I never loved history in school. So many battles and dates and kings to remember, so many things that I could not connect to anything. I did like stories on how common people lived back in the ages and what they did and how they spent their time, but no teacher wanted to teach that. They all had a plan they had to stick to. It wasn't before 2nd or 3rd year in the uni that I realised the awful truth: they were bad teachers - or the system itself was bad, because none of them ever even tried letting us see the bigger picture. They taught lessons as completely separate units, and that's how we students perceived them. We were never told about the connection between things and events that there were. I don't know why that is, but I do feel that I'm lacking an awful lot of knowledge of the world's history. 

That especially applies to the 20th century. In Serbia it is taught in 8th grade of the elementary and 4th grade of high school - both times it's the final year and everybody's concerned about getting to the high school they want to enrol in, or university. The teachers know that, so some of them don't really ask much from students. And here I was last year, in my mid-twenties, coming to Berlin for the first time ever, and having no idea of the Berlin Wall and the post-war events and the GDR and the fall of the Wall... EMBARRASSING or what!

Summer in the City: Belgrade, Serbia

Few weeks ago my friend Tamara had an idea of us and some other friends exploring Belgrade for a whole day and taking photos of it for my blog. Yay! Such a sweetheart. We wanted to make a locals' insight for prospective tourists - what to see, where to go, where to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, where to go out. But eventually, my visit was much shorter than I had expected and then we only had a couple of hours to fool around with her camera. Plus two more girls, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, joined us, and you can imagine that reunion with old friends is more about fun than work. I'm not complaining though, it's how it should be. :) It reminded me once more what a beautiful city I used to live in. I mentioned it in an earlier Belgrade post, I will always consider it home.

Berlin Bucket List

(via)

I know two weeks' time is short in theory, but my trip back home felt even shorter! Like, didn't I just arrive two days ago? And now I'm back in Germany, I landed an hour and a half ago and here I am, sitting at the uni, waiting for the class. Again, in theory, I have two months here before I move to the Netherlands. But I'm planning to do some travelling in September, and maybe road takes me somewhere at the end of August too. We'll see. So basically, I feel as if I only have three weeks left to enjoy Berlin and Potsdam, and besides attending my Scientific Writing course and writing proposal for my thesis and thinking of what I want to do when I grow up (PhD matter again), I want to do all the things I've been planning to, but just thought I'd do them sometime. Well, a similar thing happened to me in Finland, and in the end I never visited the city museum, for example, so I don't want to leave Germany with a similar feeling of "I should've done that". That's why I have some sort of Berlin bucket list with things to do before I leave.

DIY Tea Towels by a Cuteness Lover

I met Hannah May last September, and we haven't really talked much that evening - well, she did most of it actually, because she had spent a semester in Finland and we were yet to experience it (naturally, everyone's super worried when they're moving to such a cold country in the winter!). However, we did become friends on Facebook and started following each other on Instagram, so I discovered that we're sort of soul sisters because we share endless love for all the things cute, beautiful mugs, Scandinavian design, Moomins and coffee. She is also a passionate traveller, just like me, but unlike me, she's all into crafts, and I feel that I shouldn't even try, because I'm so clumsy and have no sense of making anything. So today I'm sharing a super easy DIY I found on Hannah's blog, and it actually looks like something even I could do, so it's been on my to-do list for a while now. 

A Very Nice Person's Doodles

This is the weird time of a vacation when you want to continue blogging, but haven't really been working on anything vacation-related (or home-related in my case) that you could post, and on the other hand it would be weird to post Berlin stuff from afar. (Berlin is sleeping all tucked in in my Drafts folder and you'll see it soon enough!) So today I'm sharing something I find too cute and I hope you like it too!

13 Reasons Why It's Great to Go Home After a Semester Abroad

via

Aaand here I am, typing this post in my mom's kitchen and being the happiest in a while! Of course, it was nice when I used to come back home on occasional weekends while studying in Belgrade, but sometimes I would do that because I felt like I should. Now, however, I really count the days and feel happy to do so! So why is it good to go home?

Turned an Airport into a Park (And Got Away with It)

Have you ever taken off and wondered how it would be to be outside on the runway? Have you thought to yourself that it would make an amazing place to skate or ride a bicycle? Well, if so, you're not crazy - runways do seem like great places to do such things. There is one airport in the world where you can actually do it - and it's in Berlin.

How to Travel on a Budget

Ako želite da pročitate ovaj post na srpskom, kliknite ovde.

Recently I got a comment on my blog post on Warsaw saying "reading your traveling posts gives me a travel itch, and makes me want to pack up and wander away...". It came from a girl from Serbia. What I do know about it from my own experience is that she probably has to wait for her travel itch to be gone. Because she cannot scratch it. If you live in Serbia, chances are that your daily life is a constant struggle: pay the bills, buy food, and at the end of the day you may have enough to go out on weekends and/or visit the theatre, but traveling... it's a big issue. Maybe once a year - to the seaside. Some even go to the mountains in the winter. The majority, however, just has to let the travel itch go.

But there are ways to travel on the cheap, and even though I do live a life that could be seen as a bit more glamorous than the one I led in Serbia, I am still the happiest when I find a cheap deal. So even if you can afford traveling, it's always good to save even the little bits that you can later spend on food, souvenirs, or whatever makes you happy once you are away.

Kako putovati za sitn(ij)e novce

Post on travelling on the cheap in English here.

Moram da priznam da mi je neobično da pišem blog post na srpskom - osećam se kao da pišem mejl. :) Ovo će zasad biti jedini post na srpskom, a za njega sam se odlučila zbog specifične teme - mislim, mogu ja da pričam o jeftinom putovanju iz Beograda na engleskom, ali malo je besmisleno.

U svakom slučaju, ideja za ovo mi je došla preko komentara na blog post o Varšavi: "Svaki put kad čitam tvoje tekstove, uvek me zasvrbe tabani i dobijem želju da se spakujem i otputujem negde iste sekunde." Kao što sam već napisala u tekstu na engleskom, sa sve objašnjenjem zašto je tako (na srpskom, nažalost, ne moram da objašnjavam - sve znamo), autorka ovog komentara najverovatnije mora da iskulira svrab u tabanima i sačeka da prođe. Meni je zbog toga žao, jer je generalan stav u Srbiji da su putovanja luksuz - a ne mora da bude tako. Upravo s više mogućnosti za putovanja, koje sam dobila kao student u inostranstvu, malo sam korigovala svoj pogled na putovanja, i mislim da je moguće putovati čak i iz Srbije a da to ne bude strašan udar na budžet. Naravno, nemoguće je očekivati da ćete otići negde i da to vaš novčanik neće ni osetiti, ali uz nešto štednje ovde, nešto pametnih izbora onde - možete se naći u Parizu preko vikenda, a to je nešto. :)

Instagram May & June

Hello there everyone! I just cannot BELIEVE that the first half of the year is gone already. These 6 months have gone by so quickly. I guess it has to do with moving countries and constant travelling (11 flights!), plus excitements of all kinds, and I apologize to my Mom once again for not contacting her in a while - June began and it feels as if the day after it was July 1st already, it's crazy, sorry Mom, I love you the most!

So here is the recap of the last two months in Instagram photos.