serbia

My best weekend since coming to austria turned out to not be in austria at all.  I had such an incredible time this weekend and on top of that I feel like I learned so much about myself.  I was skeptical about if I should even go because Fabio couldnt...but I am so glad I just did it.  There was so much that happened that I cant really go into details without going on for 5000 words, so I am going to break down the highlights in small tidbits for you.  I will also post some of the 250 pics I took.

Neimenya and Jovanna are brother and sister and they are Miljan and Pedja's (his brother who is in the US) best friends.  We hung out with them almost the whole weekend and there were defly my two favorite Serbians.  Their family adopted a young boy from the government and he almost fainted when they introduced me as "an american"....he litrally was looking at me like I was god.  We played soccer for a few minutes and he handed me the ball like it was a golden chalice.  Only about half of the people I met spoke english but our core group of Miljan, Neimenya, and Jovanna all spoke pretty good....and there were some really great translations.

Serbian food is really good but really heavy and they eat A LOT.  Also, Miljan's mom would look at me after I had finished eating and say "EAT!"  So, for most of the days I would gorge myself at breakfast and then not have to eat again until when we got home from da clubs at 4 am.   We went to serbian pubs (a really cultural thing with traditional music played by live bands) and then clubs until 3-4:30 everynight and slept on average 4 hours a night.  

Miljan's family has a Yugo and it was our lifeline.  We packed 5 people in almost every trip (and Miljan, Neimenya and I are over 6'2" and Jovanna was like 5'10").  On the outside serbia looks really depressing and rough.  Almost everything is broken and hasn't been kept up for the last 30 years...but it was real and the people were some of the nicest I have ever met.  There were traffic jams with 10 yugo's and 2 horse drawn buggies.

We went to atleast 8 different friends houses to chat and at every house we were given a slice of cake and a drink.  They are very much rooted in tradition and it was the most different culture I have experienced so far in my life.  By the end of the first day I had totally disproved all of my initial judgments of serbia and became blind to the quality of their objects (something I want to continue to do).

The Serbian country was really beautiful and we were in the 3rd largest city of Nis (pronounced Nish).  Nis is in the souther part of serbia and there were really beautiful mountains surrounding the city.  There are hundreds of natural springs in Serbia and about 10 natural thermal spas.  Nish has one of the thermal spas and we visited it twice.

I am in such a great mood after this trip and I feel like it was a 2 week vacation.  I am hopeful that some of the friends we met will come to Vienna while I am still here and I can return the hospitality I was given.  They wouldn't let me pay for a single thing in the last 4 days no matter how hard I tried, and no matter where we were or what we were doing...they made sure I was having fun.  

I will load more pictures after I get some from Miljan but for now they are:  

1.  We ran out of gas and we had to push the Yugo to the petrol station.

2.  Neimenya, Jovanna, and Miljan at the highest point in the city

3.  The view of the mountains from "Mediana" an archaeological site from Roman times

4.  Dance line at our second stop of the trip

5.  Me in front of Miljan's house and next to the pimp wagon