Last year, I wrote about Charles Cather, an American man from Charleston, Illinois, United States, who fell in love with Serbia. Charles loves (and lives now in) Serbia, and also understands Serbian people. He goes on to say on Facebook today (in Serbian) that he is American, loves Serbia, and that Kosovo is Serbia. “JA SAM AMERIKANAC …… JA VOLIM SRBIJU!!!!!! KOCOBO JE SRBIJU.” So great to hear that an American guy understands that Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Kosovo is Serbia. Kosovo je Srbija! Thanks Charles.

Here is a short video I’ve made in Knez Mihailova, Belgrade’s main pedestrian street, on December 30, 2011. Can you feel the Belgrade New Year atmosphere?

For those interested in the long, turbulent, and rich history of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, this trailer for a new television series about Belgrade is well worth watching. Series cover most historical records, but also not so known facts and interesting stories about Belgrade and its inhabitants (written by Aleksandar Diklic). Belgrade the eternal city:

The Ada bridge or Sava bridge is a new cable-stayed bridge over the Sava river in Belgrade. This photo was taken on December 29, 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia!!

Christopher Rudder, who is in the Toronto based hip-hop group aLLeYNe & tEMuS, uploaded a great video taking about his recent trip to Belgrade. He also ended up writing a short text explaining why Belgrade seems to hide the most beautiful thing of all… It’s women:

And Belgrade, my beautiful Belgrade. A seriously under rated city. Amongst other things Belgrade seems to hide the most beautiful thing of all… It’s women. So far I have yet to see another country in Europe beside Split which single handedly produces the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I swear there is a factory somewhere that is just pumping out hot girls every minute. It doesn’t matter where you are. You could be sitting in a coffee shop, eating dinner, at the beach or out for a walk. If you sit on a bench and just watch I promise you hot girl after hot girl will file down the street one after another. What makes Belgrade, Belgrade is Belgrade’s best kept secret, and I’ll prove it to you…are you ready?

Today I came across a great video on Youtube showing Saint Sava temple (Serbian: Hram svetog Save) in Belgrade, Serbia. Beautiful Orthodox churches can be found all over the world, but the temple of Saint Sava is definitely one of the most beautiful churches in the world:

A young Australian woman traveling solo for one year around the world, was recently in Serbia. Her first stop in Serbia was Niš, the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia (after Belgrade and Novi Sad). She wrote an interesting blog post about the city of Niš. Here’s a short excerpt, but it’s worth reading/watching – photos are great – her post entitled “Two thousand years in a day? Welcome to Niš!” in full:

Niš is a fairly small city, and has relatively few sites to attract tourists – those that it has I visited in the space of about four or five hours. That said, what it does have to offer spreads over almost two thousand years, from the early centuries of the current era up to the Second World War, indicating that Niš and its surroundings have been inhabited for a pretty long time. It’s definitely worth a day.

In which city can you see a Santa Claus race? In Belgrade, Serbia. People in Santa Claus costumes take part in the annual race in downtown Belgrade, December 25, 2011:

Around 95,000 Serbs are living in Australia, and some of them let us know they have not forgotten the spirit of rakija. Well worth watching this fantastic short documentary film made by UTS Masters students, Vedrana Music, Audrey Svoboda. Best viewed with a shot of Serbian rakija or two:

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Serbia – is gone (disintegrated by powers with a larger world agenda), but this video showing the beautiful country, tourist hotspots and leisurely and rich lifestyle of those living in Yugoslavia is well worth watching. American CBS television network, or more accurately, KCBS affiliate station in Los Angeles, California filmed this tourist documentary in 1986. A great video to discover the Former Yugoslavia (sometimes referred to as the Yugosphere, or shortened as Ex Yu, ExYu or Ex-Yu.). Yugoslavia in 1986… The good old days: