Wish I could reach you in Belgrade

A room with a view

2011-09-03T00:05:00.000-03:00

About a month and a half before I came to Belgrade (around May), I started searching for a place to for me to live in once I arrived here. After a week searching through the web - and not being very successful, to be honest - I decided to call for a little help from my friends: I sent several emails and messages to most everyone I knew here in Belgrade, asking for some assistance with my search. Among the many replies I got (everybody was SO kind and helpful!) Ana - a Brazilian girl living here in Belgrade - suggested I should contact this real state company called Symbol Properties, since several people she knew were very successful in finding flats with their assistance.

I got in touch with Symbol Properties over email and they were extremely helpful and very professional, sending me a handful of interesting flat offers along a couple of weeks, all of them fitting my search criteria perfectly, as well as my limited budget. As the time of my arrival to Serbia approached, I decided for the 3 offers that I liked most: those would be the flats I was gonna visit as soon as I got Belgrade, in order to decide which one of them I'd take. All 3 apartments seemed to be great as for the pictures sent to me, but one of them really caught my eye. Don't know really why, but I kinda felt that that one was gonna be the_one I'd fall in love with once I visited it - and I was totally right! As soon as I stepped into it with the real state agent, I knew that was it! I didn't even had to sleep on it, I decided right away I'd take that one and, less than 24 hours later I was signing the contract and moving in.

Location-wise, it's perfect: in the very centre of the city, at this quiet square that rather reminds me of my neighborhood in Rio, "Praça São Salvador"... At night, specially at Fridays and Saturdays, the square gets packed with youngsters, drinking beer, talking loud and even playing some music. There are 24 hours markets and bakeries within 100 m from my building, not to mention my favourite baklavdžinica ever, "Dukat" and even a newly opened Israeli fast food place with really great falafel sandwiches! The main square and pedestrian zone of the city are within a 2 minutes walk from my place as well. And if I feel like clubbing, a slow 20 minutes walk will take me to some of the coolest "splavs" in the city.

But all those qualities will never measure up with the most precious quality of all of this apartment: I got a room with a view. And what a view <3

Coming back in 5, 4, 3, 2...

2011-06-16T03:52:00.000-03:00

Hey everybody!

I`ve been away for quite some time, I know... Awfully busy with last minute details of my return to Serbia, taking place on July 4th!!!
This time around I`ll be in Serbia for 7 months in a row (!!!), studying Serbian language and getting to know a bit better the country and its neighbors. I`m SO looking forward to this long trip, counting the seconds to be there again from summer to winter.

All in all I just meant to say that in a couple of weeks time I`ll be back here, posting as much as I possibly can and updating you all with my lateste experiences and adventures in the Balkans :)

Stay tuned, more info about my travel plans and route in the forthcoming days!

What a Kafana is?

2011-04-24T22:33:00.002-03:00

I was just about to post my 3rd entry for the "Minha Belgrado" series, pointing out some of my favourite "kafanas" in Belgrade. But then I realised that most people who had never been to Serbia before probably have no idea what so ever of what a kafana is. So I thought it would be cool to write a bit about it.

Some would simply describe kafana as the serbian equivalent of a tavern. But others - and I include myself into this group - would tell you that kafana is much more than just a tavern: it's almost a way of life!

The word "kafana" comes from the turkish word kahvehane, meaning something like "coffee place" or "coffee house". The first kafana in Belgrade was opened in 1522 in the neighbourhood of Dorćol, run by Turks - those were the early days of centuries of Ottoman occupation in the Balkans.
Although the "kafana concept" arrived in Belgrade in the 16th century, it was only in the 1700's - by the time of the second Ottoman occupation - that the term "kafana" started being used to refer to those coffee inns.

Alcohol only started being served in "kafanas" on the first decades of the 19th century. By that time, "kafanas" were increasing more and more in popularity, taking an important and special place in the development of social, economic and cultural life of Belgrade. It was the place where the known and the unknown people sat for a drink, as well as famous and anonymous writers, poets, journalists, actors and various artists, politicians and so on. It was a shelter for bohemians, travellers, students, people with no place to stay, prostitutes… Each kafana had their own physiognomy, character and guest circle.

Despite de taxes that Prince Miloš started imposing on kafana owners in the early 1800's (and the working licenses that were now required to run such places), by the end of the 19th century Belgrade was crowded with them: according to some statistics, by the turn of the 20th century Belgrade had 1 kafana/coffee inn for every 50 inhabitants!
By then, the number of "kafanas" in Belgrade was in fact so big that the owners of those places started looking for a different "something" to attract more customers - that was when live folk music acts were introduced in "kafanas".

Prior and between the two world wars, "kafanas" were the place where important events took place or decisions were brought and even members of political parties had their own, favourite kafana where they would go to on a regular basis.

Nowadays, "kafanas" continue to be a place for meeting friends, drinking, talking & discussing, live music, singing your favourite tunes out loud after tones of kilo kilo and so on. It's the place where a foreigner can best understand and experience Serbs and their social personalities.

Kafana "?" ("Znak Pitanja", or "Question Mark", in English), one of the oldest in Belgrade

On my next post, info and directions to my favourite "kafanas" in Belgrade ;)

Source:
http://www.jat.com/active/en/home/main_menu/travel_info/jat_review/januar_2006/inns.html
Interesting reading: Kafana rules:
http://srxx.blogspot.com/2005/11/kafana-republic.html

At last, 2011 has started!

2011-03-14T19:35:00.000-03:00

Here in Rio (and all around Brazil, I guess), people say that the year only really starts once carnival is over - and even though I hate to admit it's true, my posting absence here in my blog won't let me lie!

Anyways, I'm 100% back now, with tones of new projects and things to tell.
And just so you know, I've been away from blogging about Serbia and the Balkans for a couple of months, yes, but during this time I worked hard to keep the Balkans as close as possible to me.
Ladies and gents, I present you the Balkan Carnival Evening promoted by me and my work-partner, Sol Provvidente, with a band also produced by the two of us: the Go East Orkestar":

Enjoy, and till soon! ;)

Belgrade live street cams!

2011-01-03T19:49:00.002-02:00

For those of you either curious or nostalgic about Belgrade, here are 4 live street cams placed on different locations of the "White City" - and 3 of them you can even control up and down, left and right and zoom in and out. Check out!

http://camera.beograd.com/
This camera is placed on Terazije, facing towards hotel Moskva. this one is "fixed", you can't control it. I believe that in a clear day you can even spot Hram Svetog Save at the far background :)

Now, the controlable cams!

http://www.informatika.com/webkamera/trg-nikole-pasica.htm
Trg Nikole Pašića: if you move this cam to the right you'll see the ice skating rink, which is always illuminated by colorful lights at night :)

http://www.informatika.com/webkamera/novi-beograd.htm
Novi Beograd: this cam shows a beautiful view of the new part of the city, specially at night, when the buildings are all lit up

http://www.informatika.com/webkamera/ada-ciganlija.htm
Ada Ciganlija: this cam is cooler during daytime and specially during summer, when the river island and its beaches are crowded with people.

Enjoy! :)

Happy new year!

2011-01-02T00:29:00.000-02:00

Just passing by quickly to wish you all a happy New Year!
May 2011 be a year with more arrivals, less departures and no farewells :)

Expedição Go East 2011 - Go East Expedition 2011

2010-12-18T10:15:00.001-02:00

For the english version of this, scroll down a bit

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Desde que comecei a viajar pelos Balcãs e a escrever esse blog, muita gente - de amigos à pessoas que nunca vi na vida! - vem me perguntar sobre viajar para os lugares dos quais falo aqui. Perguntam sobre quais cidades visitar, pedem dicas sobre acomodação, sugestões sobre qual a melhor época para ir, o que tem pra ver e fazer por lá, e etc, etc.
Eu adoro receber e responder à esses emails! Pensar que eu posso estar contribuíndo (mesmo que um pouquinho de nada) na melhoria da imagem que as pessoas fazem dos países dessa região é priceless pra mim :)

Foi então que, no início desse ano, me ocorreu a idéia: já que tanta gente se mostra interessada em conhecer os Balcãs, porque não utilizar que aprendi nas minhas viagens e organizar, eu mesma, uma excursão pra lá?
E foi assim que "nasceu" o projeto Expedição Go East 2011.

A idéia principal da Expedição Go East é oferecer um roteiro de viagem budget e alternativo, diferente do roteiro que uma agência de turismo comum ofereceria. O foco da expedição é a música e cultura da região, o contraste do tradicional com o contemporâneo, o mix de culturas que faz dos Bálcãs uma região tão incrível e única.

Quando comecei a pensar num roteiro pra expedição, idéias e opções mil começaram a pipocar na minha cabeça. Eram tantas, mas tantas, que meses de viagem pela região não dariam conta!
Pra realmente começar a montar o roteiro, o primeiro passo foi decidir qual a melhor época pra fazer a expedição: verão! Mais precisamente em agosto, quando rolam diversos festivais na Sérvia, como Guča e a Beer Fest de Belgrado.
O passo seguinte foi perguntar aos que já haviam manifestado interesse no projeto sobre quanto tempo eles teriam disponível para uma viagem dessas: a média das respostas foi 15 dias.
Então pensei que em um roteiro de 15 dias seria melhor focar uma quantidade menor de países (podendo, assim, explorá-los melhor) do que passar correndo por vários e não curtir de verdade nenhum deles.
Assim sendo, resolvi focar o roteiro nos países que mais conheço e nos quais possuo mais contatos e possibilidades: Sérvia e Montenegro.

Considerando todos esses pontos, a Expedição Go East 2011 ficou então agendada pra durar do dia 4 ao 19 de agosto, cobrindo Sérvia e Montenegro e diversos festivais e eventos de música que rolam nesses dias.

Interessado? Se quiser saber mais sobre a Expedição Go East 2011 é só mandar um email para expedicaogoeast2011 @ gmail.com e eu lhe enviarei detalhes, roteiro e orçamento da viagem :)

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Since I first started travelling through the Balkans and to write this blog, many people – from friends to people I never saw in my life! – started asking me about travelling to the places I write about on here. They ask me about which cities they should visit, tips on accommodation, what’s the best time of the year to travel, what is there to do over there and so on.

I just love to answer those questions! To think that I might be helping (even if just a tiny little bit) to improve those countries’ images on people’s minds is something priceless to me :)

That was when, earlier this year, than an idea occurred to me: since so many people show interest in travelling to the Balkans, why not using the things I learned in my travels and organise, myself, and excursion to those places?

And that was how my project Go East Expedition 2011 was “born”!

The idea behind Go East Expedition is to offer a budget and alternative travel route, different from what one would get with a regular travel agency. The main focus of this expedition is the region’s music and culture, the contrast between contemporary and traditional, the cultural mix that makes out of the Balkans such an amazing and unique region.

When I started thinking on a route for this expedition, thousands of ideas and options started popping out. In fact, the ideas were SO many that month after month of travelling wouldn’t be enough to cover them all!

To start really building the route, the first step was deciding which would be the best time of the year for this expedition: summer, more precisely in August, when many music festivals take place in that region.

The next step was asking those who had already shown interest in this project how many days they could take to do so such a trip: 15 days was the average answer I got.

Then, I thought that in a 15 days route the best thing would be focusing in less countries (allowing more time to explore them) rather than rush through many different countries and not actually enjoying any of them.

Therefore, I decided to build the route around the countries I know better and in which I have more contacts and possibilities: Serbia and Montenegro.

Considering all this, Go East Expedition 2011 is scheduled to last from August 4th to 19th, covering Serbia and Montenegro as well as many music festivals and events that take place by then.

Interested? If you want to know more about Go East Expedition 2011, send an email to expedicaogoeast2011 @ gmail.com and I will send you the excursion’s route, details and budget :)

My 2011 diary

2010-12-16T13:07:00.002-02:00

I finished the collage for the cover of my 2011 diary. Most of the images used on it were taken from magazines, weekly guides and folders I brought from my last visit to Serbia (last July/August).

It's the way a found to always have a bit of Belgrade with me, inside my purse :)

(click to enlarge)

"Minha Belgrado" #2 - Baklavdžinica "Dukat"

2010-12-07T15:24:00.003-02:00

I'm not much into sugary, you know... But I will never forget the day I first tried baklava: it was in Varna (Bulgaria) on a Christmas Eve with my brother Kosta and his family and honestly, that was one of the best sweets I ever had in my life!!
Once I was back to Rio de Janeiro I started searching for places that sold baklava. I did manage to find several places but sadly enough, none of them had a baklava half as delicious as those I had in Bulgaria.

For those of you who that doesn't know exactly baklava is: well, it's a delicious sweet of Turkish origin, made out of tens of layers of fine, sweet phyllo dough, with different kinds nuts in between its layers, sweetened by honey. It's "heavenly", like my friend Valja says :)

But anyways, back to my "perfect baklava" search, I finally discovered (thanks to my friend Saša!) the best place ever for baklava and other Turkish sweets in Belgrade: Baklavdžinica Dukat!
"Dukat" is a pretty new place in Belgrade (reason why I had never heard of it in my previous visits to the city): it was opened on May 20th this year, at Topličin Venac, number 3 (next to "Tanjug" building)

The mastermind behind "Dukat" is Mustafa Avdžija (originally from Gaziantep, Southeastern Turkey), whom came with his family to Novi Pazar (Southwestern Serbia) in 2004. A few years later, he and his friend Nedžad Ličina (from Sjenica, Southwestern Serbia) decided to start a partnership, opening their Baklavdžinica "Dukat" in Belgrade.
With over 15 different kinds of baklava and other Turkish candies/sweets, "Dukat" quickly became a "summer hit" in Belgrade, as described by newspaper 24 Sata:

- Our speciality is pistachio baklava. There are also pistachio "sarmice" , "kraljevska kriška", chocolate baklava, "saray sarma" and so on. People get surprised when they see such variety. Here [in Belgrade] they're used to eat baklava only with nuts, but most people don't know that the true baklava is made with pistachio. People often ask for the recipe. I just tell them that everyone has its special craft and that these candies and its recipes cannot be made by anyone, only by masters - Mustafa explains. (Taken from here)

I didn't try all the kinds of baklava and candies they offer at Dukat, but I did try the pistachio baklava and pistachio sarmice and really, I can't describe to you how delicious it was! Maybe you can figure by looking at these pictures of the shop's glass window:

Pistachio "sarmica"

Pistachio baklava
(Pictures taken from here)

I couldn't find here the exact working hours of "Dukat" but as I remember it was opened until early evening, around 7pm maybe. Prices of those sweet delights vary from RSD 1400 to RSD 1800 per kg (from around €13 to €17).
A Belgrade "must", for sure!

"Minha Belgrado" #1 - Accommodation in Belgrade

2010-12-01T20:52:00.010-02:00

When planning a trip to no matter where, accommodation is usually the first thing that comes to people's minds. And when it comes to accomodation, Belgrade has plenty of options to offer!
The choice of what kind of accommodation suits you best depends on many facotrs, as:

- For how long will you stay in Belgrade?
- What is your budget?
- With how many people are you travelling with?
- What level of comfort and privacy are you expecting?

Option 1: HOSTEL

If you're planning a short stay in the city (up to 15 days) and you're on a tight budget, a hostel would be the best option. Privacy and comfort are not so great, but one of the best things about staying in a hostel is the amazing amount of people from all over the world you get to know. Also, people who work as part of the staff of those hostels are usually very helpful and very, very friendly!

Belgrade is full of hostels (check it our here and here). Here's a small list of some hostels I picked up, highly recommend:

Chillton Hostel

I never stayed on Chillton Hostel, but 3 friends of mine did in January 2009, and they just loved it! Chillton is located in the neighborhood of Vračar, just beside the mighty temple of Saint Sava (the biggest orthodox temple in the world!) and some 15 minutes walking from downtown (some 5 minutes by bus). Nice and quiet location.

Chillton Hostel #1

Hostel Captain Belgrade
I never stayed in this hostel, but as Dušan is the guy on charge of it, I'm pretty sure it must be very good. Dušan helped me finding an apartment to rent when I was in Belgrade in 2008, so I trust him when it comes to accomodation :)
Hostel Captain Belgrade has a great location (in Dorćol, one of my favourite parts of the city!), pretty near Republic Square (Trg Republike), the main pedestrian zone (called Knez Mihailova) and only a couple of blocks from Kalemegdan Fortress, my all-time favourite spot in Belgrade.

Hostel Captain Belgrade

In Old Shoes
This is where my best friend, Sanja, works now. When in Belgrade, I visit her at her working place day in day out, and the general feeling at "In Old Shoes" hostel is that of staying in someone's house - very cozy! Also, the hostel was voted #7 on the list of Top 10 Hostels in Belgrade! The location is awesome too, just some 7 minutes walking from the main pedestrian zone (Knez Mihailova).
Sanja told me a few days ago that the hostel is currently going on maintenance. But still, is worthy checking out with them when the renovation will be due! :)

In Old Shoes Hostel

Af-Terr Hostel
On Obilićev Venac - a street just beside Knez Mihailova and a few steps from Republic Square! - this hostel is located in a lovely building. I stayed on Af-Terr for some 4 weeks in 2008, before I moving into an apartment. Friendly staff, nice accomodations and good price!

Af Terr Hostel

Arkabarka

If you're not choosing your hostel so much based in prices, but more like you're looking for an unique place to stay, than Arkabarka is definitelly the_option for you. Due to its unusual location - on a float on the Danube river (!!!) - the newly built Arkabarka Hostel was recently ranked as the most unusual hostel in the world by hostelworld.com. All the rooms, the glass facade and the balcony on the ground floor offer wonderful panoramic views. Nearby the hostel, also on the river, one will find some of Belgrade best clubs, restaurants and shopping malls.

ArkaBarka Hostel

Option 2: PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION

No matter if you're on a tight budget or not, if you're staying for a longer time in Belgrade and if you're travelling with a group of friends, the best option is definitely private acommodation!
Private accomodation for a group of people can be as cheap as a hostel, only that you will have an apartment all for you and your friends and total privacy.

Beoapartmani
On my last visit to Belgrade (last July and August), me and my 5 friends decided to rent an apartment. after searching a lot on the internet, we ended up picking one of the apartments offered by Beoapartmani. Nena - the lady in charge of Beoapartmani - was really kind, did her best to fit us 6 comfortably in a flat. The apartment was really big enough, quite, all equipped and very well located.
In the website there are dozens of apartments available for rental, with pictures, location details, listed facilities and so on. Highly recommended!

Beoapartmani's 30 downtown PARISKA big Belgrade apartment

Option 3: HOTEL

Now, if budget isn't a problem and/or if you're not staying for such a long time in Belgrade - and if comfort is a must for you - then the best thing is going "traditional" and staying in a hotel.
As any big city, Belgrade is full of hotel options: from small hotels to luxury international ones (such as Hyatt), the options are plenty.

Hotel Moskva
Well, I'm all for tradition. I mean, if I was to stay in a hotel in Belgrade, it would definitely be one that's both classy and traditional, but with some of the local charm and flavour. I wouldn't think twice to pick Hotel Moskva: a 4 stars hotel in the very center of the city (2-3 minutes walking from Knez Mihailova and Republic Square), with a history that traces back over a 100 years ago, when it was opened by King Petar I Karadjordjević himself in 1908. Some of their rooms - that were named after famous guests that stayed at the hotel, like Alfred Hitchcock and Ray Charles - have a beeeeautiful view of the Sava river. Room prices are, actually, pretty affordable to such a traditional 4 stars hotel, with single rooms from RSD 7725,00 (approximately € 75).

Hotel Moskva

"Minha Belgrado" - New series!

2010-11-26T17:20:00.000-02:00

From today on, I'll be starting a new series of posts here, for those who are visitng Belgrade now or at anytime soon: "Minha Belgrado" (meaning "my Belgrade", in Portuguese).

For "Minha Belgrado" I'm preparing a series of posts with suggestions of places to go in Belgrade, nice places for a meal or a coffee, where to go for a night out, where to go shopping for interesting items, accommodation in the city, general services and so on. It's gonna be like some sort of guide, but based on what I learned from being in Belgrade for almost 8 months in the past 3 years (2 months in 2007-08, 3 to 4 months in 2008 and 2 months in 2010): things and places I was introduced to by local friends, or things and places me and my friends discovered after a long search or even things and places I discovered by chance, while walking around the city.

Hope you people enjoy it and, most of all, hope it's useful!
And don't hesitate to send me emails if you want to know any more details on something or if you have any suggestions yourself! teteglitter at gmail.com

;)

A weekend in Herceg Novi

2010-11-06T15:42:00.002-02:00

Despite the very curvy road from Belgrade (Serbia) to Montenegro - and the group of extremely annoying and loud teenagers sitting on the back seats of the bus (giggiling ALL the way long), heaven knows how I managed to take some sleep during the first 9 hours of the trip. But yep, I did!

I was lucky enough to wake up a few minutes before we reached one of the most impressive landscapes I ever saw in my entire life: the "Skadarsko jezero" (lake Skadar), this huuuuuge lake, border between Montenegro and Albania, surrounded by impressive mountains. It's one of those places you would expect to see only in a movie, cause it doesn't even looks like it's real! Such a beautiful place!

Skadarsko Lake (from Google Images)

But still, nothing describes the feeling of reaching the Adriatic coast for the first time and glancing the sea in between the mighty mountains of Montenegro. It was breathtaking!

At that point, even my ever-sprained foot (it was hurting hard all day long, after my birthday party two nights before) wasn't bothering me anymore. We were FINALLY at the Adriatic Coast!

To cross Boka Kotorska - Kotor's Bay - our bus took a ferry boat, presenting us with a handful of beautiful views on a fine, sky clean and sunny saturday morning.

