Eating at Mc Donalds - was it worth it?

I’ve been watching adds for the local version of the Royal at McDonalds and got curious; “in a country with smashing burgers, the  pljeskavica - do they also serve decent burgers at McDonalds?"

You will find one of their “restaurants” on Slavija-square in an old and beautiful building. The interior is totally renovated. It is clean and kind of stylish, but I sense that the house is whispering in pain: "what do this steel and modern interior do inside of me? I'm old and I deserve to be treated like that. Respect me!" 

This box look promising enough: "I'm lovin' it. Ich liebe es." and the last one "Ana uhibbihu" in Arabic.

I got this meal  “Royal Trpeza” with "Royal Domacinski"-burger. It was off course smaller than it looks like in the adds. Or is it just the 250 gram pljeskavica which has set a new standard for how big a burger should be? The pommes frites was ok, although not especially crispy. How was the burger? Well folks, it was slightly more juicy than a cardboard and didn’t taste much at all. Almost as horrible as the last burger I had at this chain in my hometown Trondheim in the early nineties.

See for yourself if this burger tempts you. If you got your marbles pretty kept I think you would avoid eating at that place. And this before considering the moral of both their breeding of kettle and their industry-policies. At Slavija they have done a crime to Serbian cultural heritage using that nice piece of architecture to serve burgers which are insults to the Serbian cuisine.

Hvala - thank you - for confirming that I was right not eating you burgers for more than 15 years

Down to the River - Donji Dorcol

Arriving from Belgrade Port - just before hitting the railway-tracks - there’s a restaurant; Gaucosi. I remember going there with my friends Jasna and Marija – was it first time I came to Belgrade for New Years 2005/06?

We had a nice evening and I remember asking Jasna which was her favourite Djordje Balasevic-song, she replied "Ringispil". At that time I knew "Zivot je more" and just a few other tunes – I've never heard about Balasevic in January 2006 - so probably this was when staying here in the autumn of 2006. But praise to Jasna - you were very jasna back then - it’s a great song!

ON THE TRACK...

In cyrillic close left:
Grobari Dorcol - Partizan-fans of Dorcol.

Second "frame" from right - also in cyrillic:
Donji kraj - lower side (can it be a supporter-fraction?)


Far left: Dorcol P.F.C. - another guess: Partizan Football Club?

Belgrade Lower City

Abandonded railway-station.

PRAVDA ZA URUSA

Uros Misic was a football supporter from Red Star’s Delije whom attacked a police officer in the stands at Marakana Stadium in 2007. He was sentenced for 10 years in prison for putting the police officer in civil on fire when filming the Red Star-fans. The policeman fired shot's in the air after getting out of the burning clothes. Allegedly Misic also tried to put a torch in his mouth.


There’s a lot of graffiti in Belgrade with this text Pravda za Urusa – Justice for Uros. According to this opinion’s Facebook-group the state and police “dictated” the whole process “so they could blame the fans for everything bad that happens in Serbia, and turn away the public from the real problems here.” Whether Misic is guilty or not, this seems to be an anti-establishment statement which
resonances well with the attitude of many young people.

Just one track operating?

DOWN TO THE RIVER, BUT NOT NECESSARILY TO PRAY...

Zemun to be seen far in the background

Danube, Pancevo Bridge in the background

Danube, looking North

Recreation - fishing and promenading

Sports-center "Milan Gale Muškatirović", better known as 25. maj, which was the name from the foundation in 1973 until the name change in 2006.

They are now constructing a new large pool and the whole project is lead by Milorad Cavic's coach. Cavic won the Olympic Silver Medal in Swimming 2008 in Beijing.

This spring the Serbian Open Championship in tennis were held at the adjoining tennis-courts.

"...for the health and the well-being of our socialistic country."
 - Tito.

Gornji Dorcol - Upper Dorcol

The Partizan-fans section of Alcatraz
seems to have their followers also in Dorcol

In Tsara Dusana you will find Prva Beogradska Gimnazija (First Belgrade Gymnasium) which was founded in 1839 on direct order from (Knjaz) Milos Obrenovic. 

