it. The original construction started in 1961 and finished in 1963 and at the top was an enclosed observation deck from which you could see as far as Belgrade and it was one of the city's main tourist attractions. Today the old glory of the Avala Tower is restored and the views are even more magnificent. The only setback is that the restaurant hasn’t been opened yet, but there is a nearby hotel, the Avala, with nice rooms and restaurant, and a small cafe at the foot of the tower itself. Food here is very good and affordable.

A village called Zmov grew up at the top of the mountain in the Middle Ages, and when the Ottomans invaded in 1442, they took it over and built a fortress which they named Havale (meaning shelter) to oppose Belgrade's Kalamegdan fortress which could be seen in the distance. In 1934 by order of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, the village of Zmov was bulldozed to make way for the Monument to the Unknown Hero, an anonymous Serbian soldier from WWI.  Marked only by the dates 1912-1918, the monument also commemorates those lost in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). The monument was created by the well-known Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic in the form of a mausoleum with 8 female figures, each representing a woman from a different historical region of Yugoslavia.

On the way to Avala there is a Monument to the Soviet War Veterans, the members of a Russian military delegation who died in an airplane crash on their way to Belgrade for the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in WWII, October 20, 1944 - it was the Red Army who liberated Yugoslavia. And at the top of Mount Avala there is also a Memorial Park dedicated to the victims of WWII - so the whole mountain is steeped in the history of Yugoslavia and it is a very significant place to us.

If you are staying in Belgrade we would definitely recommend a visit to Mount Avala or even an overnight stay there as there are plenty of opportunities for walking, trekking, cycling or simply enjoying the stunning views.

For more information about Serbia please email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com or visit our website at www.ReadyClickAndGo.com

How to make Serbia's favourite dish - Sarma?

In one of my previous post I explained how to make a sauerkraut in order to make a Serbian favorite dish - Sarma. Today you will find a recipe how to make her Highness of winter dishes - sarma. If you need any help or explanation please email me at Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com  

You need the following ingredients:

5 large leaves of sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
1 pound minced pork or beef

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon of ground paprika

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

2 large eggs, well beaten

1/2 cup of uncooked rice, rinsed

3 slices of smoked bacon

1/2 pint of tomato sauce 

6 tablespoons of cooking oil

4 tablespoons of flour

Gently fry in some oil the minced pork or beef, adding the salt, ground paprika, eggs and rice, and stir. Once it's browned, place a large spoonful of the mixture into each of the sauerkraut leaves, wrap them into rolls tucking the ends of the leaves in, and place in a cooking pot. My mum usually covers the bottom of the pot with cabbage leaves first, to prevent the sarma burning and disintigrating. Once all the stuffed leaves are placed neatly, cover them with a mixture of the smoked ham which we usually cut into small pieces fried with the tomato sauce for a juicy taste. Put any remaining cabbage over the sarma and add enough warm water to cover the rolls. Bring it to boil and then reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for 2 hours, adding a paste of oil and flour to thicken the sauce if necessary half way through.

  

Sarma freezes well and can be served hot or cold.

Enjoy.

For more information about Serbia please email Tara@ReadyClickAndGo.com or visit our website at www.ReadyClickAndGo.com