Serbia and Montenegro

Electronics Genius Nicola Tesla from a Serbian 100 Dinar note

Wow... Eastern Europe never ceases to amaze me with its diversity of cultures, languages and landscapes. Recently I went to visit some friends of mine who live in Montenegro. I was really looking forward to the trip as I've never been there before and it was my first visit to the Balkans, a region that was racked by savage war only a decade ago. I took the train first to Belgrade, capital of Serbia, which is only about 7 hours from Budapest. Belgrade (or Beograd) is worlds apart from Budapest or anywhere else I've been in eastern Europe; this place REALLY feels like a former communist country. Perhaps it's the fact that it's the first country I've been to where they use the Cyrillic alphabet, but it really felt a long way from Western Europe. For the first time I felt like a clueless foreigner in a communist, east-bloc country (even if it's a FORMER one). Something about a foreign alphabet and not being able to read signs is also very scary... There's also a certain "tension" here, like something brewing under the surface that I can't quite put my finger on. People look different, they act different, they form their reality differently. They eat different foods and buy brands I've never heard of. They eat strange pastries and drink strange liquors that I can't pronounce. It's so wonderful to see new places like this, especially coming from a monocultural place like America with its wasteland of mediocrity and sameness, and its identical malls from coast to coast.

Serbia (or Srbija) is a Slavic-speaking country just like Russia, and because it's orthodox Christian, it's tied both culturally, linguistically and religiously to Russia; much more so than Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Estonia, or any of the other Eastern European countries I've travelled to this year. But Belgrade has it's own unique character and also feels quite cosmopolitan while at the same time having that "charming" stark, gray, decrepitude that one finds all over E. Europe. It's off the beaten path and I love discovering places like this!

Zastava: Old Yugoslavian Car brand

Serbia has been a crossroads for so many cultures over the centuries and is a wonderful mixture of Slavic, Mediterranean, Russian and Muslim cultures. You can feel the Muslim influence much more here than in other countries in Europe to the north, even though most of Serbia's Muslims live in Kosovo, whose political fate still hangs in limbo. For those interested in culture and history, Serbia will definitely fascinate.

Serbians speak Serbo-Croatian, which is also spoken in Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, though those countries use a roman alphabet instead of Cyrillic. Being a Slavic language, it's surprisingly similar to Czech and I was really amazed at how many words in Serbo-Croation were exactly the same as the same ones in Czech. I don't know a lot of Czech, but virtually every word in my miniscule Czech vocabulary was the same in Serbo-Croation. It really makes Hungary and the Hungarian language standout as a totally alien language in the midst of a vast sea of Slavic culture that covers most of Eastern Europe and it was nice to already know how to ask for a beer at least (Jedno Pivo!)

Plaque from Orhtodox church in Montenegro

I didn't spend a lot of time in Belgrade; just enough to learn a little of the alphabet so I could at least read some signs. It's not a difficult alphabet to learn but it certainly pays off when you're visiting a country that uses it. My real destination was Montenegro (or Crna Gora - Black Mountain) and the coastal town of Bar, a 9 hour train ride from Belgrade. Only last year, Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia, in a public referendum and now is its own country. Montenegran's further distance themselves from Serbia by using the Euro as their official currency (Serbia uses the Dinar) and there are also far fewer orthodox Christians in Montenegro. It's a very small country of only 600,000 people, and its largest city is Podgorica, which few people have ever heard of, though during the reign of Yugoslavian dictator Josip Tito Podgorica was known as "Titograd". Lot's interesting little tidbits of history and culture in this former Yugoslavia.

The long train ride from Belgrade to Bar on the coast was grueling and since I couldn't get an early deptarture I missed the best part of the trip - the long, windy section through the spectacular mountain passes of Montenegro which offer some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we reached Montenegro and I missed it (I made up for it on the way back though). One of the fascinating things though about travelling by train and interacting with the locals that made a strong impression on me was their hospitality. Every single time someone opened up a bag of potato chips, or a bag of nuts or a bottle of water or something, they always offered some to the other people sitting nearby; even if they were total strangers! It happened to me several times on the train and it really made an impression on me as this is something that would NEVER happen in a country like Germany (or the USA for that matter). There's a big difference when you start dealing with what I would call "hospitality cutlures" - cultures where people share things rather than hoard them selfishly. I'm not really making a value judgement about it but it is a very interesting cultural phenomenon. And it's not a Slavic thing either as the Czechs would never do this. In my experience this is a southern European thing.

