Stories from the city

Being different, going back from today to the days before ;-b.

No Change
If you ever get to Belgrade and you bring Dinar from Germany. Try to get the lowest notes possible (200, 100, 50, 20, 10). People here just don't want to give change. The consequence in restaurants ist, that you can never pay separate and in a big group you try to manage that everybody only pays, what he or she is supposed to pay.
Today I was really angry. I went to the Lilly ( a serbian drogery store) and wanted to buy some facial cream. At the cash register I couldn't pay and left without any things. The reason was simply that I had only 1000 dinar notes and she didn't have change. 1000 dinar is like 10€, so not lots of money and not having change in the store and thereby not serving cutomers is something I don't understand. Especially since there are felt a thousand banks across the street where you as a store manager or employee would be able to get change.

The couple
Another intern arrived in Serbia, who will be working on my project: Daniel from Brasil. And he brought his girlfriend, which is doing an internship at another LC here. They are always together and holding hands - so we usually refer to them as "the couple" ;-b. There are also insider stories about beds, rooms, ... :-D.



The tower
Linda has a friend from Serbia and he took us to a tower on a hill at the edge of the city, where you can see kind of the whole city.
So we went there by bus and it took us about 45 min. The city is really really big, though the further you get outside it looks rather like small villages then part of Belgrade. Also there are the new build houses.
So we went out at the busstation and walked up the path through the forest. Or I should say, we always took the shortcuts. At the top there was the tower: it looks like a rocket.
It has a great view yeah, but only through windows :-(. A balcony would have been way nicer. In summertime they also have a restaurant up there. At the other side of the hill, there ist the tomb of the unknown soldier (the for sure have something like this in every country). This one looks really impressive with all the black marble and sitting on the "stairs" the view was great!


Beggars
Linda (another intern from Germany) is leaving tomorrow. So I was walking around the city with her, so she could get some gifts. And we were also looking at St. Marco Cathedral since she didn't see that one till then. In front of the churches there are usually (at least all the times I have been sigthseeing in the churches) beggars. So she felt bad a gave when we went back out a small boy some money. He then called his sister, which was sitting in the parc next to it and she tried to get something from us. As that didn't work he followed us along the street we walked to get more.

Earlier that day we were sitting in the parc next to our hostel, enoying the sun, writing postcards, eating some frutis, chatting ... Then a beggar girl came up to us and showed us a sign. We couldn't read it as it was in Serbian. But we then gave her a banana and a pear and she went away.

The other day: getting lost in another part of the city
Tuesday we went by bus to a part of the city across the river where you have kind of like a hill with a church and a great view over Belgrade. But we couldn't find the way.
First we walked along the river since supposedly it should be close to the river, then we went back and asked somebody who told us to go in the opposite direction ;-b. We didnd't find it and we went back to another street to walk again in the wrong direction. I was already before saying that it has to be in the other direction, but well ...
Then we finally went in the other direction, almost the same way we went before and just some meters further to find the place (in the direction I thought it would be).
But the view was really nice and the sun was at that point better for pictures. So it kind of worked out.

Kalmegdan at night
Later on Tuesday we then were sitting around Kalmegdan at night and took pictures. But we also had bear, wine, chips, "Pistazien", nuts, ... with us. It was a really nice evening.

Supermarket
As you might expect that this is a supermarket. Well you are wrong. It is an kind of interior design and clothes stores with a restaurant. Just one of the most creative places I have seen in a while. And the food was also really great. Check out the pictures!
This was Monday evening and afterwards we drank coctails for about 2,50€ in a pub :-D!

Novi Sad, No Voice and the Zoo again

Zoo:
Since the wheather was so nice I joined the other interns in the zoo. I was not sure about the zoo the last time, but now I know from the reactions of the others, that I'm not the only one which thinks that that zoo is kind of depressing. The animals just do not have enough space.

Alana from Brasil told me a great story about something, which happend at the zoo. There is a statue of a dog. That's because once an animal broke free and the dog fought it in order to protect an human. The dog was killed, but the human was able to capture the animal. So sad :-(.

