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The Trip to Montenegro

This entire trip has been nothing short of spectacular, but these past few days have been the most influential, not just of this trip- but of my entire life.  I can without a doubt say that I am an entirely different and changed person.

The day before yesterday, we departed from Belgrade and began our quest to Montenegro.  Along the way, we made stops in Srebrenica  and The Bridge on the Drina. 

The view from my window on the bus was beautiful.  The mountains of Bosnia are incomparable in magnificence to any other that I have seen before.  Situated in this magnificent scene is the small town of Srebrenica.  In Srebrenica some of the most cruel and horrific acts a man could ever commit occurred in 1995.  Serbia committed acts of genocide against Bosniak Muslims.  In total 8,375 men (and some women and children) were slaughtered.  There are still finding bodies today in mass graves scattered across the mountains.

While in Srebrenica - we visited with an organization that is working to move Srebrenica past its dark past.   They had little funding and just listening to the women speak was terribly depressing.  Her words preached hope, but in her eyes and expressions, hope was no were to be found. 

On a happier note, we had the opportunity to visit The Bridge on the Drina- which was the inspiration for Ivo Andric's famous novel.  This experience was rather emotional for me.  After reading the entire book- it was sad to see that the problems created around the bridge in the past have not been resolved in the present- or I guess I should say no happy ending in the end.  There was trash on the spectacular bridge and beggars hunched in the corners.  The town around the bridge seemed to be on the poverty line.  I would think that such a great bridge would yield a great city. 

After leaving the bridge, we headed to Montenegro...we didn't see much because it was getting dark, but what we did see was AMAZING- something out of a fairytale.  The mountains, lakes, and tunnels through the mountains were stunning!

St. Sava Temple

We had the unique experience of taking an elevator to the top of St. Sava temple in Belgrade.  St. Sava is a Serbian Orthodox church that has been in construction since the 1930s.  It is predicted to be finished completely in about 10-15 yrs.  The church is 70m high and we had the unique opportunity to take an elevator to the top of it.  I have to admit I was terrified.   The elevator was definitely nothing that would pass American safety inspections...seeing as in some parts there were no rails and the base was just made of distressed wood.  Even though the experience was terrifying, it was worth it in the end, because the views from the top of the temple were simply amazing!!

River Cruise

A lot has happened since the last time I updated my blog.....

We have been to a number of meetings with both NGOs and the government of Serbia.  I will update my blog with those meeting summaries asap.

Yesterday, we went on a riverboat tour guided by professor Matic's quirky nephew- Milanko.   We toured an island that was surrounded by adorable little houseboats.  Each one was unique and full of charm and character.  After touring the island, we had lunch at a restaurant on the river and had a mixed fish soup.  I surprisingly loved it- but my enjoyment of the soup was cut short.  I knocked over my bowl and spilled it all over my lap.  I feel bad for the rest of my group members because they had to put up with the smell of fish soup all day long.  We continued our lunch on the boat with a platter of freshly cooked catfish and trout. 

After lunch, we cruised to a small town just outside of Belgrade.  Unfortunately my camera battery died and I was not able to take pictures.  I'll have to steal some from other people that took some.

Anyhow, we went to a massive graveyard in the town and watched Milanko use his freelance archeology skills and excavate a mound with pots and coins from the Roman empire in it.  It's funny because we could just take whatever pieces we wanted form the (very different from western Europe or the U.S).

After the graveyard,  we climbed a tower with the most wonderful views of Belgrade, the Danube, and the small Serbian town. 

It was such a perfect day- perfect weather- perfect views- everything was simply perfect!

And just a little note for my Daddy, you would be so proud, I had so much fish yesterday and loved it all!

Also....one more note before I go.....yesterday was a very exciting day for Serbia.  The notorious war criminal Mladich (spelling?) was captured by the Romanian border.  This is another step in the right direction for Serbia to join the EU.

The Opera

Last night I went to my first Opera in Belgrade.  We saw Mozart’s the Marriage of Figaro.  It was nothing short of AMAZING.  I was blown away with the view that we had from our front row seats.  The opera was in Italian so it was pretty hard to follow, but honestly there was no need to know what the words meant that they were singing.  It was so beautiful!

Journal as of May 20th

Here are my journal entries for the class thus far.  The journal entries are basically a very short and brief outline of each meeting that we have attended.  The information is limited in the journal entry- but it will give you some sort of an idea of what I am learning about.  Also, I'm sure that they are full of grammatical errors, but are only rough drafts, so I'm sorry for that.


