So if I'm blogging about it, then I've been there. What changed? I got an appetite to visit more of the Balkans through visiting some of the Balkans. I could say that it was just logical with transport links that we go there in the course of visiting other Balkan countries. Thats true, but if I stated this as the sole reason that would be a lie. I think it became equal parts a desire to visit as many European countries as we could, and actually see Serbia for itself and what it might have to offer.
So that was the reasoning for Serbia. Belgrade became the destination solely because of transport links - at one stage it looked like Nis would make the most sense, but that's before we knew Kosovo was off the table thanks to the Serbians making it difficult to go there. As a reminder - Kosovo is difficult to visit because if you entered it first before going to Serbia, Serbia would not let you in because Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as being independent of Serbia. From Skopje, Macedonia there was a night train to Belgrade - Sasha and I both liked the idea of catching this so our travels formed around that link. And that was it - we weren't going for culture, for history or because we'd heard cool things about it. In fact it wasn't until we were about to leave Berlin, long after we'd booked it that we had any proper idea of what there might be to do in Belgrade - Sam & Steve gave us a list of recommendations, which was surprisingly sizeable. You could say we were bad tourists, visiting a country for the hell of it rather than what it had to offer - but my counter to that is we were still giving it a go when we could gave just passed it by.
As mentioned above, we planned to catch the Night Train from Skopje. As mentioned in previous posts, this train is supposed to start in Thessaloniki, Greece and we'd heard conflicting information about whether it was still running - and discovered in Thessaloniki that it wasn't running from there to Skopje. We had researched contingencies, but decided we would ask at Skopje when we got there and see if by some miracle it was still running - if not, we'd take an overnight bus. To be honest, I was not hopeful regarding the train.
Upon our arrival in Skopje at the bus/train station the first thing we did was go to the train ticket office. There was a lady in the window, but her booth appeared to be closed and there was no one else. However someone else went up to her, so we went up afterwards and asked about the train - is there still one. "Yes but only night train" was the response - great, it still runs! We ask if there is any lie-flat beds on the train - only couchettes in 6-berth compartments was the answer, but that is what we'd been expecting. A couchette is essentially a bunk - its a bit like a Hostel dorm room on rails, you buy a bunk but there will be other people on the other bunks. We got two tickets for the train (€14 each) and two couchette reservations (€6 each) - so we would be travelling and lying down (and hopefully get some sleep!) for €20. By comparison - the overnight bus was going to cost €22 each and we'd only be able to sit in a seat. Oh and we had to pay for the train in Cash and only in Macedonian Denar so we had to quickly visit the ATM mid-transaction.
The train left Skopje at 10.19, when its on time. This day it was not on time. Because the train (its primarily a Serbian train) didn't start in Thessaloniki anymore we presumed it would start in Skopje but this wasn't the case. I have no idea where it actually started and we also had no clue how late it was. It showed up about 30mins late, with two Serbian seating carriages and the lone Macedonian couchette carriage. There was a fair crowd on the platform and we steeled ourselves for a possibly full couchette compartment. But we were the only people who hopped on the couchette carriage at Skopje, and the carriage attendant seemed equal parts confused and surprised he had customers. After checking our tickets he led us to our compartment, which was unoccupied. He did not speak any functional English, which made the next few minutes a little confusing - he mimed various instructions about the compartment and kept pointing to the two middle fold-down bunks. But our allocated bunks were the top two - which were very high up and there was no ladder provided to climb up onto them, so when we pointed this out he waved at the whole compartment - we would have it to ourselves, so we could sleep wherever - great!. But he persisted with trying to set up the middle bunks for us until we got the message across that we'd prefer the bottom ones which were already set up. The attendant kept comping back with various things - extra blankets, and extra pillows. Meanwhile the train itself had left the station, only to go back into it and out the other side, then stop, then go back through and it did this about 3 times over. This often indicates carriages being added or re-arranged, or locos being changed - but as far as I could tell the carriages remained the same and if the loco wasn't the same one, it looked identical! We ended up back the same platform where we started, and departed finally about 11.20pm - an hour behind schedule. This would mean a late arrival in Belgrade which was no problem, but it also meant that the Macedonian and Serbian border checks where an hour later - so rather than be all done with that by midnight, it would be 1am and there was no point going to sleep before then.