When we finally arrived to Herceg Novi's central bus station, Njego was already there to pick us up and take us to EKO Fest site: Španjola, a 15th century fortress (one of the city's 6 ancient fortresses!), were we should camp for the next couple of days.

When we arrived at the top of the mountain, where the fortress is placed, we were welcomed by Neven and a tray full of cold slices of watermelon and a box of "žu žu".
We sat by the shadow to have some rest while Andrei, Jaú, Federico and Neven started some sort of a jam session with a couple of guitars and some percussion, by the side of the festival's stage. After some time there, after we cooled down a little bit, we decided it would be better for us and our DJ equipment to find a place to stay other than the camping.

We went downhill to the city center. We split ways when we reached the Old Town Gate: two of the girls went with Neven, to search for a place for us all to stay, while me, Sol, and the boys sat for a drink by one of the many cafes at Nikola Đurković Square. Some 40 minutes later, the girls called us saying they found us a great place to stay for an even better price: an apartment with several beds, only 2 minutes walking from the beach.

With the address in hands we started heading to the apartment and, after some minutes walking under hot, hot sun, we finally found the place! We quickly changed into our bathing suits an ran to the beach to meet with the other girls.

After a little walk, we finally found what we all agreed to be a nice spot to stay, just by a restaurant/bar: the sea was almost as quiet as a lake and the water wasn't cold nor warm, but perfect temperature and the white stones instead of sand (like we have on most beaches here in Brazil) would allow us to see that amazing greenish-blue colour of the water. So, so beautiful!
Sol and I were specially amazed to realize we were really swimming in the Adriatic, something both want to for a long while. Another special thing for me was the fact that, for the first time ever, nobody - really, nobody - gave me any kind of weird look because of my skin colour. For the first time ever I wasn't looking like a tourist on the beach!

We stayed on the beach for a long while before we decided to have something to eat and go back to the apartment - after all, we had a gig to play that evening, at EKO Fest.

After a shower and some little rest we dressed up, took a taxi and headed to Španjola Fortress. The taxi driver - a woman, to our surprise! - we took couldn't speak a word of english, but each and every communication trouble was surpassed when one of our favourite tunes - and appearently, the driver's too - started playing on the car radio: "Gas gas", by Croatian singer Severina. The 4 of us plus the driver went all the way singing it as loud as we could!

When we reached the fortress we went directly to the backstage to leave our equipment. There, Neven told us we would start playing around half past midnight, so that meant we had a couple of hours to enjoy ourselves at the festival.
More and more people were arriving at the festival during those couple of hours, and by the time we started our DJ set, it was pretty crowded already! We divided our set in 3 parts, so each one of us could spin whatever we felt like. Andrei started first, with some balkan dub. I was second, with my electro jazz and swing set and Sol was the last - but not least! -, with some electro jazz and house. It was SO, so cool! The crowd was really excited cheering at every mixing we did!
Federico managed to record our DJ sets with his camera, he should be sending the video material to us really soon (and as soon as he does so, I'll post it here ;)

When we finished our "job" and came down the stage several people came to us saying they really enjoyed our DJ sets, where they could find us online and that sort of stuff - really nice feedback!
The DJs that took the stage after us kept the electronic beats with really cool sets and we stayed there, dancing and drinking for several hours before we decided to go back - walking! - to our apartment.

As soon as we were all up the next day, we rushed to the central bus station to buy our tickets back to Serbia: instead of going back directly to Belgrade, we would stop by Čačak for a couple of days, for the highly awaited Guča Festival.
To our dispair, all the night buses to Čačak were sold out and the only bus with seats still available would leave from Herceg Novi some 10 hours before what we first planned - which meant that that day was actually our last entire day in Montenegro. Or else we would loose one festival day at Guča.

After the bus station, our group split into 2: some went directly to the beach from there and me plus some others went back to the apartment where we had lunch and just then went down to the beach.
We all met again by the sea, where we talked for several hours, had some cold drinks, palačinka and even had some free entertainment, as a very funny guy, sitting next to us, was giving a showcase of clumsy dives and crazy stunts at the shower, splitting water on everyone and everywhere. The guy's crazy behaviour kinda reminded me of the wolf from the soviet animated series "Nu, Pogodi!".

Gotta love the sense of humour

Anyways, after the beach we went to a really nice restaurant by the beach, where we had diner under a wonderful moon.

After that, we split in 2 groups again: some went back to the apartment (as they wanted to wake up early and enjoy their last hours on the beach) while me, Marina, Andrei and Jaú wanted to go to another restaurant, where there was gonna be a "tamburaši" evening that night. We couldn't have picked a better place to go: good musicians playing claaaassic songs we could sing along, a wonderful view of the sea and good variety of rakija to choose from. When the show ended, we decided to go for a night swim - best decision ever! The water was warm, the beach was, of course, totally deserted, allowing us to be as noisy and silly as we wanted (oh, the rakija!). The coolest last moments in Herceg Novi we could possibly have.

The next day I woke up around noon. Those who didn't have much to drink the night before were already up, actually coming back from a morning on the beach. We all met, called a couple of taxis and went to the central bus station, where we would get the bus to our next - and most awaited! - stop: Guča Festival!

Marakana, bre!

2010-11-01T23:08:00.002-02:00

On July 29th, after the craziest night ever at the Blek Panters and Kafanica (promisse I'll translate the post into english real soon!), we woke up around 3pm. We had until 5pm to take a shower, have something to eat and get dressed up (in red shirts!) for one reeeeally cool occasion: Neven and his friend, Djordje, arranged to take us to a football match at Crvena Zvezda's stadium, known as "Marakana"!

Unfortunatly, Crvena Zvezda didn't win Slovan Bratislava but we had a lot of fun nevertheless, after all it was my first time ever watching a match in a stadium - and the coolest thing: from the VIP area ;)

And here's a short video Sol recorded with her cam:

"Wish I could reach you in Belgrade" is back!

2010-10-29T01:10:00.000-02:00

From today on I'll start posting here several blog entries I wrote a couple of months ago, when I was still in Serbia. I didn't put these entries online by the time I wrote them because my time on the computer was always kinda short: our apartment in Belgrade had 2 computers for the 6 of us, you can figure how tough it was to stay online for some time.

I'm back to Brazil now, but I've got a lot to tell! :)

Off to the coast

2010-08-09T21:21:00.000-03:00

The cool news?
Saturday we will be heading to Montenegro: Go East collective will be performing @ EKO Fest, in Herceg Novi!!!

Can't wait :)

A day in Zagreb

2010-08-06T09:50:00.000-03:00

I was at the supermarket with my friends when I got this message from Neven saying that when earlier that day he invited us to go to Zagreb with him, he meant it. "Are you guys coming?", he asked.

It was 9 pm and Neven said he and his friend planned to leave around midnight. We would get to Zagreb on the next day`s morning, stay there until late afternoon/early evening and then back to Belgrade. A 4 hour journey from Belgrade until Croatia`s capital.
I really felt like going - I mean, it`s not everyday that you get to be invited to spend a day in Croatia! I asked my friends if any of them would like come with us that evening, but as Marina and Ju had just arrived from Rio that very same day, they wanted to rest a little, eat something relax.

It was half past midnight when I met Neven and his friend Njego at buregdzinica Sarajevo and we got on our way to Zagreb. After one hour in the car, a heavy thunder storm reached our car and stayed with us for a couple of ours. A little while after we passed the Serbian border Njego - who was driving - stopped at a gas station, where we got a few hours of sleep.

When we woke up it was around 7 and the day was on - still a bit cloudy after the heavy rain on the previous night, but looking like it was gonna be a bright summer day within a couple of hours. On the road, Njego showed me some houses/constructions by the side of the road, destroyed during the war. Is still weird to think everything happened almost yesterday. I mean, 15 years might feel like a life-time to me, someone who`s turning 26 now. But 15 years is nothing, really...

After one more hour and something driving, we finally arrived to Zagreb! Njego dropped me and Neven nearby the city center and took his way - later that day we would meet up with him again and to go back to Belgrade.
Neven and I had a quick - but really good! - sandwich for breakfast and then we went for a walk around the old city. We visited the Cathedral, passed by an open air market and then we stopped for a tea with krempita on a really nice cafe called Mala Kavana, on Trg Bana Jelačića (Ban Jelačić Square), Zagreb`s main square. Really beautiful place.

After that we split ways: we agreed on meeting around 5 at the square`s statue: that would give me around 4 hours to do whatever I wanted in Zagreb and to explore the city as I wanted.

Don`t know if I mentioned here before, but I love wandering alone in a city I`ve never been before. Wandering with friends is great too, but when you`re alone you take your time, you pay more attention to certain details you probably wouldn`t if you had your friends around.
So, with a map and a couple of brochures I got at the city`s tourist council I had everything I needed to start exploring the old city of Zagreb!

I took a couple of walking tours one of the brochures suggested, and it was totally worth it: lots of cute little streets decorated with flowers, beautiful 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings, churches, gardens, lanes and so on. It felt like I was in some movie set and at some moments it felt a little bit like some spots I`ve been to in Vienna as well.

After those 2 walking tours I visited two museums: the Zagreb City Museum and the Art Naif Museum - both really nice and worth a visit.
After that I stopped by a shopping center, sat a on a café for a cold soda and then headed back to Ban Jelačić Square, ponctually at 5pm.

The 3 of us met up again, had another cold drink. The cloudy, gloomy morning had turned into a bright, warm summer afternoon and the colours on the square were so bright it kinda felt like I was inside a painting.

We were now ready for another 4 hours on the road until home. Until my Belgrade.

More 2 friends over

2010-08-05T23:04:00.003-03:00

Ju and Marina - another two friends from Brazil - arrived here in Belgrade a couple of days ago.

Sol and Chica went to pick them up at the airport but Ju and Marina showed up at the gate with a 1 hour delay: they were bringing mandioca flour from Brazil (to make a traditional brazilian side dish, called "farofa") and the airport police thought it was cocaine and held them for almost 1 hour, hahaha. They soon realised it was really flour and allowed them to go.

As soon as the girls finally arrived to our apartment we took them for a typical Serbian lunch at Srpska Kafana: sopska & srpska salata, bread, grilled meat, stuffed paprika with cheese and so on.

After lunch we took them for a walk throughout the city center: Trg Republike, Knez Mihailova and, of course, Kalemegdan.

Once in Kalemegdan we met up with Neven who, coincidently, was passing by the fortress too. Once we were all together, we decided to go for a drink at this place called Cinema*, where we watched the susnset and had some nice talking before coming back to our apartment.

------------------------------

*Cinema is this really nice café-club placed in Kalemegdan, facing the Sava and Danube river. They have a nice variety of drinks (the drinks we tasted were delicious!), a nice, friendly staff and some great music concerts every now and then. I highly recommend you people to go there to have a drink while watching the sunset - it`s incredably beautiful!

Tango & kolo

2010-08-02T20:35:00.000-03:00

Although we had plans to spend the day in Ada Ciganlija (more on what`s "Ada Ciganlija" later), we ended up giving it up: we read on the newspaper that the Beotango Orchestra - a band that plays tango with a balkan flavour - was gonna play for free in Kalemegdan that night.

As we reached the fortress, we realised that something far more interesting (at least more interesting to me!) was going on: Belgrade`s International Folk Dance Festival!!!

I just couldnt believe it, really. I`m a huuuge fan of folk dances in general, serbian dances more than anything.
We ran to the stage, took our seats and watched - for hours in a row - folk dance groups coming from Serbia, Belarus, Greece, Italy, Israel, Poland, Scotland, Costa Rica and so on.
I can`t put on words how special it was for me to be there, with my friends, watching all that. I will never forget it, for sure.

After the festival we went to Skadarlija, had some spritzer and then we went home.
Such a wonderful evening :))))))

Uma noite normal em Belgrado

2010-07-31T20:55:00.003-03:00

Saímos de casa pouco antes das 22h pra ir ao bar Brod, no Bulevar 29 Novembra, bem perto do meu apê. Eu havia marcado de encontrar um amigo croata de origem sérvia lá, o Neven, e com o Nikola, um DJ daqui de Belgrado que toca em algumas noites nesse bar. Quando chegamos ao Brod encontramos com eles 2 e também com o Djordje, amigo do Neven e também croata de origem sérvia. Ficamos ali bebendo cerveja e spritzer, entre conversas mil e rodadas no fliperama do Indiana Jones.

Por volta de meia noite nos despedimos do Nikola e decidimos ir dali pra algum outro lugar, preferencialmente com música ao vivo - queríamos ir a uma kafana. Pra nossa felicidade, o Neven e o Djordje nos deram a sugestão que queríamos ouvir: "que tal irmos ao Blek Panters?"

O Blek Panters, ahh, o Blek Panters... A 1a. e única vez que estive lá foi em outubro de 2008, com a Valerie e umas amigas sérvias e aquela foi, de longe, uma das noites mais divertidas que já tive em Belgrado. O Blek Panters é um dos zilhões de splavs (bar/club flutuante) que margeiam os rios aqui de Belgrado. É conhecido como um dos melhores - senão o melhor! - lugar de Belgrado pra se ouvir música ao vivo cigana (tocada pela banda homonima ao bar).

Pois bem: nos dividimos entre o carro do Neven e do Djordje e seguimos rumo ao Blek Panters. Assim que entramos no splav - que por sorte não estava muito cheio, pois era quarta feira - fomos colocados em uma ótima mesa, bem ao lado da banda, que tocava hits daqui: kolos mil, música de kafana, clássicos ciganos e, é claro, os hits da própria banda, como a Kakvu zenu imam (que eu inclusive toco em todas as edições da Go East). Estávamos eufóricos com toda aquela música, as pessoas dançando loucamente pelo restaurante todo, convidando a gente pra dançar também, brindando e etc. A música era tão contagiante que em um determinado momento dançamos kolo com um cara que nunca tínhamos visto na vida, enquanto esperávamos na fila do toalete!

Emocionante demais estar ali com a Sol, Chica e Andrei, sentados ao lado do Toma (cantor, líder da banda e nosso ídolo!), com a taça sempre cheia de spritzer, dançando e cantando - foi um momento incrível!

A nosso pedido, o Neven comentou com o Toma que éramos do Brasil e adorávamos muito a música da banda dele. O Toma abriu um sorrizão, veio nos abraçar e dizer que ama o Brasil, dançou conosco, tirou fotos e etc. Um amigo dele (por acaso o cara que dançou kolo com a gente no banheiro) logo chegou perto e começou a dançar também, quis me dar o relógio dele, abraçou todo mundo e etc. Estava torto horrores, muita Jelen Pivo na cabeça.

Lá pras 3 e pouco da manhã a banda parou de tocar e o bar encerrou as atividades. Enquanto o povo se levantava e deixava o splav ficamos conversando com o pessoal da banda e acabamos recebendo um convite inusitado: o cara que quis me dar o relógio convidou todos nós pra irmos dar uma esticada na kafana que ele tem no bairro de Kosutnjak, chamada "Kafanica"(lê-se kafanítsa, que significa "kafaninha"). Ficamos meio sem jeito de aceitar o convite, mas ele insistia muito: disse que seria uma honra cozinhar pra nós algumas especialidades sérvias. Acabamos aceitando o convite e mais uma vez nos dividimos em carros diferentes, dessa vez rumo a Kosutnjak.

Quando entramos e nos sentamos na Kafanica é que a ficha caiu: o cara que nos convidou estava abrindo a kafana dele no meio da noite exclusivamente pra nós! A decoração do lugar era linda: arte naïf por todo lado, móveis de madeira rústica, coisinhas étnicas, mil detalhes nas paredes e até mesmo galos e galinhas andando pela kafana. Quando o dono do local colocou a trilha sonora do filme "A Vida é um Milagre" pra tocar, o quadro estava pintado: era como se estivéssemos mesmo dentro de um filme do Kusturica!

Mal deu 5 minutos de que havíamos chegado e sentado, a comilança começou: além da bandeja com dezenas de copos de cerveja ultra gelada, nos trouxeram uma super tábua de frios e antepastos típicos daqui, como salame, bacon, ajvar, (uma pasta feita de pimentão e berinjela) e pães quentinhos, recém saídos do forno. 10 minutos mais tarde chegaram 2 pratos enoooormes de linguiça caseira e carne de vitela feita no gril. Um banquete divino, as 4 e meia da manhã!!

Conversávamos e ríamos muito, e a cerveja não parava de vir: eram tantos copos que não havia mais espaço na mesa!

Ganhamos vários brindes: quadros de art Näif daqui (feitos pela artista que fez todas as pinturas do vilarejo étnico do Kusturica), CDs de kolo e quase ganhamos galinhas também - não fossem nossos apelos dramáticos, o dono da Kafanica tinha abatido uns frangos pra nós ali mesmo, com a pistola antiga que ele guardava em cima de uma estante que decorava o restaurante.

As 5 e meia da manhã (dia claro aqui já), pegamos os carros novamente: muito embora a gente já não aguentasse nem ouvir falar em comida aquela altura do campeonato, agora o dono da Kafanica queria muito nos pagar uma rodada de burek no que ele disse ser um dos melhores bureks de Belgrado. Por coincidência, a burekeria na qual queriam nos levar era nada menos do que a Sarajevo, que fica exatamente em frente ao nosso apê.

Quase morremos tentando comer burek, pra não fazer desfeita. Acabamos levando quase 1 kg de burek pra casa, também por insistência do nosso host empolgado. E apesar dos protestos por parte dele - que ainda queria nos levar pra uma volta de barco pelo rio Sava - a noite acabou ali. Precisávamos desesperadamente dormir e absorver tudo que tínhamos vivido naquela noite totalmente surreal, mas típicamente sérvia.

É por essas (e muuuuitas outras) que amo tanto isso aqui <3

Music in the air

2010-07-18T22:31:00.000-03:00

I was going to the supermarket this afternoon when, while passing through Vlajkoviceva Street, I saw this old man practising some serbian tunes on his accordion by the window. I sat on a car in front of his window and listened to his accordion for 5 minutes, before following to the supermarket. Magical.

Moj Beograd

2010-07-15T13:05:00.002-03:00

Welcome to "Wish I could reach you in Belgrade 2010" :)

After a week in Serbia, I`m finally blogging here again - and I`ve got lots to tell! Airport facts, first day in Belgrade, Exit Festival and Novi Sad and more and more Belgrade. Within the next couple of days I`ll be taking care to update here with the past 7 days facts. Stay tuned ;)

For now, I`ll leave you with the_view: Kalemegdan, ladies and gentlemen!

A quick 1st update

2010-07-12T07:41:00.000-03:00

Whenever I come to the Balkans it always takes about a week for me to sit and write my first blog entry about it. You know how it is, too much going on, too many people to see/meet, lots to do and so on. It`s beem almost two years since I last put my feet here in Serbia, so no wonder why I still didn`t manage to sit and write anything.

Anyways, here I am now!

Today is my 6th day here in Serbia. I arrived in Belgrade last tuesday, after the longest hours of my life waiting for my flight to Belgrade at the airport in Rome.

After one and a half days in Belgrade, me and my friends (Sol, Chica and Andrei) headed to Novi Sad, where we performed at the Exit Festival. It was SO, so great!! The 2 other days of festival were awesome too (pictures and videos coming soon, promise).

And today - after 3 days in Novi Sad - I`m leaving back to Belgrade. As soon as I reach my apartment there I promise to post all the pics and videos I shot so far :)

Til soon!

Right here, right now

2010-07-09T14:21:00.001-03:00

I`m in Serbia since Wednesday (in Belgrade) and now I`m in Novi Sad, preparing to perform at Exit Festival with my friends Sol, Andrei and Chica. Pictures, updates and videos real soon, promise!

7 DAYS TO BELGRADE!!!

2010-06-27T22:23:00.001-03:00

Can't hardly believe it :))))))

Things I miss about the Belgrade - III

2010-06-14T23:53:00.003-03:00

The 3rd item on my list of "Things I miss the most about Belgrade" (previous two can be seen here and here) is none less than my favourite place in this world: Kalemegdan.

Before going to Serbia for the first time, I remember seeing pictures of Kalemegdan and wanting to go there first thing once in Belgrade -and it ended up becoming such a special place to me that I'd go there almost every single day when I was in Belgrade. I would go all the way into the fortress (entering it from Knez Mihailova) and sit on its walls, facing the confluence of the rivers Sava and Danube, Veliki Ratno Ostrvo, Novi Beograd and Zemun on the far background. The image of this wonderful view was chosen to picture this blog's background :)

But some of you must be wondering: what is Kalemegdan, anyways?
Wikipedia says that "Kalemegdan (Serbian Cyrillic: Калемегдан) is a fortress and a park in an urban area neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad. (...) Etymologically, the word Kalemegdan (Turkish: Kalemeydan) itself means "Castle Square" in Turkish."

Here's what I know about it:

On the 3rd century BC, on the site of a previous Greek settlement, Scordisci Celts chose an strategic hilltop on the confluence of two rivers as the basis for their habitation - there they founded a city called it Singidūn, known today as Belgrade. When Romans arrived to Singidūn, they changed the city's name to it's roman version - Singidunum - and it quickly became a military frontier between the Roman Empire and barbaric Europe.

During the 4th and 5th centuries, Singidunum was repeatedly destroyed by Goths and Huns. On the late 5th century, it became the border between Western and Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire).

Kalemegdan in the 17th century

Since its foundation til present days, Kalemegdan and Belgrade - or Singidūn, or Singidunum - were ruled by many - Celts, Romans, Bulgarians, Byzantines, Turks, Hungarians, Austrians, Serbs - and destroyed and rebuilt 38 times.

