Tag Archives: Yugoslavia
For my readers in Yugoslavia
There are countries where I am received with car bombs and threatening phone calls (Malta), and then there are countries where I am received with hospitality and curiosity, leading to newspaper articles and invitations to speak at TEDx conferences (Romania). … Continue reading
How Social Media saved Yemen
Two countries walk into a bar, because there was an offer for any couple whose names start with the same letter. Says Yugoslavia: “I was so unlucky that my wars already took place in the early 1990s. A few years … Continue reading
The Millionaire Translators of Montenegro
Tivat is different from the rest of Montenegro: more glitzy, more shiny, more expensive, more show-off. All the things I don’t like. I only go there regularly because I am trying to visit the Maritime Museum in Tivat, but it’s … Continue reading
Film review: “Balkanski špijun” (“Balkan Spy”)
I was only looking for a spy film from Yugoslavia to practice some Serbo-Croatian, and I found a true gem! Balkanski špijun (Balkan Spy) was released in 1984 and is a comedy about an elderly gentleman who is asked to come … Continue reading
Red Star
“OK, we’ll tear down the old houses, put up a high-rise building and sell expensive apartments. Long live capitalism! But don’t touch the monument with the Red Star, comrades!” (Photographed in Tivat, Montenegro.)
The Cross and the Star
In Yugoslavia, the Socialist star and the Christian cross got along quite well, it seems. (Photographed in the cemetery of Velji Zalazi near Kotor, Montenegro.)
Serbo-Croatian
Dear ex-Yugoslavs, without any intention of being disrespectful to your dramatic break-up, I am not going to have time to learn Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin separately. No, I am going to stick with good old Serbo-Croatian. At a used-book … Continue reading
Moving to Montenegro
By now, I have really been staying in Ammerthal, the small village in Bavaria where I grew up, longer than I should have. Rent-free living and a cozy room full of books should actually provide agreeable conditions for a student … Continue reading
Yugonostalgia
When enough years have passed since the end of a dictatorship, some people will become nostalgic. They will talk up the positive aspects of the dictatorship, forgetting about the labor camps, the political prisoners, the censorship. They will promote their … Continue reading