At Tabanovtse, the Macedonian border station, border officials collected our passports and took them away. Then a lady in a uniform that said customs came through and asked if we had anything to declare for taking out the country - cigarettes or alcohol in particular. Our answer was no, and she carried on. A few minutes later a man in a uniform that said customs arrived and started asking the same questions as the lady. Sasha pointed out a lady had already asked us these things, and he replied that was Customs Control but he was Financial Control. He then asked if we were carrying any money on us - I said yes, he then asked how much. I said 600 Denar (which is what I thought we had) and "some Euros". He asked to see it, so I took out the Denar notes - turns out we had 1100 Denar (about €18 worth, we thought we'd spend it and then didn't think about exchanging it before we left) and I took out a €10 note from my main money compartment (I had far more in another compartment but decided not to produce it). I notice his face dropped a little when the €10 came out, but then he told us taking Macedonian money out of Macedonia was illegal. We didn't know this, we'd never heard that and said as much - Sasha then asking can you show us some evidence of this regulation or could we speak to the lady who came before. He kind of ignored that and asked why we were trying to take the money out of the country. I replied that we hadn't had a chance to change it before leaving Skopje and that we were going to change it in Belgrade when we got there. "Can you do that?" was his slightly confused reply - "Yes, that was the advice we received" I said. That was a barefaced lie - I had no idea whether it was possible and I had no such advice, but I was starting to get suspicious of him - if its illegal to take money out of the country, then no one outside of Macedonia must be able to exchange Macedonian money at all and surely being Financial Control, he would know that?. Our suspicions must have shown a bit as he then decided to accept that as an answer and leave. We've since looked up whether its illegal to take money out of Macedonia - and nothing says that (some countries it is illegal to do so, but nothing lists Macedonia). I still think he was a real customs official (Sasha isn't so sure) but he was trying to trick us out of some money - he didn't succeed. Oh and as an aside, we've discovered its almost impossible to exchange Macedonian Denars as no exchange place we've found so far will deal in them! Not a popular currency it seems. Soon we had our passports back with exit stamps from Macedonia and the train departed.
The Serbian border station was Presevo - about 20 minutes into Serbian territory once we'd crossed the border. Two things occurred to me at this point - the first was if (under normal circumstances) you boarded the train in Thessaloniki, Greece, and rode the train to Belgrade you'd cross the Greece/Macedonian border and also the Macedonian/Serbian border - getting both Macedonian entry and exit stamps but never get off the train, so although you'd have the stamps in your passport to say you'd been to Macedonia it wouldn't count as per The Rules; and the second was since the border check is fairly deep into Serbian territory, what happens if you have a Kosovo stamp in your passport? Do they kick you off the train even though you're already physically in Serbia, and do they drive you 20mins back to the Macedonian border? At Presevo our passports got collected, and a short time later a Serbian Customs Official came and asked us if we had anything to declare - I decided to try head him off the pass and said that we did not, and that we had no Alcohol or Tobacco. He had no further questions for us after that and moved along, After a while, our passports were back with the tiniest stamp I've had in my passport yet, and we were on our way. With all the border crossings over, we could now settle in for the night and attempt to sleep - our couchette beds were already made, so it was just a matter of locking the compartment door (the lock being slightly bent), hopping into bed and donning earplugs and eyemasks.
Nothing special this time - a hostel across the road from the station for maximum convenience. We had a private room with a double bed, but had to share a bathroom with the other dorm rooms which is fine and nothing out of the ordinary for us. The big notable thing about this accommodation? Apart from the lady at the desk being rather unhelpful about things to do in the city (or even providing a map - giving us wayward instructions where we might be able to find one) there seemed to be a lot of students staying here who would either spend all day at the Hostel in the common area on their laptops using the internet, or stay up extremely late talking and socializing until like 3am. I don't know whether any of them ever actually went out and explored Belgrade, they seemed to always be in the hostel and always crowding the common areas. Otherwise, fairly unremarkable except for the massive blue plastic water tank that was positioned in the kitchen - never did figure out what that was about!