Oh, we found also that they have white hedhogs. And the worst thing we saw where the alligators. They were basically laying in a bathtube. There was not really room for them to move.

Petar was fond of a lamb that was "mähhhhhhing" all the time. Next to its cage were the lions - and there were driven crazy by the lamb. Maybe it was making fun of them: "Can't get me!"

Oh I guess there was feeding time, cause we had the pleasure to see the birds eating dead chicks and dead mice.

Novi Sad:
Tuesday evening we had been in Bistec. They had Karaoke there, but with a live band! So we decided not to sing this time ;-). First we have to learn the lyrics as for the lack of a screen it is hard to read the text.
The amount of policemen in the city and around the hostel increased that night, but in the morning there were policemen everywhere. That was because Putin was visiting Belgrade that day and the would not allow anybody on the street and also block the streets for him.

So we had to "flee" to Novi Sad in order to get out of the house.

We went by train. Which took a while. It even took a while to get out of Belgrade as we were stopping and going slow all the time. Eventually we made it to Novi Sad, which ist the second biggest city in Serbia and is located north of Belgrade. It has a really nice city center and a huge fortress called "Petrovaradin".
It's located at the Danube with a great view on the city and in the back on the mountains :-).

We drank a coffee up there. The waiter was really a confused one. He didn't really understand English, but Petar was always translating for us and he still didn't get that I ordered a "tea" and not an "irish coffee" - Does this sound like the same?
Well - never mind.

When we went back through the intercity the firemen were running into one of the cafes at the street. The funny thing that the people outside were not reacting at all. I don't you get what you have ordered if your cafe is burning.


We went to eat a pizza. I ordered Magaritha since I thought I cannot do anything wrong with that, BUT they put mushrooms an all their pizzas :-(. And the put even ketschup and curry on it! Mirsini said she doesn't want Ketschup and still got it. The problem is that the tomato sauce on the pizza ist also called Ketschup. So you can eat it with double ketschup (real ketschup and tomato sauce).

My voice:
Coming back from Novis Sad I lost my voice completely. And that would go on for several days. The next day at the meeting with my team, they were making fun of me - as I couldn't talk at all. I tried to throw a paper plane at one of the guys - I failed. He comment: "And that's German engineering." ;-b

The Hostel and Bad Wheather Days

As good as the wheather was the first days - as fast it changed: Rain and Cold.

Some of the other interns left. So we were hanging around the hostels: drinking, playing games, gut chatting, celebrating a birthday ...

Always involved: Popcorn. I think I ate never before so often popcorn. It's everywhere here.

But basically we were not doing much over the day - just hanging around.

And I got sick. Though not the only sick one. I guess the fast changing wheather was a problem.

So since not that much things happend I tell you a little bit about the hostel!

The Hostel
So the hostel is basically located in the middle of the city - 5 min from the economy faculty, where my project is.

I think it has about place for 20 or so people. My room has six beds ("Stockbetten" = 3). At the beginning all the beds were full. Now with Peter, Linda and me in there. It is still full. But with stuff :-).

The reception is ocupied 24/7. So the night shifts are usually done by students. There is a room with a chillout louge and a small kitchen. Small means that there is a sink, two plates, a fridge and a microwave.
Besides that there is a TV with a DVD and a Playstation. TV in Serbia is totally interesting. They do have a lot of programs which show German, English, Spanish, Croatian ... movies, series etc. just with a subtitle.
When there are big groups the room is just too small. That means that you usually try to stay in the room or get out of the house as fast as possible. Third option stay the whole time at the place you are sitting at otherwise you will loose your place.

The hostel has two bathrooms. The first one is not that good. The shower there looks at the first sight pretty luxurious: there is water coming out from the top, from the sides, ... but then again it is hard to regulate and it also reminds me of a Dixi toilet, which wants to be a shower.
The other bathroom is just normal and better. And there are also the washing machine and the dryer. So if you want to wash cloth: put in your cloth and ask somebody of the staff to turn it on for you.

