There's something specific about the Balkan mentality that we westerners fail to understand. If you've watched a movie by Emir Kosturica or two, you'd get a touch of that. Its the "we suck, and that's so awesomely funny" charm in their mentality thats so unfamiliar to us. Those people know how to laugh at themselves. They also know how to enjoy life - the harder it is, the more they enjoy it. And thats their enormous charm.

It often confuses us, though, into concluding wrongly that "this place sucks and i should keep as far away as possible". And so we miss a wonderful opportunity to see into the life of REAL people.