We're not much for museums these days - one museum seems much like the next after a while, but when there's something especially interesting we'll go. The Tesla Museum was one of these - a chance to learn about one of the important pioneers in the world of Electricity, Nikola Tesla (and nothing to do with the Electric Cars - the brand though is named for Nikola). Who was Tesla? He was a Serbian-Croat who "invented" AC current electricity - the kind of electricity that comes out of all the power sockets in your home and developed the electric motor. Pretty much, he invented how we use electricity today. So why do we never much hear of him? He was a bit of a recluse, but also had a problematic relationship with Thomas Edison, the inventor who was trying to popularise DC electricity (the kind used in AA batteries) over AC and to do so attacked Tesla's reputation - apparently to the point where Edison would harass Tesla and even break in and trash Tesla's workshop, aside from Edison inventing the Electric Chair to work on Tesla's "Dangerous, Harmful" AC rather than Edison's "Safe" DC. But we didn't learn that last part in the museum - instead the museum focussed rightly on Tesla's pioneering ideas and inventions. Its not a big museum - in fact its a bit too small for the amounts of people visiting but it has Tesla's ashes on display and active demonstrations of a Tesla Coil, which amplifies electricity and basically simulates lightning - while also allowing wireless transmission of electricity. They demonstrated this wireless transmission by giving Flourescent light tubes to people in the audience (including Sasha!) and turning the coil on in short bursts - when it was on, the tubes lit up in the people's hands. A good and educational museum, if small and maybe too brief.
Plural this time - as we did two free walking tours! The first was a shortish tour around the inner city, including the bohemian street area and also the Belgrade Fortress. We do a lot of walking tours, but this was the first time when our tour guide had asked us when we showed up why we had chosen to visit Belgrade and what were we most interested in seeing? We fudged the answer - because if we were brutally honest Belgrade was just a tick-box and we had not come here for things that we wanted to do, but rather had decided to come and then find out what, if anything, there was to do. I don't think any local would appreciate hearing that! At just around 90 minutes the tour was quicker than normal I think but provided us with a good understanding of where's what in the city - it was more focused on the city's attractions rather than history.
We went and did the 20th Century walking tour the next morning - which happened to be guided by our same guide from the previous tour! This tour was about the history of the city and country in the 20th Century, which was quite eventful for Serbia and Belgrade. The tour was a bit haphazard in terms of the location visited and how they related to the history of the city or country - it wasn't a linear progression so jumped around between time periods, making it a bit hard to follow at times and piece together. So as I am want to do sometimes, I'm going to give you the 'brief' Dan's History Explanation about Serbia and Belgrade and then get back to the talking about the tour.
So in a nutshell - Serbia was a key participant, if not the key participant in World War 1 happening - they aided and abetted the Bosnian Serb separatists who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary during his visit to Sarajevo, in Bosnia. Austria-Hungary ends up declaring war on Serbia as a result; Serbia's biggest ally, Russia steps in to defend it. Germany and the Ottoman Empire take up arms to defend Austria-Hungary from Russia; and Britain and France are compelled to help out Russia, their ally. Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottomans lose the war; Austria-Hungary is broken up, and Bosnia chooses to go into confederation with Serbia and other countries in the region - forming the first Yugoslavia.
Belgrade took a hammering during World War 2 - it got invaded by Italians, who were replaced in 1943 by Germans because the Italians were having trouble holding the territory and then crashed out of the war (the soldiers weren't well trained and the Italian Resistance made some real gains against Mussolini and the fascist state). The allies back a group of Partisans in Yugoslavia, who ask the allies to bomb a lot of Belgrade to drive the Germans out. A lot of Belgrade gets destroyed, but the Germans are driven out and the Partisans take control of Yugoslavia. They are led by Josip Broz Tito and are Communists, who set about rebuilding the city and keep Belgrade as the capital of the now-socialist Yugoslavia. The city becomes fairly prosperous as far as Yugoslavia is concerned, and the city thrives and grows.
Socialist Yugoslavia falls apart in the late 80's. Serbia, the kingpin country of Yugoslavia wants the confederation to continue in a non-communist form, but most (not all) of the constituent states decide to go their own way. Serbia then begins, surreptitiously at first, then fairly overtly, to try and annex either territory or whole member states that were formerly part of Yugoslavia - but also to drive out anyone who is not an ethnic Serb. In southern Serbia in a region called Kosovo there is a large population of ethnic Albanians, so Serbia starts driving them out and then outright killing them. The world, having taken a while to wise up to what was going on, wants to stop the events in Kosovo - but not all UN countries agree on the method of action. But a lot do - and they are members of NATO, so in 1999 NATO conducted a number of targeted air strikes in Belgrade, destroying some key buildings. Serbia surrenders, the UN Peacekeeping mission enters Kosovo and administers it separately to Serbia. Later Kosovo decides to declare independence from Serbia, which most countries of the world recognise but not all - and Serbia steadfastly refuses to acknowledge independence.
