Serbia!

 

When I told friends that I was planning to go to Serbia this Christmas, I must admit that - amongst those friends who had an idea where Serbia was - there was often a clouding of the features. 

In lexicography we use the principles of 'preferred collocations'; the words that most often correlate with a particular word. So 'pancake' may have collocations such as 'make' or 'flip' or 'stack'. And when the word Serbian has the associations of the last 35 years in our minds, I can understand some clouding. Possibly even boycotting. 

But on the basis that many of the people I would meet over here were not even born when the Bosnian wars took place, I thought it would be ok to come and visit. And as we are all going off on slightly more independent Christmases from Woodbridge this year, it felt like the right time too. 

And also they have Irish sessions 🙂. Yes, there is an Irish music scene here, and I found that in this week I could take in two sessions. And then my sister Mary said she fancies it too, so here we are.

Currently it is Christmas day and we are in Novi Sad, and it's been great! For one thing, nearly everything is open at Christmas because Serbia has Christmas on the old calendar, in January. And the food is great and the alcohol is very interesting.

And one thing you really notice (which is a good and a bad thing at the same time) is that you can still smoke anywhere, including pubs and bars and restaurants! So you may be gagging over your goulash, but you can take yourself back to your own smoky youth in the 1980s. 

And at the top is a photo Mary took of me in a Belgrade retro-Yugo bar in Belgrade, where she tried to catch the plumes and the fug. 

And happy Christmas is Срећан Божић!