Welcome to the East

My first impression of Belgrade was the recognition that this would probably be very different to everything else I’d previously seen. The passport control officer on the train gave me a few nervous moments when she said my name into a walkie-talkie and had a brief discussion in Serbian with a man at the other end. Thankfully it was OK though.

As we approached the main station, I noticed what looked like a shanty town out of the window; its existence was later confirmed. There had been no ‘cardboard city’ in any of the other places I’ve visited recently. It was quite a shock to see something like this blatant symbol of abject poverty, definitely the worst living conditions yet on my journey through Europe.

After meeting my friend’s friend at the station and getting all that stuff sorted, we headed out to meet a few other people at a club in town. It was an underground location, apparently one of three similar venues, and that created an interesting atmosphere. It was quite small and the fact it was full of people further enhanced that effect. Very different to anything I’ve seen in London or anywhere else, but all in all I’d say it was definitely a good place for Saturday night.

The next day, Christmas for me, I ventured out into the unknown, slightly intimidated by the city and its people. A lot of the signs were in Cyrillic, which is the country’s official alphabet – so this included all street names. I’m so glad I decided to learn it a few weeks ago, otherwise I’d have been completely lost and confused. The map I borrowed was all in Latin text, so it took me a while to make the translations, but in the end I found my way to the city centre.

Before reaching this, I deliberately took a walk in the opposite direction in order to avoid the commercialisation and modern environment I expected. On the streets I saw many sellers of multicoloured pet fish and even a couple with rabbits and dogs. I also stumbled upon a bustling marketplace; it was one of the ones where you can find absolutely anything if you look hard enough or know where to go. All kinds of food, electrical goods, clothes and household items were available and, although there was some basic layout, things weren’t brilliantly arranged. You could find a stall with kitchen and bathroom taps located next to a fish booth, with live specimens on display in a tank.

The streets around this phenomenal area were all very poor. Outside lots of them were parked old, dirty, dusty cars, some of which looked like they hadn’t been used for years. One of the most common models is the ‘Yugo’, which is not equipped with safety belts in the back seats. People I spoke with told me Serbia is where the “East” begins – Zagreb is a lot more prosperous than Belgrade, which was bombed by NATO in 1999. The Serbian currency, the Dinar, is exchangeable at around 125 for a pound, which made everything seem very expensive although it really wasn’t.

After leaving this part of the city and heading back towards the centre, things steadily became a lot more developed. There’s a large pedestrian area of shops and entertainment near the Republic Square and everything you’d ever see in London, Rome or New York with regards to technology can be found. The same mobile phone culture seems to be everywhere: people just can’t live without one anymore, wherever they are, and wouldn’t want to think about what life was like before the items became widely available. Internet cafes were a lot more uncommon than in, for example, Rome – I had to ask in several shops and luckily a few employees could speak good English so told me where to go.

When telling people about my trip through Europe they became greatly envious. It’s a lot harder for them to travel anywhere, with a visa process involving dozens of documents and lengthy amounts of time and effort. Only now have I learnt to fully appreciate being part of the EU and the freedom of movement this entails. Our brothers and sisters in Belgrade and throughout the Eastern bloc have very limited possibilities to leave, even if they want to study, and many must harbour dreams of being able to get out and live somewhere else.

So, this was a Christmas very different to anything else I’d ever experienced. No celebrations, no presents, no realisation of the occasion for me. I spent the day wandering around a new city, in the same non-festive state of mind which has been going for a few weeks now. It’s strange to have “missed out” on it for 2005, but this pays testament to the crazy year I’ve had and is also, I suppose, a consequence of travelling around so much and wanting to explore. Interestingly, they celebrate New Year twice: both on December 31 and a few days after their own Xmas on January 7. A couple of my friends from Hungary are planning to be in Belgrade for NYE and I may well return and celebrate with them, then move on to Budapest after that. Hopefully the weather will clear up a bit from how it was today – torrential rains reminded my of being back in England.

As I write I am sitting on a sparsely occupied night train to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It’s been a very uneventful journey so far, with not even a visit from the ticket inspector, and I have used the luxury of a compartment all to myself to unpack and repack my bags, which were getting quite disorganised and messy. I don’t really want to go to sleep yet, although I’m feeling quite tired, because I’m not sure when we’re scheduled to cross the border and don’t want to be woken up by passport controllers. I’ve just discovered there’s no working sink facility in this carriage, which probably means no toilet as well – not the best thing to find out with over six hours left til we reach the destination. The terminus of this service is Skopje, Macedonia, so I have to be careful not to miss my stop and end up there by accident. I do plan to visit, just not on this excursion.