So now, back to the Walking Tour. On the previous day's tour, Kosovo had come up as a mention somehow and our tour guide immediately stated "By the way Kosovo is a part of Serbia, it is an Autonomous region of Serbia but it is not a separate country". For this day's Walking Tour when our guide had asked the group to name the former constituent parts of Yugoslavia, someone had said Kosovo and our tour guide said pretty much the same spiel. Later on in the tour, we stop outside a building which has a wrecked building in its core. We are told this is the Radio Television Building, it was hit by air strikes in 1999 by NATO. Why was it bombed? Our tour guide tells us it was "a consequence of the end of the Cold War and NATO decided to bomb various buildings in Belgrade, but it was not supported by the UN and many people were killed". We are shown a tombstone-like memorial to the same bombing which has on it in Serbian "Why?" and the list of people killed in the building when it was bombed. Also of note here - our guide starts using "NATO" and "The Americans" interchangeably. The airstrikes in Belgrade were primarily US-led, but were carried out by French and UK air forces too. Not far away we are shown another memorial, this one dedicated to the children who died in the NATO airstrikes and more harsh words are said about NATO and The Americans - and in essence what we are told is that NATO bombed Belgrade for no real reason.
I've lived in Germany for 2 years, and in World War 2 the Germans did some very nasty stuff with various groups of people but the Genocide of the Jews above all. The Germans do not hide what they did - they acknowledge what their people did, make it very clear that it was terrible and they are very sorry on behalf of their nation - this is known as the "German Guilt". Serbia carried out its own Genocide in Kosovo - but there is no "Serbian Guilt". While walking between places visited on the tour, one of the tour members asked our tour guide on the walk about the events in Kosovo and our guide just said "Its complicated". The guys pressed her for more details and mentioned he'd heard it had something to do with a different ethnicity there - our guide replied "No, that's not it. Its all very complicated, I'll explain it later but its a long story and complicated". Of course she never explained it later - it was all nicely swept under the carpet. I was actually going to ask a few questions in regard to it but the general vibe was Don't.
So why are they like this, and see things this way? I have a theory. It consists of two parts - the first is the Milosevic Government seemed to control the media, so apparently the Serbian population never much knew what was going on in Kosovo and while knew there was some tensions with the world regarding Kosovo, at the time they likely didn't know the extent. Certainly the Serbian population didn't know the NATO bombing was coming because they didn't know things were bad enough to warrant it - so from that perspective its easy to see why the NATO bombing is seen as being a heavy handed response to what they thought was a fairly minor dispute about Kosovo. The second part relates to psyche. Tito's Yugoslavia straddled the West and East - part of both sides but also standing on its own. Pretty much, the only country in the world that could claim to have both the US and the USSR, the world's two most powerful countries as close allies at the same time. The West was the First World, the East the Second World, and Yugoslavia led other nations (mostly African) in the Third World. In the eyes of Yugoslavians, Yugoslavia was an equal with Russia and the US and Serbia was the root of Yugoslavia. Hence when Yugoslavia fell apart, Serbia wanted to stay "Great" and of importance. But the other constituent parts of Yugoslavia didn't want to stay with Serbia, which must have been seen by Serbians as somewhat ungrateful for all Serbia had done for them. The Serbian Government denied any involvement or meddling with some of the situations going on around in former Yugoslavian countries, such as Bosnia. So to the population, not only did the Serbians lose their sense of prestige but suddenly these nations that were once falling over themselves to stay on good terms with Yugoslavia are now collectively turning on Serbia and accusing it of things the people probably believed were made up. So ok - I can see how they might have seen things that way at the time, but why still now when there is a weight of evidence of all that Serbia did in Kosovo and in Bosnia? Is the guilt too much to process yet? Do they really believe its all a made up story that is still perpetuated by the West for Western purposes to weaken Serbia? And sure, the attack on the Radio Television building was protested against by some of the NATO partners and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council mandate to support the NATO strikes - but Russia were one of the key members of the UN Peacekeeping mission into Kosovo right after the NATO intervention, so while they may have disagreed with the method of intervention, they were in support of intervention in Kosovo. Kosovo is the old cultural heart of Serbia, its where the nation began and a lot of history is tied to the region - I can see why the Serbs aren't keen to let it go. But after conducting a literal Genocide there and terrible persecution, you can't claim any moral right to the region - best to admit your mistakes, let it go and carry on. It took Germany many years to deal with the Guilt properly - hopefully Serbia gets there in time.
In the end our tour ended outside a new Serbian Orthodox church, which had no connection to 20th Century Belgrade history really - in all the tour was a bit potted in what was visited and the history we were taught. However in all it was good, and our tour guide for both tours was good and informative - even if I had issues with her presentation of the issues surrounding Kosovo.
