88 = 16

On June 14, my grandpa turned 88. When I asked how it felt, he said: Just like yesterday. Besides, 8+8=16 and that's how I always feel. Grandpa really is a miracle. He and my grandma (87) went to Tunisia on Friday and are going to the Canary Islands later on this summer. They have already been to France and Egypt this year and I am sure they are already scheming where to spend the winter holidays. Living by the moto - When you're our age, everything and anything is allowed - they really are an unstoppable couple. Grandpa also uses a GPS device, a smart-phone, a Facebook account, a synthesizer which he connects to a computer program through which he learns how to play, and many other gadgets too sophisticated for me to comprehend. As the years go by, he keeps getting smarter and I can see his French and English improve by the day. Every time I see him, he tells me about something he has learned browsing the internet and, more often than not, it is stuff that I have never even heard of.

Grandma is special in her own ways. Very stubborn, very opinionated, very strict. Although today she uses her age as an excuse, I really think she always thought she was allowed to do anything. Raised in a bourgeois family, she would steal skis and other expensive goods from her own household to donate for the Partisans, then a guerrilla force fighting for liberation from the Nazi's. Grandma sometimes brags in a nonchalant tone about her contributions to WWII resistance as a medical worker. She traveled on foot and on horse with her own group of all-male Partisans from Belgrade to Zagreb through wilderness and forests. She entered Zagreb on a horse, on the very day that it was liberated, surrounded by the boys that she had been taking care of. Although she supported the communists when it was very dangerous to do so, Grandma left the Communist Party in disappointment when not supporting them was dangerous. Ever since, she has been very used to disagreeing with the world and I think she overcomes it all by being convinced that she is always right.

One hot summer in the mid 50's, Grandpa was riding around with his motorcycle buddies when he noticed Grandma. She was the only girl in Belgrade to ride a motorcycle at the time and techie Grandpa couldn't help but notice that it was a nice one too. Decades after they had fallen for each other so unconventionally, they have decelerated to a more predictable life. Regardless of their plentiful travel, they do have to comply with some rules - lunch is at 12:30, nap time is from 2:00-4:00, dinner is at 6:00, bedtime at 9, etc. For as long as I have been around and can remember, they have been splitting a 0.75 liter bottle of beer for lunch. Having already had bad experience in Tunisia, where beer is very difficult to find and expensive, Grandma decided she would pack 10 0.75 cans of beer for the 10 days of their vacation, for them to split a can each lunch. Grandpa disproved, but she had decided and that was it. So, she packed 5 cans in her own suitcase and the other 5 into Grandpa's case, secretly. I can just imagine the Partisan inside her chuckle when she did this - He may be against it now, but when I surprise him with a can... heh heh.

Lo and behold, their suitcases arrived to Tunisia safely, yet completely wet. The cans exploded from the juggling and air pressure. In a very inconvenient way, Grandma was busted. Somehow, they did not have any problems going through the customs. Somehow, they survived the embarrassment of walking into their 4 star hotel smelling like two alcoholics. But when they arrived to the room, Grandpa found that even his fancy camera had gotten wet. Let's just say that I received an ample of angry text messages from Grandpa. They are not back yet but I hope that they got over it quickly and started enjoying their trip. In the meantime, I have been seriously considering being a third wheeler on the trip to the Canary Islands, if they'll have me. I am sure it would be a one of a kind adventure. Who knows what our guerrilla traveler has prepared for that episode. Stay tuned...

France in Springtime - Tecktonik Everywhere

I am looking forward to catching more Tecktonic dancers with funky outfits and Mohawk hairdos on the streets of Lyon, for May Day (International Workers' Day) holidays. Tecktonic is a relatively young street dance, originating in the Parisian suburbs in the 2000's, consisting mostly of arm movement. It's static in the sense that the feet do not move as much as in other forms of dance, yet so hectic that it is difficult to tell what the dancer is actually doing (I realized this when secretly trying to replicate in front of a mirror at home). It's surprising how much our arms can twist and twirl!

