Wu Wei

Fish restaurant by the side of the Danube

Finally had a proper night out in Belgrade, despite the workload.  Someone I had worked with briefly in my first year in Vilnius was a colleague of our French lawyer.   She had never met him, just frequently talked to him over the phone.  It seemed he was now working in Belgrade again and he knew it well.  So we went off to dinner at Sharan in Zemun.  It seemed he remembered me and my kids more than I remembered him.  Embarrassing at first but we had lots of fun catching up with what had happened to all the people we worked with at that time.

Sharan is in Zemun which is a suburb just outside Belgrade on the other side of the Danube.  This is what it says on the restaurant's website

To come to Zemun and not to stop by the ŠARAN is like not having been to Zemun at all, the old folks from Zemun use to say.

Tavern Šaran is a pride of zemun. Located at the very bank of river Danube, Šaran still keeps the spirit of the old city. More than century ago fisherman Vićentije Vukotić, had opened this tavern that rapidly became widely known by its fish soup, which traditional recipe is still kept in the restaurant alone. However, it is not only the famous fish soup that is Šaran cuisine known about. In there, one could find various national dishes and exotic meals from around the world too. A friendly atmosphere and a selection of quality vines are the trade mark of tavern Šaran, for more than 120 years.

From the riverside inn, former hangout of fisherman and travellers, to the modern restaurant, where true connoisseurs of exquisite cuisine and good wine gather together, artists and diplomats alike.

Tavern Šaran was still is Zemun's Soul

It's right on the edge of the Danube and in summer must be wonderful.  Yesterday it was dark when we arrived and there was some building work going on on the river bank so it was not so picturesque as it might have been, even if it wasn't too cold to sit out.

We had a big fish dinner and lots of Vranac as always, and talked non-stop.  Then we walked around looking for a taxi without any success.  Finally we found a car park attendant who not only spoke good English but called the taxi off his own mobile for us.

Later I realised that Zemun is presumably the home of the Zemun clan, the most famous mafia organisation in Serbia, deemed responsible for the assassination of Prime Minister Djindjic.  You can read about their escapades here in Wikipedia.  The town itself is full of small old buildings in the Austro-Hungarian style.  If a bit of money was spent on them it would be really pretty.  I suppose we can hardly expect gangsters to do that sort of thing.

My last week here.  Not had enough time to see friends and work memories not all that fond.  But that was the internationals not the locals. 

Time to go home and move into our next house. 

Technorati tags: Zemun, Saran, Belgrade, restaurants, fish

Message to the Managers of the Post Office in Belgrade Airport

Dear Post Office Managers (and Belgrade Airport managers as well)

I have been passing through Nicola Tesla Airport several times a month recently. On the whole it is an efficient and pleasant experience. You can see what I wrote about my first visit here.

We were delighted when we found there was free wireless, though we would have been prepared to pay to work in the clean and modern corner of the post office dedicated to internet. We were even more pleased to find it was a no-smoking area. I have used the desktop computers to print my British Airways boarding card to speed checking in, which was very useful.

In short, you were doing everything right as far as passengers were concerned.

So imagine our horror as this service has just got more and more degraded. First of all, there were no slips of paper with the password for the wireless. Remember this is a service we are prepared to pay for, but we can't use it at all, because you cannot be bothered to print the slips of paper with the password on it.

Then we arrived on Sunday with 5 hours to wait for a connection to Montenegro. Never mind we thought, we can catch up on our work in the post office with the nice internet. IT WAS CLOSED. Passengers don't travel on Sunday I suppose. Or you don't care. I'm sure there are enough young people wanting a job who are prepared to work to open up the internet.

This morning I came in to check in on line and to print my ticket and boarding card. I was told that the printer cartridge had run almost run out of toner. It seems they have been waiting for a month for this toner cartridge.

Also there is no wireless because there are still no password slips. So why did you bother to install the wireless? It doesn't cost anything extra to use, now you have paid for the router. You could be charging money for the service, but instead it has no income because no one has passwords.

What an idiotic way to run a business in a busy airport! Don't you want our money?

And don't go blaming the people on the counter. They are clearly doing their best, despite their managers, and still manage to be polite and helpful.

Stuck in the past

My work in Belgrade has been quite interesting as I managed to get to talk to the parts of the energy sector which the ministry, power company etc don't reach.  Of course this means the really important part: the consumers.

So my last meeting was a lady representing consumers.  She was trying to set up an independent set of consumers' associations which would be more active than the "official" ones.  More power to her elbow! She said that she had worked in the police department in the Ministry of the Interior, but had retired now, but still wanted to work actively.  As a lawyer, she seemed well-qualified and we had several really interesting discussions and I had no problem with trying to help her. 