Belgrade is apparently known for its riverside party boats - Night Clubs that float on the water, known as "Splavs" or "Splavlovi". Apparently they have over 300 of them and Belgrade is known for its nightlife. I say apparently, because I only found out both these things after arriving in Belgrade - I had never heard of these before, which I found a little surprising since the big clubbing places in Europe seem to be well known and promoted (Berlin is definitely one). The season was only just beginning for them while we were there and although we didn't want to go party at night there (we heard its hard to get in), we were keen to visit one during the day as some were open for food and drinks.
We went to the main Splav area and to be honest, it looked a bit mixed. The riverside promenade was run down and didn't look like a particularly inviting area for clubbing - certainly all the overgrown grass/tussock areas didn't seem to be a) a popular area for night life and b) very friendly for the ladies who might be wearing their high heels. Some of the boat/barges were rather new looking and fancy, some were clearly old boats with what looked like houses plonked on top and some were rusting away unfinished. It didn't look very typical of a Night Life area, certainly one that was supposed to be "One of the best in Europe" - and special mention to the club Hot Mess for not only its name, but for the unbelievable amount of floating trash in front of the club on the river stuck in its pontoons. We went into one of the few open places - it had a restaurant downstairs, and the clubbing area must have been upstairs. The downstairs area was not huge but it did have a side outdoor area and neatest of all, a kind of netting area that you could sit above the river on cushions on while sipping your drink. We sat next to the netted area and had dinner and a drink here, but it got too cold to contemplate going on the netting which was a shame. If all the Splavs were like this one along the river and the promenade was done up I'm sure the whole area would take off and deserve its supposed reputation - but I for one am not convinced and think maybe its overhyped the way it is right now.
Serbian cuisine is basically Yugoslavian - so not much different than what we had in Macedonia. We had Cevapcici here, which is the traditional Balkan dish of mincemeat made into sausage-like fingers and served with, or inside, Pita bread and some salad-items. We also had a very non-traditional dish of Eggs Benedict the first morning we were there for breakfast (at a cafe attached to a Hotel called Mr President, which had a huge picture of the back of Trump's head!) which was not only extremely tasty but came with a sauce other than Hollandaise - I never did catch its name but the waitress explained it was made from "a rare mushroom that dogs sniff out of the ground", i.e. Truffle. We also asked her what was a Plazma Shake - her eyes lit up at the question, apparently it was very typical of Belgrade and very delicious but she never actually told us what it was made of! We decided to order one to share between us - it turns out its basically an Oreo Shake made with a local type of biscuit called Plazma, but it uses what seemed to be egg white in the froth as well as some milk. Very tasty, but there was no way I could have done one of these all by myself - a bit too rich!
As for drink, we tried some Serbian wine and I also tried some Serbian beer. None of these stand out in my memory as being anything out of the ordinary. We did see a Limited Edition Fanta called "Dragonata" being advertised, and managed to find a solitary can - it was heavily mango flavour, which was not altogether to my tastes (I really dislike Mango flavoured drinks in general) but I still had my share of it. What does stand out in my memory of Belgrade for drink is the Raikia. Our walking tour guide showed us the Bohemian Area of the city where all the traditional but also trendy restaurants are, and pulled out a bottle of homemade Raikia for us all to try - very heavily honey flavoured, nice but a bit sickly. In this same bohemian area we went back later to the only place that was just for drinks and had two Raikia shots to share between us - one Quince Flavoured and one Apple and Cinnamon. We thought the Quince flavour might be nice, since all the Quince-flavoured Polish Vodka we'd sampled had been delicious - but it was rather foul. We finished on the Apple & Cinnamon one, which was far far nicer! While having drinks at this place we saw diners being serenaded at a restaurant across the way by a quartet who were moving from table to table as they were being paid off. Except they got stuck at one table for a very long time - either the couple didn't know they had to pay the band to go away, or they just didn't want to pay them but the band kept going on, and on, and on at their table while they were trying to eat. I didn't see who caved in the end - the band or the couple, but I do recall seeing the couple arguing with the staff and a member of the band about half an hour later. We also got Burek for lunch one day, which we didn't realise until we got it that it was something we'd already had in Skopje but it was super cheap and super filling! Its probably best described as a kind of meat pie.Oh and shout out to the rather tasty chocolate block that was called LOL.