Serbia's president Boris Tadic and the man whom has been blamed for the First World War; Gavrilo Princip, has been among its pupils.

The first edition of Aleksander Nevski Church was erected by Russian monks in 1876. Aleksander Nevsky is a saint in Russian Orthodoxy who lived in the 13th Century. He was a sucessfull miltary leader and defended Rus from the Swedes at river Neva. The main church in Sofia is also dedicated to the memory of this Russian saint. If you want to know mor about him you might want to see Sergei Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky" from 1938.

Today's structure was developed by the Kardjordjevic-family. Construction started in 1912, but due to wars it wasn't finished until 1930.

This charming restaurant in Gospodar Jevremova Ulica (Street) is to be found in a villa dating from 1936. It has a very romantic garden and is definitely a place to go - either on a date, for a confidensial conversation or just to celebrate the Serbian cuisine with good friends.

The sign down-left informs about live music at Friday's and Saturday's.

For menu, pictures and other information click HERE!

Simply an old building...with a Wine Bar and Restaurant at ground floor.

Entering the corner you can find a shop for antique

and decorative furniture restoration; Dorcolac. 

An old Volkswagen in Kralja Petra Ulica. (King Peter Street.) If you know the year of the model - please tell!

Ornaments on house in Tsara Dusana



















Yummi Breskva torta (Peach-cake) for 160 din/1,50 euro at Hleb & Kifla (Bread and rolls(?)). This establishment is a chain of about 10 patesseries in Belgrade. Elegant and modern - and it seems like their cakes are pretty good.

One of Belgrade's many tram's, this one has just passed the walls of Belgrade Zoo. It can be a bit scary experience if you ride one of the older tram's. They are shaking like you think it will collapse at any time, but miraculously they don't.

The fare is 42 din and you should buy ticket's at newsstand's, and this goes for all public transport in the city. Don't worry about timetables, usually they are running with just a few minutes between departures, so you seldom need to wait for a long time for catching your buss or tram.

Bankrupt BEKO clothes-factory at Northern end of Tsara Dusana. It's in the industrial part of Dorcol - a place I wouldn't be at night. It seems pretty deserted.

The brand has an outlet in Knez Mihailova which is up for sale at an auction to be held on the 10th of October, so if you got money to invest...

A question to my friends of knowledge: is BEKO short for Beograd Konfekcija?

This last picture is dedicated to my Norwegian friends. If you don't know what "Polet" means in Norwegian I can inform you that this is the place where Norwegians normally buy alcohol. To explain the concept in short: you can't buy alcohol in normal shops in Norway, you have to go to state-runned licenced stores...crazy eh?

Europe - and Serbia - in other's eyes.

This short comment will be on the funny ethno-centric map's of Europe made by London-based graphic designer Yanko Tsvetkov, and off course from a Serbian perspective.

First I have to mention the big disapointment that Serbia is "Uncharted" in several of the maps. But anyway - in the first map "Where I live" - which I guess is Tsvetkov's own view - Serbia is the country of Lepa Brena. A bit odd as she is from Brcko in Republika Srpska in Bosnia, but Joj, joj Miki Miki moj...

According to USA here's "Resident Evil", and the Bulgarian's view the Serb's as "Loose Cannon's" and according to Gay Men you will find "Homophobic Tribes" here, and that goes for Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania and Bulgaria as well.

You can have a look for yourself by clicking on the link below - many well made point's here :-)

MAPPING STEREOTYPES: The geography of prejudice by Yanko Tsvetkov

Bat-attack!

Last night I was recovering from the party after Rakija’s excellent concert at Akademija 28. Ordering pizza and just chilling in front of my computer. I was getting tired, but didn’t feel for going to bed. And then I see an insect flapping by. “Wow!” I thought, “That was big”. Looking up –and I tell you – it was not an insect; it was a freaking bat! Flapping around in my living-room! Uninvited!