Yesterday the next big group arrived: people from Spain. We are just waiting for getting for a note, that we have to change hostels. The rumor is that we have to leave the 23rd of march. That would be tomorrow. So we will see.

So today the wheather is better again. So we are planning to go to the zoo and tomorrow we are probably doing a trip to Novi Sad. The second biggest city in Serbia.

Meeting people

Nemanjas place:

So would do you do at a meeting with interns and the reception team in the place of the reception team leader? --> You chat and you get a Salsa lesson!
So we were chatting and drinking wine and bear first. But then we had a salsa lesson by Maya and her former dance partner Marco. They are very good, but they stopped as you cannot really gain money here in Serbia by dancing professoinally.
So the tried to teach us some steps: basics, turns and change sides. And I have to say since I never before had a lesson in partner dance: It's hard for me! I think too much. But still it was fun, especially since we didn't really have space for dancing :-).

Around 4 am. we were back in the hostel and at 8 am. I had to get up for my project meeting. Damn it!


Yesterday:
But it was pretty interesting. There were four other guys from Serbia and me this time. We were talking about two clients and they briefed us new members about the last client. This one was coming later that day for a meeting. So they presented to him their ideas and what they have worked on. Everything was in Serbian as the owner doesn't know English. So kind of boring, but I tried to guesss what they were talking about. I even got some words right as they are similar to languages that I know.

Later that day we had kind of a movie night at the hostel, which ended up in a not-movie night - but a night with popcorn, a game and chatting.

Before that I went out with Marina from Brasil (she is leaving today) to a place to buy the local kind of pancakes/crêpe. Very good!

Belgrade Zoo

Belgrade Zoo or even after going in circles - Finding my way

Another hard night! People arriving at different hours in the middle of the night, turning on the light, people running through the room to get on the balcony to smoke ... and then at six in the morning a person screaming at me to get up! Me half asleep: Leave me alone, I don't belong to your group. I started to imagine ways to make him die really slow and painfully .... *Evil laugh*.

So when I then decided to make lunch in the kitchen I saw all the people sitting there and I ... escaped!!!! I went done to the shop, got me some apples and off I went.

I decided to go to the zoo as at one point - I always end up there. I knew that it was somewhere at the right side of the Kalmegdan. But I kind of got lost. I was walking along the wall as I figured, that at one point the zoo had to turn up. Well I didn't work that way, since sometimes you couldn't go on. And at one point things seemed familiar again :-). I went in circles of course :-D.

But then I found it after a while :-).

So after walking a while, I'm not totally sure if I like this zoo.

Let's evaluate:
+ Lots of animals and some I have never seen before (still don't know what they are as I cannot read the signs).
+ Cool that the zoo is integrated in an old fortress and the walls and everything ist used. E.g. there are floors in the walls for the animals to move or caves.
- Some animals look really sad and not that well cared for.
- Some animals just do not have enough space in my opinion.
- Some of the cages would need to be renovated. And most of them consist of plastic, stones and cement. There are no gras areas.

So some things made me really sad and next time I go to the zoo in Germany I won't complain about the high prices as the animals have it better there.

Still some funny/interesting things:

• Finally some "homo sapiens" behind a cage. We always knew that we are animals.
• No petting zoo, since those animals are just walking around the zoo like normal visitors. (Wondering what they pay :-)).
• Elephant following me and then when I want to take a picture - he shows me his ass.
• Two bears lying next to each other in a heart shape. So romantic!

Afterwards it started to rain. For the first time here. Now the hostel is almost empty and two AIESECers changed from another hostel to that one. One of them is a girl that studies in Heidelberg, but originally comes from somewhere close to Nürnberg.

And later tonight I will finally meet more of the inters. The reception team leader has invited us to his place.

First meeting with the project team

So, after hanging around a lot and relaxing in the sun. Finally the work started - or at least kind of.

