Serbia

From the CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.

Serbia (Serbian: Srbija; Serbian Cyrillic: Србија) is a country in Europe. As of mid-2008, there are over 2.000 CouchSurfers, more then half are located in Belgrade (state capital). CouchSurfers in Serbia tend to be very enthusiastic hosts, since the county has been (and still is) quite politically and economically isolated - Serbian citizens require a visa to travel just about anywhere, and CouchSurfing enables them to bring the world to their homes.

1 Tips and trivia
2 Places
- 2.1 Easy couches
- 2.2 Off the beaten track
3 CouchSurfers

Tips and trivia

Registering at local authorities

A decades old and quite unclear regulation require all foreigners to register, or be registered, within 12 or 24 hours after arrival (registration of a foreigner staying with a Serbian citizen). Hotels and other professional accommodation providers will do that for the guests, but CouchSurfers fall into that other category who should, in theory, do it for themselves.

The registration should be performed at the local police office. In theory, they should be able to perform the (simple) registration process at any given time of the day or year (24/7/365). But, sometimes the office don't have this "white card" forms (which is cheap but can be obtained only at specialized shops). The other problem is that sometimes the police officer at duty will require the owner of the real-estate (apartment, house) to be present with an ownership document. That effectively disables everyone living in a rented apartment to host "legally" (except if one can persuade the landlord to come to a police station for this purpose).

One day before leaving the country, the host and the guest is supposed to go to the police station again and perform a "check-out". This is especially a nuisance for people staying over only 1 or 2 nights.

In practice, most CouchSurfers staying for several days are not doing it and problems arising from this "illegal" behavior are almost unheard of. In theory, a police officer (at the exit border, or in the street) can ask a tourist for their place of stay. If the answer is "with a friend" (i.e. NOT at a hotel), he may ask you to show a "white card". Unfortunately, the writer of this paragraph is not aware of possible consequences of not having this "white card" (UPDATE NEEDED!) Regulation is also not clear what happens with tourist just traveling through Serbia (not having an accommodation).

CouchSurfer not having a required "white card", when asked for place of stay, can say that is just passing through Serbia (in case it's it's first or second day, which can be checked in the passport) OR say that is staying / stayed in a hostel/camp/motel/hotel, because they are supposed to register their guests. That can possibly stop all further interrogation. Please note that you are not advised by this CouchSurfing Wiki to avoid registration. This is simply a compilation of known issues with this regulation and experiences that other CouchSurfers had with it.

Here is the paragraph [1] taken from The Ministry of Foreign Affairs official website [2].

OBLIGATION OF FOREIGNERS TO REGISTER ON THEIR ARRIVAL IN SERBIA

The organizations as well as individuals providing services to foreigners against payment, and persons with whom foreigners are staying as visitors, are obliged to register the foreigner's stay with the competent authorities (according to the place of residence of the foreigner - the police department) within 12 hours from the moment of rendering the service, i.e. of providing accommodation to the foreigner, or from the moment of his arrival as a visitor.

A foreigner who is not using the services of accommodation provision as indicated above is obliged to register with the competent authorities and to inform of the change of address the next day following the day of arrival in Serbia, i.e. within 24 hours from the moment of the change of the place of abode or the change of address.

Latin and Cyrillic conversion

In Serbia, Latin and Cyrillic alphabet are used in parallel, where each character in Latin alphabet has a corresponding character in Cyrillic. Due to a not very tourist-friendly "design" all the street names on tourist maps or Internet are written in Latin, but when you're in the streets you'll notice that they are labeled in Cyrillic. If you plan to walk a lot, or find a specific address on your own, you may help this "table of conversion" useful. Note that some of the Latin characters are actually comprised of two characters, which is never the case with Cyrillic characters (since they are "native" for Serbian language).

	Cyrillic	Latin	Different?	Basic Latin replacement
1	А а	A a	-	-
2	Б б	B b	YES	-
3	В в	V v	YES	-
4	Г г	G g	YES	-
5	Д д	D d	YES	-
6	Ђ ђ	Đ đ	YES	DJ
7	Е е	E e	-	-
8	Ж ж	Ž ž	YES	Z (sometimes ZZ)
9	З з	Z z	YES	-
10	И и	I i	YES	-
11	Ј ј	J j	-	-
12	К к	K k	-	-
13	Л л	L l	YES	-
14	Љ љ	LJ lj	YES	-
15	М м	M m	-	-
16	Н н	N n	YES	-
17	Њ њ	NJ nj	YES	-
18	О о	O o	-	-
19	П п	P p	YES	-
20	Р р	R r	YES	-
21	С с	S s	YES	-
22	Т т	T t	-	-
23	Ћ ћ	Ć ć	YES	C (Sometimes CH)
24	У у	U u	YES	-
25	Ф ф	F f	YES	-
26	Х х	H h	YES	-
27	Ц ц	C c	YES	-
28	Ч ч	Č č	YES	C (sometimes CC or CH)
29	Џ џ	DŽ dž	YES	DZ (sometimes DZZ)
30	Ш ш	Š š	YES	S (sometimes SH or SS)

Useful links

Excellent online map of Serbia and most of the cities can be found at Plan Plus website.

National Tourism Organization of Serbia

Tourist Organization of Belgrade

Serbiatravelers club guidelines for travelers in Serbia, hitchhikinig guide to Serbia, maps, forum...

In case you didn't find a host or your host disappeared, a list of hostels in Belgrade (but also motels and hotels) can be found at Tourist Organization of Belgrade (mentioned before). You can also try Hostelz which also have users comments on hostels.

Try using I need a couch in Belgrade group probably someone will help you there.

How to be a good guest

First you really should read these pages at the CouschSurfing site:

How to Be a Good Guest - this is a must read CS material.

Members Only - a page explaining why many CS members will not host you if you're traveling with a non-member and why is it important to enroll friends traveling with you.

How to Write a CouchRequest - here you can read what is considered as "good manners" in a CS community.

Tips - general but very useful tips.

Generally speaking, most of the Serbian citizens have "European" manners and are Orthodox Christian (if not by belief then by their conception of moral and culture and). They tend to be very worm and helpful hosts, and they will reward you even more if you show some appreciation for their hospitality, which they are very proud of.

You can also read a short but informative paragraph "Respect" at Wikitravel article about Serbia.

History of meetings

Media mentions

Places

Easy couches

Most hosts outside Belgrade and Novi Sad will be happy to receive guests, since there's not much tourist activity outside these two cities. Obviously, same goes for hosts at outskirts of Belgrade. So if you are here to meet the people and not just to see the architecture of the city, by all means contact them!

If you don't find host in Belgrade you can try finding one in Pancevo, Obrenovac, Mladenovac, Indjija, Stara Pazova, Nova Pazova...

If you don't find host in Novi Sad try Indjija, Backa Palanka, Becej, Kac, Backo Gradiste...