I thought it doesn’t belong here and would probably be better off outside. I forgot about the reason it came in the first place. Bat’s like light – or so I’ve been told. I opened my window and tried to shush him out. I am quite convinced it was a he... Just after opening the window another bat arrived. Now there was two bats flying in circles in my living-room. I found it wise to leave and shut the door behind me. Computer and television was left on, and I forgot my cell-phone. When I wanted to go back in the room I was pretty scared because the bat’s attacked the door while I was trying to open it.

I forgot about that idea.  And you know what? While I was writing this some 2 hours ago the bat’s started circulating again. They had been hiding where I couldn’t find them. I got out of the room, but not so scared this time. Tried to go back and chase them out of the window, but they kept on flying. I got a friend over and we tried to catch them to throw them out – but no – and voila! enter the third bat!

The landlord’s son Tony came to the rescue. Tony is a big chap with stoic calm. He knew the right tactic; use pillows as baseball-bat’s to bat the bats out. Then he picked them up and threw them out of the window.

I must admit that I am still a bit shaky. Hopefully the bat-affair has come to an end, but I am anyhow waiting for a new one just stuka-diving down my neck

Exit Antic - Enter Jugovic

Today I am following up yesterday’s article about Serbian football.  Partizan lost unsurprisingly 1-0 to Shakthar Donetsk away, but that is not today’s headline. After a disappointing close-to-last-minute saved draw at home against Slovenia and a quite poor World Cup campaign Serbia’s coach Radomir Antic has been sacked.

Radomir Antic

Antic had been 16 years in Spain as a coach for clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid before he returned to coach the Serbian National Team. This 61-year old from Uzice has had a career with quite a few controversies, and on several occasions he's been sacked mid-season. It should be added that some of his engagements has been with struggling clubs. 

When coaching Barcelona he brought a sinking ship back on the track and the Barca-fans should be thankful for his role in bringing them to the top of Europe. Under him great talents like Victor Valdés and Andrés Iniesta was given their first chances at the senior team.

After the poor performance in the 2-1 loss against Australia in the World Cup Antic was given a four-match ban when he expressed his discontent with the referee when Serbia was denied a penalty. Together with the poor start of the qualifying capaign it all added up to the Serbian National Team’s board sacking Antic.

Vladimir Petrovic

The replacement is former Red Star, Bor, Vojvodina and Timisoara’s coach Vladimir Petrovic – Pizon – from French pigeon. He’s also been coaching Serbia and Montengro’s U-21 and China. His greatest achievement must have been as assistant for the Red Star-team winning 1991’s European Cup. 

He also had a decent career as a player, including 13 matches for Arsenal. When taking over Serbia this will be his third position in 15 months. Let’s hope for the Serbian player’s sake that this is not going to continue. And on hiring Petrovic the Serbian Football Federation’s Tomislav Karadzic commented: "Rather than go for an expensive import we opted to give a talented home-grown coach a chance".

 And dear readers, I promise not making this into a sports blog – promise!

Serbian football - home and abroad

Although Hugo Buli, a student returning from Germany, introduced Belgrade to football in 1896, the Serbian national football didn’t play their first match until 1911, where they lost 0-8 against HASK (Hrvatski akademski sportski klub). After the 1^st World War the Slavic people of the South came together and formed The First Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavian football organization was founded in 1919 and has been a member of FIFA since 1921.

During the the First and Second Yugoslavia the best achievement was 4^th place in the World Cup in 1930 and 1962, in the European Championship they became Runners-Up in both 1960 and 1968. After the break-up of the country in 1991 Belgrade continued as the head-quarter for the Yugoslavian football association. Due to war and sanctions the team was banned from international competition until the qualification for the World Cup 1998, where they eventually lost to the Netherlands in the Round of 16.

In the qualification for the WC 2006 the team competed as SCG. Serbian friends have told me that they were wondering: “What the hell is this SCG???” It turned to be an abbreviation for Srbija I Crna Gora – Serbia and Montenegro. Even more strange was the fact that when the World Cup started this country didn’t exist anymore, due to Montenegro’s independence achieved at the 3^rd of June 2006.