Nowadays, Kalemegdan is a huge urban park, with some open air cafes (crowded with people during summer!), sports courts, a military museum and a natural history museum, a church, some open air exhibitions and parties at times, not to mention the many monuments, ruins, towers and so on. It's a great place to go during the summer, to lay on the grass and read, or to go for a walk during the winter days, when Kalemegdan gets totally white, covered with snow.

Flowery corner in the fortress

View from Kalemegdan, during the winter

Summer sunset on Kalemegdan

A summer day on Kalemegdan's walls

Walking through Kalemegdan today one would probably have a hard imagining that those walls and ruins witnessed so many battles for over two thousand years. And this feeling to be walking on history is one of the many things that makes Kalemegdan so special to me.

Receita adaptada de Burek!

2010-05-30T11:30:00.003-03:00

Pedro jogou a isca e eu peguei: nunca tinha me ligado em dividir minha maneira adaptada de fazer burek, mas achei super válida a idéia.

Tenham em mente que isso é uma adaptação brasileira do original balcânico: poucos em casa tem o espaço necessário para fazer a massa que se usa no burek original e alguns outros ingredientes (como o queijo feta e a banha de porco) são dificílimos (e caros!) de se achar por essas terras. Então lá vai!

Você vai precisar de:

- 1 pacote de massa fillo 300g (fig. 1)
- 1 pedaço de de queijo minas frescal (ou feta, se você estiver disposto a desenbolsar mais $)
- 1/2 kg de carne moída (qualquer carne serve, mas de 1ª é sempre melhor)
- manteiga derretida
- sal, pimenta, páprica (doce e picante), tomilho, noz moscada
- pincel de cozinha

Figura 1

obs¹.: a massa fillo pode ser encontrada em mercados como o Zona Sul e Pão de Açúcar. Já vi a venda na Sendas uma vez, e até mesmo na rede Hortifruti. A marca mais comum é a Arosa, e o preço do pacote de 300g normalmente gira em torno de R$ 7,00 a R$ 10,00. Acredito que em lojas de produtos árabes e delicatessens seja possível achar massa fillo de melhor qualidade, mais artesanal. Dê uma procurada se puder!
obs².: os temperos são a gosto, não precisa usar todos os que listei, mas sal e pimenta são imprescindíveis.

1- Pra começar, arranje bastante espaço na bancada da sua cozinha, ou numa mesa qualquer.

2 - Numa bacia, tempere a carne como você achar melhor. Eu normalmente uso pimenta branca e a páprica (doce/eou picante). Curto colocar um tomilho tb, mas isso fica a gosto de cada um.
Se você escolher fazer o recheio de queijo, lembre-se de escorrer bem a água dele. rale o queijo minas o amasse-o bem com um garfo. Se achar necessário, acrescente um pouco de sal ao queijo (lembre-se de que estamos tentando "copiar" o queijo feta, que é bem salgadinho).

3 - Abra o pacote da massa fillo: você vai ver que ela vem enrolada e envolta em plástico. Desenrole o plástico com cuidado, abrindo a massa sobre a mesa: você vai ver que são várias folhas fininhas de massa, separadas por uma espécie de picote. Separe as folhas com muito cuidado pra não rasgar: se você tiver dificuldade, minha dica é ir pincelando um pouco de manteiga derretida (já morna/fria, não quente!) a medida que você for afastando uma folha da outra, pra que elas fiquem menos quebradiças. Se rasgar um pouquinho não é o fim do mundo!

4 - Estenda a folha de massa sobre sua bancada/mesa. Pincele manteiga por toda sua superfície até ela ficar toda amanteigada. Salpique a carne crua temperada de forma linear, sem exagerar muito na quantidade (pra que a massa não rasgue depois).
Se você for usar o queijo (ou outro recheio mais "molinho", como espinafre ou cogumelos) você pode salpicar o recheio sobre toda a superfície da massa, sem deixar que pedaços grandes se acumulem. (figuras 2 e 3).

Figura.2

Figura 3

5 - Após colocado o recheio, comece a enrolar a massa pelo lado mais comprido da folha (fig 4). Após formado o "charutão", amasse/dobre as extremidades, fechando o "charuto" e enrole ele, formando uma espiral. Faça igual com todas as outras folhas de massa e arrange as espirais em um tabuleiro untado com manteiga (fig. 5).

Figura 4

Outra opção aqui é você enrolar a massa de forma menos apertada, mais "achatada" um pouco, como se fosse um "rolinho primavera" comprido. Faça igual com todas as outras folhas e arranje os rolinhos um ao lado do outro em um tabuleiro untado com manteiga (fig. 6).

Figura 5

Figura 6

Antes de levar o tabuleiro ao forno, dê mais uma pincelada de leve de manteiga, só pra constar. A idéia de jogar gergelim por cima é ótima, principalmente no burek de queijo!

6 - Asse em forno médio (pré aquecido) por uns 15-20 minutos, ou até que a massa fique dourada.Como os fornos variam muito, eu aconselho que você de uma olhada após uns 10 minutos, só pra não correr o risco de queimar o seu burek.

7 - Agora aqui rola o pulo do gato: imediatamente após retirar o tabuleiro do forno, respingue água com a mão sobre o burek até que a fumaça pare e cubra-os com um pano de prato por uns 2 minutos: isso vai fazer com que a massa dê uma murchada essencial pra que ela não quebre e endureça quando esfriar!

Agora está pronto! Super recomendo que você pegue um bom iogurte (daqueles naturais, sem adição de açúcar e de preferência bem espesso) ou uma coalhada (normal ou seca) e coma junto com o burek. Fica sensacional ;)

Things I miss about the Belgrade - II

2010-04-26T01:24:00.012-03:00

Carrying on with my listing of things I miss the most about Belgrade, here's the second item on my list: Burek! There isn't a street in Belgrade where you won't find a pekara (bakery) or a buregdžinica (a place for burek and pita) - they are everywhere, tempting you to step in and order some delicious (and often really unexpensive!) pastry delight.

I was told the word burek is used to reffer specifically to the meat filled pastry. Pastries with fillings other than meat are called pita, meaning something like "pie", ~~but not quite~~. So if you want a cheese "pie", you should order a pita sa sirom, or sirnica. Maybe a potato one? That would be krompiruša. And so on, depending on the filling.

A pekara (bakery) in Belgrade

In Serbia burek is often round, pretty much like a pie. I read (or I was told, can't remember) that this shape of burek was created by a turkish baker in Niš (a city in Southern Serbia), some 5 centuries years ago (God, that's as old as my home country!). In Bosnia, though, burek and pita are rolled, creating either small "buns" or big rolled pies. I love both shapes, haha, can't pick one.

Now, I've been to Belgrade time enough to know some good places for a burek and I have to say that the best one I've ever been to is this buregdžinica called Sarajevo, at Svetogorska street, 38. It's open 24 hours a day (!!!) and it's totally worth a visit. And if you can't say a word in serbian and feel embarassed to step in and order in english, fear no more! They do speak english there, as in many other places around the city.

Come to that, here's a fact: people often tend to think that most people in Belgrade won't speak any english. If you too think so, you'd be surprised: no matter how good or bad one's english is in Belgrade, they will always try and help you out as much as they can. And they will be delighted if you try some serbian words. So, no reasons to be embarassed ;)

Ps.: I'm eternally grateful to Valja for having "introduced" me to Sarajevo :D

Entrevista na Folha Ilustrada!

2010-04-20T15:07:00.020-03:00

Música dos Bálcãs inspira orquestra pop no Rio

AUDREY FURLANETO
da sucursal do Rio

São 18h de uma sexta-feira e um saxofonista cumprimenta uma flautista na praça São Salvador, em Laranjeiras, zona sul do Rio. Em seguida, mais três rapazes chegam e tiram das bolsas acordeão, violino e trompete. Uma moça loira surge com copos e uma garrafa de Shlivovitsa, destilado típico do Leste Europeu. E a orquestra começa a tocar no coreto.
É o primeiro ensaio aberto da Go East Orkestar, a orquestra de música dos Bálcãs organizada pela DJ (a moça loura) Maria Teresa, ou Tetê, líder da "balada balcânica" Go East!, que chega à 15ª edição hoje, no Cine Lapa, no Rio.
Formada por músicos jovens como o saxofonista Daniel Vasques, do Brasov, a orquestra faz ensaios periódicos na praça (a programação é sempre atualizada no blog).

Rafael Andrade/Folha Imagem

Membros da orquestra Go East! fazem ensaio em Laranjeiras, zona sul do Rio

Há, como inspiração, o som do cineasta sérvio Emir Kusturica. Autor das próprias trilhas, ele mostra a música de sua No Smoking Band em filmes como "Underground", que lhe rendeu a segunda Palma de Ouro no Festival de Cannes em 1995.

"O som é algo entre a comédia e o tom dramático ao mesmo tempo, com muitos metais. É intenso, energético", define Tetê, que organiza a orquestra com sua parceira na Go East, a argentina Maria Sol Provvidente. Elas, aliás, vão tocar em julho no Exit, festival à beira do rio Danúbio, no norte da Sérvia, por onde já passaram Primal Screen e Gogol Bordello.
A Go East Orkestar vai suprir a falta de bandas na balada que as duas promovem no Rio desde 2007 e que chegou a São Paulo em 2009. Com público médio de 500 pessoas, a festa das DJs já recebeu até bandas de ciganos. A ideia é que, agora, a orquestra própria se apresente nas próximas edições.
Falta ainda resolver um detalhe: como não conhecem muitas pessoas que falam sérvio, o grupo está sem vocalista. E, embora sejam fluentes no idioma, Tetê e sua amiga Chica Batella, filha do escritor João Ubaldo Ribeiro, devem fazer só coro e dançar "kolo", algo como o samba dos Bálcãs, que elas já apresentam na Go East.
Chica e Tetê (a DJ já morou duas vezes na Sérvia, em busca de música e de materiais para sua festa) voltarão ao país em julho e agosto com outros seis amigos. O interesse é música e cultura local.
"Em toda a esquina, há um grupo de ciganos tocando. Há centenas de barcos por todo o [rio] Danúbio com festas de música folclórica e de turbo folk [o som pop da Sérvia]. São tão musicais quanto nós brasileiros", diz a DJ.
No ensaio aberto ao público, não demora para que a praça fique lotada de curiosos que espiam e dançam ao som de bandas como a americana Beirut, que com "Elephant Gun" e outros hits, ajudaram a popularizar a música dos Bálcãs nos últimos anos.

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/ult90u721941.shtml

Things I miss about the Belgrade - I

2010-04-10T00:31:00.001-03:00

It's been a nostalgic week for me and I guess the weekend won't be any different. So I decided to start this series of photo-posts here on the blog, listing the 'things' I miss the most when it comes to Belgrade. I won't mention all the people I miss, cause then the list would be waaay to big - and besides, those I miss know who they are and how much I miss them :)

So, number 1 thing: the "music all around" factor: there's always someone playing something on some corner.

Travelling without moving

2010-04-01T17:49:00.001-03:00

Slightly new look here on the blog for a new trip do Serbia real soon - I can't barely wait!

Me plus 4 or 5 friends should be arriving in Serbia on the first days july and staying almost til the end of august - it's gonna be epical! 4 out of those 6 friends had never been to Serbia before, and 3 of them had never been to the Balkans. I'm counting the days! :)

While boarding time won't come, I keep carrying some projects here to bring me closer to the Balkans in some way. The latest of these projects - with my super partner in production and DJing, Sol - is GO EAST ORKESTAR: a reunion of great musicians from Rio de Janeiro interested in playing music from all over the Balkans. The band is gonna be resident at GO EAST, the balkan music party me and Sol produce together here in Brazil, for over two years now.

So far we had two rehearsals, and I can't barely wait for the 3rd!
I leave you here with 3 videos of GO EAST ORKESTAR's first 2 rehearsals:

Coming back!

2010-01-18T20:20:00.001-02:00

Dear readers!

I can't wait to be able to post here on a daily basis again. I mean, I could write entries now and all, but if I'm not in Belrgade or in the Balkans, what's the sense in it? As this blog is entirely dedicated to my adventures in Southeastern Europe, the answer to the previous question I just made has to be "none". Unless I had any unwritten story to tell you guys, which is not the case. Anyways...

Hopefully I'll be back to Belgrade by May (fingers crossed everybody!), and this time I'll definitelly roam around the region a lot. Can't tell you more than this for now, but I'd suggest you people to watch this blog closely within the next couple of months, as I believe some exciting news will follow shortly ;)

For now, I'll leave you with a track by one of my favourite DJs/producers/musicians, Mr Kiril Džajkovski, from Macedonia. The guy is a genius, and his new track (featuring the wonderful Esma Redžepova!) is totally great!

What's the time? Kolo time! II

2009-05-26T02:56:00.002-03:00

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...

2009-05-20T02:19:00.002-03:00

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

2009-02-17T02:27:00.002-03:00

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

2009-02-17T02:24:00.001-03:00

The best feeling ever: landing in Belgrade :)

Moj dragi Beograd

2009-02-02T01:21:00.001-02:00

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

2008-12-25T19:57:00.000-02:00

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!

2008-11-16T16:42:00.000-02:00

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)

2008-09-27T16:52:00.000-03:00

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 when 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 of 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 Slivovitza (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 genius 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

2008-09-06T09:35:00.001-03:00

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 :)

Bulgracices & Matrioshkas

2008-09-03T12:00:00.001-03:00

close bulgracinho
Originally uploaded by Madame Fécula

Ok, maybe this is a bit (just a bit) off topic on here, but what the hell, this is my blog and I post whatever I want to :D

Felt like showing out the really cute things Fecula (my oldest and best friend ever, along with Nara) is been making, inspired by our Eastern Europe craze. Check out her flickr account to see more and feel free to contact her if you feel like having any ;)

Some more stuff here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madamefecula/2789790395/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madamefecula/2789792763/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madamefecula/2790643690/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madamefecula/2789754623/in/photostream/

Home alone!

2008-09-02T10:11:00.001-03:00

After meeting Sanja on our klupa (bench) and talking for some hours, I brought her to visit my place, for the first time. She was very well impressed: as she worked on a hostel before (Green Garden Hostel was a really cool place, too bad it’s closed now) and is now working on another one, she could safely tell me that this place here is really the coolest she had been to. And she was telling me “do you realise that you’re living the life that 99% of people from our age dream to live?”
And you know what? Even though I’m as happy as can be since I got back to Belgrade, I haven’t seen things through this angle till Sanja pointed it out to me.
And now that summer is getting to its end, it’s been a few days that no one else occupies the other apartments here, which means that I actually have a 130 sq metres apartment for me, and for me alone! I mean, how cool is that?!

I was living alone with my sister in Rio since my mom passed away, in February this year. And you know, living alone is something I always wished for since as far back as my memory goes. I remember playing “make believe” with my sister, and our bedroom was always my apartment, where I was living alone – never with a daughter or son (having kids is an idea that always freaked me out a bit, since I was very, very small), but instead accompanied by my “real size” stuffed Pink Panther. Sometimes my sister would ask, in a very mellow cute voice “Heeey, can I live with you?” and after thinking for a second or two, I would always say “hmm yeah, ok, you can live with me in my apartment”.
It’s kinda funny to think that it’s actually what happened to us: we were living alone and together (my sister and I), but accompanied by our two dogs and cat instead of Pink Panther, haha. And despite the circumstances in which we started to live our lives like that, it feels good to be 100% responsible for the apartment, having to clean it and pay the bills, making our own shopping and controlling the money, expenses and all. Of course it was hard to have to do it from one day to the other, but nevertheless, it felt good to have responsibilities. I guess I was yearning for that for some time.

First time I had the experience of living alone was during the months I spent in Newcastle Upon-Tyne, when I was studying in England. I lived in a house of students, where I was sharing a floor with 5 other people. But it was so cool to have a room of my own, going shopping and cooking my own food, cleaning and washing my stuff and all. Maybe that’s why it was so freaking hard for me to go back to my mom-dad-sister-and-dog life when I was back. I mean, imagine yourselves living alone for the first time in the country you always dreamed to live in, and studying your favourite thing in a great university? I was crazy about England at that time, and my first life experience away from my parents was nowhere else, but there!

After England (and my “post-England” depression), the closest I got to another “living alone” experience was travelling with my friends to Teresopolis, where we would always stay in a friend’s house (she was never there) and take care of the entire place, like if it was our own. And it was always SO great! Even cause I have this “leadership” thing on me, so I was always coordinating the whole thing but without being bossy, but in a nice way. Our cooking afternoons in Teresopolis are historical! And people still comment on the big Russian dinner I organized for 2006-07 New Year’s Eve and for the triple birthday party celebration (mine, Nara’s and Rodrigo’s). It’s been a year now, wow!

And now, here I am: experiencing (and loving!) life in Serbia, thanks to the pension that my mom left to me and my sister. How ironic is that?

I guess it goes a bit like a saying we have in Brazil (I’m pretty sure it exists everywhere else as well, just don’t know the exact words in English). It’s something like “God writes it right through tortuous lines”.

And it’s so true :)

To Vienna and beyond - part II (final)

2008-08-26T16:00:00.000-03:00

Once I got into the train, I tried to get some sleep, but I couldn’t - the sun was already up, and I can never seem to sleep when there is day light. Anyways, I had some more 2 to 3 hours till Vienna.
In the middle of the trip - I don't know exactly why - I got kinda worried about my passport inside my purse: my purse is huge and it can't be properly closed, so it came to my mind that maybe would be better to have it closer to me, in my back pocket.
Ok: passport safely placed and baggage in hands, I jumped off the train in a sunny warm morning in Vienna. I went just across the big street in front of Westbanhof to search for some hostels I've searched on the internet, just before I left Belgrade. To my not-so-pleasant surprise, all the hostels were completely booked for the next few days. Damn!
Soon I realised I’d better get used to the idea of staying in a hotel: although hotels in Vienna - even the not so good ones - can be rather expensive, I was just gonna stay for a night, so I could handle paying some more for a hotel.

After I checked in at the hotel and left my stuff in my room, I went out for a walk in the centre of the city. So nice! Especially because, like I was "warned" by many of my friends here, Vienna is full of serbians. Literally everywhere I looked there was something mentioning Serbia in some way, or people speaking serbian all around me. So great!
The funniest thing ever was, actually, coming across Cafe Lepa Brena, hahaha. I couldn’t stop laughing and I had to get in. Inside the cafe, I was invited to seat with two very, very drunk guys, a viennese and a serbian. They thought I was serbian, and then they thought I was russian (like most everybody in Vienna seemed to think), and after some crazy conversation, I left Lepa Brena for some more walk - and a bratwurst hot dog, haha.

I then sat on an internet cafe for a quick emails checking. As soon as I got online, I was as happy as can be to see that Fecula didn't forget to send me the overture of the opera "Die Fledermaus" - as far back as I can remember, Fecu and I have this deal that, once we visited Vienna, we would have to do it listening to that overture! When I browsed my huge purse in search of my mp3, I realised something that made me freeze for an instant: my passport wasn't there. Immediately I remembered that I've changed its place to my back pocket. Phew... But when I decided to check my back pocket, just to confirm it was there, I froze again - and this time, not just for an instant: the passport wasn't in my pocket either!
I started getting seriously nervous, but on an attempt to calm myself down, I convinced myself that, "of course", I had left it in my hotel room.
I finished my online business calmly and drove myself back to the hotel, to take a quick shower, get dressed, and finally head to Ost Fest - the reason that took me till Vienna in the first place.

As soon as I reached the hotel and my room again, I completely turned the room upside down, trying to find my passport that wasn't there too. This time, for real, I started freaking out.
I decided to re-make my way through Vienna and stop and ask for the passport in the places I've been to, but nothing. Even at the station, the officer from the "lost and found" section told me that nobody found a passport and that, if they did find it anytime, they would call me at my hotel.
Back to the hotel I decided to call the embassy to see if I could manage to get a new one, urgently. Lucky as I am - yes, once one thing goes wrong with me, everything starts going wrong all together - the person in charge to issue passports for urgent cases like mine, was travelling to Ljubljana, took the keys of the passports' safe with him, and would only be back by monday. Brilliant. That meant that I'd have to wait at least more two nights in Vienna in order to get a new passport aaaand then, if I was lucky enough, one or two more nights waiting for a new serbian visa - that is, if I had the papers needed to get a visa again which, of course, I didn't.
F u c k i n g h e l l
I ran to the nearest police office and registered that I've lost my passport with and officer that, poor guy, couldn't understand almost any english, at all. Even so, he was much nicer than that bastard from the brazilian embassy and made his best to help me, registering everything and all.

I went back to the hotel completely crushed. When I got into my room again I was like a silly little kid moaning around "I want to go back to my Belgrade, I want Belgraaaade" and kinda sniffy and all. I then realised that, worse than not seeing Belgrade so soon, would be the huuuuge money I was gonna spend staying in Vienna for at least more 4 nights, not to mention the new passport and visa, that would take me away quite some money as well. That was when I completely freaked out - which led me to a huge nose bleed (yeah gross, I know, but whenever I get too freaking nervous, my nose bleeds like a river) after which I fell asleep like a stone, on the floor of my room.

I woke up with the bells of the church at 6 pm. For a few seconds, while still sleepy and not knowing exactly where I was (I could swear I was in Belgrade, haha), I thought the whole passport thing didn't happen for real. But as soon as I realised I was really in Vienna - and being so, without my passport - I felt completely devastated again. I started getting dressed up to go to Ost Fest although I wasn't really in the mood for party, at all. But while getting dressed I started getting used to the idea that there would be no way other than to wait to solve everything, and that would be no good to do it in such a bad mood. So I cheered up, took my things with me, and headed to the festival.

