1936 On the Continent

you will find all the picturesqueness of the East, with white mosques and slender minarets, picturesque bazaars, Moslem headgear, and women veiled in accordance with the traditions of Islam. On the other hand, in the neat, wood-carved Alpine houses of Slovenia, surrounded by attractive flower-gardens, you may find a modest library, a piano, or even a peasant girl who speaks foreign languages. In contrast to this, South Serbia, which is only beginning to shake off the backwardness due to five and a half centuries of Turkish rule, can show youa splendid race of mountain dwellers who still use the wooden plough, and who regard beds as the latest innovation of a degenerate twentieth century! Indeed, so striking are the contrasts that you would hardly believe that all these people belonged to the same nation were it not that the same language is spoken everywhere, except in Slovenia, which has a cognate dialect.
Hotels
    Hotel accommodation all along the tourist routes is good. True, taken as a whole, it cannot compare with the greater luxuriousness of the West. Only the larger places, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Maribor and Banja Luka, and the most frequented resorts, Dubrovnik, Bled, Crikvenica, Split, Novi, Herceg-Novi and Biograd-na-moru can boast of hotels that are almost in the luxury class. Rooms in such hotels are priced from 60 dinars, and board-residence varies between 120 and 200 dinars per day. However, the rapidly growing popularity of Jugoslavia as a tourist country in recent years has done much to raise the standard, and you will find good, clean, comfortable hotels everywhere in Dalmatia, Slovenia and the chief towns of the country. Rooms in these hotels begin at 50 dinars, while full board-residence varies between 80 and 120 dinars according to the hotel and the season. You are hardly likely to be disappointed with this class of hotel, unless it be the disappointment of the gentleman who came to Jugoslavia armed with a large box of Keating’s, and had no chance to use any of it during a whole month’s stay in the country!
    In Bosnia, Montenegro and South Serbia, except in the larger towns, hotel accommodation is more modest, and those who prize hotel comfort higher than the most romantic scenery and the most thrilling people, should keep to the beaten track. In Slovenia and Dalmatia you can find excellent accommodation of home-like intimacy at pensions and private houses, mostly at such ridiculous prices as 50 to 60 dinars for full
pension
with three ample meals a day. For addresses of this type of pension or house it is advisable to consult the local or nearest office of the Jugoslav travel agency “Putnik.”
    The food in Jugoslavia cannot be properly described without using the adjective “gorgeous.” For the Jugoslavsare keen on food, and although the culinary art has not been assigned a special muse, it is kept in the highest critical esteem. The cuisine at all the hotels is international, but everywhere you will also find tucked away in a corner of the menu the name of some mysterious native dish. If you feel at all adventurous, listen to this. Sarma: cabbage or young vine leaves stuffed with mincemeat, rice and a soupçon of cayenne papper, and cooked till the leaves are saturated with the flavour of the meat. Delicious! But don’t forget that licking your fingers in a hotel is not allowed, even in Jugoslavia! Nor is this the end of the tale. In addition to its own, Jugoslavia has borrowed all the best national dishes from her neighbours. A whole book would not suffice to describe all the appetising specialities, and you will therefore do best to consult your waiter. The same adventurousness may not be recommended in smaller eating houses, as native dishes there are often prepared with a rather too liberal use of pepper and fat.
    If invited to a Serbian home, you are bound to be offered
slatko
, a fruit preserve not unlike jam.
Slatko
means sweet. You must know that the custom is to take a spoonful out of the dish and to drink water after eating it. This will save you from causing mild amusement, like many foreigners who, falling victims to the delicious taste of
slatko
, continue until they empty the dish!
Slatko
is always followed by Turkish black coffee in small cups. And the Serbs are past-masters at coffee making.
What’ll You Have?
    Jugoslavia need not be ashamed of its drinks either. Jugoslavia is a wine-exporting country, and there is hardly a nook which does not produce its own