Korzo!

I think this is my favorite tradition from any country so far.  After dinner on Summer evening towns close their main street for "Korzo".  People come out and walk up and down just to enjoy the air and each other.  What a great way to build a sense of community.  Sort of like a mobile front porch. 

Egg Tapping

You know the scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding where Tulla and her Dad crack a hard boiled egg?  This is done in Serbia--called egg tapping--you win if your egg doesn't crack.  I don't know what happens if BOTH eggs crack--which I would think would happen most of the time.

Christmas

Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7. Some of the traditions sound charming.  On Christmas Eve people gather branches of oak and bring them to the church courtyard and make a bonfire which symbolizes Christ bringing light to the darkness of the world.   The priest blesses the fire and the choir sings Christmas hymns. Afterward everybody gathers in the church to eat lent appropriate food (no meat or dairy).  On Christmas morning before opening presents you wait until Christmas is brought to you before you open presents.  A young child knocks on the door and puts a stick into the fireplace.  The number of sparks that fly up are the amount of good luck you can expect in the coming year.  The child is given a gift to thank them for bringing Christmas.

St. Nicholas Bread

Ok! As promised here's the Christmas bread recipe. I converted the grams into cups which is why the measurements are weird.  Also, you'll be using more flour than this--just keep adding until you get a nice bread dough consistency.

Warm up 2.1 cups of milk
In a big bowl put 1 TBL yeast and a tsp sugar--add a little of the warm milk and set aside while you do the next step.

In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks and mix in the rest of the milk.
In yet another bowl mix 4.23 cups flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 TBL grated lemon peel and a little lemon juice, add 1/2 c softened butter knead until there is a fine texture.  Now, add the egg mixture to the yeast and then add the flour and knead until dough becomes a ball leaving the bowl clean (add added probably another 3 cups of flour to achieve this.  Let rise for two hours.

After the two hours you're supposed to mix up still more flour and water to make a dough for a braid around the bread.  Believe me it isn't necessary.  Punch down the dough and set aside a hunk (maybe two fist size).  I divided the remaining dough into two round loaves and put them on a cookie sheet.  Wrap a coin in tinfoil and hide it in the bread while you're forming the loaves.  Take the hunk you've set aside, divide into three, roll into long snakes and make a braid--put the braid around each loaf using a little egg and water to help it stick.  Let rise for another hour or so.  Bake for about 40 minutes at 350.  Delicious.  Whoever finds the coin gets good luck.  

Food!

Ahhh food---especially rich, heavy food with vegetables serving as a minor side condiment--Serbia has good food.  Today we began the day with Palacinka--which are very simple crepes and are apparently sold at little stands everywhere.  Mix 1 egg with 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of flour--heat a pan add a little oil and pour in about 1/4 c of batter and fry.  Serve with jam and powdered sugar.  A little bland for my taste, but a perfectly good start to the day.  For dinner I made a traditional pork and hamburger patty made with some red pepper and paprika, a tomato and cucumber salad, a pastry with a whole lot of butter and feta cheese and then some traditional Christmas bread.  Obviously Serbs aren't going to eat their special Christmas bread with any old meal, but in the interest of experiencing as much of Serbia as possible--I made the bread.  It's a sweet bread made with butter, milk and sugar and my goodness did it rise! I'll try and post the receipe tomorrow--it made two huge loaves--and that's after I set aside some of the dough to make a braid to go around the bread.  Serbs bake a coin inside the cake and whoever finds it gets good luck.  I wrapped a quarter in tinfoil for our bread but none of us have gotten lucky yet.

DISNEYLAND!!!!

Oops---I think I left Serbia about a week ago.  I got a new job and to celebrate we're going to Disneyland in October just three weeks away!  Disneyland is my favorite place in the world.  I might have to create a separate place for Disney in this blog. 

However---I did find some neat stuff about Serbia that I kept meaning to post but couldn't because I was too busy chewing my nails about whether I would get this job and then dancing on the ceiling when I did!

Serbian's like pomeranian dogs of all things and sound like wonderful people, although I don't think I am on their side in the conflict in the 90's over Kosovo.  Or rather, I wouldn't have been on the politician's side.  Kosovo has always been a hot spot.  There was a big fight over it back in the 1300's and Serbia has some terrific medieval fortresses.

US Open

Well, bummer.  Rafael Nadal from Spain beat Novak Djokovic from Serbia in the US Open tennis final last night. Naturally I was rooting for Serbia. 

Sports-wise, I'm told that Serbia has a surprising number of players in the NBA.  Funny how things like that come about.

Monasteries

Balkantravellers.com posted these three pictures of monasteries in central Serbia. The names are Zica, Studenica and Sopocani.  They all have beautiful frescos especially the last. 

What I like though is that the names of the monasteries are so magical--straight from a fantasy novel.  Listen to this description, "After having attracted some of the most skilful artists of Byzantium and the best builders of Zeta...they financed several masterpieces of medieval architecture."  

Love it.  If I were ever transported to a real life medieval fantasy, I'm sure I would have to go to Zeta to recover the stolen treasures hidden in the monasteries of Zica, Studenica and Sopocani.

War

I take it back.  I DO remember Serbia---or at least Kosovo and war and misery and all the rest.  I found one childrens book at the library which looks like it's going to gloss over the latest calamities, but everything else is heavy on the war theme.  Traveling around like this brings home just how much war and waste there is in the world.  So stupid.  And Serbia looks simply gorgeous.  In at least one area people who are born there tend to stay as they inherit family farms and businesses that have been going for 300 years.

Belgrade--The White City

Welcome to Serbia!  I'm back more or less refreshed from taking the month of August off from my travels and am excited to be in Serbia.  This is the kind of place that I like best---that is, I know NOTHING about it!  Sounds gorgeous though.  The capital, Belgrade, is called "The White City" and all roads supposedly lead to it.  The city sits on the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers.  This is the center of Bohemia--whatever that means--perhaps a wild and gypsyish lifestyle? All I can think of is the Holmes story, "A Scandal in Bohemia."  Today calls for a trip to the library and a peek at the Holmes story--though I suspect it has nothing to do with modern day Serbia.