ON TO SERBIA

Touring Belgrade with our Guide, Vesna

Because we were arriving very late at night, and Belgrade is known for the corruption of its taxi services, the people at our hotel told us to call and they would help us hire an honest taxi driver. Unfortunately, by the time our plane got it, the airport was essentially closed, our cell phone didn't work, and the police officer on duty said he couldn't help us. After much frustrating attempts at conversation with many taxi drivers, one of them simply grabbed our bags and said, "Follow me!" He took us through dark streets and back alleyways, around dark, dirty and old buildings until we got into the center city, which looked in the dark of night like everything else we had seen. Until we arrived at the Zira Hotel, we were generally a little fearful of what might happen. Luckily the Zira is brand new, bright, shiny, and nearly as luxurious as the Trident in Mumbai, with a new Western-style shopping mall right next door. It seemed to be an oasis in the desert of Belgrade (a tribute to our travel agent, Carole)!

Visiting Eredevik, Village of Dave's Reger Family

The next morning, our guide, Vesna and our driver, Chava, picked us up at our hotel and took us on a tour of the city. It didn't look nearly so scary in the daytime, and we had probably been influenced the night before by Belgrade's Eastern European reputation. We had arranged for Vesna and Chava, because our primary purpose in going to Serbia was to track down Dave's family roots on the Reger side. Helping families find remnants of their histories is the work that Vesna does. Like Cambodia, we learned about the trauma associated with seemingly constant distrust, conflict and war in that part of the world.

While we had been unsuccessful at securing an interview for Dave's sabbatical in Serbia before arriving, Vesna had arranged for Chava's wife to meet us for dinner at a traditional Serbian restaurant. There we learned more about the company that Chava and Dubravka own. Their company provides shipping and transportation, primarily in Serbia.

Interviewing Dubravka on the Danube

At dinner, we also found that Dubravka had just finished her Master's thesis on a fascinating initiative aimed toward bringing about economic and other cooperation among the countries of the Danube.  This initiative, referred to as a Strategy for the Danube Region, was started in June 2009 by the European Union (EU) Commission. The Danube region includes, from the EU’s perspective, the entire river’s basin: Germany (Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria), Austria, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine ( but only the Ukrainian regions that have tributaries of the Danube). The main objective of the strategy is to create a sustainable long-term development and cooperation framework in the region.