So You Want to Live in Serbia
Or any other place than where you have lived most of your life. What are the rewards, the challenges, how do you navigate a culture you only think you know something about and smile happily at the end of the day.
First, I had it easy. My wife is from Serbia and her mother still lives in New Belgrade. So dealing with all the regulations, having a place to stay while we searched for an apartment and having friends to spend time together was built in from the start. I would imagine you would need some support system at the very least to help you just with the regulatory paperwork and complying with the laws of the land.
The language is going to be another issue. Moving to a place where you speak the language to some degree is going to make the transition easier. In Serbia for example most people under the age of fifty, speak some English. Tito was smart and required starting in the 1950s for everyone to learn English. Almost every restaurant or large shop near the center of the city is full of people that speak English.
It also turns out you need just a couple hundred words and phrases to be able to take care of most daily activists, like buying a beer or getting a shopping bag or finding out the price of something in the market. There are so few people in comparison who speak Serbian in the world, that they tend to love the fact you even try to speak their language.
I wish I had some better advice on finding a place to live. Renting if you have no family or friends there until you have a chance to adjust. Even then it is going to be an adventure.
In Serbia, new apartments are being constructed all over town. I can only imagine that those Serbs who migrated to Chicago and Canada at various points are now coming back with their foreign retirment.
The average Serb makes around 500 euros a month and can not afford to buy an apartment. Only recently was there anything like a mortgage. You typically pay cash for the apartment which is just a shelll you have to it in the bathrooms and the kitchen separate. Even then most inherit their apartment or put two inherited apartments together to get a nicer one. Our building has several residents who traded their houses in the city for the land to build a new apartment building.
The couple below Ella’s bedroom traded their house at the end of the block for an apartment which is a new experience for them dealing with the noise from the neighbors. The persons who lived in the house were our apartment is got two apartments and four parking spots in the garage. The man that is putting in the heating systems for all of the developer’s buildings got an apartment for his son.
One last point is you never know when or if they will ever finish new construction. Belgrade is littered with apartments started but never finished, someone ran out of money. Yet you have to buy before they finish or it will already be sold. Two apartments were being built next to each other and were about at the same stage in the area we wanted to live. My wife did not like the floor plan of one even though it was going to have nicer finishes in the end, so she chose the one we live into today. For almost two years now. The one next door is still a construction site. They are working but can you imagine having to wait over two years for your building to be built.
Ok, I will share other of these little tidbits of information from time to time. Do drop me a line if you have comments or questions.
“A fascinating discussion is worth comment. I do think that you need to write more on this subject matter, it might not be a taboo matter but usually people don’t talk about these topics. To the next! Cheers!!”
נערות ליווי בגבעתיים
gder4563