2010's Balkan road trip

It was about time for me to be back here, posting again - I was missing it already.

So, I'm here to introduce you guys to what's like to become my next big project: a road trip through the Balkans!

During 2010's summer, me plus 3 friends - Chica, Andrei & Sol - will be getting into a car to road Southeastern Europe, starting in Belgrade, Serbia, and exploring Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and back then to Serbia, just in time to catch up with Guča Festival, in August. We're predicting such trip will take us about two months or so.

Click on the image to enlarge

The basic idea is to really explore these countries, the small cities and villages and to use the skills and passions each one of us have to make out of this road trip way more than just a passtime:

- Chica is a film maker and plastic artist;
- Andrei is a balkan music DJ and a musician of greek heritage. He also works with film making; - Sol is a music lover, DJ and producer, focused to balkan music - we produce Go East party together!;
- and I, well... You know about me already ;)

In common, the four of us share a big, biiig passion for this region of the globe and it's culture.

We want to apply these skills we have in documenting the trip in everyway possible, so afterwards we can produce a big event here in Brazil and all around, showing through pictures, film, music and writting - I'll finish writing my book "Wish I could reach you in Belgrade" during this trip! - that there's much more to Southeastern Europe than people could ever imagine.


What do you people think?! Ideas/suggestions of places to visit in each of these 10 countries are more than welcome :)

What's the time? Kolo time! II

I guess by now everyone who reads this blog is already aware of my huuuge passion for kolo and folk dances, in general. Made a post a while ago on the basics of kolo, and a couple of videos to illustrate the post and all (you can scroll this page down for the previous post on kolo or click here)

Anyways, as people here seemed interested in kolo, here's a some videos for you guys (bear in mind we made these videos for fun only :)

This is from a couple of years ago... I had just learned how to dance it and was trying to "teach" it to a friend :)


This one is waaaay more recent: me and Chica having some fun with Čačak :D


And at last but not least, this is me and Chica again, memorising a Vlaške igre routine for a presentation:


Hehe, enjoy! :D

A quick hello...

Big plans, news pretty soon.

My return to moj dragi Beorgad had to be postponed a few months, but's gonna happen, of course. Tours, car trips, parties and so on... Lots to come!


In the meantime, I keep drinking my špricer, having my burek (brought from a bulgarian shop in São Paulo, since we don't have it in Rio) and, of course, partying big time - Balkan style, of course!

Ladies and Gents: the party I produce in Rio on Brazilian television, with english subtitles!

What's the time? Kolo time! I

Anyone who have been to Serbia and surroundings have for sure heard about "kolo". Kolo is for Serbia as samba is for Brazil: kolo is the quintessencial serbian dance, is the thing that each serbian citizen is supposed to know how to dance from the day he/she was born - even though (like samba in Brazil) this is not always necessarily true (I am brazilian and I have no clue on how to dance samba).

Kola (serbian plural for kolo) can be very slow and easy, or fast and freaky, depending from the rigion they come from, as kolo can be found all over Serbia and neighbouring countries. The music is usually played by accordions, frula (a serbian flute), violins, percussion and, several times, by brass instruments like trumpets (those played by as many different instruments as possible are the coolest although, in my opinion, accodions are a must when it comes to kolo).

Kolo dance is usually danced in circles - hence the name (kolo means "wheel", "circle" in serbian) - or lines, by two people to several dozens, holding each other's hands while doing the basic steps (always starting to the right):



two steps to the right
one to the left
another one to the right

two steps to the left
one to the right
another one to the left

Discribing it like this might makes kolo sounds rather boring, but it isn't: once you get used to the rithym and the basic steps, kolo becomes rather addictive. I always catch myself moving my feet when I'm sitting on a bus, or waiting on a queue :)



Although the basic steps are rather simple, due to it's many variations from town to town kolo can be added of many ornamental elements and some crazy syncopated steps. Some of the most famous kolo types are Užičko (from the Užice region), Moravac and Čačak (these two from regions with the same name) among many, many others. click on the word links to see videos

In Serbia, kolo is all around: musicians on the streets always play it, people dance to it on kafanas (Serbian bars), clubs, parties and so on. It's kinda magical, cause it's a dance that makes people that never met before get together and dance, hand in hand. I'll never forget when me and my brazilian friends danced kolo for the first time on a kafana or when me and my belgian friend, Valerie, stopped in front of a roma brass band on Knez Mihailova (Belgrade's most famous street) and danced together with some gypsy kids that were around, attracting a crowd of several dozen people that stopped to watch us - an unforgettable moment :)
Kolo is the dance that best expresses the "spirit" of Serbia and it's warm, welcoming and well humoured people. That's probably why I love kolo as much as I do.

My plane arriving in Belgrade

The best feeling ever: landing in Belgrade :)

Moj dragi Beograd

And as an opening to my "posting-return", a song :)



Мој драги Београде

Била сам у Прагу и Лондону
Прошла кроз Атину, Вечни рим
Видела сам Напуљ и Верону
Јарким сунцем обасјани Крим

Гледала сам раскош и богатство
Многе чари сретала сам тад
Али нигде, нигде не пронађох
То што има мој вољени град

Мој Београд срце има
И у срцу љубав чисту
Београд руке шири свима
Сваком радост пружа исту

Ја се дивим чарима Париза
Праг ће увек бити златни град
Поштујем их али љубав моју
Има само мој вољени град
Мој драги Београд


Lyrics translation soon!