Here's the video for A Cause Des Garcons by YELLE with Tecktonic in it (you can download the original version of this song, along with 3 remixes in a zip file, here):

The creators of this dance (two guys are considered as creators because they catalyzed the movement by organizing massive Tecktonic parties, hosting 8000 people at a time) actually copyrighted it and made Tecktonic into a trademark. Tecktonic has "grown" from a street dance to an industry, offering many branded products from t-shirts and backpacks to energy drinks and Play Station games.

However, this witty way of making money has been criticized for robbing the youth of its movement. "When you're young, you dance to tell your parents 'I'm a free man! I've got my sexuality, my desires and they aren't yours!' You dance to express your freedom! But, here, it's not this kind of dance. Because it's a commercial dance. It's a safe dance. No sex, no drugs, no alcohol… It's anti-rock 'n' roll! It's a Sarkozy dance!" - says Vincent Cespedes, a young French philosopher and writer, for BBC News.

One Proud Ballerina

The Ballerina - a typical ride on Serbian fairs, festivals (including the BeerFest) and portable amusement parks (we do not have a real amusement park yet and the closest thing to it was Bambiland, a controversial park built by Milosevic's son in the 90's and abandoned after Milosevic's fall) - set in front of a prototype communist building with a Heineken add. This spot is located on Belgrade's Danube riverbank, between the delta of Sava and Danube and the historic Zemun area.

Looking Forward to Hearing MODERAT Live

I have been waiting for oh so long so see Moderat perform. The day is finally approaching. The trio, consisting of Apparat and Modeselektor members, is coming to Serbia in July for a live show at the Exit Festival's Dance Arena.

Moderat "Rusty Nails" from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.

Some of my other favorites at this year's Exit Festival:

The Twelves
Boys Noize

Crystal Castles

SebastiAn

Mika
Antenat
The Bambi Molesters

To see the full list of performances at the 2010 ExitFest, click here.

Trotting Tulum

In 2008, my mom and I decided to go to Mexico for spring vacation. Her yoga instructor insisted we see Tulum. Personally, I am not the type to enjoy all-inclusive resorts - I prefer to feel the culture I have traveled to. So, knowing that Tulum is only a 2-hour drive from Cancun, I was skeptical. We arrived in the evening with reservations only for that first night at the Posada Dos Ceibas bungallows on the beach (I like taking this risk because it has usually bred better deals - the next day we looked at several cabanas and got a bargain for La Via Laktea). It was pitch dark. Surrounded by absolute silence, we ate and fell asleep early.

I slept like a rock. However, we strangely woke up at around 6AM, both of us at the same instant. A gorgeous sun was rising. We decided to run out for a stroll on the beach. I opened the door of the cabana and, as soon as my bare foot touched the warm sandy ground, I realized I was in paradise. We crossed the endless empty beach stretches, absorbing the colorful sky that was evolving slowly from red to blue. All that existed for miles, it seemed, were waves. No other sounds, no other thoughts. This was the first of the several days spent in this tranquillity, barefoot, waking up and falling asleep to the turquoise ocean.

Tulum's beaches spread south from what are considered to be the most beautiful and best preserved Mayan ruins. The Tulum Ruins are situated on a cliff above the ocean. This combination makes it one of the most stunning historical sites I have ever seen. However, be prepared - it is overcrowded with tourists and this will especially be unpleasant if you have spent a few days in the cabanas isolated in nature. This is why I recommend you see the ruins at the very beginning of your stay in Tulum.

The cabanas are situated on a preserved strip of beaches that lead to yet another natural treasure. The Sian Ka'an Biological Reserve, a 1.3 million acre UNESCO World Heritage Site, literally means "Where the Sky is Born". This area is full of Cenotes - freshwater lakes in limestone, most often connected to aquifers.