Since 2006 the name of the team has been Serbia. One by one the former republics of Yugoslavia, now independent countries, has parted with the Serbs and today the Orlovi – Eagles – has just started the qualifier for 2012’s European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. After beating the Faroe Islands away, they made a disappointing draw against Slovenia at Marakana Stadium,nick- named after the famous once 200 000 capacity stadium in Brazil and homeground for Crvena Zvezda – Red Star. This ground used to take 110 000 spectators, but today’s capacity is just the half.

Club football

Crvena Zvezda is the only Serbian club to ever win the European Cup. They beat Marseille on penalties after a 0-0 draw in Bari in the 1990/91-season, which were the last season of the SFR Yugoslavian league. During the SFRY the club won the championship 19 times. The runner-up is Partizan with 11 titles. In this period the all-time top-scorer was Slobodan Santrac who played for Partizan, OFK Beograd and Galenika Zemun making a total of 218 league goals between 1965 and 1983.

After SFRY the two clubs of Red Star and Partizan has continued the hegemony of Serbian football, with the former winning 6 Championships and the latter 11. This makes them natural rivals and the derby has been ranked by English Newspaper Daily Mail as the 4^th most prestigious in the World after Old firm in Glasgow, Fenerbahce – Galatasaray in Istanbul and the Argentinian clash of Boca Juniors and River Plate in “El Classico”.

The origin of the clubs are to be found at the end of the Second World War when the army established FK Partizan and Crvena Zvezda was initiated by members of the Serbian United Anitfascist Youth League, which were a fraction of the Communist Party.

It could have been an addition to these two clubs if FK Obilic could have continued what was started by Arkan’s ambitions to create a new club which could compete on the International arena. The para-military leader recruited fighters in Bosnia from the hardcore fans of Red Star (more about Serbian football-fans in another blog article). When he wasn’t awarded the post as director of the club he went on to create his own club named after the Serbian hero Milos Obilic who pretended to be a deserter and presented in front of the Ottoman sultan Murad the First, Obilic stabbed the latter to death and was shortly killed himself.

The football-club won the National Championship the season 1997/98 and became runners up the following season, much due to a rather original tactic; the opposition’s players were given an offer they seldom could refuse…  Some players might also have been a bit nervous in front of the fans at Milos Obilic stadium in Belgrade where they could risk being pointed at with guns. After the death of Arkan in 2000 the club was run by Ceca, which probably didn’t care much about football. Today they are playing in Zonska liga which equals 4^th division.

Serbian teams in Europe

When missing some of the advantages Obilic had from playing in their National League their only attempt at getting a place in the UEFA Champions League resulted in a 1-5 loss on aggregate to Bayern Munich in the season 1998/99. But Serbia in Europe is more than the glorious victory of Red Star in ’91. They have reached the semi-finals on several occasions and became Runner-up of the UEFA Cup in 1978/79. Red Star have also played in the group-stage of the UEFA Cup/Europa League.

Partizan’s European campaign had its best moment when beating Manchester United in the European Cup’s Semi-Final in 1965/66. They played Real Madrid in the Final at the Heysel Stadium where they scored the first goal, but after two Spanish goals Partizan lost 1-2. In the season 2003/04 after Lothar Matheus had brought the League title to Partizan stadium they eliminated Newcastle, which had reached the third place in the Premier League season 02/03. In the last qualifying match Partizan advanced on penalties, after a dramatic 1-1 after two times 90 minutes. Both teams won their away matches… In the following CL-group stage the Crni-bele – black and whites – made decent results, just failing to qualify for the play-off.

Now Partizan have a new chance to achieve a good result in Europe. After miraculously beating Anderlecht after a poor performance at home in the first leg, also advancing on penalties, they draw the teams of Braga, Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk. The latter team is tonight’s host in Donetsk of Eastern Ukraina. Shakthars best achievement in Europe is winning the 2008/09s UEFA Cup, todays Europa League, by beating Werder Bremen 2-1 in Istanbul.

Tonight the men of Aleksander Stanojevic will have to fight bravely and show improvement from the matches so far in the season. Maybe the 3-0 win over FK Rad in the domestic league show indication of this? Will the Moreira, Mladen Krstajic and Sasha Ilic be able to back up Cleo for a surprising win 1800 kilometres from home? Follow the match at Radio-televizija Srbije – RTS – or in any other possible way. Hajde Partizan!!!