I decided to take a taxi, as I had no idea what so ever where Galopprennbahn Freudenau was. And of course the taxi driver had no idea as well. He asked one of his colleagues and it seemed one of them had a far idea of where could it be. We rode and rode, and I started getting worried when the taximeter reached 10 Euros – and we were not even close to find where the damn festival was. When it reached 11, god was probably already sorry for me and my wallet, and all of a sudden the taximeter stopped working! The driver apologized about it and also for not knowing where the place I wanted to go was, and said the no matter how long it took us to get there, it wouldn’t be more than 10 Euros (a taxi driver would never be that nice in Brazil…) .

Anyways, after more than 20 minutes riding around Vienna, we finally found the place, with a huge display of Ost Fest and all. I couldn’t help but smiling from cheek to cheek – the driver even said I had a “luminous smile” haha. I wish…

Getting to the entrance, I felt really VIP when I was told my name was actually on two guest lists: Kosta’s and Milan and Uroš’s. With my backstage passes on my wrist, I got into the 'venue': a huuuuge open air arena for horse races, completely packed with people, with the big stage far ahead, lots of beer and doner (\o/) kiosks all around and Max Pashm and his crew onstage – how great was that??? I mean, a huge festival entirely dedicated to balkan beats and packed with people, with one of my favourite DJs ever playing the tunes I love!!!

As I was approaching the stage, Kosta called me and I headed to the backstage area to meet him. Seeing Kostovinski is always soooo great! Last time we were together was in Rio, in early june, at my “Go East” party. Kosta is, for me, like an older brother, so of course I was missing him a whole lot (yeah, if you read this Kosta, know that you truly are like an older brother to me :)))))
Kosta had to rush though, as he was the next one to go onstage after Mr. Pashm.

Right after that I came across Milan and some of his friends from Slovenia, really cool people.

Kosta’s DJ set was, as always, brilliant. And right after him came Balkan Beat Box: what a b r i l l i a n t concert they did! They managed to be even better than on their recordings, which is usually pretty hard for any band with lots of electronics. New Order, for example, sucks live, although they’re by far my favourite (studio) band ever. And come on, it’s New Order, they even have the right to suck live, haha. But nevermind them.

Back to Ost Fest, I had a quick first meeting with Penny Metal, another greeeat DJ that I always wanted to meet. Lovely funny person, and such a great DJ! She’s known for her big eastern European vinyls collection and her crazy eastern blok ska and traditional music DJ sets, haha.

Come to ska, after Balkan Beat Box left the main stage, Russkaja – a Russian ska band, based in Vienna – took the stage, and made a fantastic concert too.

At this point the night started getting kinda chilly and very windy, what took me (and my short pants) to go inside the club, where Kosta, Penny Metal, Shazalakazoo and the guys from Balkanika were setting one blast of a party, with “DJ duels” and all!

I stayed at the indoor party till 6am, when the festival ended. I shared a taxi back to “civilization” with Kosta, Penny Metal and an Australian guy called Nick, if I well remember. Really nice fellow too.

When I left them at their hotel and started heading to mine, alone in the cab, all the fun was over: I started thinking about the passport and visa issue again, and started planning, in my mind, what I would have to do: look for a cheaper hotel, tell my family in Brazil what happened, call the embassy, call Serbia, call Brazil… I entered the hotel and went to the reception, head down and all, when the receptionist gave me the keys to my room and my passport. My… pass… port! Ahhhhhh my passport!!!

I guess I exclaimed “Oh my god” one hundred thousand times, on every single language I could possibly remember hahaha. And I kissed my passport, and the receptionist, and thanked as much as I could. She told me that the police found it at the station and brought it to the hotel, during the night. How I love the Viennese police, haha.

I ran to my room jumping around, and I wasn’t even drunk! Packed my things and left everything ready to, after a short 4 hours of sleep, check out the hotel, go for a walk around the city and then, at 7:49 pm, finally catch my train back to Belgrade.

Vienna was brighter for me (and my passport!) during my last few hours in the city. Even though the sun of the day before was gone and a wind chill was bringing the temperature down (around 14 degrees), there was no bad weather for me while I had 3 cups of Earl Gray tea in one of the open air cafes in Mariahilferstrasse.

After 10 to 11 hours traveling on the train back – with two really cool Bulgarian girls and 3 old Romanian guys – I finally reached Belgrade, on a chilly morning. But again, there’s no bad weather when we’re where we really want to be :)

Milan says “nobody loves austrian policemen”

Well… I do, haha

To Vienna and beyond - part I

2008-08-26T09:07:00.000-03:00

Ahhh Vienna...

I could never tell that a less-than-48-hours trip to Austria could be so adventurous. But again, is like Kosta says, "you live your life like in a great adventure movie, Tete". And yes, hehe, he's absolutely right.

Plus, I realise now that there's the "Belgrade factor": it seems that everytime I leave Belgrade to go somewhere else, the trip ends up turning into a crazy journey. Like the Shabla episode. And like this one now.

----------------

I took my train to Vienna at 15 past 10 in the evening. After getting informed with an officer on the station which one was my train - and, of course, listening to the infamous line "hablas espanol?" after telling him I'm from Brazil (and I only told him my nationality because he asked if I was russian, haha), I took my seat inside the wagon.
In my cabin there was a south korean girl and two polish, a girl and an old man.
The girl, around my age I guess, was coming back from a volunteer work in Kosovo, with serbian people - people which, both she and the old man said, they were really found of. She told me that once, when they were getting ready for a surgery and the local radio started playing a kolo, all the surgeons started dancing, even though they were about to start a medical procedure, haha. She was coming back to her hometown, but she said she was hoping to be back to Serbia real soon.
Now, the old man really reminded me of a singer I know from the opera theater, in Rio: same way to speak, cool and easy, same beard and face shape. I forgot the polish man's name, but he also had a very interesting story: he's a writter (politics writer) and he was, among other cities, visiting Kosovo as well, and collecting material for his new book, about NATO in the Balkans.
The three of us (the south korean girl spoke almost no english at all, sadly) shared quite really nice talk till we reached Novi Sad, when we fell asleep.

We woke up as soon as we reached Subotica and had to show our passports, to then enter into Hungarian territory. The passport control guy made the funniest face I've ever seen when he saw my huge name in my passport, hahaha. After stamping and giving it back to me, he exclaimed, in a rather funny accent "Name... Suuuuuper!", making thumbs up to me, hahaha. Oh god...

I slept til the sun started rising, right before arriving in Budapest. Looking through the train window and seeing things written in hungarian all around only increased my feeling that hungarian is, perhaps, one of the most unfamiliar western languages I've ever seen before. It'a a language that kinda scares me, haha, don't know why...
Anyways, I jumpped off the train in Budapest where, after looking at the board with the trains' schedule for a while - I was still feeling rather sleepy - I realized that everything was written either in hungarian (ouch!) or german. Lucky me I spent time enough in Germany last year to understand some basic stuff, which allowed me to locate my platform and head to the train that was gonna take me to my final destination: Vienna

Sorry folks, need to move now to meet some friends in Zemun.
Stay tunned in for the next part, hehe ;)

Quick update - more details soon!

2008-08-24T20:05:00.000-03:00

In the past 48 hours, I:

- Travelled over 20 hours by train, from Belgrade to Vienna, and back;
- Got large smiles from serbian people living in Vienna :) ;
- Found Vienna to be rather beautiful;
- Had a funny talk with two drunk guys (a viennese and a serbian), at the Lepa Brena cafe;
- Ate tones of bratwurst mit brot (!!!);
- Lost my passport in Vienna;
- Got desperate for some 15 hours;
- Spent an hour at the Police Station in Vienna, trying to make the policeman understand me in english;
- Rode all Vienna on a taxi for virtually no money at all;
- Met Kosta again, after 3 months (!!!);
- Had 12 non-stop hours of balkan and eastern european music;
- Met Max Pashm (!!!);
- Met Penny Metal (!!!);
- Saw Balkan Beat Box live (!!!);
- Saw Shazalakazoo live again (!!!);
- Met the guys from Balkanizer (!!!);
- Saw Russkaja live (!!!)
- Met a not so cool guy from Russia, that was acting more like a low rate latin lover;
- Almost exploded of happiness at 7 am, when back to the hotel I found out the police found my passport;
- Bought a rather interesting Portugal-related shirt (in Vienna!);
- Had litres of Earl Gray tea;
- Found out I can understand more romanian than I could ever imagine. And even some bulgarian too;
- Slept 10 hours on my super double bed with tones of pillow (!!!).

It's good to be back to my Belgrade :)

To my visitants from NORWAY :)

2008-08-24T19:56:00.001-03:00

Ok, this is a bit off topic, but it`s been some time now that I feel like asking this to the readers and visitants of this blog:

Accordingly to some tools I have linked to this blog, Norway is the country from where a huuuuge part of my visitants come from, even more than Brazil (where I come from and where most of my friends live).

So, I'd like to know from you, people from Norway, who visit this blog: how did you guys come across my "Wish I could reach you in Belgrade" blog? I'd love to know what bring you people here :)

Feel more than welcome to leave me a comment on here, or write me to teteglitter @ gmail.com

Vienna, here I come!

2008-08-21T10:57:00.000-03:00

Dear ones,

My computer collapsed some three days ago, reason why I haven`t updated here for quite some time now. I am now kinda in a rush, just checking e-mails and getting ready to leave to Vienna, Austria, this evening - where I`ll be going to Ost Fest, meeting Kosta after a couple of months and, of course, having quite a lot of fun :)))))))
I`ll try and make a quick update at some point in time once I reach Vienna.

Hopefully, when I`m back, the computer will be back to life as well.
See you soon,
- Maria

Ps.: I just regret not having the overture of "Die Fledermaus" on my mp3 player to hear once I`m in Vienna...

Morning walks

2008-08-17T21:25:00.003-03:00

Ok, now who could ever tell that I would be waking up early in the morning to "be healthy"?

Yeah, that`s what Belgrade does to me...

Haha, my mom would be proud!

Like the deserts miss the rain

2008-08-14T20:25:00.000-03:00

After we got back home from our crazy and fun night out, I was suddenly stroken by a weird anxiety, for appearently no reason at all.

I went to my bedroom, sat on the bed and my mind was as blank as it could be. Attempting to distract myself a little bit from that weird feeling that was taking me over, I started putting my things in order and cleaning my room till the last hair string was off the floor. It didn`t really work, and I was still feeling that weird thing. Around 4am I decided to take a bath, to try and relax a bit.

As soon as I sat on the tub and actually started the bath, I started crying, compulsevely: I realised I`d never hear the voice of my mom ever again, calling or waking me up at 10 past 1am (the time I was born), to wish me happy birthday on every august 12th, like she always did as far as my memory goes. And it hurts so much and deep, like a wound, every time this comes to my mind again.

Tones of memories of my mom were coming back to me during the bath, one after the other, and I was feeling completely devastated. Of all of them, this one made me stop crying:
Last time I spoke to my mom before she died was when I was here, in Belgrade - just a day before my return to Rio. I was as crushed as somebody could be about leaving Belgrade, and she was comforting me, telling me that maybe I should postpone my ticket and stay longer, if I felt like doing so. I remember telling her that I`d rather go back then and save what was left of my money to return as soon as possible. She agreed it was a better idea and said that she was really happy that I enjoyed here so much. That was when I told her that someday I would show her the city myself, and take her to my favourite place ever, Kalemegdan. She got really all happy and excited with the idea of coming to Serbia someday soon, and seeing the Danube, the river that she always wanted to see and to put her feet in :)

So, I ran to finish the bath and got dressed as fast as I could. Took with me the small can with what was left of her ashes and headed, walking, to the bank of the Danube, where I left on the river a hand of her ashes. Right afterwards I went to the highest spot of Kalemegdan that I could reach, where I threw away another hand of the ashes. Then I just sat there and stayed, quiet and alone, crying what I should have cryied 7 months ago - but I suppressed, instead - when everything happened.

Crying so hard always makes me sleepy - and I fell asleep on the grass, watching this old man working out when the sun was just coming out.

I woke up, around 9, when the fortress was starting to get crowded. It was time for me to go back home, as Valerie and Julien were to wake up soon - and they could get worried if they didn`t find me there.

Walking back to my place and feeling the morning wind made me feel better again, like if the pain was medicated. Even if just for a while.

Friends over

2008-08-13T20:20:00.000-03:00

Jan. 11th 2008

As soon as I woke up - hehe, around 11 o`clock, shame on me - I ran to confirm with Miloš the reservation I did for Valerie and her friend, who were coming back home (Belgium and France, respectively) from Guča and spending a day here in Belgrade before doing so.

------

For those who are misinformed, Valerie is a friend of mine from Liege, Belgium, that I had the chance to meet for the first time when I was in Cologne with Nara, december last year. We`re both crazy about balkan and gypsy music, and we also share this obssession about Serbia - some of the many reasons that made us become friends right away when we met. Having this said and explained, it`s not needed to mention how much we waited for this moment , this meeting in Belgrade.

------

After a very light lunch - I can`t seem to eat a propper meal when the weather is this warm - I had a quick meeting with Toma, on a warm-like-hell early afternoon around here. We met on Terazije and, poor him, he was carrying this heavy computer to a friend`s place, to see if it was possible to fix it.

As soon as Toma and I splitted ways, I ran back to my place to see if Valerie was already there. Some half an hour after I arrived, the bell rang - and it was finally her!!!

After she and Julien (her french friend) took a shower and were ready again, we went out for a walk around town. It feels so good to know a bit more of the center of Belgrade like I know it now, and guide people around... Even in Rio, I was always ending up like some sort of tourist guide to friends from abroad. Now I even remember once my cousin from Brasilia said I should work tourism, haha.

------

Oh, come to that, I must comment on the book that Toma gave me on my birthday. It`s kind of a guide of important historical 'buildings' around Serbia and Montenegro, from pre-history to the 20th century, telling the history of each one of them. The introduction is so cool, an overview on the region`s history and it`s art and architeture. Love it!It makes me miss my history books that were left in Brazil...

------

Ok, back to Valerie and Julien, of course our walk had to end up where the centre of the city ends up - in Kalemegdan. We just sat there on the grass under a tree for several minutes, watching the rivers and updating each other with news from the past 9 months since our first and last meeting.

Watching the Danube :)

After that we sat on a cafe still inside the fortress, in front of the Cvijeta, for a Cola and a lemonade. More walks around, and Valerie asked me to suggest a place where we could have a some typical serbian food. Srpska Kafana (just around the corner of my street!) was my choice. Last time I`ve been there was with Milan, in january, and I remember getting back home completely drunk, feeling like floating on a sea of red wine with spices, hahaha. Nice memory.

Šopska salata with bread, some ajvar (hmmmm!), gulaš for Valerie, ćevapi for me, and something I can`t remember for Julien - I do remember that there were some potatoes and it smelled great.

Back home to change our outfits for more "going out" ones, Valerie and I headed to Skadarlija

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Skadarlija (Serbian Cyrillic: Скадарлија) is a vintage street, an urban neighborhood and former municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad (Old town) and generally considered the main bohemian quarter of Belgrade, styled as the Belgrade Montmartre. (Wikipedia)

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I've been there last december, on the first night of Fecula and Rodrigo in Belgrade, with Nara, Toma and Ivan - so great!

This time, it was only me and Valerie. As soon as we chose where to seat and have a drink, our attention was completely taken by one loud table where the place`s musicians were playing songs that, of course, me and Valerie knew. We stared at them for several minutes, with big smiles on, when some of them noticed and invited us to come closer and enjoy the music together. Of course, there we were. After some of our favourite tunes, such as Evo banke cigane moj, the loud dancing and singing group of people started heading back to their tables, when one of them passed by me and asked me something in serbian, that I couldn`t get.

- Sorry, I don`t speak serbian - I said

When the guy replyed

- Aww, why not? (haha yes, in english)

-Because I`m from Brazil - I replyed.

When I said that, the guy opened his eyes widely like in shock, haha, and he grabbed his friend`s arm, saying "hey, she`s brazilian!".

After that, the entire place knew I was from Brazil, and I became some sort of attraction, haha. We were invited to join them on their table, where I felt like a guest on some crazy talk show, hahaha. They wanted to know how was life in Brazil, how was Rio like, about music, the language and this and that and, of course, how a blonde someone like me could be brazilian, haha.

In the middle of the whole thing, Val realised it was 5 past midnight - and being so, it was already my birthday! Everybody started screaming and wishing me happy birthday, singing and hugging me, and one of them even passed to me her mobile phone, where a friend of her - who was having her birthday on the same day - was on, hahaha. Crazy, crazy...

So, after almost 3 hours sitting there, singing along and listening to them singing every serbian and balkan song we could name, it was time to go back home, for most of them had to work early on that morning. We exchanged mobile numbers with them and went back to our place, both of us as happy as we could be :)

Val had to go back to Liege around noon the next day. But she`ll be back in october, for some more Belgrade ;)

Porque Belgrado?!

2008-08-08T21:01:00.000-03:00

Sabem, é engraçado isso. Sempre que me perguntam "Mas porque Belgrado???", eu fico sem saber dizer o porque. Eu penso em um milhão de bons motivos, mas são motivos que eu não tenho como explicar falando, ou com imagens e fotos bonitas e tal. E tentando explicar com palavras, esses motivos soam como os mais bestas do mundo. E não são.

Meu tio, por exemplo, esteve recentemente viajando pela França e Itália, e se encantou com tudo o que viu. Uma das coisas que ele me disse assim que voltou, meio que brincando, foi "Você que diz que gosta de Belgrado, diz isso porque ainda não esteve em Paris, ou em Roma. É primeiro mundo lá".
Realmente, Belgrado não tem milhares de lugares lindos pra ver como tem Paris, ou Roma, ou mesmo Berlim e Londres. E certamente também não é primeiro mundo. Existem milhares de problemas aqui, e tudo o mais. E talvez por isso eu me sinta tão bem aqui. De alguma forma, Belgrado "sente" familiar pra mim. Meio como se eu tivesse no Rio.
Não estou dizendo que o Rio não tem milhares de coisas lindas pra ver - tem sim. Mas tirando o "circuito turístico", a parte "cidade do dia-a-dia" que nós cariocas conhecemos não é exatamente a mais visualmente atrativa. E são justamente essas coisas que eu curto no Rio. A parte 'cidade' meeesmo, cinza, barulhenta, gente pra todo lado no centro da cidade, carros enlouquecidos e etc. E acho que seja talvez esse "feeling" uma das coisas que me conecta aqui com Belgrado.

Desde que consigo me lembrar, nunca senti no Rio o meu 'lar'. Sempre achei que aquilo lá não era pra mim, não era o meu lugar. E de repente, me sinto em casa em uma cidade lá no finzinho da Europa, com outra língua totalmente diferente, outros costumes, outra história. E com esses que citei acima e mais milhares de outros pontos comuns com o Rio - e me sinto em casa :)

Walks - Caminhadas

2008-08-07T18:29:00.000-03:00

Today was one of these days to walk, walk and walk some more... It's the kind of thing that I never get tired of doing here, be it when it's -10 or +35 degrees, like it was today.

As it couldn't be different, the spotlight for me was Kalemegdan, where I've been twice today: um by the end of the morning, and another one to watch the sunset. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

Hoje foi desses dias de andar, andar e andar mais um pouco... É o tipo de coisa que não me cansa aqui, seja no frio de -10 ou no calor de 35 graus, como fez hoje.

Como não podia ser diferente, o ponto alto pra mim foi Kalemegdan, aonde estive hoje duas vezes: uma ao final da manhã e outra pra assistir ao por do sol. L-i-n-d-o.

My first (decent) update :)

2008-08-06T19:14:00.000-03:00

After experiencing winter here in Belgrade several months ago, I thought I wouldn`t like it here so much in during the summer. Of course I was wrong.

I mean, winter is still my favourite season of the year - maybe because it`s still something new for someone like me, coming from a tropical country. But still, there`s just something magical about snow and cold weather, specially here in Belgrade. It`s even in the city`s name (Belgrade meaning ~white city~), so I guess I'm not the only one to think so. But still, even during summer, this place have something I can`t quite put my fingers on, but it`s catchy!

After a 14 hours flight from Rio to Paris and then to Belgrade, arriving at Nikola Tesla airport was a familiar feeling, although this time I was not completely absent as I was on my first arrival here. After meeting with Toma at the gate we just headed downtown, to get to my place, have a glass of water (from the sink! I don think I mentioned this before, but here we can actually drink from the sink!) and then we went out for a fast lunch, a walk till Kalemegdan and quite some ice cream on the way. Come to ice cream, I must say Belgrade is a summer paradise to me: there`s ice cream everywhere, on every single corner, with lots to choose from. On Knez Mihailova there was even a round display for the ice creams, that goes round and round, rather hypnotising for an ice cream maniac like me, haha.

Kalemegdan was just beautiful. B e a u t i f u l. Seeing my favourite place on earth again, this time not covered in snow, made me feel like I`m really here again. It`s a magical place (Pedro will agree with me on this, I guess).

After all that, I came back to my place and slept like a stone till 2 am, when I woke up and came online to check my emails and for the quick update you can see below. And then back to quite some more sleep.

As soon as I woke up today - early in the afternoon, shame on me! - I called Sanja, to plan when and where to meet up. Of course, the choice had to be at the horse.

I can`t remember if I ever wrote here about the horse and the Republic Square (Trg Republike). Well, the horse is a famous monument at the Republic Square, right before the National Museum and the National Theater, and it`s the most famous meeting point here in Belgrade. There`s always tones of people waiting around the horse, with their mobile on their hands, waiting for someone. Now, during the summer, differently from winter time, all the cafes surrounding the square had outside tables, all of them packed with people. The water fountains were all working and the fans - just like those water fans we have on some concert venues in Rio - were working full throttle.