May 16, 2011

Foreign Policy Priorities of Serbia

First, we listened to a lecture by the Ambassador Mr. Mirko Stefanovic.  He is the State Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  His lecture focused on the Foreign Policy priorities of Serbia.  A group of Diplomatic grad students from a school in Vienna also joined us.  The lecture was very informative and I learned a lot about my topic (Kosovo’s Independence).  Obviously, Serbia does not support Kosovo declaring its independence and does not recognize it as an independent sovereign state.  Also, I asked the Ambassador if the United States recognition of Kosovo affected U.S – Serbian relations and he responded by saying that the U.S and Serbia agree to disagree on Kosovo and agree on everything else.  It was interesting to listen to someone from the Serbian government discuss their position on Serbia.  He also focused on Serbia’s position on joining the EU.  Even though they know that the process is lengthy and it can cause many problems in the short-run, it is for the betterment of the country in the long run.  Ambassador Stefanovic really put Serbian Foreign Policy priorities into perspective for me. 

Ambassador of the Head of the department of Slavic countries

                Next, we listened to the ambassador of the Head of the department of Slavic countries.  I have to admit, this presentation was a tad bit hard for me to follow because the Ambassadors English was not perfect.  In spite of that, I still got a lot from this meeting.  He basically summed up Serbia’s relations with the surrounding countries.  It was really helpful to hear what Serbians position is with the countries that boarder it.  In relation to my topic (Kosovo) the Ambassador said that the two countries need to establish dialogue.   This is basically the same thing that the State Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.  It is good that I now have a basic summary of Serbia’s position with each of its surrounding countries as summed up by a member of the Serbian government.  

The Helsinki Group

The next meeting we had was with Sonja Biserko- she was the director for the Helsinki Group for human rights.  This meeting was a lot less formal and much more of a one on one discussion.  Also, three of the students from Vienna attended this meeting.  Sonja was a very interesting person and this meeting was particularly interesting because for the first time we were able to hear the viewpoints of a person outside the government- from a NGO.  She was not afraid to oppose the government on many issues, although she does support Serbia becoming a member of the EU.  It seems that most Serbians believe that this is for the betterment of the country as a whole in the long-run (or at least most of the Serbians that we talked to believe this).   

May 17, 2011

Director of Latin America/ Canada/ and U.S

                We met with the director of Latin America and North American in the Foreign Ministry.  This time, the room that we met in was facing a busy road and the Ambassador had a very strong accent, so unfortunately it was very hard to understand him.  It did not help that I had to present on this meeting, but in the end everything turned out okay. 

The ambassador presented mostly facts and did not elaborate on his opinion much.  He stated that this was about the 130rd year of bilateral relations with the U.S.  He also talked about the different meetings that have occurred between Serbia and the U.S.  This includes the Biden meeting in 2009 and the Clinton meeting in 2010.  He made it seem like the U.S and Serbia agree on everything besides Kosovo and that they will “agree to disagree”.  He also stated that all dialogue between the two depicted cooperation.  He went on to talk about other things like cooperation involving military, the economy, culture, and education.  Overall, this meeting was not extremely helpful, most of the information discussed could have easily been found on the internet. 

Serbia and the EU

                This lecture was one of our most lengthy ones, as well as one of the most interesting ones.  We spoke with the Deputy Assistant for EU integration at this meeting.  He explained that the Serbian drive for the EU began in 2000 after Milo. went out of power.  He also explained that Serbia’s initial drive to be a part of the EU began in 1961.  He said that the Milo. Dictatorship destroyed much of the progress towards becoming a member of the EU that was gained in the past.  I wanted to ask the question “Can you please expand upon how the Kosovo incident hindered Serbia’s progress in being admitted into the EU?” but we did not have time. 

                He also talked about how just because a country receives candidacy to the EU does not mean that they will be granted it.  For example, Turkey has been a candidate for the EU for 30 years.  He stated that Serbia approves of Greece becoming a member of the EU because they are basically in line before them and once Greece becomes a member; Serbia will have a better chance of being considered next. 

                A memorable quote from him is that “candidacy does not mean anything unless you start negotiations” (in relation to EU membership).  He also said that only ¼ of the population works, and ¾ does not.   This defiantly made an impression on me.  In relation to this, he feels that membership into the EU means that Serbia will be safe for investors and he feels that Serbia will be a member of the EU by 2017.  For them to become a member of the EU regional cooperation is essential. 

Head of the Department of POSC

                When we talked to the head of the POSC department, the discussion involved the current situation in Serbia.  He said that many things have changed (now some 11 yrs. After milo.).   Many thought things would be better, but Serbians are not so high on the market economy and democracy.  After Milo. there were naive hopes that Serbia was on its way to NATO and the EU.   Now, people are seeing that things are not that easy.  People hoped that privatization would happen overnight.  I also learned what the “Colombian Syndrome” is.   It is stated that, if you are poor and bordering another country, but are denied access then you would target that exact market. 

                 The professor thinks that in 15yrs.  All of Serbia will be in Belgrade.  The reason for this is that the country side of Serbia has nothing to offer the younger generation of Serbia. 

May 18, 2011

Leader of the Social Dem. Party of Serbia

                He is also a psychology teacher.  We learned that psychology is a popular topic in Serbia (with 80% of psychology majors being female).  He explained that Yugoslovia was an odd sort of communist state.  The people could freely travel.  It was more of an “open communism”.  He said that today Serbia would be considered as “very liberal”. 

                An interesting fact is that the total land area of Yugoslavia was only about the size of Wyoming.   Also, he said that U.S has the only constitution in the world where man has the right to happiness. 

                One of the problems that Serbia faces today is Kosovo and also that Serbia is still in Democratic transition. 

May 20, 2011

European Movement

We met with two representatives from the European Movement.  They first started out by discussing what the NGO’s functions are and how they go about fulfilling these functions and goals.  One of the main goals of the EM is advocating for a Democratic Serbia.  Another goal or mission of the EM is to modernize Serbia.  They also explained that the EM is a “project based “organization and that they do not receive any money from the government of Serbia (one of the EM’s main projects in working with the youth of Serbia). 

After the 1990s, the EM started to invest in the youth.  They are very interested in fighting extreme nationalism in Serbia.  A lot of young people below 18 have the feelings of extreme nationalism, most likely because they were raised in the 1990s and in the 1990s they received a poor quality of education. 

In relation to Kosovo, they explained that dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo started about 3 months ago.  They said that no one knows what to expect from this dialogue with Kosovo, but everyone is happy that it is happening. 

Another interesting issue that they mentioned was that the citizens of Serbia do not know much about business or the business plan.  He explained that they do not know how to set up a business at all.

Youth Initiative for Human Rights

                On May 20, 2011 we met with the youth initiative for human rights- this experience was extremely different from most of our other meetings.  Even though we have met with other organizations that advocated human rights- this group seemed to be by far the most liberal of them all. 

They were strictly focused on human rights and spoke out against “hate speeches” which are basically hateful and discriminatory words or speeches.  One interesting fact that I learned from this is that hate speeches are not a criminal act but are fined, not punished. 

The group also spoke out against the Serbian Orthodox Church and the government of Serbia.  I thought that many of their points were valid and it was nice to get the view of the opposition, but the group was extremely liberal and I cannot help but wonder if they were somewhat biased in their own right as well. 

Day Trip

On May 19^th, we visited two monasteries.  The first one was named Ravanica.  We learned that Ravanica had less security than the second monastery (Manasija) because the second monastery was built after the Kosovo war and security need to be heightened.  Professor Matic compared this to 911 and airline security.

After going to the first monastery, we ate at a wonderful little restaurant in the Serbian countryside.  This “traditional” Serbian restaurant had so much personality and charm.  Also, just a short walk from the restaurant was a beautiful and unexpected waterfall.  It was a nice and quaint lunch…and by far the best food we have had so far. Oh I forgot to mention that we went to a cave!!! I posted pictures further up in the blog!  Check them out!

Lastly, I have not had the opportunity to get on the internet much lately.  This is due to the fact that we no longer have internet at the hotel.  I will try to update this blog as much as possible, but please be patient with me. 

