My work necessitated a three day trip to Belgrade last week, or local travel as my paymasters prefer to think of it.
To travel to Serbia from Kosovo, it is necessary to travel in a UN or EU marked car which you hope is not designed to identify easy targets, or attract friendly fire from KFOR in an emergency. In any case non-official passengers cadging a lift have to sign away all claims to the EU before setting foot in their transport.
So at 7.30 on Wednesday two of us and a driver set off in the freezing cold with the beginning of snow. Because of me it was necessary to travel the long way round: to exit Kosovo and transit through Macedonia so we could enter Serbia "properly" and get an official stamp in my passport. Kosovars have passports issued by UNMIK which allow them to get most places, but I think they have to use their old Serbian travel documents to cross the border into Serbia.
By 9 we were stuck for an hour in the mountains near the border with Macedonia with a very pretty (if gloomy in the photo) mountain snowscape, that is except for the traffic jam ahead of us, waiting for some truck stuck in the snow. After that we drove without problems until Nis when it snowed heavily and visibility was bad. Eventually we made it to the hotel in Belgrade about 3 by which time it seemed already dark.
The Intercontinental Hotel had clearly been refurbished since the last Belgrade In Your Pocket, which remarked that Arkan's blood was still left on the carpet where he was shot.
At the conference, one group of engineers had been so hi-jacked by the Serbs that they managed to produce a map of the region showing reform progress without actually showing Kosovo at all. Luckily our group was more sanguine about it and infinitely better behaved than the Serbs. Our engineer was contented with reporting what progress had been made factually and calmly, and thus made a much better impression.
The high point of the conference was the invitation by Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia to dinner at the White Palace, and here's the invitation to prove it.
Prince Alexander came himself and treated us to an explanation of how he had repaired the building. It was actually a bit like having Fergie there to tell us how much her house cost, though he wasn't so vulgar as to say how much he had spent.
Apparently he returned to Serbia after living in London, though his English accent was mid-Atlantic. His Serbian is apparently not up to scratch so he can't be a serious politician, as perhaps he intended. So it seems he hires his Palace out to visiting dignitaries or groups like us.
Anyway the food was good, even if a bit cold. I forgot to collect any postcards on the way out, otherwise there would be some photos here. This is all I can find so far on the internet.
In any case the palace was built in 1925, so it is hardly very historical.
On the way back we came the direct route from Serbia to Kosovo, and I got a piece of paper from UNMIK at the border which is what passes for an entry visa, so there are no awkward questions at the airport on the way out. The Serbian side of the border was a bit like an East German border in Berlin: a load of rough looking soldiers in scruffy premises, who looked like they could get away with anything. The UNMIK side was clean with well-dressed, English speaking border guards who were perfectly polite.
Otherwise the 5 hour journey was uneventful without any snow.