Novak Djokovic is waiting in the rain

It’s 30 past midnight and I have returned from Café Salvador Dali. The Usual Suspects had gathered to watch Novak Djokovic beat Nadal. When the rain stopped it was 4-6/4-4, at a point when Nadal had recovered from 1-4. When the play will resume… well we’ll see. Postponed because of rain yesterday the final of the US Open has been dragging in length.

Djokovic is ranked as the World’s Number 2, after Nadal and surpassing Federer after Saturday's win. He’s the only male Serb player ever ranked so high. 

When it comes to the women there is in fact 3 that has ranked as the World’s Number 1; Monika Seles in 1991, and Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic in 2008.

Djokovic - which is nick-named Nole - won the Australian Open in 2008 and also the Bronze Medal in the Olympics same year. He reached the final of the US Open in 2007 where he lost to Roger Federer. I guess Saturday's win was a good revenge for that loss.

Now it is just to wait until the game starts again, maybe later tonight or tomorrow. Anyhow: napred Nole!!!

By the way: on the live pictures the court looks like the bottom of a swimming-pool...might be some time left before there will be any play.

Bosnian weather forecast

Isn't it fantastic? Lana is presenting the weather on Bosnian television. Every day she puts on a new outfit and make the Bosnian men happy. I am not sure if all get to know what kind of weather it will be tomorrow, but if you live through the next day - well - you will know how the weather was anyway.

Where is my internet-bill???

I can't simply find my internet-bill!
I've looked everywhere! Tonight the internet-provider closed my line, and it's Friday, which means I probably won't get it before Monday. Booo! It went 4 days over and they shut it down. No mercy there!

Thanks to Little Bays wi-fi I'm still able to go on-line, even that my "office" is of the more spartan and improvised kind....

Can you see the woman in the window? She might make reflections similar to the ones in the song you find below:

Kosovo - still in limbo

There is much uncertainty when it comes to defining the origin of the native population of Kosovo, but the area was populated long time before the Slavic tribes entered the Balkan in 6^th and 7^th century. In the 9^th century the Bulgarian Empire introduced the region to Christianity and Eastern Orthodox belief. In the 12^th century this area came under Serbian rule by the principality of Rascia, later to be followed by the Serbian Empire established in 1346, and during this period Kosovo became the political and spiritual centre of the Serbs.

In 1389 Bosnian, Albanian and Serbian forces lead by Tsar Lazar were defeated by the Ottomans and by 1455 the Muslim rule were fully established. In the Western parts of the Ottoman Empire the Sultan established the Eyalet (province) of Rumelia, which stretched all over the Balkans with the Western outskirt where we find today’s border between Bosnia and Croatia. In 1877 The Vilayet (which also means province) of Kosovo were established. This was a smaller part of the Eyalet, which stretched from today’s Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, to the Eastern border of current Bosnia. The part which consisted of current South-Western Serbia and Northern Montenegro is spoken about as Sandzak by the Bosniak Muslims and Raska by the Serbs.

Many Serbs didn’t accept the Muslim rule and there were many uprisings. In 1690 30-40 000 Serbs should have emigrated in what has become known as “The Great Migration”, but this is disputed. As so much concerning Kosovo is. There should anyhow be no doubt about the fact that demographics in Kosovo have tilted in the favor of ethnic Albanians. There is one detailed article to be found at Wikipedia, but it is mostly based on Serbian sources. Considering how politicized the issue of Kosovo is - those numbers must be read in a very critical manner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kosovo  It’s an interesting article, if it’s not all bogus, because it lacks a lot of references to the numbers presented.

