Travel in August is not for weaklings

I reached Belgrade smoothly last night, sharing a car with the Secretary General of the liberal party who told me about the mafia involvement in Serbian politics and the way the President dominates the media. It sounds like the deep state in America. It was 38° here after dark last night and humid and I trudged for 38 minutes through ill lit empty streets looking for my hotel without any Internet. The ill lit run down area was in fact the centre of the city where the 19th century government buildings are, which is a bit odd.

Serbia is as corrupt and poor as Romania before she joined the European Union but in some ways much freer and more democratic than England or European Union states. People smoke blithely anywhere in restaurants. Caps on plastic bottles, as I said before, come off easily.

My companion rightly wants EU accession for Serbia, but says joining Nato is necessary too. I argue that Nato is a tax on the poor to enrich American companies. No Serbians see Russia as a threat and I wish Romanians were equally wise.