When you go to a Roma neighborhood, the first thing that astonishes you is the number of children. OK, the first one after the misery. They are shaggy, shabby, negligent, but frisky and carefree. And they are so many, no matter what nationality the neighborhood is - Bulgarian, Serbian, Slovakian, Italian… In the time when Europe goes through the so called demographic crisis of low fertility rates and aging population, the Roma neighborhoods overflow with cheerful kids. As Eleonora said it is symptomatic. And “something is definitely not right with the universality of these images”.

According to the National Strategy for Demographic Development of Republic Bulgaria (2006-2015) the birth rates of Roma minority is higher than of the rest of the Bulgarians, but the mortality is even higher. “Disturbingly high is children and mother mortality in this ethnos, as well as the premature death.” Therefore it is a phenomenon to see a person over 60 in the Roma neighborhoods.

The reason is poverty. In 2003 9,5% of the ethnic Bulgarians were poor, 23,4% of the Turks (the other officially recognized minority in Bulgaria) and 63,8% of the Roma, according to the National Statistics Institute. The poor families cannot provide their members with the conditions needed for a quality life and development. Still some Roma families have up to seven and even more children.

Some people believe that Roma are unaware of the contraception methods. Therefore institutions like the Bulgarian Ministry of Health invest money and efforts into campaigns of spreading out condoms in Roma neighborhood. Marta Dyavolova, program manager of UNFPA in Bulgaria, says that people know how to prevent pregnancy since most ancient times, using herbs and infusions. She explains that more children means more prestige in the Roma community.

The great number of kids in Roma families can be explained with that they are source of income. Like in every non-industrialized society more children means more labor force. In Bulgaria they are the source of more social aids in poor families. “In Serbia 90 to 95% of the Roma population live on recycling and scrap”, says Goran Jovanovic, Project Manager of NGO Associations-RTV Nisava. Families load their carts with cardboards or bits of iron and hand them in a purchaser station. Parents wake their children (the more, the better) up at four in the morning. When the job is done, kids get some change for soft drinks and play football.

No school – no perspective for them.

And here are some images of Roma children. They can be from Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia… you name it. But just to be upright – in order of appearance: Nis, Nis, Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade.

I’ve been already three time to Belgrade. And I always loved it.

My second time was when I was 18 or 19, just about to graduate high school. It was spring time and the city was euphoric about its wakening from the winter. I was euphoric about my Serbian love affair, the dress that I just bought for my prom back in Bulgaria, about finishing the stupid high school, the university that I was just admitted to… Then I fell in love with Belgrade… for my lifetime. So, I do confess - I am in favor of this city. Hence no doubt I enjoyed it so much…again.

Last week I went for a day to Nis and then for two days to Belgrade. My first impression walking down the streets was: this city was rich and will be again. It has it all - infrostructure, European-style boulevrads, beautiful architecture, parks, Sava river, the fortress Kale Megdan (please, excuse me for the spelling), bars and clubs…just everything, plus the most important one - the atmosphere.

Another look from above

A beautiful park…

… and another one

A view from Kale Megdan…

…and even better view from Kale Megdan

Nice, isn’t it?

It is not the cute, stylish tank of the general’s mistress. It is just an Italian tank at the museum of arms at Kale Megdan.

Boys are enchanted with machinery even before they can articulate this passion of theirs

Maybe remnants of the NATO bombing?

It’s cosy to be awaken by the sound of boulevarsd being washed. It generates a smile and the feeling that someone is really looking after this pretty cit

During my stay in Italy, I visited six cities – Bari, Ancona, Pisa, Milan, Turin and Rome. If I would write my impressions it would take days, so, I will just put plenty of photos with short comments.

Bari - This is my first destination in Italy. Bari is a modern and dynamic city which keeps strong ties with its own tradition.

Ancona - Panoramic view to Ancona old city and the port.

Ancona - One of the biggest monuments I’ve ever seen. The classic monument to the fallen of the First World War, planned by architect G. Cirilli.

Guess where I am :)

Pisa, sure. Here are some information about the Leaning tower.

The construction of it was begun in 1173 by Bonanno Pisano and finished  after 99 years by Giovannii di Simone. Tommaso di Andra Pisano crowned it with a bell-cell.

The height of it is ft.186. It has eight floors and 294 steps. From it’s summit Galileo Galilei performed his famous trial about gravitation.

Pisa - Piazza dei Miracoli (Guess why they call it this way) - The Leaning Tower and Duomo

Pisa - Ponte di Mezzo. This bridge was built by the Romans and till 1182 it was the only bridge on the Arno river. The present bridge, with only one arcade, goes back to the post war period.