Then just at the end, she said something to the interpreter, saying not to translate.  Of course, as soon as she was out of earshot, the interpreter told me that she had said she had been some big shot in the equivalent of the CIA.  We both understood that as being in the Yugoslav equivalent of the KGB, which doesn't have quite the same fearsome reputation as the Russian one. But nevertheless, it was clear that she was not as simple as just working for the police, as she had said. 

Why do some people have to boast? Why say anything? How or why does someone in that business decide she wants to represent consumers? 

Lots of stereotypes here.  Are any of them valid?

Technorati tags: police, consumers' association, KGB, belgrade

Dyevushkas alive and well in Belgrade

Well actually there aren't that many around.  So I was a bit surprised that, having checked in online, printed my boarding pass and got to the bag drop, I was greeted by a dyevushka making the best of squeezing herself into a British Airways uniform.  Her eyelashes were a serious hazard even across a checkin counter, and her lips were so glossed up that if the baggage belt had the same level of gloss, the luggage would  have skidded off.  But doing the bag drop must be a really boring job, hardly needing any skills or conversational ability. 

Technorati tags: dyevushka, British Airways, Belgrade airport

Fusion culture

 Finally I managed to meet one of my real Serb friends and go to somewhere non-touristy.  We went to a bar/cafe (well how do you tell the difference?) less than 100m from Skadarska but one you would never find unless you knew it was there: through a large ornamental cast iron gate, round a corner down some stairs and there you are. 

Well I was very confused, because it was like being back in Dveri* in Sarajevo, basically a corridor between two buildings with a makeshift roof over it, hung with random decorations.  

  

It is quite cold out, so my friend recommended hot wine, which got me very confused.  OK you can have mulled wine in Britain but usually only in your home or at a party.  You don't normally get it in bars.  So I always think of it as karstas vynas (recipe here) because that's what you have in cafes in Lithuania in December and January when it's really cold outside.  So there we were, knocking back the karstas vynas out of the irish coffee glasses,  having a very nice time in Belgrade.  Actually it wasn't really cold enough to need the gas-fired patio heaters, though I did have two sweaters and a jacket on.  Is it really only September?

*which I wrote about here, but I realise has its own website here.

Technorati tags: Dveri, Belgrade bars, hot wine, culture

The end of the summer

This time of year is always sad, the end of the summer.  We had noticed that the temperatures in the high 20s suddenly disappeared for tomorrow on the weather forecast and we were promised 12 degrees and rain.  Panic! no coats and no warm clothes with us.  But no matter, the forecast climbed back to the mid 20s by Friday.

This afternoon, we were sitting in a cafe outside our hotel, working hard  (we meet downstairs for discussions and coffee) and soon the sky was clouding over.  The waiters started collecting the seat cushions and we decided to move indoors.  Soon rain was falling.  Now as I write, the thunderstorm and deluge has arrived, though it is still warm enough to sit with the window open. 

The forecast for Oxford seems to be warmer than Belgrade but includes FOG (in capital letters).  I'm not accustomed to fog and 24 degrees so I wonder what I am missing. 

Now the weather forecast for Belgrade is rain and low temperatures for the rest of the week.

Technorati tags: weather, Belgrade, rain

Russky Tsar in Belgrade

We were all set to make a recommendation yesterday about this restaurant.

It's in a row full of cafes so it was hard to spot whether it had food or just drinks and ice-creams but we eventually spotted a menu, so we had lunch. I had a salad with chicken, rucola, walnuts, avocado and morello cherries.  There was lots of rucola, plenty of  everything else and not very much mayonnaise (clearly not very authentic for a Russian restaurant). I'm not sure whether the morello cherries were a good idea but were better than beetroot for the same effect of turning the avocado purple.  My colleague had a salad with chicken, pine nuts, thinly sliced pears and gorgonzola.  Again adequate quantities but not much mayonnaise.  The bread seemed home made and still warm. 

The waiters were dressed in mock Russian costume with the high collar blouse with coloured braiding off-centre down the front.  The waitresses, who were only allowed to sell ice-cream, were got up in those funny tiara style hats, with rustic smock dresses that looked like maternity gear, mostly in red.  Why anyone would want a waitress job in the place is not clear.

On the whole we were favourably impressed as it wasn't expensive, and had nice outdoor tables near a not too noisy square.  We made fools of ourselves complaining there were no spoons with our coffee, only to be shamed by the waiter who pointed out that the plastic stirrers were wrapped in an identical way to the sugar.  If it bends, it's sugar,  OK?  We made fools of ourselves a second time by having to count out  our last dinar for the bill and still hadn't enough.  So I dashed to the hole in the wall round the corner.