Monday - hanging around the city:
Since I alreay explored the inner city and a part of the other river side I now went to the right. So I found a famous cathedral St. Sava or so. It's pretty impressive from the outside, but they are not finished building it. So it is empty from the inside. I also noticed that in front of the chruches and cathedrales --> there are the beggars, holding open their hands for money and also running after people. I have to say: I don't like that.

So I was walking around a lot again and sometimes sitting in the sun, relaxing and reading. I haven't done this for quite a while! So I'm loving it! I also just set down at the parque and watched the sun go down. With hundreds of Serbians beside me. I guess they really like to be outside.

I also seem to blend in pretty well. Lots of people are starting to sell me something in Serbian or asking me for their way.

Today!
Oh, the huge group from the weekend came back from their field trip to the hostel.
The main disadvantage are:

• It is really loud.
• If I stand up from my seat in the chill out room, I most likely will loose it as it is too small for that many people. So I cannot stand up.
• They block all the bathrooms, because they all want to shower. This means you cannot go on the toilet and you will not have warm water later. (Lucky me! I have showered before them in the morning :-)).
• The room is full again and a huge mess.

So tomorrow the group will leave and I will then be joined by other AIESECers. Still I think living in a hostel for 7 weeks will become a challenge.

In the afternoon Joanna which is the VP Responsible for the project picked me up at the hostel. She showed me the AIESEC office and we were chatting till the meeting would begin.
So currently there are 10 VPs in the LC and about 120 members!!!! There are I think 3 LCs in Belgrad and the MC is around the corner somewhere. They have 6-7 projects running right now. And lots of them will be finished in April - which means I will see them :-).

For the meeting we met with the project leader and two team mates. The Brasilian guy and the girl from Ukraine will arrive the next days.
A boy told us about our first project company. His father ist the owner. It is a medium/small sized company which trades car parts. Their main target group is mechanics, but they have trouble reaching them with their marketing. So it sounds pretty interesting! We will meet with the owner/his father the next days and then come up with ideas, how to improve his marketing and use the budget more effectively.

Not everything is as it appears

One might thing with one glance you can see everything. But most of the time you can get perceived by a first impression - in the negative and in the positive sense. Excited what I will tell now? Well, but first some other things.

The first night:
Are you fond of fairy tales or at least know them? I felt reminded of one the first night. Since I sleep in a hostel, I was sharing my room with five other people the first time. (Note: latest on Wednesday I will share the room with other AIESEC interns). By earsdropping I found out that they are from another student organization. They actually have kind of a leadership seminar here in the hostel. But they were out the whole day and night.
So they arrived somewhere in the middle of the night and woke me up. Then a drunk girl asked me: "Who is sleeping in my bed?" (Here is the reference to the fairy tale.) Well me half asleep said: "me and that this is in fact my bed! So she asked: "Well then we share the bed." Me half asleep: "Ähm, no - ask the receptionist for another bed!"
The left pretty early in the morning then for a field trip for some days.

Going over the bridge:
Since I didn't know when the guy from the reception team would pick me up and I became kind of bored, I left the hostel around 11 am to go out and see more of the city.
So I went down the hill this time in the direction of the river. I found a lot of things. A market was on the way. They sell really erverything there!!!!!! Fruits, nuts, fish, meat ... and toilet bowls as well. I wonder if they grow them as well :-D! Actually I think it is really neat to buy really everything on a market. I'm pretty sure I will go there one day and buy some things - maybe not a toilet bowl though.

I also discovered a DM. It is the same concept as in Hungary, you get everything you get in Germany as well. And the house brand and lots of others are in German. And then they stick a note on the back with the translation in Serbian. Maya also told me yesterday, that in the movies and also TV, they have a lot of things that are in original language. She also asked me why we don't have it that way in Germany, since everybody ist good in English. I think it is because, we have a bigger market and it is much easier to have everything in your mother tongue.
I also found the train station, a post office and a huge shopping center. Later I walked along the two rivers. Again lots of people where outside skating, with there dogs or families, running, biking ... and the wheather was beautiful.