It was great to meet up with Sanja after 7 months! She took me to one of her favourite cafes in the city, where we had some coffees and sodas, and a looong talk. She taught me some serbian stuff, while I tried to teach her some portuguese as well. Then some more walk, and lots of talking, a bus from here to there and then back here, it was dark. I even managed to take a photo of the Metro before the officer come and say it wasn't allowed, hehehe.

reminds me of the huuuge stairs in some London tube station
After all that we bought big bottles of Coke and Ice Tea, sat on the bench of the street just around Palmotićeva, and talked some more, while watching young boys playing hide and seek on the street.

It's a weird thing to me to see so many people on the streets at night, going out, walking or even playing on the street like those boys. It's something completely unthinkable for me, from Rio, to see kids out at 11 pm, or people walking their dogs out, with no fear at all, just enjoying a warm summer night. Wish Rio was more like this...

Here I am now, falling asleep, and quickly finishing this post to get myself in bed as soon as possible. And I promise some more pictures for tomorrow!

In Belgrade! - Em Belgrado!

2008-08-05T22:17:00.000-03:00

Already with my feet in serbian soil again!
Tomorrow I'll post photos, details, and everything :)

Já com meus pés em solo sérvio, denovo!
Amanhã posto fotos, detalhes, e outros vários etcs :)

Poll / Enquete

2008-07-28T14:35:00.000-03:00

Dear readers,
Queridos leitores,

While I wait for the time I'm back with my feet in serbian soil, I invite you all to take the poll "Which do you think is the coolest country in Southeastern Europe?" - the poll can be found here, on the right menu, below the "about this blog" section.
Enquanto eu espero pela hora em que estarei com meus pés de volta em solo sérvio, convido vocês pra responderem a enquete "Qual país você acha que é o mais legal do sudeste europeu?" - a enquete pode ser encontrada aqui, no menu à direita, abaixo da sessão "about this blog".

More 7 days and I'll be updating the blog with new pics, videos, stories and all :)
Mais 7 dias e eu vou estar atualizando o blog com novas fotos, videos, estórias e etc :)

Till soon!
Do skoro!

- Maria

!!!

2008-07-20T02:29:00.000-03:00

The cool news?

Within 15 days I'm back to Beograd!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon there's gonna be lots more to tell here (and to think I'm not even close to finish writting everything about my first visit to Serbia and the Balkans...)

:)))))))))))))))))))

Collage 2008

2008-06-21T19:50:00.002-03:00

I have this sort of "tradition": when a year starts, I always make a collage for the cover of my schedual book. Not an ordinary collage, but a special one, with things that somehow means something to me, and things I wish for myself and my dear ones during the year that had just started.

Due to everything that has happened to me in the past few months, since the year started (not worthy mentioning here, now), I ended up not having the time and the "mind" to make my cover collage. Only yesterday I finally took a couple of hours to do it - it's june, for heaven's sake! But it's never too late to finish something as important as this is for me: so there you go :)

I like it :)))))))))

2008-06-12T12:12:00.000-03:00

Hey Folks!

I've been away for some time, due to my work with balkan and gypsy parties and events and all. Now that everything has passed, I'm finally back to my 'normal' (or almost normal) life, so I promise to be updating here real soon ;)

"Balkan dinner", at Nara's

2008-05-12T02:36:00.003-03:00

Sunday, 11/05/2008

Good food and drink: gibanica, ćevapi, šopska salata, ljutenica, wine, rakija, vodka and some bizarre home-made drinks...

Plus fantastic people: Nara, Lucio, Rodrigo, Solica, Bruno, Marina, Chica and Emilia...

Plus irresistable tunes.

It's priceless to have great people around :)))))

Happy belated birthday to my dear Solica and Kostovinski :)

What to do with 3 Euros???

2008-04-24T22:15:00.002-03:00

After a rather unproductive talk - these are the best ones - and a lot of arguing, we came up with this: the "What to do with 3 Euros?" list.
Why 3 Euros? I have no idea, what so ever. Anyways, here it goes:

What to do with 3 Euros?

Köln (Germany)
Suggested by me and Nara

- Currywurst with bread, in that place I forgot the name (I swear I'll try to remember it and post it here!);
- 200gr of a de-licious butter cookie in that bakery/coffee house, which I also forgot the name :D ;
- 3 gigantic burek at that place owened by that guy from Israel. It's opened 24 hours a days, so it's definitely the best place to stop by after a night out (fuck, I'll have to look for this place's name as well);
- 2 hours of internet at Venloen Strasse - cheap, cheap, and the atendants are so nice :)

Berlin (Germany)
Suggested by Nara

- 3 coffees in the libanesse kiosk where Nara made some crazy old german friends that were mocking every overweighted person that walked in the establishment

Amsterdam (Holland)
Suggested by Nara

- glass for shots of drinks, at any souvenir shop, in Amsterdam. Nara was telling the images stamped on the glass were the best ones, rather "typical" ones from the city, like penises, cows and marihuana leaves

Paris (France)
Suggested by Fécula and Rodrigo

- 4 1l packages of apple juice. Fécula was kinda obsessed with apple juice all during the trip.

Geneva (Switzerland)
Suggested by Fécula and Rodrigo

- 1 plastic dog leash hanger, at IKEA. The piece is simply great, in the shape of a dog's butt, the "hook" of the hanger being the dog's tail

Beograd (Serbia)
Suggested by me and Nara

- 6 Tito lighters (I have to take pictures of that);
- 3 pairs of acryllic wool gloves - that is, if you buy them with the gypsies at Bulevar Kralja Milana. Fantastic colours (the deep blue and the fiery red are my favourite);
- Pommes frites plus a bottle of Coca Cola at the Biblioteka cafe, on Terazije (lovely place by the way, I highly reccomend);
- 8 croissants - really, the best ones I ever had, ever in my entire life. Forget french croissants, or french puff pastries in general. The real thing is the serbian one. God, I need a cheese one right now.

Niš (Serbia)
Suggested by me and Nara

- 6 "go's" to the most awful toilet you probably ever saw in your entire life, at the central bus station. Nara said some nasty things in portuguese to the keeper, you wouldn't wanna know...

Varna (Bulgaria)
Suggested by me and Nara

- Damnit! Just now I realise I didn't buy anything in Varna. But, hmmm... 3 Euros is an 1/8 of a ticket from Sofija to Varna, going straight to Shabla (although, Nara and I agree, this was priceless)

Sofija (Bulgaria)
Suggested by me and Nara

- 6 failled tries to call to Varna on a public telephone, at the bus station. The cool "plus" of this What to do with 3 Euros option is that after each failled phone call, you get a voice message explaining - in bulgarian - how you should proceed to correctly complete a phonecall. Brilliant;
- 3,5 500 ml bottles of Sprite

Other suggestions are more than welcome :)

Tourism boom in Shabla puts Bulgaria on the top 5 destinations for travelers around the globe

2008-04-24T09:38:00.002-03:00

The small city on the Black Sea coast had more visitants last season than all the Hawaiian Islands together last year, says the Bulgarian National Tourism Board

Sofija, April 24th 2009 - by Marija Almeida

The Bulgarian National Tourism Board announced, last Monday, that the country had a tourism boom in the past year as never seen before in any other place in the world. The reason for this sudden world curiosity on this Southeastern Europe country have its reason on the newest and hypest coast resort on the globe: Shabla

“Only last summer season, Shabla had more visitants than all the Hawaiian Islands together last year” declares, excited, the executive director of the Bulgarian National Tourism Board, Mrs. Poli Karastoyanova.
The unexpected tourism boom in the region last season made the Board decides for urgent measures to support and attend the huge visitants’ demand. “It’s good, and at the same time, very complicated. Although in the past two years Bulgaria's been watching a significative increase in the tourism area, what happened in Shabla was something completely without any precedents, and met us rather unprepared for it. We’re already working on projects to increase not only the city’s infra-structure for the next summer season, but the entire region’s”, says Rumen Draganov, the newly-elected head of the Board.

Since February 2008, Bulgaria watched an increase of 23,4% (compared to the same period of 2007) on the number of foreign tourists visiting the country’s winter resorts. The summer resorts in the Black Sea Coast saw an increase of 167,3%, being 94% of this percentage concentrated only on the city of Shabla and its surroundings.

With a history that goes as far back as to the roman times, Shabla – a small city around 15 km south to the Romanian border – was once a popular destination for eastern bloc tourists, during the communist years. The 1990’s, however, were of complete ostracism for the region.

Although authorities can’t quite explain the subtle world interest in the city and the region, locals have their own theories about the phenomenon. “We were in the bar, on last year’s Christmas eve, when two tourist girls, said Brazilian, appeared in the city. Few time later, a bunch of tourists started arriving in Shabla. I have no doubts, those two girls brought Shabla back to all it’s glory, they were a good omen” declares Georgi Irinov, a local miner. “My friend’s hotel is now always full and I’m working as a cooker again, just like I was in Germany!” he adds.
If the two mythic Brazilian tourists had or not been to Shabla, only few can confirm. But after the tourism boom last year, a monument to the “Unknown Brazilian Girls” was erected in the city’s main square, where the city locals pay tribute monthly, on every 24th.

For 2009’s summer season, the Bulgarian National Tourism Board has already a traced plan: other than the opening of Hilton's luxury hotels newest member, the Hilton Shabla Palace Hotel, around 15 new accommodation establishments will be ready until this year’s summer. “We want to attend the expectations of all kinds of tourists that visit Shabla. The opening of the Shabla Folk World theme park will be an excellent option for families that choose to spend vacations in our country’s coast. In addition to a wide range of ecotourism, we just settled now the first Rock in Rio – Shabla Edition, that is going to put us on the route of the great european festivals. We have attractions for all ages and tastes”, celebrates Aneliya Krushkova, head of the Bulgaria State Agency for Tourism.

The Agency also releases, next Friday, the tourism campaign “Shabla – a priceless experience”. The release party will have the presence of Jamaican singer Shabba Ranks, who recorded a new version of one of his greatest hits specially to pay tribute to the Bulgarian resort: his 1992 song, Mr. Loverman, evokes Shabla on its new refrain. “This city is beautiful. Reminds me of my hometown, Kingston” declares, moved, the singer.

For 2009’s summer season, the Bulgarian State Agency for Tourism and the National Tourism Board predict a raise of at least 53% compared to last year’s boom.

For those interested in taking part on the Shabla-o-mania, access

http://www.shablainfo.org/ for more info about Tourism in Shabla, or even http://www.bulgariatravel.org

ps.: this is a work of fiction

The shopping mall experience

2008-04-21T09:12:00.001-03:00

It was december 29th, if I am not mistaken, when Fernanda and Rodrigo came to me saying they wated to go shopping, on a mall, for they were not finding what they wanted to buy in the shops on the streets. So, on the next morning me and Nara took them for a long sight-seeing walk around Belgrade, while the time to meet up with Toma and finally go to the mall they so wanted to see wouldn't come.
Of course our first stop had to be Kalemegdan (again), after all it was, by far, our favourite place.

Knez Mihailova was packed: the usual, delicious mess of people, running around to buy new clothes for new year's, small kids playing violins for some change, the smell of pop-corn, loud teenagers in large groups, youngsters giving away new year's eve parties' flyers and, of course, the already well known north american native indian musicians - that, as Toma pointed out to me later, would always bring rain to Belgrade after their performance.

So, after a long day of walking around Belgrade we finally met with Toma and took the bus to Novi Beograd. The bus was completely packed with people, in a way that we almost didn't manage to reach the door still in time to come off in the right station. In fact, Nara, Fernanda and Rodrigo didn't manage to reach the door as Toma and I did, and they had to come off the bus a hundred meters after us. But anyways, we met right after it, and got into the Mall...

It's interesting how Shopping Centers are exactly the same, no matter where in the world you are. Suddenly I was taken by this feeling that I was not in Belgrade, but in Rio, or Cologne, or London... Being on a shopping mall anywhere in the world is like being in some parallel dimension, outside any country or borders, because all the malls look the same, specially at this time of the year: christmas decoration, sales everywhere, hysterical women fighting for Zara's last "off" pieces, kids running and messing around... Enfin, complete chaos, haha.

As soon as we walked in, Rodrigo, Fécula and Nara decided to go eat something, because they were starving and starting to get ill humoured. When we finally reached the restaurants and fast food area, I started getting really, really disturbed: there was just SO many people, and the noise they were making was so loud, I couldn't focus on anything at all - I was getting completely disorientated. The queues in every restaurant were huge, there was no place to sit and we couldn't barely move without hitting someone accidentally.
As the 3 of them didn't seem to agree on one place to go and eat, they decided to go where each one of them wanted to, and then meet on a table, so they could eat together. So, after (finally!) finding a table we splited: Toma and I went to a less chaotic floor, while Fêcu, Rodrigo and Nara were eating - or at least, trying to.

Fécula ran to McDonalds. Nara, already used to serbian food by now, chose for a more local option (can't quite remember the place's name). And Rodrigo, as always, didn't seem to decide for a place to buy his meal - that is, til the moment his eyes came across Duff's. DUFF's. D U F F ' S. He was almost moved to see "Duff's" written on a big display. "Hell yeah, just like in The Simpsons!!", he thought. And even though the queue was gigantic, he decided it was worthy to wait - after all, when he would have the chance to eat at Duff's again? and other than that, if the queue is big, it's (probably) because the food is good.

So, there he went. Took a deep breath and engaged in the line.
While waiting in the queue, he suddenly realised: he couldn't speak serbian so how was he supposed to ask for anything? "Semi-panic" for several seconds, when he started to try to remember what Fécula had just taught him: serbian numbers! Now, with the numbers kinda in mind, he was trying to make sentences, saying what he wanted, mixing serbian numbers with english words and things he saw written in the place's menu and so on. Hunger was making him get rather nervous about his time to ask for his meal that, despite the huge delay, seemed to be approaching. It wasn't before almost an hour of waiting that his turn finally came. And when it came, he had this mix of starvation, plus nervousness plus excitement:

Rodrigo: Ja... Ja ho... Ja.. Speak english??
Attendant: *Giggles*, nodding head like "yes"
Rodrigo: Phew! (in a rather psycho tone of voice) I'm hungry, I want a sandwich! I want to eat, give me some food!!

People around him in the line, the attendant at Duff's and even himself couldn't help but laughing, a lot, hahahaha. The attendant registered his order and he paid, which made him feel deeply relieved - he was finally going to eat!

After a little more time waiting, the attendant came with his sandwich. His eyes were beaming and he had a transported smile on his face, while he was watching his "food" coming to him, in slow motion, with a bright light coming out of it (ok, this was my imagination, but the scene does looks cool seen like this).
When the attendant finally came to him with his huge hamburger in hands, she asked "what sauces do you want with your sandwich?"

He froze - sauces? Sauces?? He didn't have the time to think and plan about asking for sauces!!! His despair was so big at this point, that he only said "any sauce, whatever you want to put, I just want my sandwich!!". But it was not just up to the attendant what sauces to put: everybody, literally every person in the queue started giving their opinions on what sauces the attendant should put on his meal. "Put that one, that one on the right!" or "That, beside the read one!" and "Nooo, that one is not so good, put the first, on the left!".
After 10 seconds of that, his sandwich was looking more like a soup of sauces than a proper sandwich, hahaha.

But you know, when we're really hungry, we just don't care or don't even notice stuff like that.

He started walking away from Duff's messy queue, with his drink in one hand and admiring his huge saucy sandwich in the other hand, taking a deep breath before the first bite. A magical moment.
But the magic only really lasted til he had the first bite.
He felt like his mouth was on fire - the feeling was that his so desired sandwich was straight pepper soup, hahaha.
Cursing didn't help much. So he had his sandwich pepper soup, with tones of water to heal the burning feeling, and that was it.

It's worthy mentioning that he still took some half an hour to find Fécu and Nara, after his Duff's adventure.

Like in a Discovery Channel documentary

2008-03-29T19:37:00.001-03:00

Nara improvising, as we took Rodrigo and Fécu to their first walk around Beograd

(english translation)

"You can watch a rare kind of wild wolf from the stepes. It's name is Cannis Nefridius. Very dangerous when hungry and when the weather changes. During summer, they atrophy and make cocoons on the top of the trees. A very wild species, as you can see... Very unfriendly... With a tendency to intense sex activity. (Opa!)
They like to rub their arses in the snow in order to obtain a certain hygienization, as one of the most frequent causes of death among this species is the bacterium Nefridius Cannis Arsis, that attacks the entire digestive system, leading them to death by dehidratation.

The x-treme sport most practised in this country, Slow Street, is very popular amongs the city's drunks.

Right ahead, behind the red fence, you can see the biggest alcoholics-anonymous centre in the world. And the Barbie house is on your right.
(Why did I put so many clothes, fucking shit...)"

My Belgrade

2008-03-25T00:02:00.001-03:00

We woke up at 5:30 am. As we had packed and prepared everything on the previous night, we didn't have to run. So we took our time, packed the last pieces of clothing, dressed up and called the cab. I remember I was so excited I just couldn't have my breakfast, for I wasn't even feeling any hungry, at all. Anja was still asleep til the moment the cab arrived and she woke up to help us with the baggage and say goodbye. As I can remember, it was not so cold - some 4 degrees - in a still dark, early-morning Köln, while the cab drove us til the main train station. As soon as we got off the car we run to find our platform. I sat and took care of our stuff while Nara ran to buy our tickets to the Düsseldorf airport. As the time to get into the plane was getting closer, I was getting more and more excited, and kinda absent: I always get like this when something I want too bad is coming closer to finally happen. And over the past few years, I can't remember of wanting anything more than I wanted to visit Serbia.

As soon as our train arrived, Nara came back with the tickets she had just bought. We took our seats and, during the 20-30 minutes of train travel, I almost didn't say a word. Nara was busy, cursing at the rude german man she came across still on the train station and I only remember telling her to relax and forget about him, after all we were about to leave the country and - head to Belgrade! Every time me or her would mention "Belgrade" or "Serbia" we would both open big smiles without saying a word, for several seconds. We were behaving so weirdly that, thinking of it now, it probably seemed like we were on drugs or something.

As soon as we arrived to the airport we managed to make the check in and get rid of our baggage. I was thirsty and Nara hungry, so we sat for a drink and a croissant - that tasted more like margarine than anything else. As the time of the flight was approaching, I was getting more and more absent, to the point Nara asked me, while having her coffee, if I was feeling ok. "Yes, yes I am" I replied a couple of seconds after she made the question.

Standing on the line to get into the plane was exciting: people speaking serbian all around us! We had our ears 'wide-opened', trying to listen some familiar word but, at least for me, it didn't quite worked: I was far too excited and crazy to focus on anything anyone was saying, no matter what language.

The almost two-hour flight were the most torturing ones to me: I felt like standing up and walking side to side in the plane while Nara was as talkative ever and hungry like a bear, eating everything it was offered, even my meal, that I didn't feel like eating at all - not even the cookie. I turned my mp3 player on to try and relax, but it was no good: my serbian/balkan-music-only player wasn't of much help at the moment, it only made me more and more anxious. I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep or at least to get a bit more relaxed, but I was so tense I started feeling my head, neck and shoulders hurting.

When the plane finally started to descend and Nara - who had the window seat - turned to me and said "Teta, we arrived! We're in Serbia!". My body relaxed so quickly all of a sudden that I felt like a cloth dummy, without any "structure" - like if I didn't have any bones. A "melting feeling".
The "melting feeling" got even stronger as we walked out the plane and stepped in serbian soil, to get the bus from the plane to the airport building. Nara and I looked around, then to each other and then, at the very same time, we took a deep, deep breath, to feel the air. I can still remember the first "smell of Belgrade". It smelled like wind.
It was a cloudy day, around 4 or 5 degrees, but not as wet as in Germany, thank god. The dryer weather made us feel much more comfortable than in Germany and like taking off our scarfs and opening up out jackets.

We went through the customs, got our passports stamped and took our baggage. We went to the restroom to fix our messy hair and our still sleepy faces and we finally got off the arriving gate. Nara was walking before me as I remember was still feeling completely melt and then we saw Tomica waiting for us. It's weird, because I can't quite remember anything else of this meeting other than he saying "Hey, I'm Tomica". I can't possibly tell you what I said, or what Nara said, or even if he said anything else - and they most probably said plenty of things more, I just wasn't 'registering' any information at that moment.

We walked out and again, the "Belgrade smell". I took several more deep and long breathes, as we waited for the bus that was gonna take us downtown. I remember Nara asking me, kinda worried, how we were gonna do, cause we had no dinars with us. I can't remember what I replyed or even if I replied her at all - I was getting back to my conscience, but still not really able to reply anything.
The bus arrived, we took our seats, and Nara reminded me to sms Kosta, to tell him we arrived well. Toma kindly offered to send the message over his mobile, and so he did.

During the half an hour trip from the airport to downtown Belgrade, I almost didn't say a word: I was looking around, rather amazed and still not believing to be in Belgrade, noticing every single detail on everything, from the grass colours to the building's paintings and graffiti, from the huge commercial displays to the clothes people were wearing on the streets - literally, everything. As we were getting more and more close to the city center and the car traffic was getting more and more intense, I started noticing people and instruments all around: an old man with his accordion here, a bunch of guys coming out a car with their trumpets over there and so on. Later I would find out and record on my memory, forever, the sound of the city. Yes, because in Belgrade, even if there's no real music playing whatsoever, you can feel it filling in the air :)
I was finally in Belgrade.