With all its beauty, this is a perfect place - for a peculiar set of travelers (like myself). The tap water is salty, the solar-powered electricity only runs in the evening hours (5PM-11PM), it's damp and the bungalows and camps are set directly on the sand, which the wind inevitably carries into the rooms. Because of the Biological Reserve, construction of real houses/buildings/hotels is prohibited. Here's how I see it: the lack of air conditioning definitely gets compensated by the tune with nature and the fact that, even at peak season with every cabana overbooked, there simply aren't nearly enough cabanas to make this place crowded.

As is the case with any paradise, portraying Tulum is virtually impossible. Let's just say that I met quite a few people who visited once and stayed forever. No wonder.

A few tips:

• Do not go if you are not a nature lover.
  
• Use websites like Trip Advisor to skim through the list of cabanas but ALWAYS try to find the actual website of the cabanas you like, find the contact information and call directly to make a deal, preferably in Spanish. It's cheaper that way.
  
• The cabanas can get pretty pricey - they range anywhere from $20 to $200 per night. Be careful how you pick your accommodation as the cheaper options may not actually be on the beach.
  
• If looking for low budget accommodation, go with the camping option, which costs approximately $5 per night.
  
• Have snacks with you! The food is great but it is expensive. The town is not on a walking distance and it adds up to eat at one of the cabanas' cafes all of the time. That being said, keep in mind that you will be surrounded by wonderful fruit.
  
• Visit the town, its market and restaurants. It's full of life and the food is amazing and cheap (but the taxi to town, one way, costs around $8).

Sustainable Oots Oots

I have considered myself an environmentalist for quite sometime now but there are two environmental bombs I have never even tried doing away with - air travel and clubbing. I was shocked to learn that a nightclub uses 150 times the energy of an average household. Does that mean that everything I try to thrift gets cancelled out by my outing habit? Yes, I felt guilty but what was there that I could really do about it?

It turns out that there is an entire movement geared at solving this problem, excluding the guilt campaign that per se the anti-smoking movement has. It is innovative, green and often awfully geeky but sometimes surprisingly chic - it's Sustainable Clubbing.

The somewhat recently developed sustainable dance floor, which generates energy from dancing feet pounding on it, is becoming outdated as new less conventional methods are coming into practice, primarily in Rotterdam, the green clubbing capital, but also in less suspected places like the US.

Recycled mismatch furniture, deco and even entire abandoned spaces are some of the easiest ways for a club to pride itself as a conscious enterprise. A club in Los Angeles garnished its front with an energy generating bicycle with employees taking turns in spinning the pedals - definitely a way to draw attention. Other methods are less visible however. Serving other people's left overs is what some of these clubs are doing as a way to recycle food and drinks and small architectural tricks are being used to sustain more sound using less energy. While rainwater is already commonly used to flush toilets, another idea being developed as you read this is to collect people's sweat from dancing as well. One Dutch Club even served urine purified into drinking water at its opening night!

Some of these methods might remind you way too much of the goofy science geek from your high school for you to imagine yourself dancing and flirting the night away in such an ambient. To me, coming from Belgrade where we have not even mastered recycling yet, it seems too cool to be true. Rotterdam is definitely going to be on my itinerary next time I go to the Netherlands.

Hidden New York: 5 Pointz

5 Pointz is a year-long graffiti exhibit spread across the facades of a 200,000 square ft (18,600 square meters) factory building used for art studios. Graffiti artists need to obtain a permit to leave a mark on these walls, with more prominent artists / sophisticated art getting the most visible spots. The lifespan of a single graffiti piece at 5 Pointz ranges from 1 day to 2 years, depending on its quality, popularity (pedestrian traffic around it) and the artist's name. This ensures that, no matter how many times you visit, there will always be something new to see.

I highly recommend this free exhibit, especially if the weather is nice. Not only will you see many unique works, but the combination of so many of them on a single object makes the facades of the abandoned factory resemble an enormous technicolor mosaic. Circle the building and find the stairs to climb on top, chill and take a deep breath of Manhattan and Long Island City (or at least take some awesome photos).


Address & Directions: 5 Pointz, Jackson Avenue at Crane Street and Davis Street, Long Island City, NY 11101; take the E or V subway to 23 St/Ely Ave, 7 to 45 Rd/Court House Sq., or G to Court House Square.

