Novi Sad

My friend Yelena and I spent Thanksgiving exploring Novi Sad, a northern city on the banks of the Danube River. Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, after Belgrade.

We went to the Petrovaradin Fortress, which dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and is known for its iconic clock tower. Today the fortress is made up of art studios and galleries, the City Museum, a planetarium, restaurants and cafes. Exit Festival, a huge European music festival, takes place at Petrovaradin Fortress each summer. Such a cool venue!

Yelena and I also spent time in the Square of Liberty, which is Novi Sad’s city center. It is made up of the City Hall, banks, restaurants and Roman Catholic Church of the Name of Mary.

Basketball in Serbia

The post you have all been waiting for! 🏀

Unfortunately, because of covid most teams in Brevin’s league aren’t allowing any fans, but last week I was able to go to one of Brevin’s games! His team (KK Tamiš) played our friend’s team (Vojvodina) at their gym in Novi Sad.

Brev wrote about the differences from Badger basketball to European basketball below:

  1. We play a 40 minute game that is broken up into four 10 minute quarters and there is a 24 second shot clock instead of a 30 second shot clock.
  2. Defensive coverage is different. Instead of simply hedging a screen or covering in drop, we often “side or ice” ball screens to prevent players from going off the screen. 
  3. Teams get four small fouls each quarter before going into the bonus. These are often used to stop fast breaks or easy layups.
  4. My personal favorite difference with European basketball is when you pass the ball to a teammate and he gets fouled shooting and then he makes both free throws, the passer gets credited with an assist.

Fall in Pančevo

Srećan dan zahvalnosti! That’s Happy Thanksgiving in Serbian, although they don’t celebrate that here of course. Enjoy some fall snapshots of the city over the past few weeks!

In November, the average temperatures in Pancevo are 54° / 41°. According to our friends, last year it never snowed in Pancevo or got below freezing, so fingers crossed for a more moderate winter ahead.

Mac Dons 🍟

While we rarely go to McDonalds at home, sometimes you just want food that is familiar.

From the wide range of cakes, muffins and desserts, to the gouda cheese hearts and mayo dipping sauces, it is always interesting to see how McDonald’s caters to local tastes around the world. In Serbia, the McFlurries are served in boxes instead of cups and they also have “riffle fries” (waffle fries), which Brev rated 4/5 stars. Overall though, the burger and fries here taste exactly the same as the ones back home.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

There are a lot of stray dogs and cats in Serbia, one Serbian magazine estimated that there are upwards of several thousand dogs on streets.

From what we have seen, locals are extremely kind to these animals, going out of their way to leave food and water around the city and give the dogs attention.

When our friends here wanted to get a dog, they actually rescued one off the street. Their dog, named Jackie, followed them home one night and they just decided to keep him! Apparently, this is pretty common. I keep joking that Brev is going to come home one day and I will have brought a dog home too.

  • Dog food
    Dog food

Burek for the Win

My favorite part of Serbia? The burek.

Burek is a traditional Serbian breakfast food that is made up of buttery, flakey dough and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables or Nutella.

Fun facts:

  1. Burek is sold by weight and you order it by grams
  2. It is cut/served like a slice of pizza and then wrapped in paper if you’re taking it to go
  3. Everyone drinks yogurt with their burek, which is pretty sour
  4. There are specialized burek pastry shops where that’s all they serve
  5. My order: “200g burek s mesom” (200g burek with meat)

Church of Saint Sava

The Church of Saint Sava, located in Belgrade, is the largest Orthodox place of worship in the Balkans. It is built on the spot where Saint Sava’s, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church, relics were burned in 1594. However, you don’t have to be Orthodox to appreciate the beauty of this church. It is still under construction, but in the pictures below you will see the Serbo-Byzantine style of architecture with its rich carved stone, domes and frescos.

According to Vogue Magazine, St. Sava is Eastern Europe’s Sagrada Família.

24!

Last week I turned 24, СРЕЋАН РОЂЕНДАН (happy birthday) to me!

In Serbia, it is expected that the birthday boy or girl pays for everything – whether it is dinner at a restaurant or hosting a house party. While this seems a little bit backwards to me, when I went out to dinner with a friend the weekend before my birthday, I paid per the Serbian birthday tradition.

Also, Brev picked up some treats from the local bakery. Here cakes are typically multilayer sponge cakes with cream filling and these were no exception. We got chocolate cakes, but nuts and fruits are typical additions to Serbian tortes. They were delicious!

ČUPAVCI

Calling all coconut lovers! This week Brevin’s trainer brought the team ČUPAVCI to celebrate his birthday and sent Brev home with a box for me to try. ČUPAVCI is sponge cake soaked in chocolate sauce, then dipped in unsweetened, shredded coconut – it’s super moist! We’re not huge coconut lovers so the dessert wasn’t our favorite, but it is one of the most famous homemade sweets in the Balkan region.

Want to try it? Here’s the recipe: https://www.196flavors.com/croatia-cupavci/

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