Going beyond the discussion of who was inhibiting the area first and how the demographical composition has developed, Kosovo is a part of the Serbian nation – both by geography and consciousness. For it to legally become an independent nation it has to achieve this in dialogue with Belgrade, which has over-stretched the mandate given by the Serbs. Today’s development where the opposition-parties Liberal Democratic Party, New Serbia and Tomislav Nikolic’s Serbian Progressive Party have demanded the resignation of Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic might be an indication of such. Those 3 political parties counts for 42 of the 250 seats in the National Assembly; the Skupstina, but many of the deputies of the Serbian Radical Party (57 seats) should also be added to those - as Nikolic was the leader of the party when the votes for it was casted.  When considering the political strength of Nikolic it should also be mentioned that he lost the Presidential Election in 2008 to Boris Tadic. This with the smallest possible margin – and after winning the first round, but not with the necessary 50,1% needed to get the mandate.

Jeremic has been the one negotiating for Serbia with the EU for achieving a joint resolution where these two parties could present a mutual statement in front of the UN General Assembly. He had to back down on opposing the unilateral secession of Kosovo and the call for dialogue on the status of the province, or country. (Use of terms is usually depending on whether you are Serbian or Albanian.)

Nikolic expresses most likely a general disgruntle among the Serbs which feel that national sovereignty is way too much under pressure. If Tadic won’t listen to this sentiment I am afraid his fragile popularity will get another blow.

To make situation even worse the governing council of Kosovo Albanians announced yesterday that the Kosovo Security Force (KFS/KBS) could become the Kosovo Army after 2012. What a terrible timing! While the future status of Kosovo hasn’t been decided yet, this force might be perceived as a continuation of the former UCK/KLA; a force with the purpose to serve only Albanian interest. UCK/KLA was the forerunner to the Kosovo Protection Corps which had Sylejman Selimi as the Lieutenant General. He’s today Chief of Staff of KFS.  The well documented fear of attacks on both Serbian community and sacred places might grow larger and the resistance to any Albanian-run entity will grow equally.

If there shall be any reconciliation between the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo – they both have existed there for approximately 1400-1500 years - this is not a good way to build mutual trust. If there ever will be any. In the same fashion the future status of Kosovo must be achieved through some kind of consensus. The last days development has not contributed to a safe and predictable future for the people of Kosovo.

God bless instant delivery of contact lenses!

Wow! How it's raining! Seems like this was expected because the paradestreet of Knez Mihailova was emptying of people. Even the cafées were wrapping down their outdoors chairs and tables. Just in time for the Festival of Light to get an awful start. Poor guys!

If it wasn't for quick delivery I wouldn't have seen much light today either. The day started with me barbecuing my glasses. Not the rostilj of preference... I put them on the top of the bathroom furniture. Didn't think of the open downlights, always done this, but today they were too hot. You can see the result.

Out of contacts and without glasses - well the only thing to do was to find a more affordable shop then the ones I had checked last week. With the advice of Marija - hvala Marija - I found ABM in Terazije which offers 3 months of lenses for 30 euros. Good deal! My depreviation of the beautiful view of the Belgradian girls lasted just for a short while. Thank God!

Even more positive was the fact that these contacts could be bought there and then, and without any interference of any optician - which would have delayed the process for weeks, at least in Norway. That my vision is a bit blurry is just peanuts....

Pijaca Skadarlija

When you stroll down Skadarlija with all her restaurants and gipsy orchestras you will find this market at the bottom of the Bohemian quarter - and over the heavily trafficked Tsara Dusana. First and foremost it is a vegetable market, but it also features all kinds of bricka brack. They used to have this cool tank with alive fish waiting for the hungry housewife to come and choose for todays meal, but no longer. They still sell fish, but they are all dead as a herring…

The vendors are offering paradajz (BIG tomatoes), krastevac (cucumber), paprika (peppers), luk (onion), tikvice (immature squash), sljiva (plum), pecurke (mushrooms) and whatever the stomach desires. Many of them are old babe (grandmas) in whos faces you can see traces of the Yugoslavian Kingdom, the Tito-era and the wars of the Nineties. Maybe you need a bit imagination and a very sharp eye, but I think it is possible.

I asked at the salestands - in a very humble way and pointing with my camera - if I could picture their vegetables. Should had the guts to portray the babe also, but I don’t want to push my luck too much. After a few shots I went shopping and now I got what is needed for a few dinners; Pileci medaljoni sa pecurkama and my own recipe for cured beef, with fried potatoes- and tomatoes. Are you coming over?