The Balkan experience 

Everyone who has ever been on some study exchange, said, that every student should experience that, at least once, during their study! I heard a lot of positive experiences, but I never decided to go on one. Not because I was afraid or something like that, but I was simply not interested. So I did some working experiences abroad, during my undergraduate study, because I agree, that students (especially students of tourism!) should go abroad. After my undergraduate studies, I applied for the postgraduate study program Heritage tourism. In the first year of my studies, my friend told me about the Erasmus Sunbeam program and we agreed to apply. At the beginning, there was some paperwork to do, but it was worth the effort!

The Erasmus Sunbeam program is a program, which is connecting the Balkan countries close to the Adriatic Sea. Based on the field of study, we were deciding among Serbia – Novi Sad and Montenegro – Kotor. We decided to go to Serbia, to Novi Sad, because we knew that it will be easy to communicate, we liked the country (things we knew so far) and Novi Sad is a bigger city than Kotor. At the beginning, we stayed in a hostel and meanwhile searching for a suitable apartment. We found one, really close to faculty and city center. After the first few days of bureaucracy (on the University and our faculty, on the police station for visa), the fun part started. We started to explore the city and soon we loved it. We discovered one ˝pijaca˝ (market) with homemade fresh vegetables, fruits and many other products and it was not so expensive (less than in Slovenia). Once a week we made a big shopping on that market, because we decided to cook, although at the faculty they offered us ˝student’s menza˝. Our study buddies, from the Erasmus social network, helped us with that and many other things, also with the lessons. Professors were very excited and surprised that we decided to come to study to Novi Sad. They were helping us a lot, with language problems or any other problems, if we had. The atmosphere on the faculty was relaxed and most of the professors had a friendly relationship with the students and not so formal, as we are accustomed to. At the beginning, I thought that studying in Serbia will be easy and there won’t be much work to do, but the reality was a bit different. I learned a lot, especially because they have a different approach to tourism as we have. We had some lessons with other students, in Serbian language and we had to do everything what others were doing.

After a few weeks in Novi Sad, I already felt like home. I knew the city, I was handling city transport (buses), I knew where to buy certain things and I already had a lot of Serbian friends. They are very communicative and they love Slovenia and Slovenians, so I never had any problems or felt unsecured. The opposite! They were very friendly and always ready to help.

The Erasmus social network or just ESN was organized also many events in which we meet other students on exchange. Every day we had some plan, what to do, where to go. It is awesome, to have time, money and 10 other people who have the same, and we all had a desire to hang out and have fun! We went hiking on Fruška gora, ice skating, to the opera, watch a ballet, making trips to other parts of Serbia and some other countries, went to the cinema, cooking together, having movie nights, partying together ... We also had a big scholarship, so we could afford all that, and also the prices for things like ballet and opera are much lower than in Slovenia. We became like one big family. Every now and then, some new members came, and some went. It was always hard to say goodbye... And this was the hardest thing to do. At the end of exchange, when I was leaving home, I was very sad. I heard that there is even an expression for that ˝post-erasmus depression˝. And some people say that it never really goes away... I can’t tell you that now, ask me next year, because I just came home.



International picnic on Fruška gora with other Erasmus students

Anja Kržan