Nearing the end of our first week in Belgrade

This is about the end of our first week in Belgrade. We are actually traveling to an area of southern Serbia called Sandžak on Friday afternoon, and will be there for two days. This week has been really interesting so far, as we are trying to get used to being in a much bigger city. And it really is much bigger than Zagreb. In Zagreb, it is very easy to tell that everything important, everything interesting, everywhere you might want to go, is right in the center of the city and easy to get to. Here, there is a main center, but important things are everywhere, much more spread out. Honestly, it’s kind of scary for me. I am so not used to being in such a big city, and I am really struggling with that.

We are having our classes in a building of a school called FMK, which is Faculty for Media and Communications. We have language class every day, and lectures, but here we’ve been going to class later than in Zagreb, usually around noon or even later. The faculty is really nice and new, and there is a café in the lobby that we can go to between lectures. Another thing that is really cool is that every morning I go on a run through a park 2 minutes away from my house that is in what used to be the biggest fortress in Belgrade. Plus, people are always walking their awesome doggies in the morning. 

On Tuesday night, we met with a group of about 20 other college-aged students who were a part of a program that sent them to the United States to study for a year. The idea was to force us to make some friends our age who are familiar with Belgrade, who could take us out and show us around. We did a really awkward circle of forced talking (our academic director has experience doing peace discussing between people… I forget how it is called). Afterwards, we all went out for a drink at a really nice bar on this “touristy” street.

Today, (Wednesday) we had class again. We went through a frustrating (for me) lecture connecting philosophy and “the politics of difference/identity.” I don’t know very much about philosophy and so it was interesting, but I had trouble understanding the connection between the two.

After that frustrating lecture and discussion, my friends and I went to get a quick beer before heading home to eat dinner with our host families. We went in the opposite direction of where I live, which I thought would be okay, since I live so close to the main square. Of course, because I thought that, it clearly meant that I had to get lost on my walk home. When I am heading home, I go into the main square and take one of the pedestrian streets towards Kalemegdan (the huge fortress), and then turn right and go straight to my house. However, tonight, in the dark, I took the wrong pedestrian street. All of the streets have cafes with patios full of tables and umbrellas bleeding into each other. The street I took looked like it had more tables than usual, but I just attributed it to the fact that it was nighttime so more people are out having drinks. As I walked further down the street, it looked more and more unfamiliar. It was a sea of tables, and looked like and endless forest of umbrellas arching over shadowy figures. The street was loud and jam-packed. I stumbled through the pulsating crowd of people, small and alone with my huge, heavy backpack awkwardly swinging behind me, out of my control. I kept walking, hoping to reach the end, hoping for something to look familiar, hoping for the obscuring umbrellas to part, and Kalemegdan to appear. Instead, the patios just got denser with tables, the clubs I walked by more intimidating. Colored lights were flashing, and not a single word I could hear out of all the chatter around me was a familiar one. It was like a hellish nightmare. I just wanted to know where I was, to be headed in the right direction. I was tired, it was late and I was extremely irritated. All I wanted was to be at home, real home, and not be lost and confused and uncomfortable anymore.

Of course, I eventually got home. It really didn’t take that long because I don’t live that far away from anything, but I think that experience was the first time I really felt like I would give anything to be at home and to get out of this country. Most of the time, I’m happy with being here. Every once in awhile, I feel extremely happy to be here. This morning, I went on a run through the fortress. It was beautiful and empty, except for people walking their dogs, and I just felt so happy and lucky. I didn’t have class until noon, didn’t have any homework or papers to worry about yet, and was simply enjoying the scenery and the doggies. Other times, I just feel a twinge of missing home. Maybe I’m just sitting at a café with all of my friends, but I suddenly wish I could just be at home, in my room or on my couch, not having to worry about being uncomfortable or unhappy or confused any more. And tonight, I really felt for the first time that I would have given anything to be home immediately, and wanted to cry at the fact that I still have to be here for 10 more weeks. 

But anyway. Other than that, everything is going well, and I'm looking forward to our trip this weekend!

