It has been 6-months of life in Serbia, and I finally feel settled…well, almost. My language skills are coming along slowly (polako), and I know my way around our region fairly well. When we drove home from the airport on the night of my arrival, every few blocks I noticed garages with signage entitled vulkanizer. So I learned a new word on my first night in my new country of residence, vulkanizer being a tire repair and installation specialist. Since the law requires different tires for winter versus spring-fall and parts of the country have mountainous terrain, these service shops stay busy year-round!
This year’s winter was relatively mild, a good transition for us coming from Southern California. The snow was really beautiful, and I only fell in it once. ❄️ So aside from a few weeks of a sore knee, winter treated us well and we enjoyed watching the seasonal transitions unfold. With spring sprung, my residency permit as the spouse of a citizen has been sanctioned, so thank you to the authorities for their stamp of approval!
Coming from California, Serbia’s cost-of-living suits us very well. An average trip to the grocery store is between RSD 2300-2800. Those extra zeroes sound scary, but that equates to $21-26, since RSD 108.76 equals $1 US. So a trip to Maxi, our nearest full service grocery store costs, runs about $21.15 - $25.74. Maxi is a Serbian retailer founded in 2000 and later bought out by Dutch-Belgian holding company Ahold Delhaize. They stock a lot of local products, with much of their dairy selection coming from Mlekara Šabac, one of the region’s best known dairy processing plants. Milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurts and puddings by Mlekara Šabac are of a high quality and very affordable. After the past three years in the US amidst inflation, that’s quite a deal for us. Of course, for the average Serbian customer, post-COVID inflation means these prices are steep for the average person, so we are conscious of our privilege. 💵
And yes, the dinar is Serbia’s national currency. This really resonates with me, since in Bahrain, where I lived for 5-years, they also use a version of the dinar. Deriving from the Latin term dēnārius, the word filtered into the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, becoming the Syriac dīnarā and then the Arabic dinar. The pre-Ottoman Kingdom of Serbia had its own version of the dinar, taking the term from its original Roman-Latin origins. This currency is an all-time classic! 🪙
Places & Spaces
We moved to a village next to a small city, a place where Sasha already had a lot of contacts, including extended family. Sasha’s roots in Klenak run deep, and his great-grandfather, alongside his paternal grandparents and father, are all buried in the cemetery on the edge of town. Our “village” has around 4000 people, but it borders the city of Sabac, home to 105,000 residents within its municipality. So far, we have crossed the border to neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina twice, visiting the well-known Stanišići Ethno Village, a replica of a traditional village with local food offerings, a petting zoo, sports field, and hotel. On our second visit, we even got to meet the prize winner of a dog contest that was being held on the grounds!
Within Serbia we have taken advantage of the new superhighway to Belgrade (aka Beograd, Serbia’s capital), making it to The Nutcracker at the National Theatre, plus a performance by harpist Alexander Boldachev at the Kolarac Concert Hall. Sasha promised me a trip to the infamous Red Star (Crvena Zvezda) vs. Partizan football derby with all its pyrotechnics and choreography, and it did not disappoint! We ended up in the Partizan fans’ section, and the match ended in a (frustrating) draw. We have also made it back to Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, which was the first city in the region that I got to know back in 2009. It remains my favorite one!
Sremska Mitrovica, the modern city built on the ancient Roman city of Sirmium, has been visited by us four times in the past six weeks, and has become a favorite local spot. On our first trip, the head of archeology at the Roman section of the museum gave us an incredibly thorough private tour, and then put us on her mailing list. Our first RSVP was for a lecture by a local historian tracing the last weeks of Marcus Aurelius life right back to Roman-era Sirmium, and two weeks later, we reviewed some more modern history with a lecture, series of performances, and book signing on the topic of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. We circled back to do the full tour, including the virtual reality reconstruction, of the Sirmium Imperial Palace.
On the northern end of Serbia lie Sombor and Subotica, two cities that border Hungary and are home to Hungarian-speaking populations. If you are a basketball fan, you probably know Nikola Jokic’s Sombor shuffle, the Denver Nuggets’ center’s signature move, named in honor of his beautiful hometown. Sombor is truly lovely, a small city with lovely architecture. Like most of the cities in Vojvodina, it was built up under Austro-Hungarian rule. Later, it was spared two world wars worth of devastating bombardments because the Austrians and Germans wanted to preserve these cities for their own populations. In the event of an Axis victory, the Third Reich had planned to turn the whole province into a settler colony for ethnic Germans.