Well after countless offers of chips, bread, swigs of strange alcohol from happy drunks, etc., I arrived in Bar late in the evening where I was picked up by my friend Drasko, a Serbian man with a Russian wife who I had befriended while I was living in Barcelona last year. Drasko and his wife decided to move to Montenegro to try selling real estate in the booming local property market. He whisked me off to his sprawling estate home on a cliff overlooking the sea where I anxiously awaited the morning light to catch my first glimpe of the blue waters of the Adriatic.

Sveti Stefan (Saint Steven) island in the Adriatic near Budva, Montenegro

It was strange waking up in a completely different country and being so close to the ocean after having been landlocked in central Europe for so long. Drasko caretakes a beautiful house with an absolutely gorgeous view of the sea in a small coastal town named Rezevici. It's surrounded by orange, olive, pomegranate, and persimmon trees and the weather was refreshingly mild for late December. I couldn't believe how many pomegranate trees there were! I love pomegranates! By late morning we got in the car and quickly surveyed the landscape. Wow! Montenegro is just a gorgeous, gorgeous country! I think the place it most reminds me of is Malibu in Southern California; it looks exactly like the coast of Malibu, with almost the same vegetation and dramatic ocean views. What's really fascinating about Montenegro though is that in the 90's, when NATO had imposed sanctions on Serbia/Montengro, the economy was in absolute tatters. They were essentially living in a time warp and nobody was interested in this gem of a country. In just the last 5 years things have changed RADICALLY. Investors from all over Europe and especially Russia have been snapping up land and properties like last-minute shoppers on Christmas. Homes that a few years ago couldn't be given away are now selling for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of Euros. Millionaires from Russia and Ireland arrive by the planeload every day to scour the coast for their perfect getaway home. Montenegro has seen one of the biggest property booms in Europe over the last few years and it's an amazing thing to behold. It's also one of the strangest economies I've ever seen. Many former peasants who owned land or property are now millionaires after having sold out to rich foreigners. There's money everywhere here, fancy homes, fancy cars, fancy clothing boutiques and everyone seems well off. It even feels like Malibu with all the money, or even the French Riviera. Amazingly enough though, the cost of living is still very low and everything other than property is cheap. Unfortunately, much of the beautiful nature is being overdeveloped and property prices have become way too high for the locals.

Budva Old Town with snow-capped mountains in background

Drasko and I spent a lot of time driving around and looking at properties with his wealthy Russian clients who fly in daily from Moscow to the local airport in Tivat. There's a whole new class of Russian "nouveau riche" who are transforming this former sleepy country into the next Monte Carlo. These Russians dress impeccably, with the lastest fashions, wear the finest jewelry, drink only the best single-malt scotch, and put our Western capitalists to shame. Frankly I was a bit put off by them but it is entertaining to see a culture so transformed, one that half a generation ago was waiting in line for 5 hours to buy stale bread and now wouldn't be caught dead with anything but the latest fashion attire from the trendiest Italian designers. My god Russia has become a wealthy country! We don't see it so much in the US but Russia is a very, very different place than it was 20 years ago. And that money is really transforming their playground destinations like coastal Montenegro.

The old Montenegro is disappearing. Whole villages like these are being snapped up by wealthy foreigners.

My last few days there were spent mostly indoors as the weather turned wet and it seemed to rain every day. I returned home just before Christmas and made sure to get the day train so I could catch the mountain scenery, which is truly amazing. There's some serious geological upheaval going on there. No wonder as the place is extremely active seismically and a major earthquake in 1979 destroyed much of the coast. The dramatic mountains also make for some great skiing and thanks to all the rain they were covered in snow the whole way back to Belgrade. I'm sure I will be back though as this is one of the most beautiful and charming places in Europe. And if you ever come here and take the train from Belgrade to Bar, make sure to get a window seat!

Be sure to visit my Montenegro Photo Gallery on Zenfolio