And who says I just had fun? This photo is a prove how hard I was  working.

This was a try to arrange interview with Italian environment Minister. Unfortunately, not successful :(

Milan - Sforzesco Castle, built in 1368.

Milan - Panoramic view on the city from the top of Duomo.

Milanese Duomo is the third largest church in the world, just after St. Peter’s and the Cathedral of Seville.

The works begun in 1386 and finished in 19th century, when the facade was completed.

Milan - The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is the heart of Milan and the most popular walking area.

Milan - Fashion Street. If you have several thousands of euro in your wallet, this is paradise for shopping

Torino - Duomo

Turin - Duomo (inside). It is believed the Christ was covered with this sheet after the crucifix.

Turin - Panoramic view on the city and Po River from Capuccini hill.

Rome - The Colosseum.

This immense amphitheatre was begun by Vespian in A.D. 72 and finished by his son Titus in A.D. 80.

Its real name is the Flavian Amphitheatre, commonly called Colosseum perhaps because the Colossus  of Nero was in its vicitnity.

The venerable Bede said in 8th century: ”While the Colosseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Colosseum falls, Rome shall fall; and when Rome falls, with it the World shall fall”.

Rome - The Fontana di Trevi.

It is celebrated for its excellent water, as well for the legend that whoever drinks it or throws a coin in the fountain,

will assure his return to Rome. The fountain was built by the architect Salvi (1735). It is said that the soldiers of Agrippa,

looking for water in the via Collatina in the country, met a maiden who showed them the source of this pure water,

which was hence called Virgin Water.

Rome - Piazza di Popolo.

This enormous sqare was designed by Valadier at the turn of the 19th century.

It is architecturaly superb and perfectly symetrical.

In the centre stands the city’s second obelisk which was brought to Rome by Augustus.

Rome - Trajan’s Forum

Rome - St. Peter’s square in Vatican.

That’s all folks :)

Bongiorno ragazzi,

Come stai? You do not understand me? Sure, you do not. Neither did me when I arrived to Italy. But, several days after I was forced to understand. This was incredible – whenever I stopped someone on the street, asking to help me to find something – the answer was – non capisco.
So, I had to “talk” with my hands, face and combine three words of Italian I knew. I was gesticulating so much that someone could think I am Italian.
But, luckily, I had a chance to hear how Italian English sounds - the experts and professors I met (thanks to God) all speak English. They have some strange expression of some words, but I understood them very well.
Anyway, the fact they do not speak English was not an obstacle to help me; actually, they are very kind. If they could not explain me which direction I should go, they would just follow me there. During these short walks, they would usually try to talk to me. It was such a strange mixture of English, Italian and Serbian. What a pity I could not record these conversations. You would have fun listening to this, believe me…
But, this experience had its positive side. After ten days in Italy, I can understand a lot of Italian, and even talk a bit.

The interviews I’ve done in Italy, were very interesting and mainly very useful. I met professors and Caulerpa experts in Bari, Ancona, Pisa and Rome. They agve me a lot of information about Italian policies about this environmental problem. To be honest, I was disappointed when I heard some things – Montenegro is not the only doing nothing in fighting Caulerpa. Italian government had some projects, gave decent amount of money, but, as these experts say, no one really care about this anymore. This algae is spread over all southern part of Italian Adriatic, as well in Ligurian and Tyrenian sea.
The problem in Italy is they did not take any action in time, Caulerpa spread and now they can not do anything – just let her live, die and don’t cry
Expersts, who must take all the initiative for each project, say the cooperation is essential, but, so far, they did not have any common project with Montenegro.
But, then Bojana got the fellowship and went to Italy to establish cooperation between Italy and Montenegro
I met Mrs. Marina Pulcini, from Italian Ministry of Environment. She also cooperates with NGO “Marevivo”. This NGO planned to come to Montenegro in August, bring here some professors and people from the Ministry of environment for some project, not related to algae problem. But, during my interview with Mrs. Pulcini, she asked me to be her connection with Montenegrin counterparts as they could use this stay in Montenegro also to talk about Caulerpa problem. Their plan is to make workshop on Caulerpa, during which they will confront the opinions of experts and Ministry officials.
I gave her contacts of our experts and informed them about coming of Italians. Now, it’s up on them to fix the details, but Italian expedition is coming on August 22 and I will be their guest.
So, did I lie when I said in my application that caulerpa would connect us again?