Getting Settled

I have been very post-y this weekend, but a lot is happening here. As I mentioned yesterday, I (finally) am in my new apartment! I moved in yesterday. Today, per Serbian law, I had to go get registered with the Police. In Serbia, if you are visiting from another country, you must register with the police. If you stay in a hotel, the hotel does this for you. If you are staying at a private resident, you have to go with the owner of the property with your passport and register. It is actually a simple process, but still....


Much like everything I've experienced here so far, it was not as simple as it should have been. First of all, I tried to call the apartment owner. I had not met him before, but the landlord gave me his number. So I tried calling, and it didn't work. The error message is in Serbian, so I wasn't sure what the problem was. But I finally was able to get in touch with him. He said that he would pick me up around 1pm. He shows up (in a very fancy leather seats, automatic(!!)) VW something. He is very young, probably younger than me, with a beautiful girlfriend in the front seat. We drive to the main police station, which is about a 10-15 drive from my apartment. We go in, and apparently it is the wrong police station. So we get back in the very nice car, and drive to the correct police station, which is only about 100m from my apartment. We go in, and there is a problem because I came into the country a couple of weeks ago and I don't have a white card. I explain that I was in a hotel during this time, and they didn't give me any documentation that they registered me, but I do have the hotel bill. So the police (in Serbian) ask me to go get the bill to prove that I was in a hotel. I walk the 100m to my flat, find the bill, and walk back to the police station. 10 minutes later, I have my white card. Whew!

I walked around a bit today to explore my new neighborhood and saw this funny sign:

There is no distance; I wonder how far to the moon?

I still don't have any pots or pans, but I managed to make some cheese bread with some Serbian cheese, ajvar (red pepper sauce), and some red pepper flakes that I brought with me. It was delicious.

Wish me luck tomorrow in finding my way to the office. I have been studying the map, and I think I know how to get there, but there are a lot of one-way streets, and I'm a bit nervous. I still have the GPS, so hopefully I will be ok.