Finding your way in Serbia

Just some stuff you may wanna know before setting your sails for Serbia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naive art in Kovačica

Money

Banknotes: 5000, 1000, 200, 100, 50, 20 and 10 Dinars

Coins: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 Dinars

EXCHANGE RATE: 1 EURO ≈ 106 Dinars 10 EURO ≈ 1060Dinars

You can change money at any of hundreds of MENJAČNICA (exchange offices) in Serbia.

Average prices

Prices in cafes:

Coffee – 0.9 EURO

Juice – 0.8 – 1.2 EURO

Prices in pizzeria:

Pizza – 4 – 10 EURO

Spaghetti – 4- 8 EURO

Prices in restaurants:

Average meal – 10  EURO

Key Phrases

Hello                                                              Zdravo

Good morning                                           Dobro jutro

Good afternoon                                        Dobar dan

Good evening                                            Dobro veče

Good night                                                  Laku noć

Good bye (formal)                                   Do viđenja

Good bye (informal)                               Zdravo

How are you? (informal)                       Kako si?

I’m fine                                                          Dobro

Thank you                                                   Hvala

I don’t understand                                  Ne razumem

Excuse me                                                  Izvinite

Traditions

Slava

Of all Slavs and Orthodox Christians, only Serbs have the custom of slava. Slava is celebration of a saint; unlike most customs that are common for the whole people, each family separately celebrates its own saint (of course, there is a lot of overlap) who is considered its protector. A slava is inherited, mostly, though not exclusively from father to son (if a family has no son and a daughter stays in parental house and her husband moves in, hers, not his, slava is celebrated).

Kolo

The traditional dance is a circle dance called kolo, which is common among Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Macedonians. It is a collective dance, where a group of people (usually several dozen, at the very least three) hold each other by the hands or around the waist dancing, forming a circle (hence the name), semicircle or spiral. It is called Oro in Montenegro. Similar circle dances also exist in other cultures of the region.

Gusle

During Ottoman rule, Serbs were forbidden to own property, to learn to read and write and denied the use of musical instruments. Church music had to be performed in private. Gusle, a one-stringed instrument, was invented by Serbian peasants during this time in an effort to find a loophole through the stringent Ottoman laws. Filip Višnjić was a particularly notable guslar (gusle player)

Famous Serbs:

Nikola Tesla (Inventor, Physicist)

Mileva Marić Einstein (Mathematician)

Charles Simic (Poet)

Emir Kusturica (director/editor/producer/actor/writer)

Marina Abramovic (artist)

Novak Djokovic (Tennis)

Dejan Stanković (Football)