Horse-racing is popular in the region, with Jokić himself well-known for his love of horses and his regular appearances at the local hippodrome. We did not attend any horse races, but we did stroll along the city’s canal, where we stumbled upon another local favorite, Riblja čarda Restoran Andrić. This beautifully decorated canal-side dining spot features a traditional outdoor kitchen where its signature paprika fish stew is brewed as it has always been. From cauldron to kettle, it is served with homemade pasta, and although we did not bump into Jokic there, he does go there when he is on R&R from the NBA. Fellow b-baller Aaron Gordon made an appearance at this divine dining establishment during his summer 2023 trip to Sombor!
Sombor remains multilingual: Serbian is the main language (written in the Cyrillic AND Latin alphabets); Hungarian is an official minority language represented in all public signage. Serbian is tough enough, at least for me, so to be in a place where people casually go back and forth between two complex tongues is humbling.
Паметни људи говоре српски и мађарски! Pametni ljudi govore srpski i mađarski! Okos emberek beszélnek szerbül és magyarul!
Our next day trip destination is Subotica, another northern town. Stay tuned!
Slices of Life
While I spotted the vulkanizer shops on my first night in the country, a few days in I began to notice the prevalence of something that seemed very American, yet was quintessentially Serbian. I spotted them every couple of blocks, open 24-hours a day, the ultimate symbol of consumer-driven desire. These fabled AUTOPERIONICA, or self-service car washes, are where proud drivers can scrub their automobiles down any time, day or night. Some are attached to gas stations, but many operate as free-standing, multi-stall enterprises on corner blocks and in shopping center parking lots. They also pop in random spots on rural country roads near border crossings. Sasha claims these car washes are an important meeting place for men who need a break from their wives, but in a climate where mud, wind, and rain kick up seasonally, cars do get dirty. So the purpose of the 24/7 Autoperionica is for practical purposes and not for resolving domestic discord!
How the 24/7 self-service car wash is not a much bigger thing in the US baffles me. At least I can rest easy knowing that in the Republic of Serbia, I have the FREEDOM to wash my car at 2am in the dead of winter during a blizzard if I darn well please.
Take that, Uncle Sam!
Another big cultural difference is that cigarette smoking is still common here, and in many restaurants, bars, and clubs, it is permissible to light up. A 2010 law prohibited smoking in government buildings, schools, and certain other business spaces, but the hospitality industry was granted an exemption. Plenty of diners and lounges permit puffing both indoors and on outside patios. It was not shocking since I had been here before, but laws can change a lot in a 14-year period. After all, the French eventually limited Gauloises guzzling a full 12-years after Californian authorities forcibly relocated Golden State smokers to corrective yoga-and-juice cleanse gulags.
If you move abroad, here are a few things I recommend doing BEFORE your departure:
Carry multiple copies of any relevant original birth and/or marriage certificates WITH attached apostille, since these are required if and when you apply for residency.
Read up on the history of where you are going. Serbia, the former Yugoslavia, and the whole Balkan region has a sh*t ton of history dating back to Neolithic times. I certainly have plenty more to learn, but in every foreign nation I have ever visited, people take a lot of pride in and lessons from the past, for better or worse. Invest in a general book, or watch some documentaries at minimum. The street behind us is called Marsala Tita, after the late Yugoslavian leader, Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Last weekend we visited the monastery of Koana, with foundations dating back 800-years. In Vojvodina, the Habsburg Empress Maria Teresa is practically spoken about in present tense, since under her reign major cities like Novi Sad, Sombor, and Subotica were developed and linked into the cultures and economies of Central Europe. The education system in Serbia is pretty impressive, and kids study ancient, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary history from a young age. Geography is also taught as a separate subject, alongside different social science courses and natural history. Learning is all around and bookstores are still common, even in this digital age!
Accept that acclimation takes time. I am more reserved, and Serbian culture is very social. People are very interested to know what it is like for me living here, and are really open to recommending things to do and means to enjoy life in the country. Extended families here tend to be close, and grandparents are very involved in helping raise their grandchildren. Neighbors know one another well, and in our village, Sasha’s connections with many families go back generations. So I am super grateful to have been welcomed so warmly!
Half a year in, we are happy to be here and everyday is a new experience. California people are on their way to visit, we have more local trips planned, and our backyard is finally getting the makeover it desperately needs.
Great article and I love the photos!