Serbian Food part 2: fruits & veggies

Actually I have decided I'm just going to live off the market.


Yesterday's take. Total: 200 din, or £2, aka what you would pay for 6 lackluster tomatoes and 4 sickly peaches... if they were on sale. The tomatoes don't look very red because of the flash but they are, oh they are.

Today's take: Total: about 200 din. The blob in the plastic bag is kajmak, a love-it or hate-it Serbian cheese, cross between butter and cream cheese. I love it.




Šopska salata, today's lunch

Serbian food!

I am currently rethinking the purpose of this blog but for now have some pictures:


Serbian food has a reputation somewhat like that of British food but actually, like British food, it is not too bad. So long as you like meat. Heaven help the vegetarian, whose options are limited to; fried potatoes, cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes. And I'd better not forget beer, coffee, and cigarettes, since these are a food group in and of themselves for most Serbs. All the same, there are delicious palancinke to be had, yummy pastries, and loads of fruits and vegetables, at least in the summer (and I intend to never experience a Serbian winter, if I can help it). Obviously I won't starve, but it might be a challenge to eat healthy and not gain a lot of weight! And how early, exactly, will I have to get up for it to be cool enough to run? Ah well.

I went to the grocery store after my lesson today and that is always an interesting experience. I was really disappointed with the selection of fruits & veggies but maybe one has to go to the market for that. No problem. In the meantime I bought plenty of things to tide me over. It always amazes me how much salami etc costs, about 8000 din for what would cost 1/4 that in the UK!

Things you should always do before a trip:

Make sure the hostel has a kitchen
Plan route from airport to hostel and look up times
Double check opening and closing times for sights you want to see, especially if you are traveling off season as these can close ridiculously early
Plan a vague itinerary based on area so you're not running all over the city every day
Don't go to the airport hungry
Take your sunglasses!

Just so you know I'm alive...

What to say about Athens? I think it can be summed up in a couple of statistics: 500 years under the Turks, 8 million Italian troops, and 9,000 dog bites per year. Well, the later applied to Bucharest, I'll explain later.

I love these charming asides

Tonight I am wielding google to prepare for my upcoming trip to visit a dear old friend currently in Athens. The great thing about wikitravel? Anyone can write in it. Take for example this article on traveling to the islands:

All the young european "routard" choose the deck, so in August it's possible that you must sleep near somebody never seen... who isn't really clean; during the night you can be sad, but after it will becomes funny thinking about.

Here's the thing

If I were unfortunate enough to be traveling via Heathrow's new terminal, I would not check my bag. I would just not do it. Period. Seriously, what do people think is going to happen?

Travel Diary: 19 Feb 2008. Jaywalking in Berlin: First impressions.

-I love the huge dogs that trot along lead-less besides their owners – but not the presents left behind for me to tread in if I am not careful. (Berlin is not as clean as I thought it would be – not like Munich and Frankfurt, the other two cities in Germany I have been to. But I suppose it has that gritty modern city feeling to it.)

-I love the way people ride their bicycles through the wide modern streets – but not the way they almost knock me over.


-I love the old-fashioned little green and red men, and the fact that people stop for pedestrians –but no one seems to jay walk. I wonder if it's illegal? It tries my Londoner's patience.