Весела Коледа - Feliz Natal - Merry Christmas

So people, just a quick post to wish you all a Merry Christmas - or, how we say in Bulgaria, Весела Коледа ("Vesela Koleda")!.

Since it's been exactly a year since my Wild Christmas Adventure (lost!) in Shabla (Bulgaria) took place, I decided to give you, my dear readers, a "gift". For those who keep asking me "But why didn't you take any pictures while in Shabla?", here it is:

Ladies and gentlemen, (thanks to Google!) here it is: Shabla!

(Click the image to enlarge)
Where you people can read "Shabla" is the exact place where the bus driver left us. The triangular-shaped "square" right beside it is the square we crossed while heading to the trashy bar (where is written "Buteco de Shabla"), in which we sat in and waited to be rescued by Kosta and his brother.

And this is the trashy bar itself. We got in through the door you can see on the right side.

If by any chance you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I highly reccomend you to read these entries:

Balkan Spedicija part I
Balkan Spedicija part II
Balkan Spedicija part III

Enjoy ;)

Back!

I'm back to Brazil for almost two weeks now. I'm still a bit dizzy and "lost in translation" after several months in Belgrade, reason why I didn't post anything since I'm back. Actually, I didn't post anything for quite, quite some time...

But I do have tones of writings and things to tell, that shall be posted and told soon, I promise :)

The centre of life in Belgrade (in 1907)

I came across this thanks to Pedro :)
This is a page of a book from 1907 about the Balkans, called "The Near East: the present situation in Montenegro, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey and Macedonia", written by a british correspondent/dandy called William Le Queux. The complete digitalized version can be read here (highly reccomended!!) http://www.archive.org/stream/neareastpresents00lequuoft


"The city of Belgrade is in a transition state. Already in many of the principal streets fine buildings have been completed, and many are now in the course of construction. The roads, it must be said, are execrably paved, so uneven that driving is a torture. But the reason they have not been repaved during the presente regime is because a new drainage system is about to be carried out, and whn this is done they will be asphalted and converted into boulevards. The natural situation of "Beograd" - or the White Fortress - is magnificent, high up on a hill at the junction of the Save and the Danube. Behind rises the extinct volcano os Avala, where, according to one tradition, a great treasure is hidden, and to another that the mountain is rich in gold and silver deposits.

The centre of life in Belgrade is the gay cafe of the Grand Hotel. From five to seven in the afternoon everyone is there, card-playing, smoking, sipping Slivovotza (plum gin) or drinking boch, and listening to the excellent band, while the inner hall is filled with smart ladies and their cavaliers. Save the peasantry one sees about the street, the oxen drawing primitive carts, and now and then a man wearing a fez, there is little there is eastern in Belgrade, save the slightly dark complexion and cast of features of the Servians. For the most part, women are very handsome, but they seem, like most Eastern races, to lose their beauty at an early age.

Though I made it my duty to hear and study both sides of political questions in Belgrade, and though I spent many hours with those in fierce opposition to the present regime, I must say that I received on every hand the greatest kindness, while everybody seemed ever ready to render me a service.

The Servians are a highly intelligent and thoughtful race. The young officers in the streets are not of the ogling, giggling genus one knows so well in Germany, France and Italy, but though smarter in appearance than either nation, they are serious, polite, and gentlemanly to a degree. The King, when speaking to me of military matters, pointed out a curious fact, namely, that so intelligent was the average Servian recruit that in six months he usually learnt what in France took him eighteen months.

In feminine circles it struck me that there was a great extravagance in dress. I saw the very latest Paris hats and smart, well-cut gowns, which bore evidence of the expensive couturiere worn by the wives of struggling officials, and I learnt that about then pounds was no uncommon price for a hat. All classes seem to vie with each other to dress well, and in the brilliant salons at night one sees some of the smartest gowns in Europe."

Wish I would've experienced Belgrade in the 1900's :)

The first burek we never forget

The first burek we never forget.

Fortunate ones had already tasted it. And those sad beings, who still haven’t had the pleasure of tasting a burek, truly should find a way to taste one as soon as possible.

For those who might be wondering “ok, but what the hell is a burek?”, here’s the explanation:


Börek (also burek, boereg, and other variants on the name) is a type of pie popular throughout the former Ottoman Empire. They are made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo or yufka, and are filled with salty cheese (often feta), minced meat, potatoes or other vegetables. Börek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. The top of the börek is often sprinkled with sesame seeds.
(continues...)


My first burek, believe it or not, was not in the Balkans, but actually in Cologne, Germany. It was our 4th night in Germany, and after walking the entire night under a really annoying cold rain (it was December already), from club to club in the search for some good music, we (me, Nara and DJ Kaska) finally decided to stop our search, call Kosta (to see if he was back from Dortmund) and eat something, once we were starving already. The only place still opened at that time of the night was, of course, a Doner. We got into the place and right away, between the many labels for delicious looking things on the display, my eyes stopped on the label that said “Burek”. I immediately asked for one, while Nara and Kaska were still choosing what to have. Of course, as soon as my burek was given to me, they both said they wanted one just like mine, haha. While we waited for Kosta to pick us up we just sat, enjoyed our delicious burek and had a very nice talk to the Iranian owner of the place.
Of course, as soon as Nara and I reached Serbia only a week later, our all time favourite thing was entering the closest pekara (some sort of bakery, “Serbian style”) and asking for a burek.

I can’t help now: every time I eat a burek, I think of Nara :)