Belgrade 2.0 highlights some wonderful digital guerilla warfare against the Radical party. Make sure you check out the spoof “Tomorrow Belongs To Them” (below).
Tom Merchant, founder of award winning travel company Black Tomato, praises Belgrade lavishly in Canada’s Metro newspaper:
War-torn Belgrade may sound like an unlikely holiday destination, but the Serbian capital has been busy winning over European travellers who find it’s one of the hottest city-break spots on the continent.Belgrade is a city moving out of its darker past and into its buzzing, vibrant present. It is no longer just synonymous with war-driven devastation, and is now regarded as one of the hippest cities in Europe.
The locals’ appetite for a good night out has generated a stir that is attracting the chicest social sets from countries all over the world.
But it’s the combination of its incredible cultural past (long before the wars changed people’s perception) with the emerging arts and social scene that makes it so alluring to me.
Great nightlife can be found the world over. But when it’s interwoven with beguiling architecture that often hugs the banks of one of the world’s great rivers — the mighty Danube and its tributary, the Sava —well, then you have something pretty special.
It’s hard to describe the potential of such an exciting city in so few words, so here are a few tips on how to get under the skin of the place through one of my favourite methods — finding music and the best bars.
Whilst escorting some friends from the UK around Belgrade yesterday, I came across a wonderful addition to the Balkan Whorehouse Chic collection when one of the pointed at this display and said “Look at that, Prostitute’s uniforms!”
I noticed later that even the mannequins have fake breasts.
Ethiopian asylum seekers give a three fingered Serbia salute at their training base in Pambukovica
I though this might be a spoof, but its real.
“Serbian athletics need not worry for its results in the sport’s long-distance events for some time, as for the first time ever Serbian athletic team will incorporate top class competitors born in foreign countries.“
It appear three Ethiopians are being given asylum in Serbia in exchange for competing for their soon-to-be new country. There is something desperately cynical about all this.
Blic Online in English | Sports | Ethiopians waiting for Serbian citizenship and ticket for Beijing
From B92:
LEBANE — The Swedish ambassador says Serbia will probably join the EU between 2012 and 2015, together with Croatia.Krister Bringeus said that the EU wanted to accelerate the integration process, but that that depended on whether Serbia wanted to continue its European path.
“The tango is a dance for two, one can’t dance alone. Europe makes it clear that it wants Serbia, now the Serbian government has to make it clear if it wants to continue its partnership with a united Europe. If it decides to do so, Serbia will become a member at the same time as Croatia, through an accelerated process,” said Bringeus.
As many of you know, after three years in Serbia, I finally decided to start learning the Serbian language. I was extremely lucky to find a truly brilliant teacher to help me*. Additionally, it turns out that the old myth that adults find it very hard to learn languages may be bunk.
I am now interested in the topic of Hacking Foreign Language Learning. I am looking for any tips, tricks and shortcuts one can adopt to speed up language learning.
So far I have found the following resources:
How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour
A Simple Trick to Turbo Charge Learning a Foreign Language.
I was contacted about Edufire, which looks pretty interesting. It offers live video tutoring in 18 languages (with more being added all the time).
I hear that the Rosetta Stone system is superb (pity there is no Serbian) but a bit expensive for most.
xLingo is a nice idea, you “Find Language Exchange partners from around the world to practice and improve your language skills.”
If anyone has any recommendations, please contact me with your ideas.
* My Serbian teacher’s name is Mira and she is highly experienced and uses the latest teaching techniques (this was confirmed by my girlfriend, who is a linguistics expert and university lecturer). She can be contacted by email: mira22 AT eunet DOT yu .
Ok, so back the status quo! For one night though, there was a lovely sense of progress and jubilation in Belgrade…
Some members might have noticed that the blog, forum and Wiki all now have Google Adsense advertisements. Does this mean that the Belgrade FVC is now a profit making commercial enterprise? Definitely not.
My reasoning is that the adverts are fairly unobtrusive and discrete, but provide a small but useful income to cover the operating costs of the BGFVC.
So far costs massively outweigh income of any sort. In the event they even come close, I will keep a full account on an online spreadsheet. Any surplus earnings will be put in the BGFVC charitable projects fund for use as we see fit.
If anyone has any objections to this, please let me know.
Fish&Bar is an amazing new restaurant and delicatessen situated at the intersection Brace Jugovica and Simina streets in Dorcol (where Sinatra used to be). It server amazing fish, salads and other seafood dishes (including my beloved picked anchovies).
A “Wok to Walk” franchise has opened on Nusiceva street 3a in Belgrade (near McDonalds on Terazije) and offers cheap and delicious Chinese fast food. Here is the flyer:
