Anti-violence march announced in response to the death of Brice Taton

Yesterday, the french football fan that was attacked on 17th of September in Belgrade has died from his injuries. Heads of State sent out condolences to his family, and there was an united call for an end to street and sport violence from all major political parties in Serbia.

Also, according to B92, Human Rights Ministry State Secretary called on citizens to gather at Belgrade's central square at 11:30 CET on Wednesday, (30.09.2009) to pay tribute to the victim.

Attend this important, although very sad event if you can, no mater where you come from.

Safety in Belgrade

In the last few days, 4 foreigners were attacked in Belgrade. One, a supporter of Toulouse FC was badly injured in a fight that broke out before a match with Partizan FC, and just few days ago, a Libyan student was a victim of an a apparently random attack.

So, did Serbia, and especially its capital, suddenly become unsafe for visitors from abroad?
I don't believe so.

Although street violence is a horrible thing, I don't see this as something endemic (although some do). The bright side is that all of these crimes got a lot of attention from the media. In my experience, it's better to maybe overestimate these kinds of problems, then to underestimate them.
With increasing publicity, the justice and the police department got under more public pressure. Police officers are more visible than before, and now, all most all alleged perpetrators of these attacks are incarcerated and waiting for their trials.

It is also comforting that a lot of statesmen have voiced their concerns about these attacks - the most recent is the statement of the tourism Minister about the negative impact these incidents have on Serbia's international standing.

photo from srbijanet.rs

Hopefully, all of this will transform those attacks into a bad memory.

Medical tourism in Serbia

Being sick isn’t usually the first thing people associate with travel, but the phenomenon of medical tourism is growing in Serbia.
A little background story:

Republic of Serbia, like all former Yugoslav countries, has a very strong social approach to medical care. All citizens are eligible to receive a complete medical insurance package, provided by the state. There are several bases for this, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a child, unemployed or something different – everybody has it.
This system is in place for almost 60 years, and wasn’t disturbed by the regional conflicts or anything else.
Naturally, the level of medical services has dropped in the period of 1990-2000, but is steadily recovering. Because of this, Serbia has a lot of medical professionals like doctors, dentist, nurses and many others. Now, some of them have set up private clinics or smaller practices, because a lot of people choose to pay and receive faster service. For example, an ultrasound diagnostic will be complete after some 45 days from the moment the patient show up in the general hospital; in a private practice, it takes only few days to make an appointment and receive full results.

Medical tourism offers to foreign visitors, usually those from Western Europe, a chance to come to Serbia and get the medical treatment they need at a much lower price. For example, dental procedures are 4 times cheaper than in UK and the noninvasive diagnostic methods like magnetic resonance imaging are even cheaper.

So far, Belgrade and Novi Sad (capitol and second larges city) are expanding offers in medical tourism. Belgrade, with its international airport is the logical first choice, but organized transport to Novi Sad is also available.
In my case, I use both private clinics and state run medical institutions in Novi Sad, and I’m generally very pleased with the levels of service and professionalism, even having in mind that the free options are somewhat slow.
If you have some kind of medical condition or problem, especially a non-life threatening, like bad teeth or knee injury, think about this somewhat unusual option.

For more detailed information, check out Serbia Medical Tourism.

Belgrade air show

This is somewhat unexpected – Belgrade is going to host its first big air show.

Of course, there are periodical air shows all over the country, but this one sounds really big – around 40 aircraft and 60 pilots and skydivers are going to take part.

They will include the Serbian air force, national airline JAT, special airborne police units, private air companies and air sport societies. This will all take place on this Saturday, the 27 of September, starting at noon. The main spectator location will be the upper part of the Kalemegdan fortress (now really more of a park), located just next to the city center.

I’m not sure how will this air show stand up to similar events in the rest of Europe, but the idea is absolutely fabulous.
The Serbian capitol needs this kind of major public happenings for all ages, so if you’re in Belgrade or planning to come this weekend, I’m recommending you take a look to the sky from Kalemegdan.



The view should be interesting.

Update:

Yesterday, while practicing for the air show, one of the aircraft had a malfunction and crash-landed on the Belgrade airfield. Its pilot, Istvan Kanas a veteran instructor, has died in the accident.
The organizers decided to cancel the upcoming event because of this tragic development.

Belgrade, Part Two - History

Belgrade was built somewhere around in 3rd century BC by the local Celts tribes.

It resides near the stone-age site of Vinca, inhabited by one of the first culturally developed societies in mainland Europe, some 6000 years ago. The consequent merger of Vinca tribes with the Celts makes Belgrade on of the oldest continuously populated cities on the continent.

The Celts where replaced for a short time by the Greeks, and then, in the first century AC, the frontier of Roman empire swallowed up the whole region, including Belgrade.

Romans built the first mayor infrastructural project such as pawed road, aqueducts and city walls. Although much of it was destroyed hundreds of years ago, the Roman period was fundamental for the establishment of Belgrade as a growing regional center.

After the division of the Roman Empire, Belgrade was conquered and run by a variety on nations. Among them are, most prominently: Avars, Huns, Franks, Arabs, Turks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Germans, and finally the Serbs.

All those cultures left their mark on the city and its people. As a result of 2000 years of constant influences from every corner of central Europe, Mediterranean and the Middle East, Belgrade has developed a unique, vibrant and ever-changing cultural identity.

Belgrade, Part One - Z capital

Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia.

There is a lot to say about Belgrade. First of all, it's big. Not as big as, let say London or Moscow, but in Serbia, it is by far the biggest city, and it's estimated that some were around 2.5 million people live in its wider area. That's something like 7 times bigger then the second biggest city in the county, and one third of the complete Serbian population.

There isn't a single thing that defines Belgrade. I live in a city some 80 km away, and the first association I have is - overcrowded. A lot of people from the south and central regions come here to live and find prosperity, even more in the last 15 to 20 years of economic stagnation. That is still the case.

You probably wouldn't think of it as pretty place in a architectural sense, because you can see almost everywhere a mixture of buildings from the late 19th and early 20 century, communist era stile (lot of concrete and square shapes) and those built in modern trends, bundled up together with no grater plan in mind. Also, road infrastructure newer planed for this kind of population level, and daily gridlocks are common.

But simultaneously, having so many people in the same place gives Belgrade a metropolitan fell. It, unlike every other city in the country, has a really rich cultural and artistic life. Business there is booming, and by getting some international attention in the last 5 years, it's become the unrivaled money center in the country, and possibly in the region, not counting EU member states.

Nightlife is certainly diverse and vibrant, fueled primarily by a big student population.
In short, with all of its shortcomings, Belgrade is currently the place to be in Serbia.

More about it - soon on Experience Serbia blog.