Contrasts:
You can see also a lot of contrast here or things appear differently when you get closer.
On the one hand you have this huge shopping center with all the stores you would also find in Germany, but everywhere else you have small little stores. And next to the shopping center you have this small little old houses.


Then there are those huge buildings, which seem pretty impressiv from far away. But then you get closer and see that windows are broken, the walls have cracks and it doesn't look like there is anything in there.
But on the other hand you also have buildings which look that way, but are perfectly renovated in the inside.


Other things:

• While I was at the other end of the city (exagerated but a little bit true), Dex called me from the reception team for the city tour. When I arrived back at the hostel then, the teamleader reception and the other interns he expected didn't show up. So the city tour was cancelled for now, but he showed me the faculty/building, where I will work for my project. And guess what: it is around the corner and I already walked by.
• I seem to blend in pretty well. I got already asked for the way two times. But I could never help, since they didn't speak English. And I cannot remember the street names so far. I just remember the ways I go and what things I see :-). The street names are just to complicated and sometimes I cannot even read it, because of the different signs.
  

Arrival and First Expression

Finally not here anymore, but there!!!!!!!!!!

And there is Serbia! Too be more exact: Belgrade/Beograd - the capital of Serbia.

Where ist Serbia?
After a certain person yesterday asked me and also guessed "is this on the African continent". No it is not!
Serbia is in Europe. You can image it that way: under Germany there is Austria, under Austria is Hungary and under Hungary is Serbia. So if this would be a Sandwich, Serbia would be the bottom half. Next to Serbia are Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzogowina and Croatia. Greece and Turkey is also not soooo for away.


The airport:
Argh, when I was in the first airplan I thought I lost my wallet (with my ID in it off course). After almost freaking out, I found it behind my seat. Next time I'm so using my beltbag again.
And in Zürich I had to go through the control again. And they had to get all my electronics out of my hand luggage. Everything was so neatly packed, so I would fit in. And now the totally messed it up :-(. Next time, I also won't put electrionics in my hand luggage - only my laptop.

But I loved to fly over Switzerland! The sun and the mountains kind of covered in snow was an amazing view!!!!

Wearing an AIESEC T-Shirt was also a good idea! I met already another intern from Brasil at the airport in Zürich. She will do another DT Project here in Beograd and has already done internships in Russia (she didn't like that one - low quality) and Poland (that one was great).

Arrival & Accomendation:
18° Can you believe this!!!! Great whether and you can still see the snow melting here! I got so lucky!
A girls - Maya - from the reception team picked me up and her dad drove us in the town. I live in the city center in a hostel. Today I sleep in another room, but tomorrow I will change in a room, that I will share with other AIESEC interns, that will arrive the next week.
The hostel is really nice. It's in an old building, it has great looking bathrooms and a chill out corner with kitchen, fridge, free coffee and tea, ...
I also got a prepaid cellphone card here. It was soooooooo cheap! About 2,70 € with money on it!!!!

In the city on my own:
Tomorrow another guy form the reception team will come and give me a city tour. But still I didn't want to sit in the hostel, so I went out to absorb the atmosphere.
Belgrad - it seems like - is a city full of life!!!! With street artist, musicians and people selling cool stuff at the street. And so many bookstores!!!!!! With really old books and also really cheap new books in English (I'll get so lost in those stores and never come back out again!!!!).
Around the castle, there is a huge parque. And everywhere with people sitting all around the place: chatting with friends, older men playing chess, families, tourists ;-) ...
And I saw the Danube - So everybody up and down the Danube: I send a greeting - if it shipes by --> tell me!
Another thing: they sell popcorn in the street and it smells everywhere like that :-D.
I guess I should count the days, till I cannot resist anymore and buy the first. And then the day, when I cannot see, smell and eat it.
I also saw an older guy selling old medals. Also some with the "Hilterkreuz" on it and in one of the bookstores they had a Hitler book in the window. I have not yet made up my mind, what to think about it.

So, read me if you want to - or not - if you don't want to.

Cheers,

Franzi