Holy Week, Take Two

Today is Veliki Petak, or Big Friday, here. It's the Serbian Orthodox Good Friday - the Orthodox calendar is based on the Julian calendar, so the liturgical year is different. All week, people have been selling egg dye, fuzzy chick toys and Easter basket grass in the market.

Today and Monday are national holidays in Serbia, so most things in Belgrade are closed/have limited hours. We Skyped our friend Stefanie, who is in Split (on the Croatian coast) the other night. She said that she got stuck with no food last weekend, because she forgot to go for groceries before the shops closed for the holiday! I double-checked the store hours last night and made sure to stock up when I went today. Apparently without worry though, since they are saying that the markets will have normal hours tomorrow too. But, I'm not taking any chances.

There are a chain of grocery stores called Maxi here. There are MiniMaxis on every corner, a classy MaxiExklusiv, and a MaxiMart (which I like the most, when I choose to go to a Maxi). Like the rest of the city, there is a story behind it - Maxi is a subsidiary of Delta Holding, which has monopolies of many markets. The company is headed by Miroslav Mišković, the biggest tycoon in Serbia. He is very influential, but also has a shady past - ties to the Milošević regime, etc. After the assassination of Zoran Đinđić, Mišković was kidnapped and held for ransom by the same clan... ahh, intrigue.

So, anyways, that was a little tangential, but the point is, I managed to get some groceries today. The woman at the store gave me two Easter eggs and wished me a Srećan Uskrs from Maxi (I think). I still can't figure out where they hide the cereal in that store, not like its very big or anything. I did manage to find the ketchup though...

KETCHUP WALL