We took off the bus at Slavija - I remember Tomica saying that place would probably be a key one for us during our staying in there. And indeed, so it became.
The ground on Slavija was kinda wet, although it wasn't raining. I had a look around, and I immediately loved that square; noise, cars, buses, trams and trolleys all over, people crossing the streets, policemen with their whistles and us and our baggage, waiting for the next bus we had to take in order to spare some walk with Hans and Klaus (the names we gave to our two "dead bodies" - aka "biggest bags", weighting more than 30 kg each)

We took another bus to our place, less then 5 minutes riding from Slavija. We got off, walked a few meters more, turned right, and then right again and voi-là: Sime Luke Lazića, the street that would be our address for the next several weeks. It was around 1pm when we were shown our room by a very sympathetic looking girl - that later became a great friend, Sanja. Toma said he would leave us for he had some stuff to do, and that he would call me a bit later, so we could plan something.

Nara and I got into our room. I took my camera and made a photo of our room's window. I was now fully conscious again, and all excited and jumping around, repeating with Nara, every 10 seconds "We're in Belgrade, we're in Belgrade!!!". Nara was looking around the room and opening her baggage while I was insisting with her that I didn't need any rest at that moment and that we should go out to explore the city right away. But I only had time to take off my jacket and boots - having in mind to put more comfortable shoes: as soon as I sat on the bed I felt asleep like a stone til 7 pm, when I woke up with Nara saying she had just made a friend in the hostel that was crazy by brazilian soap-operas; the guy from the reception saying Toma was on the phone and my complaining, empty-for-a-day stomach.

And that was my first day in Belgrade :)

Do you know where Shabla is?!

2008-02-22T12:07:00.002-03:00

Exibir mapa ampliado

Balkan Expedition - Part III (Final)

2008-02-22T02:15:00.003-03:00

We got into the café.

As fast as I could I managed to take the seat on the table nearer to the entrance. I remember just "leaving" my body on the chair, like if I had no bones in it. Nara took the seat on my left, and when we were both seated, we took a deep relief breathe - Kostov was coming to "rescue" us, in only a couple of hours! Only a couple of hours...

Anyways, I noticed Nara was OK again when she said she needed a coffee - she always needs a coffee when she's fine. She stood up, looking for the waitress, when she noticed the miner looking men were inviting both of us to join their tables. Before I could say "Nara, I think we'd better stay here", she was already heading to their table.

So, on this table there were two guys only: the most miner-looking man in the whole cafe (he was wearing a full-of-holes grey wool cap, and a huge grey jacket, with some little grey beard covering his cheeks) and his younger friend (black haired, with a black jacket on). As Nara was approaching the table, she asked "Speak english?". "English? No, no, no Engleski", the older man said. "Sprachen sie Deutsch?", he asked.
"YES!!!" Nara quickly replied, and finally took a sit at the guys table, next to the older man, facing me, just a few tables away. After the introductions (of course they mistaked her name with "Nada", as usual), she started explaining them what happened to us in our way from Serbia to Bulgaria. That was when I realised the black haired guy didn't speak any other language other than bulgarian, as his friend was translating to him what Nara was telling them. But it wasn't quite working: the two guys were so damn drunk, they were asking her again and again what happened to us and what were we doing, on a Christmas eve, in that cafe in Shabla. After having the same answer from her some three times, the man gave up and started telling about him, and started asking where we were from. "I bet you can't guess where we're from! Try to guess!", Nara said. While they were trying each and every possible european country - and Nara saying "no" to every wrong try of them, I was looking at her and shaking my head like saying "Fuck Nara, don't do that! Don't tell them where we're from!". She was looking back to me with a crazy smile on her face, like if she wasn't understanding why she shouldn't do that.
I mean, we didn't know anything about those two, they were pretty drunk, we didn't speak the same languages, we were alone in Shabla and, to make it worse, everybody knows that brazilian girls have the reputation to be easy and big arsed ones. Hehe, we are not "easy", and most certainly not big arsed girls, haha. But they didn't know that.
When she said "We're from Brazil", the two men were like "Noooo, you're not, you're lying!". Although she even showed them her student card to prove it, they didn't believe her. Then they started pointing their fingers at me and asking Nara where her friend was from. When she said Brazil, again they said she was lying.

That was when I decided I should join Nara at their table, to not leave her with them all alone. I sat right before her and beside the younger black haired guy that, as soon as I sat down, took my hand in his and raising his eyebrow with a drunken look he started saying in bulgarian "Your hands are so cold..."
"Fuck", that's what I thought, and as quick as I could I took my hand off his and put it inside my coat's pocket. He was staring at me moaning something that sounded like "Oh come on, give me your hand". Fuck again, I so wanted Kostov to arrive soon!

I then saw Nara was on a similar situation with the older man, haha. In a very, very 'restricted' german he was saying something like "I cook Berlin. 15 years. My mother sick. My daughter not house. I alone. Come to my place with me". Nara was pretending she didn't get what he really meant, saying "I need to stay and wait for my friend to pick me here, can't go anywhere else". And he said everything all over again, this time to me as well, and the younger one was still trying to get my hand again, and Nara saying "no" once more, and then ha! The younger guy took a note of 50 leva, placed on the table, and pushed it to our direction. On that moment, I think Nara realised she'd better really stop giving them the attention she was giving. She looked at me as who says "Dammit!", and I gave her back my "Yeah, dammit!" look.
She turned to the guys and said "What is that? What in the world is that???", pointing at the 50 leva. The older guy looked to his friend said something in a harsh tone of voice, turned back to us and said "I'm sorry, my friend is very drunk, he got confused, he just wanted to pay a coffee, he's confused".
"It's Ok, it's Ok", Nara replied.

Immediately the guy said again "So, come my house, I alone, my mother sick" and that was when we finally gave up, stood up, and got back to our table.

We were both nervous with the whole situation at this point. After making a nervous speech to Nara, pointing how she should never have started talking to them in the first place, we both started laughing, laughing so much, that we started crying, hahahaha. Laughing, crying, and pointing out to ourselves our bizarre situation and saying to ourselves "Kosta, please, come quickly!!".

After we managed to control ourselves, we agreed on speaking very low and not even looking at their direction til Kostov rescue us. So we did. But even so, the older guy - after realising we wouldn't go back to their table - came to us, kneelled down next to our table and started saying a bunch of things in Bulgarian. Nara was getting kinda pissed, telling me, in portuguese "I told him I only speak german, why is he still talking in bulgarian, dammit! I can't get a word!".
As soon as she said that, he stood up right away, and said "Romanian! Romania!!!" and started saying a whooooole lot of things in romanian, hahahaha. We completely forgot how much portuguese sounds like romanian and how close to the romanian border we were, dammit! Nara looked at me like who says "It doesn't matter what I say or in what language, he just won't stop". Yes, indeed he looked like he wasn't gonna stop, hehe. After a minute speaking romanian to us, he stoped, with a thoughtful look on his face, glazing at our table. That was when he saw my notebook, full of russian stuff written on it's cover. When I noticed he was staring at my notebook's cover, it was already too late: he turned to me and started speaking russian, hahahaha. I just couldn't believe that was happening, that guy was unstoppable, completely!!! The most annoying thing is that, actually, I could get quite some stuff of what he was saying, but I was holding myself back to not answer anything, or then heaven knew what could happen, haha.

Nara and I stayed completely mute, staring at the table, and after a while he gave up and got back to his table.
Thank God!

Nara and I could then start a conversation without being interrupted at every second. We were making some random drawings on my notebook, while talking about how funny it would be telling about that whole situation to our friends, hehe. All during our talk, Nara was staring at every single car that was passing before the cafe, believing it could be Kosta coming to save us, haha.
The older guy still made one last try to please us: he gave, to each one of us, an orange, a huuuge one, hahaha. And got back to his table. I remember even the waitress was laughing like crazy when he gave us the oranges, hahaha.

I was so tired, I didn't even have forces to be scared of nervous anymore, hehe. I wasn't even anxious for Kostov to come. I was simply absent. And Nara was still staring at the glass windows, hoping that each car passing by would be Kostov's.

Then, at one point, she stood up and started heading to the glass door, saying "I think it's him... It's... Yeah!! It's him, it's Kosta now!!!". And I was like "I bet it isn't. It's probably the 10th car passing by that you say it's him for sure, Nara..."
But this time she was (finally!) right: it WAS Kosta, and with his brother! Nara ran to the glass door and tried to open it, but it was locked, hahaha. She shook the door a bit, but it didn't work so she just stood at the door, with her hands and her face glued to the glass, watching Kosta and Martin approaching to the cafe. The waitress came and unlocked the door and ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! We held Kosta as strongly as we could, the four of us lauging a lot as we grabbed our things and headed to his car.

After an almost two hours trip back to Varna, we arrived at his house, met his parents, and had the coolest Christmas eve of the last years :)))))))))

Needless to say, this "Shabla adventure" became the_joke among all Kostov's friend in Bulgaria, haha. I guess we will be forever remebered as the "Shabla girls", like they named us.

Transporte

2008-01-18T10:41:00.002-02:00

Acho que de varios aspectos, um dos que achei mais interessantes aqui em Belgrado foi o transporte publico. No Rio soh temos onibus. Onibus esses que colocam a "cereja no sorvete" do jah estragado transito carioca.

Pois entao, aqui em Belgrado eles tem onibus, micro-onibus, bondes e onibus eletricos. E sim, caso voces estejam se peguntando, eles tambem sao a "cereja no sorvete" do transito caotico aqui de Belgrado, hehehe. Mas eu amo o transito caotico daqui.

Slavija: provavelmente o cruzamento mais caotico de Belgrado: onibus, trolleys, trams e carros vindos de 5 ruas diferentes, e dando a volta na praca central. Eh tambem um dos meus pontos de encontro preferidos :)

Como diria Jack, o Estripador, vamos por partes:

Onibus - a.k.a. autobus, ou bus

Os onibus aqui em Belgrado sao muito diferentes dos do Rio. Obviamente eles nao tem a carroceria absurdamente alta como os cariocas: sao mais largos e o espaco interno eh bem mais otimizado, pois soh algumas cadeiras sao em pares. Sobra entao bem mais espaco pro povo se movimentar (quando o onibus nao estah cheio) e, obviamente, bem mais espaco pra entulhar passageiros (nos horarios de hush. Ou nao).

Mas o mais inteligente dos onibus daqui, comparando com os do Rio, eh que eles tem sempre, no minimo, 3 portas duplas e todos, sem excessao, tem espaco pra usuarios de cadeira de rodas. Achei o maximo isso.

Os onibus aqui se subdividem em 2 categorias: os normais, compostos de 1 carro soh (que podem ser do tipo "sucatao iugoslavo" ou novos)...

... e os duplos (tambem na modalidade sucata e novo), que sao compostos por dois carros, "emendados" por uma ligacao sanfonada.

Duplo e sucata

Duplos novos

Eu gosto desses.
Na verdade, o mais divertido desses onibus duplos sanfonados eh viajar no meio deles, bem na "sanfonacao", hehehe. Eh como viajar na emenda de vagoes do U-Bahn, na Alemanha: tem uma especie de plataforma giratoria - que eh o que permite que o onibus duplo faca as curvas - e viajar em peh sobre essa plataforma eh garantia de viagem emocionante

Sanfona

Diferentemente dos onibus do Rio, os onibus aqui nao param em todos os pontos, mas soh nos pontos que realmente fazem parte do roteiro de cada linha. E aqui voce nao faz sinal pro onibus: eles obrigatoriamente param nos pontos, mesmo que ninguem queira entrar ou sair.

Micro-onibus

Os micro onibus sao coisa bem recente em Belgrado. Foram implantados a pouco tempo, e a frota ainda eh bem pequena, basicamente soh pra cobrir um ou outro buraquinho do servico dos onibus normais.

Eles parecem vans, na verdade, vans bem grandinhas, com uma fileira dupla de assentos de um lado, e uma fileira de assentos "solo" do outro. Nesses nao tem como "entrar pela janela", porque voce paga diretamente pro motorista no momento em que voce entra nele.
Por isso soh peguei micro onibus uma vez, hehehe.

Bonde - a.k.a. tram, tramvaj ("tramvai")

Sim, Belgrado tem bondes!
Os bondes sao deliciosas sucatas dos tempos socialistas, haha. Provavelmente sao os principais responsaveis pelo trafico caotico aqui de Belgrado. Talvez seja por isso que eu goste tanto deles. E por causa da barulheira que as maquinas fazem quando os trams vao fazer a curva, haha. Adoro.

Os trams sao bem mais estreitos do que os onibus, normalmente com a carroceria pintada de vermelho ou entao semi-cobertos com anuncios e propagandas. O chao eh de borracha surrada e os assentos (de plastico surrado) sao vermelhos, cinza ou branco/creme. Nao consegui decifrar a ordem (se eh que realmente existe alguma) da arrumacao dos assentos dentro dos trams, mas isso nao eh relevante. Os trams sao sempre sanfonados, pois sao compostos de dois vagoes, com 2 pares de portas duplas (e ultra-barulhentas e brutas!) cada.

Os trams passam praticamente por todas as ruas principais da cidade. Diferente dos onibus, os eles param em todos os pontos - isto eh, todos os pontos que sao pontos de tram, eh claro. Eh o esquema eh o mesmo, voce nao tem que fazer sinal, eles sempre param onde devem. E dah pra "entrar pela janela" tambem.

Onibus eletrico - a.k.a. trolleybus

Os trolley me deixam em duvida quanto a minha preferencia pelos trams, hehe. Tanto os novos quanto os antigos sao legais embora, eh claro, os surrados e sucateados tenham um charme especial.

Eles sao meio que uma mistura dos trams com os onibus: espaco interno de bus, com assentos e visual de tram. E a brutalidade das portas dos modelos mais senior tambem eh exatamente como nos trams, hehe.
Alguns anos atras carros novos de trolleys comecaram a circular. Esses sao bem simpaticos tambem, e as portas sao mais sutis.

Trolley novo

O destaque nos trams eh quando o guia sai dos fios eletricos. e a coisa toda para: o motorista tem que sair do trolley, ir pra traseira do carro e puxar os fios da guia com o peso dele, tentando localizar a guia de volta nos fios eletricos, hahaha. E aih eh caos mesmo, porque os carros atras comecam a businar, os onibus que querem parar no mesmo ponto entulham toda a rua, as pessoas comecam a atravessar fora das faixas de seguranca - aproveitando o transito em suspensao - e por aih vai. Eh bem como naquele episodio do desenho animado sovietico "Nu, Pogodi", quando o lobo tenta perseguir o coelho num trolley, hahaha. No wonder, jah que todos os trolleys daqui de Belgrado sao fabricados na Russia :)

Pontos - a.k.a. stanica

Entao, quando voce chega em um ponto de onibus - aqui chamados "stanica" - voce tem que ver o que o cartaz diz: quais as linhas de onibus, micro onibus, bonde e/ou onibus eletricos que param ali. Alguns pontos dizem de quanto em quanto tempo um determinado tram, trolley ou onibus passam por ali. Embora nao seja saudavel se guiar muito por esses horarios nao, porque o transporte publico aqui nunca funciona na hora.

Algumas stanica ainda tem linhas de onibus noturnos (nos quais nao tem como "entrar pela janela", porque tem sempre cobrador). Soh peguei onibus noturno uma vez, voltando da ilha de Ada Ciganlija taaaarde da noite.

O forte dos pontos aqui certamente nao eh o design funcional. Os mais antigos tem bancos metalicos - que no inverno ninguem se arrisca a usar - e os mais novos e modernos tem o teto transparente - que no verao de 40 graus daqui com sol a pino, eh tortura garantida.

Apesar de todos os "tropecos" do transporte publico de Belgrado, o mais maravilhoso de tudo eh que funciona. Eh praticamente de graca (jah que 90% da populacao realmente "entra pela janela") e leva a gente de qualquer ponto pra qualquer ponto da cidade. Quase na hora :)

CURIOSODADES

2008-01-18T10:36:00.000-02:00

Vou comecar agora a postar sobre curiosidades e fatos interessantes aqui de Belgrado, e dos outros lugares que visitei. Minutinho que o 1o. post jah vem ;)

+ 6 days in Beograd :))))))))

2008-01-12T15:28:00.001-02:00

10 graus e solzinho em Belgrado. Tem sido assim nos ultimos 6-7 dias. Sinto falta da neve, mas sol com friozinho de leve eh o que ha!
E consegui, depois de alguns instantes de tensao, remarcar minha volta a Alemanha e esticar uns diazinhos aqui em Belgrado: eu ia embora amanha, e agora soh me vou pra Alemanha dia 21. Uhuuuuuu :)))))))))))

10 degrees and sun in Belgrade. It's been like this for the past 6-7 days. I miss the snow, but sunny-cold days are just great too!
And, after several minutes of tension, I made it to postpone my coming back to Germany and stay a few days more here in Belgrade: I was gonna leave tomorrow, and now I'm only back to Germany on the 21st. Yay :)))))))))))

E a boa noticia? No final de junho/inicio de julho, tem mais Balkan Spedicija pra mim \o/

Quem vem comigo da proxima vez?

And the good news? By the end of june/early july, there's more Balkan Spedicija for me \o/

Who's coming with me next time?

Intermission III (Animated!)

2008-01-10T19:47:00.001-02:00

Fequinho and I in Kalemegdan

...e a Teta encheu a cara...

2008-01-08T19:50:00.002-02:00

Haha, como o Kostov vivia me dizendo que iria acontecer, aconteceu: os Balkans fizeram eu me render ao alcool. Sim, sim: Teta, que nunca, nunca bebe sequer uma gotinhazinha de alcool, agora bebe. Muitas goticulas, hehehe.

O Pai do Kostov eh o culpado - ficou lah, me seduzindo em russo (ele soh falava em russo ou ingles com a gente, haha), dizendo "chut-chut, chut-chut" (significa "soh um pouquinho, soh um pouquinho", em russo) e pah: bebi vinho no Natal, bolas.

De volta pra Belgrado, a coisa foi ficando intensa: no primeiro dia de kafana com a Fecula, o Rodrigo em Belgrado, eu fiquei consideravelmente altinha, haha. E no ano novo, a coisa desandou bonito: entornei, sozinha, uma garrafa inteira de vinho, bebendo no gargalo, hahahaha. Fiquei torta como nunca. A unica coisa que me lembro bem dessa noite eh de mim e do Tomica, 6 da manha, parados no meio de um cruzamento vaziiiiio, debaixo de neve pesada, rindo feito dois pamonhas de nada e esperando por um taxi que nao veio, hahahahahahaha. Lembro tambem da minha odisseia pra subir a ladeira coberta por 20 cm de neve, as 7 da manha, sem escorregar, hehehe.

Depois disso a coisa ficou frenetica, vinho todo dia, soh pra constar. E o segundo porre fenomenal foi no ultimo dia de Kafana antes da Fecula e do Rodrigo irem embora: litro e meio de vinho, kolo, acordeon, Titos rodopiando na parede, festa de rock, casacos perdidos, hamburguer as 4 e meia da matina, cartazes (lindamente) vandalizados pela Fequinho com neve, crises de riso e festa no albergue, ateh de manha. E eh claro, uma dor de cabeca filadaputa dia seguinte, olheiras, cara amassada e por aih vai.

E o pior? Eh que eh bom, hahahaha.
Amo muito tudo isso.

Belgrade photo tour :)

2008-01-04T11:28:00.003-02:00

Fotos da ultima semana, quando a Fecula e o Rodrigo chegaram aqui em Belgrado
Photos of the last week, when Fecula and Rodrigo arrived here in Belgrade

Nossa primeira caminhada pela cidade com a Fecula e o Rodrigo, assim que eles chegaram. Ao fundo voces (quase) podem ver a cupula de St. Sava, coberta de neve

Our first walk around town with Fecula and Rodrigo, when they arrived. On the background you can (almost) see the dome of St. Sava, covered in snow

Karadjordjev Park, que fica logo ao lado da St. Sava
Karadjordjev Park, right beside St. Sava

St. Sava, finalmente!
St. Sava, finally!

Ok, voces jah conhecem essa, mas como eu gosto muito, lah vai denovo. Estavamos brincando no parquinho, em frente a St. Sava :)

Ok, you've probably already seen this one, but as I like it a lot, here it is again. We were playing in the park, right before St. Sava :)

Lah vamos nos, entrando em St. Sava. Nao sei se a foto faz jus ao tamanho desse templo "ao vivo"... Parece ateh pequeno olhando agora, comparando com a visao dele ao vivo.
There we go, getting into St. Sava. I don't know if the photo make justice to the "real" size of this temple... It looks kinda small in the picture, if compared to it's "live" view.

Interior de St. Sava - nao sei se voces sabem, mas St. Sava - que comecou a ser contruida no iniciozinho do seculo XX - nunca chegou nem perto de ser terminada. Devido as guerras mundiais e, mais tarde, ao regime de Tito, sua construcao foi interrompida por decadas e decadas. Visitando o templo durante o dia, a gente pode ver os artesaos trabalhando non-stop nas esculturas de pedra...
Inside St. Sava - I don't know if you know it, but St. Sava - that started being built in the early 20th century - was never even close to be finished. Due to the world wars and, later, to Tito's regime, it's construction was interrupted for decades and decades. If you visit the temple during the day, you can see people working non-stop on the stone sculptures...

Essa eh a capela que fica ao lado de St. Sava. Eh pequenininha, mas estah completamente terminada ha tempos jah. E as iluminuras em estilo bizantino foram feitas por artesaos russos - nao tem 1 pedacinho de parede ou teto que nao seja pintado :)

Mais pinturas no interior da capela...