Another Yugoslavian Breakup & Lousy Makeup

After several false announcements, the Sarajevo - Belgrade railway is back in business. Some foreign media have romanticized this but I must say I find it rather confusing.

The luxurious Olympic Express, coined so after being garnished with a red carpet, upscale dining and stewardesses in smart uniforms for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, is now an outdated train segmented into 3 mismatched cars, each under the jurisdiction of a different railway company. Moreover, the Bosnian-Serb car disconnects where the Serbian part of Bosnia ends, never even reaching Sarajevo.

This faded train resembles the chaos that captured Yugoslavia during the war. What used to be a cross country train now has to cross two borders and two (often very unpleasant) passport controls. It runs once a day, rather than 3 times as was the case prior to the war. Its passengers - once cheerful party-goers, skiers and businessmen - have transformed into none but a few worn out faces.

Smoking is kind of allowed in the cafe car... While travelers may light up when passing Serbia and Bosnia, they are forbidden to do so when the train is crossing the more European, Croatian non-smoking tracks.

18 years after its last run through Yugoslavia, the Olympic Express is slower. Due to the severe warfare damages that the railway, bridges and facilities underwent, it now takes over 2 additional hours to get from Belgrade to Sarajevo. So finally, the results of our war have in some way been quantified: we are two hours further apart, whatever that means.

Its windows smeared and seats shabby, the train looks nothing like its old self, when it was called the Olympic Express and trumpeted as the pride of the Communist-run nation.

www.guardian.co.uk , 13 December 2009

Market Middlemen

While the post-communist transition process picks up in Serbia, even the make up of our open air markets has been transforming. As real peasants can no longer afford to travel to the cities to sell their produce, the middlemen/women of the markets have prospered. The buyers do not trust these new "businessmen", partly because the prices have considerably risen and partly because they are unsure about where the food they buy comes from. Thus, the market middlemen wear clothing as similar as possible to the stereotype image of the Serbian peasant, in hope that someone will mistake them for one and become a regular customer.

Josephus

My friend Joseph is who I want to be when I grow up. In particular, I am trying to travel the way he does. I came across one of the emails he wrote to me from Angers, France, where he was doing a semester abroad to study the language. To me, it serves as a tutorial on how to look at traveling and overall life experience.

Busy in France? More like living my dreams. French culture is invigorating. The standard is this whole subtle game thing with meeting people. Then I come on the scene. Standing on my board, kicking and pushing, then the hill drops. I lower my bag, pull a cig to my lips and bend me knees until I'm literally sitting. There is lots of traffic downtown. I whiz by listening to Crookers, thinking about how amazing it's gonna be next Friday in Paris when I see them. My new Angers/France accomplice Jennifer and I have found a couch to crash on after the show. I get to the bottom of the hill and all eyes are on me from the top to the bottom, with families and teenagers cheering with wide smiles. I'm here. Welcome to Angers, welcome to my world. I thought about it for a long time the previous night. Am I here to blend in? Or engage the new town and give them a taste of my cultural expression - goofy shades, boat shorts, a tight tee, with a flannel over it. If I am deciding to support the tourism in Angers, they may feel insecure with my privileged travel, which is why I decide to give back. Hey there, Joseph here. C'est ca se ca?

e-mail from Joseph Cutler on June 6, 2008

Serbocab

Stepping out of Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport, you will be happy to find what seems like a line of legitimate taxis right at the exit of the arrivals section. Such a convenience!

Do not be fooled. These taxis are what are commonly known as "divljak", literally meaning "vandals" in English. Unfortunately for us Serbs, airport - city transfers are the first impression visitors gain of a country, which is why I feel particularly passionate about helping you avoid "divljake".

