Most of my time here is taken up with Eurovision and drinking inappropriate quantities of alcohol-I may have got those in the wrong order-but I have tried to get some glimpse of Serbian life.

It is not a Prague or Tallinn with ubiquitous chocolate box prettiness, but I would not deter anyone from visiting. It has a contrast of harsh but striking 1960's Eastern European architecture, some beauty a la Prague, and the occasional bomb damaged building still not dealt with since the troubles.

Serbs are on the whole a very hospitable friendly bunch, and have made me feel as welcome as anywhere I have been on my travels.

The level of affluence, at least on the superficial level on which I have viewed it, seems much higher than I had expected.

Ethnically, the lack of diversity is striking. Outside the Eurovision complex, I have not seen one black person, or indeed any other ethnic persuasion than European. The former communist/socialist countries of Europe have a reputation for racism, which if true, no doubt stems from this lack of familiarity. We showed a photo of Andy Abraham to a very friendly local who started chatting to us and his first comment was "He's black!"

Interestingly, the EBU gave us some guidelines in their welcome pack. No conversations about Kosovo (Don't mention the war!) and no displays of emotion between people of the same sex, not even hugging. This is still frowned upon.

I have seen no evidence of the intolerance suggested by this, but perhaps this part of the world still has a couple of decades of catching up to do in this one respect.

Enjoying your annual commentary as always Anthony, but where is the food report?

I'd like to get hold of a copy of those guidelines - anyone know how to or could they email me please at yes_stephen@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks.

Talking of food Mart...you're due a weekend post on that subject.

See above for tonights dinner Soli.

Mart wrote:
Enjoying your annual commentary as always Anthony, but where is the food report?
Quite simply, Mart, most of the parties have had normal buffet food. The Azeris were an exception, but the queue of vultures was more fight than queue, so I left it. Very meat based, from what I could make out. You'll have to come with me next year to cover the food angle, as I'm no expert!!

There are plenty of excellent restaurants, but again, nothing unfamiliar to Western Europeans. Plenty of excellent steak dishes at very reasonable prices. The portions are always very large too.

Yes Me, there is no on-line link to these guidelines, but I will send you a transcript of the page once I have dug it out from the myriad of papers in my room.

I`ll take you up on that.
Book me in for next year Anthony.