Fequinho encoxando o monumento da Praca da Republika, hahahaha
Ps.: esse monumento, essa praca em geral, eh o ponto de encontro mor de Belgrado.
Fequinho "humping" the monument at the Republik Square, hahahaha
Ps.: this monument, the whole square, is the_meeting_point in Belgrade.

A ciganada tocando na rua. Depois vou dar upload no video que fizemos disso e postar aqui - foram os piores metais que jah vi ciganos tocando por aqui, hahahaha
A bunch of gypsies playing on the street. Later I'll upload a video I recorded on that day and post it here - those were the worse played metals I've ever heard around here, hahahaha

Knez Mihailova, uma das ruas mais famosas de Belgrado :)
Knez Mihailova, one of the most famous streets in Belgrade :)

Chegando em Kalemegdan
Getting to Kalemegdan

Kalemegdan

Peculinho :)

Voces nao tem ideia de como eu sempre quis ver esse lugar, e especialmente assim, forrado de neve. Exatamente como na foto do topo desse blog :)))))
You have no idea of how much I always wanted to see this place, and specially like this, covered in snow. Just like in the picture on the header of this blog :)))))

Ahh, eu e o meu fraco por cidades com rios...
Ohh, me and my weekness for cities with rivers...

No parquinho
In the kid's park

Encoxando em Kalemegdan
Humping in Kalemegdan

"Te porro!"

Haha, estamos parecendo criancinhas nessa foto
Haha, we look like such kids in this photo

Papai Noel marrentao na sessao de bebidas do mercado. Soh em Belgrado...
Tough Santa Klaus in the drink section of the market. Only in Belgrade...

...

Neve!
Snow!

Eu e Fecu, de madrugada, abobadas na neve. Chorar de rir abaixo de zero nao eh legal nao. O rosto fica congelado, hahaha
Me and Fecu, laaaate at night, being silly in the snow. Laughing til you cry when it's below zero it's not cool. Your face gets freezing, hahaha

E o boneco de neve mais hediondo de todos os tempos: "Coco Noel"
And the most hideous snow man of all times: "Coco Noel" (something like "Crappy Klaus", in portuguese)

Конец!

Intermission II

2008-01-04T01:15:00.002-02:00

Snow :)

Balkan Expedition - part II

2007-12-30T21:52:00.004-02:00

There were so, but sooooo many guiches in the bus station, that I got a bit confused. I decided then to go to the "Information" desk (yes, "information" in english, written exactly like this), and ask for some help. "Speak english?", I asked. The woman on the information desk made me a sick face and said a dry "Ne". Bastard. I gave up asking for help and started roaming around the bus station, passing guiche by guiche, trying to find "Varna" written in cyrillic. After several minutes I finally came across "Варна" written in one of the guiches and bought two tickets, for 26 Leva (something around US$ 20 dollars), departuring at 9 am. We had something like and hour and 20 minutes til then.

With the tickets in hands and some spare time, Nara and I decided that it was time to call Kostovinski e tell him at what time we would be arriving in Varna, so he could pick us up at the station when we arrive. From Sofia to Varna it's a 7 hours trip, which meant we would be arriving there around 4 in the afternoon. We went to a public telephone and tried to call, but somehow it wasn't working, at all! We tried all the possible codes to make the phone call, exactly like Kosta told us to do, but it simply wasn't working! When I was on my 10th try, Nara suddenly held my arm strongly, with a scared look on her face and said "Teta... Bad news..."
I was breathless for a second. "What is it Nara??", I asked. She said "It's 2 minutes to 9 o clock".
I said "So what?!" but then, immediately I realised: fuck!!! Bulgaria is one hour ahead of Serbia, and I completely forgot to set my mobile clock to the right time!!! That meant we had exactly 2 minutes to get to our platform and get into our bus! We got all our things and bags as fast as we could, coats and everything, and ran as fast as possible to the platform number 8. But alas: even though we were officially a minute before the departure time, our bus to Varna wasn't there. Get the picture: Nara and I, standing on the empty platform, disappointed faces on, with our coats wrongly buttoned up and scarfs badly tied, holding our baggage in the clumsiest way possible, with heavy snow falling over our heads. I wish somebody would have taken a photo of that moment. Even my gloves were not correctly on, I was probably looking like Monty Python's Dr. Gumby or something similar.

Then we thought that perhaps the bus was late or something. But no. We waited for 15 minutes and nothing came, at all. So we went inside the station again as outside was far too snowy and muddy for us, and started the expedition to find another guiche selling tickets to Varna - cause that one where we bought our "lost" tickets had only one daily bus to Varna.
After 20 minutes having to put up with people making sick faces at me when I had to switch from my shitty russian speaking to english (after all, my russian is far, faaar away from being enough for such things and even so, bulgarian is quite different), I finally made it to find another guiche selling tickets to Varna - the next one departuring at 10:30 in the morning. We had almost one hour til then, this time with clocks correctly set to the right time, hehe.

We went to the second floor of the station to try and find a functioning public telephone. We were excited as never when we saw a shop with a huuuge display saying "internet and international phone calls". But as it was too good to be true, of course it was closed and nobody could tell us when it would be opened.

When it was 10:10 we ran to the platform and to our happyness, this time our bus was there: bright and shinny, waiting for us! Now, this bus was waaaaay better and modern, comparing to the one that took us from Belgrade to Nis - and we had plenty of space to place our legs! If there's one thing that drives me crazy is not having space enough for the legs inside buses.
But well, there we were: sitting (almost) comfortable inside the warm, cozy bus, heading from the Bulgarian capital to Varna, on the other side of the country, as you can see in the map below:

(Click on the map to enlarge)

During the trip - between the several stops the bus made, admiring the beautiful and white balkan landscape and taking some short naps - I was trying to call Kosta from my serbian mobile phone. After trying tones of times, I realised I wasn't managing to call him because I had run out of credits - damnit! Now our only chance to talk to him was to wait for him to call us. Hoping that he would realise that I didn't have credits (and then, call me) made me aprehensive all the rest of the trip.

When it was around half past four in the afternoon, my mobile finally ringed and yes, it was Kosta himself calling us!!

K - Tchetche!
M - Kostinho!
K - Heeeeeeeeeeeey!
M - Heeeeeeeeeey!
K - Bonitchinhas!
M - Saudades, "Julinho"!
K - How are you doing? How's the trip?
M - Just great!
K - I'm so glad you're coming! My whole family is already waiting for you two!
M - And we just can't wait to meet all your people! The view from the bus is so amazing!
K - And at what time are you arriving, after all? Where exactly are you now?

When I was about to answer, the phonecall was suddenly interrupted.
I was swearing all the dirty words I could remember (in portuguese, of course), and so mad I felt like destroying my mobile. Again we were hoping he would call back at anytime soon. But he didn't: instead he sent me a message, asking me to call him as soon as we were in Varna, so he could pick us up at the station. Fuck again!!!

At this time of the trip, the sky was already getting pretty dark - winter days are soooo short... The bus' lights soon were very low, almost off, and then Nara and I, tired and exhausted, fell asleep. That was when the real adventure started.

I woke up all of a sudden, like if somebody had called my name or something like that, but no. Nara was asleep in the seat next to mine and, to my surprise (and later, to my despair) the bus - that was pretty full when we left Sofia - was now almost completely empty: beside us two, only a young bulgarian couple were still there with us. One of the two bus drivers (obviously the one that wasn't driving at that moment) came to us and started asking a lot of things in Bulgarian. I had to concentrante and pay huuuge attention to what he was asking, and I understood that he wanted to know where were we going to. "Varna", I replied.
The guy turned completely white, opened his eyes wide, asking me back "Varna? Varna??? Oj Boze, Boze!!". He started walking from side to side and talking to himself, very nervously. I was so, but so in shock I couldn't say a word. I looked at Nara, and for the look on her face I could see that, like me, she had just realised what had happened: we missed our stop in Varna and we were now heading to some other city.
I turned to Nara and asked "What are we gonna do now?!" and she replyed "I don't know, I have no idea...". At this moment, the guy was talking to that couple that was still in the bus with us, and the girl stood up from her seat and came to us, followed by him. When she got closer, I explained her (in english, of course) that we were going to Varna and before I could finish my sentence, she said "Hey, Varna was 80 kilometers ago. The next and last stop is still 30 kilometers away, in Shabla".

Shabla. Sha-bla. S h a b l a . . .

I asked her if she knew of a bus from Shabla to Varna still on that day, she said "Only tomorrow morning, at 5 am".

Fantastic. We were supposed to spend Christmas eve with Kosta and his family and now we were heading to heaven knew where, and without being able to reach Kosta on his phone number. Could it get any worse?

After a while, the bus finally stopped. The couple went out, and Nara and I were even more desperate then before. Nara went to the bus driver and started trying every language she could, haha. When she realised that she would have to speak bulgarian, she freaked out and her eyes were almost crying. The bus driver was SO nervous with the whole situation that he hit her on her shoulder rather strongly, twice, and said something in bulgarian that, in that context, it could be only "Wait, wait and stay calm!".
He went off the bus, and started walking in the icy, melted snow, looking down and smoking heavly. We went off the bus too, and looked around.
Have any of you guys ever watched "Priscilla, the Queen of the Desert"? Do you remember the cities they would have to go to, during the film, that were nothing more than a square, a church, and 24 hour bar? So, that was Shabla. The only difference is that it was covered in mud, snow and dry, leaf-less pine trees. But then, something came out to our view, like a light in the end of the tunel: a big display saying "Internet and international phone calls".
Nara quickly took her purse and went to the bus driver, asking him to wait a bit that she was going to make a phone call. Heaven knows how, he got the "phone call" part of her speech, and asked her to wait. He took his mobile phone on his hand, and gave it to Nara, so we could call from it! I ran inside the bus and took my notebook with the phone numbers, and the bus driver dialled for us. We waited several seconds, and it didn't work. He dialled again, and again no answer. When we were about to start freaking out again, his mobile phone ringed - it could only be Kostov calling back - and this time, it really was!!! The bus driver passed me his mobile and hearing Kostovinski again was a relief:

K - Tete!
M - Kosta!!!
K - What happened? Why you didn't call me back, or messaged me?
M - My serbian mobile phone went out of credits and the german one wasn't working here in Bulgaria...
K - Yeah, I thought so. I tried to call you, but it didn't work. Where are you now, after all?? It's 7 pm, are you close to Varna or?
M - Well, it happens that, hmm, we missed the stop in Varna...
K - You missed Varna?? How come?! It's probably the biggest stop after Sofia! Where are you now???
M - We're at... Ahm... Shabla.
K - You're in fucking Shabla?!?!
M - Yeah...
K - Fuck!
M - Yes, yes, fuck!
K - I can't believe it, oh god
M - I can't believe it either, believe me.
K - Do you know where Shabla is?
M - No?
K - Good for you, then. You're 15 kilometers from the romanian border, Tete...
M - Fu - cking - hell . . .
K - Yes, you get it... Where exactly in Shabla are you now?

I passed the phone to the bus driver, as he would most certainly know where we were better than me. After a minute talking to Kosta, he gave me back his mobile, and Kostov just asked us to wait inside one of the (only) two cafes/bar of the city, that in about 1 and a half or two hours, the most, he would be getting there by car to pick us.

R e l i e f. I was so relieved to have talked to him and to know that he would be there to rescue us anytime soon!
Only at this point I could stop and analise the whole trip we were taking (since we left Belgrade til then) and damit, I could help but laughing. I was laughing so loud and hard, I started crying, hahahaha. The whole situation was SO completely surreal: when in my entire life I would imagine that I'd be lost in Bulgaria, almost at the romanian border, with Nara, on a Christmas eve?!

After crossing the large square from side to side, we finally reached the cafe. When we got in, again I felt like in the movie "Priscilla, the Queen of the Desert": there were only men in the cafe, miner looking ones, with deep drunk look on their faces. Faces those now completely turned to the door, where me and Nara were standing, over-thinking if we should really get in there. I remember myself saying a long "puta que pariu", and Nara confirming and repeating what I had just said "Ehhh, puta que pariu mesmo".

Anyways, we got in and took a table.

(3rd and last part at anytime soon)

Intermission I

2007-12-30T21:32:00.001-02:00

Balkan Expedition - part I

2007-12-29T22:54:00.003-02:00

So, on december 24th, half past midnight, Nara and I headed to the Central Bus Station here in Belgrade, to start our loooooong journey to Varna - in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast - to spend christmas with our beloved friend, Kostov, and his family.

We waited the Niš Ekspres bus for about half an hour in the station, side by side with an amazingly beautiful gypsy woman, her small kid, and her husband.

Nara and I got into the bus, took our seats and right away a chubby guy, a Serb, came to us asking (in serbian) if we were bulgarian. I said that no, and his second guess was "Russia". I said "ne" again and then, in english, Nara and I told him we were from Brazil. The reaction was as it always is: everybody gets so excited when we tell we're from Brazil, hahaha. That is, when they believe us, of course. Cause most times people think we're joking.

Anyways, this guy was showing us the gps system of his super modern mobile phone for the first 20 minutes of the bus trip (mobile phones are pretty, pretty important here in Serbia). Thank god after those 20 minutes the guy decided to rest a bit, allowing us rest too. That was when I started sleeping like a stone, and Nara too.

Nara told me that in the middle of the trip she woke up once, and could see the gps guy talking to another one, looking and pointing at her. She was scared, of course: imagine yourselves waking up with too guys looking and pointing at you while speaking in serbian! As soon as the gps guy saw that Nara had just awaken, he said loudly "go back to sleep! go back to sleep! Everything's ok, back to sleep!!" - almost like if he was ordering her to do so, hahaha. She was so sleep, she couldn't help but really getting back to sleep, haha. Thank god I was sleeping far too heavily at that time.

I was suddenly awaken by some guy, from the bus company, speaking very loudly and walking from side to side in the bus, asking the passangers some questions. The gps/mobile guy came to us asking "Sofia? You going to Sofia? You need to change bus, this is Niš! Change the bus to Sofia, this is Niš. Now, now move!!!". Nara and I grabbed our coats and bags and left the bus like if we were being thrown away or something, hahaha. Along with us came a bulgarian girl, and a serbian guy.

So, we were in Niš, the third biggest city in the country (although you could never tell by looking to it's central bus station). It was almost 3 and a half in the morning, snowing, the floor of the trashy, traaaashy station was completely covered in muddly snow and my sleepy self forgot to put the coat on - so yes, I was freezing, hahaha. The guy from the bus company (the one who woke me up with his loud voice in the bus), took us to a room, and asked us to wait a bit. I was so sleepy and confused, I can only remember there was a TV, with the movie "Swordfish" on, with serbian subtitles. Trying to read the subtitles - as the TV volume was far too low to be heard - helped me to feel more and more awaken after a few minutes. So cool, I love trying to read subtitles in cyrillic! After a few minutes in this "rustic" waiting room, the serbian guy came to me and asked me "Speak english?". I said "YES!!!" right away, hahaha - I was so relieved! And the bulgarian girl spoke english too, and quite some serbian as well. He then told us we were waiting for the bus that was gonna take us to Sofia, because that one we were in would go from Niš to another serbian city, which I can't really remember the name now.

We waited for half an hour, until the loud speaking guy from the bus company came in again, asking us to follow him. This time I had my coat and my gloves on, so I didn't mind the wind and the snow at all. As we walked throught the platforms, I couldn't see any bus waiting for us. Perhaps it was yet to arrive?

No, it wasn't. There wasn't any bus. At all. There was a taxi, actually. A red, Yugo (a.k.a. "the worse car ever produced in the world") taxi, probably as old as me, some twenty-some years old. It looked even older, though, believe me. Do you people know what is it like a Yugo??? I believe the picture below to be quite enlighting:

When I saw the so called car, I could only remember the words of Trajan, a romanian guy we met in Cologne, when we told him we were heading to Serbia soon:

"Serbia is an interesting place, you know. Very "rootsy", hehehe". Indeed.

Ok, it's just four of us, I thought. And just til the other bus station. So, Nara, me ad the bulgarian girl took the back seat, and the serbian guy was in the front seat. After some 15 minutes squeezed inside the red Yugo taxi, we started taking the road. On that moment, I realised: there wouldn't be any bus to us - we were actually going to Sofia by car. By Yugo, I mean.

I think Nara and I were just so exhausted that we accepted the whole situation and just relaxed. Or at least we tried to, until everybody in the red Yugo (but us!) started smoking compulsively. Yes, our last drop of confort had just being spilled.
It took us more than 3 hours to get to Sofia. The roads were terrible, we could't barely see anything from the Yugo windows. Passing through the border was pretty fast: it took us some 10 minutes only to show all the documents and get the entrance stamps to Bulgaria (people from Brazil do not need a visa to Bulgaria).

The day was dawning and we were arriving in Sofia, under some pretty heavy snow. I remembered that early on the day we left Serbia, when I spoke to Kostov, he told me he was stucked in the airport in Sofia, on his way back from Thessaloniki to Varna, because the flights were being cancelled one after another due to the bad weather.
When we finally came out from that red Yugo taxi - smelling to cigarette smoke like I've never been before! - we headed to the central bus station, just 50 meters ahead of where the taxi left us.

On the moment we stepped into the bus station, I took a deep, deep breath and smiled: thank god I could read cyrillic script! I mean, thank Marcos and Jelena, my two russian teachers, hahaha. If I had their phone numbers on that noment, I swear I'd have called them both just to thank them for teaching me, hahaha. Everything, literally everything in the central bus station was in cyrillic. Not like in Serbia, where there are lots in latin script too.

Anyways, I told Nara to sit, wait and take care of our bagagge, so I could walk around and look for a guiche selling tickets to Varna. It was december 24, the day of Christmas eve, and we had to be in Varna around late in the afternoon/early in the night. So we had to find a bus leaving from Sofia as soon as possible.

To be continued tomorrow, I desperately need some sleep now.

2007-12-27T21:06:00.001-02:00

LOTS to tell, hahahaha.

Tomorrow I'll start writting about the last four days we had here. In details ;)

Marković in concert

2007-12-18T22:28:00.005-02:00

Ontem perambulamos pela cidade no inicio da tarde, eu e Nara. Depois de algum tempinho batendo pernas, Toma me ligou e nos esbarramos no meio da rua, de onde comecamos a tomar nosso caminho rumo a um cafe, o preferido dele. No meio do caminho mudamos de ideia, haha, e resolvemos entao ir a Kafana de tematica "Iugoslavia". Me lembrei muito do restaurante Sovjet, em Colonia, mas nada que se compare: essa kafana eh mil vezes mais "roots", como disse a Nara, hahaha. Fotos de icones politicos socialistas por todos os lados sendo que, eh claro, Tito reina solto lah, forrando todas as paredes - um arraso, haha! Tito em foto, em cartazes, em tapecaria, em estatuas, em tudo e qualquer coisa e de todas as cores e formas (???), haha.

A gente jah tinha tentado ir nessa kafana logo no nosso segundo dia aqui, mas estava tao, mas tao lotada, que nao havia como. A coisa lah eh disputada. Dessa vez, como ainda estavamos no meio da tarde, tinha lugar de sobra. Entao pudemos sentar e conversar, beber, tomar sopa, e etc etc. E de lah, saimos desvairados e correndo pro outro lado da cidade, pra nao nos atrasarmos pro evento mor: o show do Boban Markovic!

Esperamos uns bons 20 minutos pelo tram que deveria chegar em, no maximo, 7. Assim que chegamos na Vasar - uma especie de feira, sendo que essa especificamente acontece na epoca das festas de fim de ano, com venda de varias coisas e, todo dia, um concerto ou algo do tipo. Pagamos (o equivalente a 5 reais pra entrar) e entramos correndo, crente que estavamos atrasados ou que estaria cheio e sem lugar. Ha, pra nossa surpresa, eramos 3 dos no maximo 20 que esperavam pelo show num salao enorme, hahahaha. Enquanto viamos a banda toda do Boban Markovic conversando tranquilamente num canto, bebendo, assistiamos a um show bizarramente delicioso de disco music, hahahaha. Uma mulher, com ar de bibliotecaria, cantando todos os grandes "hits", um estouro! E lah estavamos os 3, empolgadissimos com cada hist mais senior que o outro que comecava a tocar - e, claro, a gente sabia as letras todas, haha. Ateh na televisao aparecemos: um magico esquisitissimo que faz truques pra um programa na TV servia veio nos abordar e filmar. Eu nao conseguia parar de rir, hahahaha.

E entao o show finalmente comecou!!!

Marko Markovic e a banda

Boban e a banda

Boban Markovic :)

Nara, instantes antes de perder a linha - no melhor dos sentidos! - e subir no palco pra dancar, hahahahahaha

Marko e Boban Markovic

Soh hits! Foi absurdamente maravilhoso ouvir ao vivo todas as musicas que eu escuto em casa, ha teeeeempos, o dia todo. Foi magico! As pessoas dancando em cima da mesa, geral podia subir no palco se quisesse, e dancar! E tanto o Boban quanto o filho, o Marko, eram super simpaticos com todo mundo :) Saimos de lah felizes da vida, com vontade de dancar pela rua, haha. E fomos acompanhados, ateh a saida da feira, por um menininho cigano muito, mas muuuuito fofo. A gente deu nossos baloes pra ele, e ele ficou todo feliz. Eu fiquei tao encantada com a figurinha, que esqueci totalmente de tirar qualquer foto dele. Uma noite incrivel.

Ainda hoje a musica tah ressoando na minha cabeca... :))))))))

Ps.: Devo fazer upload de alguns videos do show no youtube em breve, e ponho os links aqui ;)

Photos!!