Trip to Vukovar

Vukovar is about a three-hour bus ride from Zagreb. It is located right on the Danube River, which is also the Croatian-Serbian boarder. Even during the time of Yugoslavia, it was one of the most ethnically mixed cities, and had one of the highest rates of inter-ethnic marriages. In 1991 when it was attacked, the town was about 47% Croat and 32% Serbian. Vukovar was one of the first towns invaded by the Yugoslav People’s Army when Croatia announced its independence from Yugoslavia. The town was under siege from August 1991 until it fell (or was liberated, depending on your point of view) on November 18. During this time, the Yugoslav People’s Army (or JNA) shelled the city constantly, while its citizens hid in basements. Croatia, not yet even a recognized nation attempted to form an army to defend Vukovar, and were successful for a period of time. When the city fell, about 80% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. The citizens that had camped in basements for three months finally came above ground to see their city ripped apart by bullets, rockets, bombs and fires. Woman and children were sent away from the city in buses. Croat soldiers were sent to concentration camps, where most were killed.

As you can imagine, the city’s scars are still very visible. Some people say that Vukovar hasn’t been completely rebuilt or recovered in order to serve as a reminder of the war. However, the biggest reminders of this ethnic war aren’t the bullet hole-riddled buildings or prominent memorials and graveyards, but the segregation that still remains between the Croat and Serb population. Children go to either Croatian or Serbian schools; cafes are exclusively Croatian or Serbian; people ignore acquaintances of a different ethnicity. It is not a physically separated city, but there is a barrier there.

We left for Vukovar early on Thursday morning. My train was late, so I was late and I think the bus almost left without me. We arrived and checked in to our hotel, Hotel Dunav. My Frommer’s Guide to Croatia told me it was “built as a package hotel and despite several updates, it still is. Rooms and public spaces still have that dark, socialist aura.” The hotel was clean, had a restaurant and bar and rooms with views overlooking the Danube, but does NOT come recommended by our group (especially me). All of our rooms were crawling with, as our guide called them, “stink bugs.” Big, brown and buzzy, they smell like really bad B.O. when you stomp them, and apparently come in through the windows. Of course, the room I stayed in had the most, and although we spent some time catching them,  they still flew around our room and crawled all over everything all night. Along with the heat due to our closed windows, the situation did not allow for much sleep. I was not a happy camper. Okay, but I tried not to let the horrible rooming situation ruin my Vukovar experience.

 We had free time for lunch, and with few options around the hotel, we tried some “fast food,” aka, ćevapi. We’ve had ćevapi before; it is some sort of spiced sausage on a thing, buttery bun. This was definitely better than the ćevapiwe had in Zagreb, but I think we were all pretty nauseated by the whole situation. After lunch, we had a lecture with our “tour guide,” who was born in Vukovar, but left before the war and has done a lot of research concerning the war. We then took tours of Croatian and Serbian memorial cemeteries. The Croatian one is huge and beautiful (please see my other pictures on Shutterfly). However, the Serbian one is very small, and is actually in a courtyard of local Croat homes. You can see in the pictures how different they look and how much wear and disrepair the Serbian cemetery shows. Serbs have always been the minority in Vukovar, and since they were seen as the aggressors in the war, their fallen soldiers are not celebrated or honored by the locals.

We had dinner at a small restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, unfortunately, because we are apparently going to be pictured on their website! We had a great dinner with a variety of dishes, including crepes with chocolate for dessert. And then home to a horrible night’s sleep…

Today (Friday), we had a lecture with a man who works for an NGO which is working to create an integrated school in Vukovar, as well as improving other facets of Vukovar’s segregation. He also showed us a documentary his group made concerning inter-ethnic relationships made during the war to work towards peace, rather than against it. We then had some free time to explore the city.We made friends with an adorable puppy (as you can see in the pictures), ate lunch at a place where we had many troubles explaining what we wanted to eat and took in the scenery of Vukovar. 


There are a lot of things to process about this town, and all the things we saw.