1. I remember once I was chatting with one American girl and it was very pleasant conversation; it was as if we were, what people say kinder spirits. It was quite relaxed atmosphere (considering it was online nothing strange you’d say, but this was really specific) and in one moment she suggested we should go on coffee and continue our conversation in live. 2. I was little confused and thought she was joking so I accepted her suggestion. After a while I realized that her thrillness is little strange for something so impossible, so I suspected she’s serious about our meeting. Indeed she was. 3. Then I said That would be fabulous but we do have “little” problem with the physical distance. Then she said if I can’t come to her town she’ll come here. OK that was very serious for someone you know for a few hours you spent online but we aren’t that rigid here I said OK but couldn’t believe it so I was keep asking “You’re joking or not or … uh”. She said “It’s not big deal? I don’t know why you have problem to come here but it’s really OK to come there on a coffee.” I replied I don’t have money for that coffee-trip and even if I do my hair would become gray until I get entrant visa” 4. THEN she was completely confused and asked me “What are you talking about? You live in Belgrade right?”; “Right” I said; “Belgrade, Maine right?”; “LOL Wrong! Belgrade, Serbia, Europe!”
5. That was hilarious experience. In one moment of primal fear I thought “she’ll come and marry me and abduct me. God please make her normal (then I realized how that contradictory is!)”.
6. Belgrade-Main! Then I found out about Belgrade-Minnesota; Belgrade-Montana and Belgrade-Nebraska. There are 5 Belgrades in the world and that American custom is SO odd from my point of view.
7. Good Lord neighboring towns of Belgrade-Main are Manchester (originally in UK), Oakland (originally in New Zealand), Rome (originally in Italy) and Sidney (originally in Australia) and I’m sure there are few more Romes and Sidneys etc. 8. There is even a state Georgia! I wonder if people there knows about the originals?
I don’t know, maybe my confusion with that practice is silly but I really don’t understand.
9. Anyhow I’ll write a little bit about my lovely ORIGINAL Belgrade.
Last April my Belgrade has ‘celebrated’ 1129 years of its first mentioning under its Slavic name (Belgrade= Beli Grad= White City) in written form.
It’s in document from the Vatican Archive: Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Registro Vaticano, I, ff. 30-42
10. It is in the letter of Pope John VIII to Bulgarian prince Boris dated April 16th, 848. where he’s mentioning Slavic name of the city.
11. Here is an image of that letter (observe last word in 10th line):
12. Oh the oldest known settlement in the Belgrade area dates back to 5000 B.C. Later on, the region was inhabited by Illyrians, Celts and Romans. Slavs arrived here in the 7th century.
13. Hope someone from other Belgrades will read this since it’s in that weird way history of their own towns as well…
June 7, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Yes, American’s definitely know that there are countries and cities with the same names. We have a lot of similiar named cities in the states. You have to remember that the US is quite large. 50 states in all. The country of Hungary is like a small state to us. So it would take a lot to make up that many names for different towns here. It just makes sense that they have been recycled. Not abnormal at all.
June 8, 2007 at 12:23 am
It can be frustrating, Milan, when we’re talking about the various Belgrades or Oaklands or SoHos. Amy’s right about how things got started, but that still doesn’t explain why there’s a Main Street in every town…
Love ya, babe.
June 9, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Because there IS a main street in every town. The main street that runs down the middle of the city. Makes sense to me.
June 9, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Uh this IS confusing!
When I’m thinking about main street I never think about Main! But then, it might be because of mine <i>not-English-background</i>. I almost never translate names. You know, when someone say New York I never think about (I just said aloud translation of New York in Serbian! LOL), about old (original) York.
But indeed when I remember previous name of NY, New Amsterdam the story is different (because we aren’t used to this name).
Amy I know people are aware of the original towns and states but what I wanted to say is how much they know about original? You know, it wouldn’t be strange that someone doesn’t know where is Belgrade (actually it would but hey, that’s me, freak who knows every capitals in the world) but honestly I was shocked when I watched on video where guy (20-27 years) was thinking about 15 min and then replied that Berlin Wall is in Israel!?!?
So honestly I doubt that majority knows more than pure awareness of the existence of originals (even that is under question mark). Of course there are people who are well informed but are they majority?
June 18, 2007 at 3:37 am
Sure, we [ignorant? soft? oblivious?] Americans know about the original places our ancestors named their towns/cities/states after. We also often learn why they adopted these names which explains a lot about the history of places. New Amsterdam was a Dutch settlement; lots of towns and cites called “Rome” were named in our Federal Period in which the people tried to model everything from architecture to government after the Romans. Some things stuck, others were forgotten. Hopefully, the Berlin wall guy was in a tiny, tiny minority, wherever he was.
You are an entertaining and observant writer. I enjoy reading your perspectives.
June 19, 2007 at 3:09 pm
A lot of it has to do with plain old homesickness too. If you think about the people who named those towns, they were from the country or city they named it after, and to pay homage to place they would never get back to again, they named where they were as the next best thing. Belgrade Maine, I believe, is named after the city in Ireland though. Not to burst your bubble.
June 19, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Oh Patti I really didn’t want to sound … I don’t know … rude I guess. I really try to avoid generalization in general
Of course I have many US friends who are far from ignorant and of course you can find in every single country people who are unfamiliar with something which can be considered as basic knowledge.
However from my personal experience from my courses in Europe with students from every corner of the world I saw indeed that young Americans have some relatively high level of ignorance. And I found that very strange because those were suppose to be sort of main intellectual force, those were students from respective schools and I guess rich enough to participate on courses in Europe ($200000 each) so maybe my expectations were just too high.
For instance they didn’t know where is Yugoslavia or Serbia (while we were in all news headlines for whole decade, unfortunately); they knew Spanish quite good but they don’t know any writer who is writing (or had wrote) in Spanish (!?!?) and that was story from the course of Spanish literature! They never heard of Franco, European capitals; My knowledge of US history was much better than theirs … etc. list is quite big.
My point is: those were students and not some … homeless from Bronx; it’s just I didn’t expect that.
And about Berlin Wall guy, I do hope he is minority. I’m sure he is.
June 19, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Shanna not bursting bubble at all.
I’ve checked Belgrade Main is named after my Belgrade
On the town homepage there is this part:
Ask most Americans if they have ever heard of Belgrade, and you will probably be told that Belgrade is the capital of Serbia, or the capital of the former Yugoslavia. Not many will be aware of Belgrade, Maine. The two Belgrades are, however, related to the extent that the town in Maine was named after the city in Europe.
…
The relationship between Serbian Belgrade and the one in Maine came about because of the European travels of a John V. Davis, during the late 1700’s. While in Europe, he had either visited Belgrade, or (more likely) had simply heard of the return of Christianity to the city, in 1774, after an absence of several hundred years, under Moslem rule. This was considered a great event in Europe, since it marked the first weakening of Turkish domination of eastern Europe.
However it happened, when the petition to create the new town in Maine was drawn up, it was Davis (a resident) who suggested it be named “Belgrade”. Undoubtedly, also, the Austrian capture of the European city from the Turks (in 1789) was still very strong in his mind.
June 21, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Interesting….living in Southern California, sometimes we dont stop to think about the rest of the world and their problems. However, I do have a son in the military, stationed in Spain, so Im learning more every day.