What the locals do in order to get a cab is they either call one or waive one that has a blue plastic sign with white numbers next to its Taxi sign, like the one in the photo below:
Either way, be sure to avoid the following taxi stations:

• In front of the Tesla Airport
• In front of the Train Station
• Taxis by Trg Republike (the main square)
• Taxis lined up on Terazije, in front of the Benetton store
  

Divljak taxis will not only rip you off but also drive you around in circles and tend to be very aggressive if you confront them. Whenever I have tried to resolve these issues, I have lost, had to pay the amount of money that their adjusted meter suggested and ended up on the verge of tears. Not worth it.

So, there are two ways for you to get to the Belgrade's city center from the Tesla Airport and vice versa. One is the shuttle bus organized by JAT Airways, which takes you to Slavija and from where you can catch a variety of buses, trams, trolley buses and taxis. These buses leave hourly from the Tesla Airport to Slavija 7 AM - 10 PM, as well as from Slavija to the Tesla Airport 5 AM - 9 PM. JAT passengers get a complimentary voucher for these buses; otherwise, the price is RSD 250 / a bit under EUR 3. Tickets are bought inside the bus.

The other option is to stick with the taxi. However, do ask someone at the airport to call one for you. The standard rate to get from the Tesla Airport to any destination in the city center is EUR 10, when riding the on-call taxi.

Some legitimate taxi companies and their phone numbers are:

• Beo: (+38111) 970
• Beogradski: (+38111) 9801
• Maksis: (+38111) 9804
• Pink: (+38111) 9803

You should use these numbers throughout your stay in Belgrade and, when not going to or from the airport, you get a 20% discount on on-call drives. These taxis are registered, monitored by their taxi association and are reliable. Unless there is a complete collapse in the city due to weather conditions or a strike, they arrive in 3 minutes.

Random tip: when getting in and out of the taxi, avoid opening the rear door on the driver's side. This is where the wire that connects to the taxi sign goes through and using this door will show that you are foreign!

Lyon

I just returned from my 10-day vacation in Lyon, France. I have been to France quite a few times, but I particularly enjoy Lyon. Situated between Paris and Marseille, Lyon is the second largest city in France and, if you haven't ever thought of it that way, this is because for some reason Lyon has not been publicized as much as it deserves. The plus side of this is that there is a large metropolitan area of France to explore without ever having to be pushed and stepped on by tourists, as is often the case in Paris.

With so many independently owned restaurants, shops, cafes, one could easily live in Lyon without ever indulging into the mass-consumer lifestyle. Moreover, the city's architecture - from the 15th century Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon, in English) to the old silk weavers' district of Croix Rousse, rich markets and narrow streets have offered me a break from life in Belgrade, which is increasingly starting to resemble that of some wild capitalist city, overwhelmed with honking cars, pollution, hypermarkets, chain bakeries and take away coffee.

Aside from the usual sites that you will read about on the city's official site or Lonely Planet like the Fourvière hill and Place de Terraux (a spacious square with a 19th century fountain sculpted by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, famous for having sculpted the Statue of Liberty), I would like to suggest a couple of things to authenticate your visit:

• Montee de la Grande Cote: a strip connecting Croix Rousse and the Presqu'ile peninsula. This colorful UNESCO World Heritage Site hosts everything from 18th century homes to homes more recently built as social housing projects. The street also offers many artisan shops with hand made jewelry and clothing, classic pastry shops, tiny galleries and facades hectically stained with graffiti and stencil art. Tip: go to the Croix Rousse Market (take the yellow metro line C to Croix Rousse) to get the season's finest produce, do some "people-watching", maybe even be a tourist and taste some cheese, then stroll down Montee de la Grande Cote and finish up with a rest at a tea salon in one of the intersecting streets towards the bottom of Grande Cote.
• Guillotière quarter: explore the mixture of university student and immigrant life. This is also a great place to try delicious Arab pastries and hit the affordable Asian restaurants.
• If the weather permits, rent out a Velo'v bike, which can be picked up and returned at any of the many Velo'v stations throughout the city. Don't miss driving by the 2 riversides! You can even stop at one of the ships and have a refreshment before heading to Parc de la Tete for a ride through the Botanical Gardens.
  
  
  
  Wander around and let me know how it went!