2007-12-16T21:38:00.001-02:00

Some photos os the past few days

Sexta feira, quando comecou a nevar

Our street, when it started snowing

Saint Sava temple. It was the coldest day we got here, I think... Despite the (little, liiiiittle snow), the sky was clear and there was even some sun :)

Essa eh pro Fecu e pros interessados em placas, haha. Abaixo, um "close-up":

Yes, it's still there...

\o/

Sunday morning :)

Random, random...

2007-12-16T11:38:00.001-02:00

Woke up around 9 and a half in the morning today, and when I looked through the window, everything was softly covered in snow. Like candy! Actually, it looked pretty much like the krempita I made for the triple birthday party we threw in august!
Two days ago Nara and I were in a cafe, craaaazy to eat krempita but alas, it was the only candy/tort that they didn't have anymore at that time. We still need to try krempita here...
And ice cream! Fuck, it's been over a month since I last had some ice cream! I don't think I ever stayed this long without any ice cream. And everytime I see snow ("live" or in some picture, or on the telly), I think of ice cream.

But back talking about snow... The past couple of days made me remember of 1990 Christmas, when my father came home one night saying that, on the next day (the day we were gonna start decorating the house for Christmas), he would bring us some snow to put all over inside the house. I remember I was SO excited, already figuring the living room with the floor covered in snow, snow on the back of the couch and over the dinner table, and on the leaves of our (plastic) Cristmas tree, hahaha. When he came back home from work on the next day, with that can of "snow spray" I was so, but sooooo disappointed, that I was speechless for several minutes, haha. I can still remember the smell of that "snow spray" though... And weirdly enough, when I'm out on the snow, I can clearly feel that same smell :)

Frase do dia

2007-12-16T11:33:00.001-02:00

"Na hora do kolo, ninguem eh de ninguem"

Madame Fecula, 2007

Neve!

2007-12-13T19:32:00.001-02:00

Momento emocao na rua hoje:

0 graus em pleno meio dia, comeca a ventar horrores. No meio da ventania comecou a chuviscar, e eu comecei a resmungar: eu nao tinha levado meu guarda-chuvas, e mesmo que tivesse levado nao ia adiantar muito, no maximo eu ia sair voando. A chuva estav muuuito, muito fininha e fria, gelada. Tao, mas tao gelada, que de repente a gente se tocou: opa! a chuva tava virando gelo! Hahaha, neveeeeeee, uhuuuuuuu!!!

Haha, durou pouco mais de 5 minutos, e nao deixou nem sinal de um possivel vestigio. Mas diz a previsao de tempo que teremos neve mesmo amanha e talvez pelos proximos dias. E temperaturas abaixo de 0! Issaaaaaaaa!!!

Luva na bolsa, suas meias, meu cachecol, e to feliz da vida!!!

Boletim

2007-12-12T13:55:00.001-02:00

O cheiro daqui de Belgrado me lembra Vaduz, nao sei por que cargas d'agua. Um cheiro de madeira queimadinha e planta... Tao familiar!
E o clima aqui eh muito, muito umido... Nao chove de verdade, mas as ruas estao totalmente molhadas, surreal. Hoje tah fazendo algo em torno de 5 graus, e eu to gamando.
Me disseram que no Rio tava fazendo algo em torno de 40 graus. Nao consigo nem imaginar isso agora, haha, Nao troco meus 5 grauzinhos por nada :P
E pode ser que neve ainda essa semana, uhuuuuu!!!

E o mais legal? Eu como chocolate e porcarias aqui e nao engordo e nem fico com espinhas - pelo contrario, perdi 2 kg desde que cheguei na Europa e minha pele nunca esteve melhor.
Issaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

PS.: SE PECULIO LER ISSO AQUI, ME LIGA, SEU PUTO! MEU NUMERO AQUI EM BEOGRAD EH 381 (codigo da Servia) 064 (Beograd) 0309333 (meu celular)

1º dia em Belgrado!!!!!

2007-12-11T14:47:00.002-02:00

Sabem assim, estado de graca? Sou eu aqui na Servia, hahaha. Estou muito maravilhada com tudo, e as coisas todas que aconteceram desde que chegamos aqui 2 dias atras, so deixam tudo ainda mais fantastico!

Acordamos 6 da manha pra pegarmos o taxi ate a estacao de trem e, de la, o trem ate o aeroporto de Dusseldorf. Nosso aviao - que mais parecia um micro onibus com asas, hahaha, da Lufthansa - saiu da Alemanha as 10:25, e chegamos em Belgrado por volta das 12 horas. Eu estava tao, mais tao tensa a viagem toda, que nao consegui tomar nada no cafe da manha nem comer no aviao - o meu coracao estava mega disparado, como se eu estivesse correndo minutos e minutos sem parar. Tomica, muito fofo, foi nos receber no aeroporto e de la pegamos o bus do aeroporto ate o centro de Belgrado. No caminho deu pra ver que a vegetacao estava toda queimada - Toma me disse que nevou nas ultimas semanas, e que em breve deve nevar denovo (yes!).

Momento emocao dentro do onibus foi quando vimos uma banda de metais saindo de dentro de uma van, no meio da cidade! Eu e Nara pareciamos duas criancas mongas e felizes apontando os trompetes, hahaha. E vimos, dentro de dois carros, instrumentos de sopro no banco do carona - foi um momento totalmente "eh, voces estao nos Balkans agora". A Nara disse que eu estava com um sorriso trincado de lado a lado, hahaha. Ela tambem estava :)

Ainda no domingo, porem a noite, resolvemos sair pra comer algo. Foi o momento "forasteiras" do nosso primeiro dia: parecia cena de filme do Emir Kusturica, hahaha. A Nara, traumatizada e dizendo que nao queria mais saber de falar alemao, praguejou muito quando perguntamos ao recepcionista do restaurante se ele falava ingles, e ele respondeu (em alemao), perguntando se a gente falava alemao, hahaha. Destino mesmo, da lingua germanica a Nara nao se livra tao cedo!

Acabamos comprando uma coisinha ou outra no mercadinho da esquina, pois estavamos acabadas demais pra andar e procurar qualquer outra coisa. Dormimos feito pedra de domingo pra segunda, uma beleuza.

Ai ontem saimos com o Tomica. Demos uma volta gigaaaante a pe, pela cidade, e foi maravilhoso. Denovo, eu estava tao deslumbrada com tudo, que esqueci totalmente de tirar qualquer foto, hahaha. Logo de inicio, eu e Toma fomos super premiados com um coco de corvo cada, e exatamente ao mesmo tempo, hahahahaha. Aqui tambem dizem que ser premiado com uma "arriada" de passaro eh sinal de sorte. Assim espero.

Fomos ao templo de Saint Sava, que eh um dos simbolos da cidade: o mais volumoso templo ortodoxo do mundo, eh uma coisa assustadora ate! Por fora ele esta quase todo terminado, porem por dentro, por conta da 2a. Guerra Mundial, e mais tarde por causa do governo comunista, a construcao por dentro nunca chegou a comecar de fato. Soh depois dos bombardeios da Otan em 99 eh que a construcao do interior de Saint Sava foi retomada. E tah muito longe ainda de terminar. Mas mesmo assim, eh muuuito, muito impressionante. Ao lado de Saint Sava tem uma especie de "anexo", pequenininho e totalmente terminado, todo decorado por dentro com afrescos bem bizantinos, feitos por artesaos russos que vieram pra Servia no inicio dos anos 90. Uma coisa de tirar o folego tambem, lindo demais.

De lah fomos andando ateh a parte mais conhecida da cidade, aonde paramos pra um cha com torta no cafe do teatro: g-zuz, que tortas eram aquelas??? Affffeeeee...

Enchemos a cara de pipoca, eu tirei meus primeiros dinares no caixa automatico... Uma emocao!

Depois fomos nos encontrar com um amigo do Toma num cafe muito legal tambem, e de la fomos, finalmente, pra Kafana!!!

Kafana, pra quem nao sabe, eh uma especie de pub a moda servia, com musica ao vivo e tudo o mais. Meu sonho de consumo durante o ultimo ano era estar numa dessas, hahaha. E lah estavamos nohs! Tao, mas tao inacreditavel! Conhecemos varios amigos do Tomica, super legais todos, ganhamos ateh presentinhos. E ficamos la, bebendo, conversando, cantando - e, mais tarde, quando o nivel etilico do pessoal jah estava elevadinho, dancando - ateeeeeh tarde.

Eu, Nara e Ivan

Toma e eu

Meu cabelo, a Nara, e a mao do Ivan, hahaha

Voltei pra casa ainda em mais estado de graca do que jah estava antes, hahaha. Foi fantastico demais. Amo Belgrado desde jah :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Ps.: As fotos da catedral e do onibus eletrico nao fomos nos quem tiramos, sao so pra ilustrar por onde passamos e onde andamos.

Ahhh, Beograd... :)

2007-12-10T08:05:00.001-02:00

Chegamos em Belgrado ontem, por volta de meio dia. Eu estava tao absurdamente ansiosa e ainda cansada das festas na Alemanha, que cheguei no hotel e dormi feito uma pedra ate hoje de manha.
Vou sair pra uma volta agora, encontrar um amigo enfim, conhecer a cidade. Mais detalhes mais tarde ;)

We arrived in Beograd yesterday, around noon. I was so, soooo anxious and excited to get here, and still very tired from the parties in Germany that I couldn`t help but sleeping like a stone till this morning.
I`m going out for a walk now, meet a friend and well, get to know the city. More datails later today ;)

Gogol Bordello + balkanXpress = ...

2007-12-08T16:13:00.001-02:00

O que dizer do show e da festa noite passada? Ainda estou com os pés doloridos, cheirando a cigarro e vodka (e eu näo bebo e näo fumo!) e ainda sem palavras pra dizer o quäo maravilhoso foi :))))))))))))))

E amanhä... Sérvia! :))))))))))))))

What can I say about the gig and the party last night? My feet still hurt, I am still smelling like cigarettes and vodka (and I don´t drink and don´t smoke!) and I still can´t find words to say how wonderful it was :))))))))))))))

And tomorrow... Serbia! :))))))))))))))

E hoje...

2007-12-07T10:00:00.001-02:00

Eu adoro cidades com 2 coisas: parques grandes e com amplos gramados e rios. Cidades com Rios tocam meu coracäo. Londres, Colônia e, provavelmente, Belgrado também. Näo sei se estou mais ansiosa pra Belgrado ou pro show do Gogol Bordello e pra balkanXpress hoje.

No Stadtgarten, anteontem

Ainda näo sei com que roupa vou nas festividades de hoje. Queria muito usar o cinto croata que a Katja me deu, mas näo sei com o que. Ele é täo fofo!

A katja também me deu uma calca de montaria, azul escura, liiiinda de morrer. Eu estava usando ela nas fotos da sessäo que fizemos hnoite passada, no post logo aí embaixo. Täo anos 40...

Hoje é dia de ver galeria e museu, tirar fotos de turista, perambular pela sunny Colônia (siiiiiiim, a chuva foi embora e tem uma tentativa de sol lá fora). Qualquer coisa é melhor do que a chuva non-stop de ontem - até o Kostosvinski tava azedinho por causa do clima ontem, haha.

Mas é isso, povo. Amanhä posto fotos mil do show e da festa de hoje à noite.

Strike a pose!

2007-12-07T09:13:00.001-02:00

Ontem chegamos em casa e baixou o espírito "vamos tirar fotos". A Anja näo estava em casa, entäo aproveitamos pra perder a linha, hahahaha. Deu nisso aí, ó:

Yesterday when we got home, we were taken by this "let´s take tones of pictures" spirit. Anja wasn´t home, so we took the chance to go crazy, hahahaha. Here are the results:

Hahahaha, uma festa intimista no apê. Amei-iê!!!

Rainy Cologne...

2007-12-06T15:42:00.001-02:00

Hoje Colônia já amanheceu debaixo de chuva, e näo deu trégua até agora.

Assim que acordamos corremos pra estacäo de trem, pra encontrar a Val - uma amiga de myspace que fiz pouco antes de viajar, e que ficou muito pilhada pra vir pra Colônia me conhecer - fanática, até o talo, por Balkans, assim como eu e a Nara. A mäe dela é polonesa, na verdade, e ela é dancarina, volta e meia tá dancando nas festas de música dos balkans mais cool pela Europa afora.

Enfim, marcamos 1 hora na estacäo central, e o pior aconteceu: näo nos encontramos! E o pior do pior: meu celular ficou bloqueado, porque eu näo me lembrava o pin pra re-ligar ele. Ficamos 1 hora e meia rodando pela estacäo, e nada de Val. O pior é que o Kosta tinha ficado de me ligar também... Voltei pra casa, puta da vida e chateada, afinal a menina se despencou da Bélgica pra vir me ver... Assim que peguei o pin do maldito celular, em casa, liguei pra ela. Pra minha sorte ela ainda estava em Colônia, esperando dar a hora do trem de volta pra Liége, a cidade dela. Marquei com ela no mesmo lugar que tinha acabado de marcar com Kostinho Maluco, e pá! FINALMENTE conseguimos nos achar, e foi super!

Saímos todos juntos pra tomar um chá/café, conversamos um bocado, sobre música, basicamente, e ela nos convidou pra ir na cidade dela quando voltarmos pra alemanha, no finalzinho da nossa viagem. Talvez a gente vá mesmo, afinal, por 28 euros ida e volta, vale mais do que a pena, pra passar uma tarde batendo pernas em Liége e dancando Kolo ;)

Aliás, estamos cigitando um pulinho na Grécia também. Kostinho vai estar tocando lá logo anates do natal, numa puta festa. E além do mais, o Vasilis me chamou pra passar lá e ficar na casa dele, com quem mais eu quiser levar, yay! Thessaloniki deve ser fabuloso, vou pensar com muito carinho nessa possibilidade...

Amanhä é o show do Gogol Bordello e a balkanXpress. Eu estou que näo consigo nem pensar direito no dia de amanhä, hahaha. Vai ser sem precedentes...

E domingo... A Sérvia nos espera!

AI ZEZUS!!!

Algumas fotos...

2007-12-05T14:35:00.002-02:00

Mais fotos dos últimos dias...

Noite "perdidos em Colônia", com a Nara e o Kaska. Destaque pro momento em que a Nara gritou que estávamos sem chave, lá debaixo do prédio do Kosta, e o vizinho dele chegou na janela morrendo de rir, pra ajudar, hahahahahaha. O mais legal é que a ajuda dele näo adiantou absolutamente nada.

Início da noite "perdidos em Colônia"

Checando os emails no notebook da Katja, na cozinha dela, tentando achar as letras e acentos no teclado...

Andancas por Colônia... Essa catedral é de tirar o fôlego...

Assim que chegamos no nosso hotel, no 1° dia

Tsunami Club, adorei aquilo lá! A música, com o Kostov, dispensa comentários ;)

Katja, um amorzinho, cozinhando comida russa pra gente, awww :))))

Fotos dia 1

2007-12-05T09:58:00.002-02:00

Sobrevoando a France, de manhä cedinho

De Paris à Paquetá. Saudades do Pecúlio puto, que näo liga, sabe...

Alemanha e...

... finalmente Düsseldorf!

E Köln :)

Resumo da viagem até segunda feira de manhä (post atrasado, hehe)

2007-12-03T16:11:00.002-02:00

Resumo da viagem até segunda feira de manhä (post atrasado, hehe)

Bom, postando com um pouco mais de calma agora...

Estávamos na casa do Kostov agora, ajudando ele com uns posters pra balkanXpress de sexta feira agora, que vai ser, aliás, a "after party" oficial do show do Gogol Bordello. Quem vai tocar com o Kosta vai ser o Click, DJ francês, o mais famoso e o melhor (na minha opiniäo) de música dos balkans e oriental. Vai ser um arraso, com certeza!

Mas bem, vamos à um resumo rápido dos últimos dias nossos aqui.

Na quinta feira chegamos em Colônia na hora do almoco, mais ou menos, depois de uma rapidíssima parada em Paris, aonde pegamos a conexäo pra Düsseldorf. Kostovinski foi nos pegar no aeroporto, e de lá fomos de trem e metrô até Colônia, coisa de meia hora, no máximo. Pegamos uma espécie de trem aonde os trilhos ficam em cima, muito "do futuro", haha. Chegamos em Colônia por volta de 13 horas. Kosta nos deixou no hotel que ele reservou pro nosso primeiro dia aqui e teve que sair correndo pra ir pra rádio, trabalhar. O hotel era super jeitoso e espacoso e do futuro também, hehe. Portas com código e tal, adorei. Eu e Nara saímos pra bater perna pela cidade até a hora de voltar pro hotel, nos arrumarmos e irmos jantar com o Kosta no restaurante preferido dele - Alkazar, se a memória näo me falha. Um fenômeno de restaurante! Comida típica alemä, tudo mui fino, e o melhor: BARATO!!! Comemos muuuito, e mal deu 40 euros! De lá fomos pro bar/clube Barracuda, aonde o Kosta ia tocar com o Kaska, DJ brasileiro, porém residente em barcelona nos últimos anos. Foi fodíssimo! Conhecemos a turminha eslava do Kostov, gente de todo lugar da europa oriental: Ucrânia, Rússia, Sérvia, Bulgária, Polônia, e etc etc. As melhores pessoas que conheci aqui até agora! Os alemäes säo terrivelmente sem sal, mas os eslavos säo fodas e animam qualquer lugar, haha. Bom, depois da festa no barrucuda voltei pra casa torta de sono e ainda semi-arrasada da viagem de 14 horas de aviäo. Dormi como uma pedra até meio dia do dia seguinte, atrasada pra fazer o check out no hotel e ir pra casa da Katja.

A estadia na casa da Katja foi maravilhosa! Ela é, como já disse, um amor de pessoa. No primeiro dia, assim que soube que a gente gostava de cozinha russa, ela fez um jantar lindo pra gente, com Borsch e um prato ucraniano fenomenal, pro qual eu peguei a receita até. Dia seguinte saímos pra ver vitrines, andamos loucamente pra ver livros, comemos tortas finas num café lindo nas redondezas - a confeiteira chefe é russa - fomos ao mercado e etc etc.

Hoje pela manhä, antes de irmos embora, trocamos roupas e bijouterias, hahaha - descobrimos a paixäo comum por roupas e coisas de brechó, em geral. Ela me deu uma calca de montaria que ela comprou num brechó que é assim, breathtaking! e cabe certinho em mim, um pouquinho larga só! \o/

Ontem à tarde fomos todos nos encontrar num café, aonde conhecemos mais amigos eslavos do Kosta de da Katja, e inclusive amigos gregos e romenos também, que säo pessoas igualmente queridas. O grego, Spiros, inclusive nos convenceu a dar uma esticadinha pra Grécia quando estivermos em Ohrid, na Macedônia, hehe. Eu e Nara vamos ver se dá pra fazer mesmo. Mas acredito que sim, porque tenho amigo na Grécia, e ele já havia me dito que näo seria um prazer nos ter com ele por uns dias. Vamos ver se rola...

Hoje nos mudamos pra casa da Anja que, pra minha surpresa, é portuguesa, hahaha. Portuguesa e näo fala uma palavra de português, o que deixa tudo mais surreal ainda. Muito simpática também, amiga das antigas do Kosta. Acho que amanhä a gente vai cozinhar pra ela, eu Nara e Kostinho :)

No sábado Kosta tocou no clube Tsunami, e lá fomos nós! A música foi fantástica, como näo podia ser diferente quando se trata do Kostinho. Mas o público alemäo é uma porcaria! Eles näo dancam, por mais que esteja estampado na cara deles que eles estäo se contorcendo de vontade de dancar, haha. Dá agonia, vontade de chegar e sacudir eles pra ver se pegam no tranco!

Enfim, saímos de lá por volta das 5:30, o que nos custou a manhä seguinte toda de "sono extra".

Noite seguinte fomos com o Kaska bater perna perna pela cidade. Nos perdemos, nos deram as chaves erradas do apartamento do Kostov e tivemos que gritar pelo vizinho, depois comecou a chover loucamente e a gente näo achava o clube Lotta, achamos o clube, dancamos, e acabamos a noite comendo burek (!!!) na loja do Iraquiano da esquina, com o Kostov e o amigo dele, também DJ, porém alemäo. E depois...

Tenho que sair voada agora, meu tempo online tá acabando. Depois conto mais ;)

Primeiro post! - First post!

2007-12-03T10:04:00.003-02:00

Caros leitores,

Me encontro em Colônia agora, em casa de Katja, uma amiga Russa (do Uzbequistao, na verdade) do Kostov. Um amor de pessoa, e o marido dela - Peter, alemäo - um amor também. Daqui há pouco me "mudo" para a casa da Anja, também amiga do Kostov e também eslava, ao menos pelo que o nome sugere.

Sol em Colônia hoje, o dia mais quentinho desde que chegamos. Eu sinto calor nos bracos e pernas, haha. O mais friozinho que pegamos aqui foi algo em torno de 0° graus, e foi super tranquilo pra mim e pra Nara.

Ainda hoje, porém mais tarde, vou por minhas fotos e videos online, e alguns disponíveis aqui no blog pra quem quiser ver ;)

___________________

I am now in Köln, at Katja´s place - a russian (actually, she´s from Uzbequistan) friend of Kostov. A lovely person, and her husband - Peter, from Germany - is lovely too. In an hour or so I´ll be "moving out" to Anja´s place - another Kostov´s friend and also a slav, at least taking from her name.

It´s sunny in Koeln today, the warmest day here since we arrived. I feel warm in my arms and legs, haha. The coldest day we had here was something around 0 degrees, and it was pretty ok for both me and Nara.

Still today, a bit later though, I shall be uploading my photos and videos, and putting some of them available here on my blog so you can check them out ;)