Sasha bought a dress in Belgrade - it was locally made and a good price. Also it looks great on her and will be good for the continuing hot weather! However her cellphone is now acting up in a big way - before we left she had a major issue with her iPhone where it wouldn't charge, and I used a spare parts iPhone of the same model from work to replace the charging socket. In the process I changed the battery and screen from the spare phone too, and the end result has been that her phone now charges but the home button doesn't work, but the screen is better than before. Unfortunately something happened to the screws and now they are stripped and can't be unscrewed - a problem now that Sasha's phone is giving false battery levels and it will turn itself off on 60% charge, or say its on 1% charge for hours. Its getting to the point where Sasha will have to plug in one of our battery packs just to turn on the phone or keep it going, every day. Definitely less than ideal, and considering my iPhone is not in the best state either - not helpful for either of us!
Summing Up
So would Serbia ever get the Euro? its possible - they have to join the EU to do it, and given their traditionally cozy relationship with Russia I thought they might not be keen. But no, its a priority for them - they are a candidate country and are working towards joining the EU. Its not a simple ride for them though - one of the conditions for becoming a candidate was anyone accused of War Crimes from the Bosnian and Kosovo wars had to be handed over to the Hague, and so in 2011 (some 12 years after Kosovo ended and even longer since Bosnia) they finally arrested and extradited these people (who I don't think were particularly hiding either). Serbia, along with Macedonia appears to be slated for possible inclusion into the EU for the 2025 round (I think Albania hopes to be included in this round too but probably won't make it) but one of the preconditions of joining the EU is the Kosovo situation has to be "settled". Serbia makes out that this does not mean it has to recognise Kosovo's declared Independence, just that it has to formalise the arrangement with its autonomous region. The problem? Kosovo is also considered a candidate country by the EU - although not all EU countries recognise Kosovo's independence. The main ones which don't recognise Kosovo as being separate are Greece, Cyprus and Spain. This seems odd on the face of it until you see why - Greece because it doesn't want a precedent for its claim to part of Cyprus, and Cyprus itself (which is half Greece, half Turkish) is caught up in that idea; and Spain, because it didn't want to give any ideas to its region of Catalonia, which recently has tried to become independent regardless. The EU as a body stands by Spain and doesn't believe Catalonia should separate - but the EU as a body supports Kosovo as an independent state. We saw banners in Belgrade criticising the EU for its dual stance and saying that there was no difference between the two, but there is - Spain has never tried to rid Catalonia of the ethnic Catalonian people in any manner, let alone through atrocities and genocide. Kosovo is worried not settling its independence issue before Serbia joining the EU will cause it to be effectively usurped back into Serbia, and also that if Kosovo isn't able to join at the same time as Serbia it might never be able to join as Serbia could choose to veto its membership because it wouldn't recognise Kosovo as being eligible. EU rules state all countries must agree to admitting a new member - it only takes one to say no and it doesn't get in, even if all the others say yes. So the issue of Kosovo and Serbia will have to come to a head in the near future, thanks to the EU - it will be interesting to see what happens.
Would I go back. This question is not one I often like asking or answering, but is especially relevant given how I began this piece, mentioning that I didn't want to go to Serbia at all at one stage. Belgrade was nice enough, but nothing special. As a city it would probably do quite good from being in the EU, as would the country as a whole - not that its doing badly at the moment as far as I can tell, it certainly doesn't seem like it would benefit from lots of EU funding like Macedonia did. I don't really know what the rest of the country is like - but from what little I've seen and heard, its probably not much different to other places in the Balkans I've now been to. I have no real reason to go back to Belgrade or Serbia, and to be honest I don't think I'd ever plan on going back - I'd much sooner visit other places again in the Balkans than Serbia. The people were friendly and nice - but their stance on Kosovo is a bit jarring to me, and to be honest I find it incredulous. Let me put it another way - if Germany as a country denied the Holocaust, there is no way that would be tolerated by the world community - can you imagine the hell that would be to pay with that? The thing is, that is directly analogous with Serbia and the Kosovan Genocide so why do we tolerate that?. I've been to Serbia, it was nice enough, we saw what we wanted to see and that was it - I guess a bit like Latvia. Glad to have gone, but that's probably the only time we'll ever go. Never say never of course!
While I don't wish to visit Serbia again, I do hope to visit Kosovo one day. Maybe it will be a fully-recognised independent country by the time we're able to visit - I hope so. No matter what the Serbians might want to believe, Kosovo is recognised as a country in its own right by over half of the world's countries - so that to me is a majority. Its an independent country just with a dispute for borders with a neighbour - that's facts on the ground as well as in the UN. Just because Serbia doesn't want to believe its the case, doesn't make it so!