After all that we were definitely remembered today, when we decided to come back for more salads.  After ordering the same as yesterday but the other way round, we sat back in the sun looking forward to our lunch.  After 10 minutes (he had to search the complete kitchen, maybe) the waiter came back to apologise that if we wanted those salads we would have to wait 20 minutes, but we could have Greek salad immediately.  Did we have a choice?  An earlier lunch when our other colleague had ordered plum dumplings (also in only 20 minutes) which came after 40 minutes had already taught us how long we might have to wait.  So we settled for Greek salad which was really big and really good, with more fresh bread.  Nevertheless, what sort of restaurant doesn't have supplies of salad for lunch?  It's true that from our observations, most Serbs can't afford to eat out and content themselves with a drink or two, or maybe ice-cream.  But this is in a prime tourist area.

So we can recommend Russky Tsar on a Wednesday but not on a Thursday.   We may not be able to report on other days.

Technorati tags: Belgrade restaurants

Hotel Majestic continued

This morning I managed to sneak out a peach in my handbag past the breakfast police of the Majestic Hotel (see yesterday).  I can't say this was much achievement as the choice of fruit was not great by 8.30 and I got the  rock-hard peach rejected by everyone else.

Still, a successful smuggle gives some satisfaction.  Otherwise, if challenged, I was planning to bite the fruit and then hand it back to the waiter, since eating in the dining room is not yet forbidden.  My French colleague confessed she had also planned this manoeuvre if challenged.

Currently our day is brightened by such small successes, as we try to duck the EU bullets being exchanged about our work, and wrestle with the wireless offerings to get on the internet.  In the hotel, there is a choice of 4 secure channels which work intermittently and numerous unsecured, including the interesting HotelMajesticHackedbyRAFCrew, none of which work. 

Technorati tags: breakfast, Belgrade hotels, Hotel Majestic

Stealing an apple in the Hotel Majestic, Belgrade

Copydude is telling us how the Kaliningrad hospitality industry is not quite adjusted from its Soviet style, and has not understood the power of the blog in spreading reputations.

Ditto our Yugoslav hotel.  In the interest of improvement, I shall name and shame them.  At breakfast I was accused of stealing an apple as I took it out with me.  The waiter pointed to the notice telling you not to take out food from the dining room.  I assumed this meant they did not want you to take out plates and cutlery.  But no, stealing an apple is a crime in the Hotel Majestic. 

My colleague who had concealed her peach in her handbag, was rather smug.  I have not reported her.

Technorati tags: Hotel Majestic, Belgrade hotels

Eats shoots and leaves, plus earth and moon

Armed with two new guide books we wandered in a new direction this evening in search of dinner.  We settled on a Chinese restaurant which figured in both.  Alas we should have known better.  Although the menu was large and the prices were low, the food was not good.  When the waiter asked whether I liked my seaweed salad, I answered honestly that it tasted like a strange sort of pickled red cabbage.  Both my colleagues agreed that seaweed should be green and crisp but we were told firmly that by the waiter (aged all of about 20), that we were wrong and it was genuine Chinese seaweed.  China was a very big country, bigger than Europe and by implication there was more than one way to cook seaweed.  My colleagues did better with their hot and sour soup.

After that, my chicken and bamboo shoots also got the thumbs down.  That was it, lumps of chicken (boiled) with about three slices of bamboo shoot, lying in a monosodium glutamate sauce.  if you fished around  you found some tiny slivers of green, eventually identified as leek.  The tofu was more colourful but not much better in taste. Our waiter was a masochist and asked for another opinion.  When we asked where was the colour and the other vegetables, he implied that chicken and bamboo shoots was just that.  But he said this was the best Chinese restaurant in town. 

We asked where the Chinese quarter was and were told in New Belgrade, obviously some way away.  My idea was to go and see where the Chinese themselves ate, thinking of the Paddyfields in Oxford, advertised as "the place Chinese people themselves eat"  It's my current favourite, especially as it does dim sum.  The waiter dismissed this as the Chinese were a dirty people and one shouldn't go there.  At that point, the ugly head of racism reared up and we stopped the conversation.  It was sickening, particularly as we suspected that he had probably never even been near the area and was probably just going on prejudiced rumour.

For a change of mood we went off to see the "Earth from the Air" exhibition which was showing in the park near Kalemegdan.  It's a fantastic exhibition of large photos in the open air, so you can see them from a distance (as from the air) and then go closer to see the detail and read the captions.  Although I saw the exhibition first in Copenhagen and London (when we bought the book and the t-shirts) there was still a lot to look at and some new photos as well (from the tsunami damage).  There was even one showing a graveyard of Iraqi tanks which had been destroyed by depleted uranium bombs in the First Gulf War and now were a repository of toxic and radioactive waste.  But didn't they try to tell us depleted uranium was quite safe in Bosnia?

Finally on the way home we noticed there was a fantastic full moon, with the first full scale halo I can remember ever seeing.  At least I thought it was a halo, but now I've looked it up it seems it was a corona.  You can see the difference here.  This is what I saw:

Technorati tags: The Earth from the Air, Chinese food, moon corona