Love,

Tori

Close Call at the Embassy

Today I had an extremely interesting experience.  We were walking past the U.S Embassy and my professor told us all to take pictures.....So naturally I was the first to pull out my camera (seeing as I love to take pictures).  As soon as I did this a Serbian official ran over to me and guided me to a control tower where he and another official examined my passport from top to bottom.  Professor Matic had to come over and explain that I was a student, and they took my camera and deleted my picture! For a second there, I thought I was surely going to get arrested.  Such a weird experience...but everything turned out just fine in the end :)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

First Full Day of Meetings

Today we had our first formal meeting at the Foreign Ministry.  The building way BEAUTIFUL.  It looked very royal.  At our first meeting, we were joined by a group of students from the Diplomatic school in Vienna.  At this meeting we listened to an Ambassador Speak about the foreign policy priorities of Serbia.  It was very interesting and so neat to see professor Matic interact with his former colleagues. The Ambassador spoke about different topics like Serbia wanting recognition in the EU and Serbia's position on Kosovo declaring it's independence.  The meeting was very informative and I really enjoyed it.

Our second meeting was in the same room but with a different Amb., he was the Head of Department of Slavic countries.  His English was not very good and hard to understand, but the parts I got were very informative.  He basically summed up Serbia's relationship with the countries that border it or are around it. 

After the meetings, we took a lunch break at the hotel.  It was by far the best lunch yet.  We had veal soup, more Serbian salad, mashed potatoes, bread, pork, more veal, and bread...YUM! 

After lunch, we had a meeting with Sophie, who was associated with the Helsinki Group, this group is dedicated to Serbia rights.  She gave a lengthy lecture about different issues facing Serbia and the Serbia people. 


Bye for now!!! going to work on my journal :)

Some Highlights of My Trip So Far Told Through Pictures

First Days in Belgrade

My first few days in Belgrade have been nothing short of AMAZING!  I have already seen and experienced so much.  Honestly, I do not know why more tourists don't visit this city.  It has EVERYTHING!  There are great cafes,  wonderful people watching, and beautiful architecture.  Belgrade is a perfect example of mixing the new with the old.  

Many people of Belgrade feel that if Serbia joins the EU the city will loose some of its untouched charm.  

My experiences so far have been centered around sight seeing.  I have walked down so many streets, alley ways,  gardens, and parks.  I have also had the opportunity to eat  A LOT of traditional Serbian food.  Our first night we had a dinner of Serbian salad made from a creamy cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers (delicious!), beans, and meat.  The restaurant had a lot of charm and character.  We even had the opportunity to watch some of the locals do traditional Serbian dances.   After dinner, we watched the sun set over the river Danube from a military fortress (a picture perfect scene).

There is this wonderful cobblestone street in Belgrade that comes alive at night.  At a resturante full of flowers on that street we had dinner our second night.  It was much of the same sort of Serbian food as the first night, but here  we were sung to by a sort of Serbian Mariachi band (best comparision I could make) .

And yesterday we had a feast in the garden center of ?.  Yes, ? is the name of the cafe.  It is the oldest cafe in Belgrade and I know why...... THE FOOD IS AMAZING.  We had an entire spread of food.  A feast fit for a king (haha).

So far we have only been to one meeting.  It was with a press officer for the US embassy.  It was nice to get an Americans view of Serbia and Serbian people.  He reinforced what we already knew - that Serbians are a proud group of people and nationalism is very important to them. 

I have to say my favorite part of the trip so far has been sampling the the street food and visiting the cafes.  It is so much fun.  Getting a coffee,  people watching, and snacking is my favorite!!

Well that's all I can think to right for now! I'm sitting at the Hotel internet cafe enjoying some fresh strawberries and cheese that I bought a the market :)

I'll update soon!!!

Serbia Day one! Airplane ride :)

We flew to Serbia via Lufthansa.  It was probably the most comfortable airline I have ever been on.  The seats were amazing and hey had a built in head rest.  Also, each seat had its own personal television that you could watch the news on or a variety of tv shows and movies on.  I also liked that they served you breakfast and lunch (which was surprisingly good for airline food).  It was amazing to me that there was a separate floor for the restrooms (I never once had to wait in line).  Ohhhhh and the blankets were WONDERFUL...I'm used to the small blue ones that Delta usually provides.  These were HUGE and comfy.  The pillows were great as well (can you believe they were down).  Overall, I actually enjoyed the plane ride.  It was also pretty neat to fly over Munich.  Everything looked like a doll house in Germany.  Flying over, the fields looked like patchwork.  Also, a lady (from Germany) - that sat in front of me on the plane informed me that the roads in Germany are much smaller than those in the U.S because the cars are smaller. 

On the plane, I sat beside a girl that that went to Queens University and was on her way to study in Italy for 18 days.  She was very nice and it was fun to have someone to chat with about our trips.