Belgrade, Serbia: Some Notes

I am now in Belgrade, the capital city of the former Yugoslavia. The Communist past is clearly displayed in the form of giant, drab buildings filling the city center's megablocks. Some notes:

Tito's mausoleum
The mausoleum of Josip Broz Tito, former Yugoslav President for Life, is called the House of Flowers and located a tram ride away from the center of Belgrade. Next to the mausoleum is a museum housing the gifts he received during his presidency. Since Yugoslavia was the most influential neutral country during the Cold War, Tito gifts came from countries of all ideologies. The same can be said of the people attending his funeral - I'm not sure how many funerals were attended by both Margaret Thatcher and Saddam Hussein, but the list can't be too long. There's not much information on Tito himself at the museum - I suppose it adds to his personality cult...

Cyrillic
Linguists seem to agree that Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are essentially the same language, so it's still "zdravo" for "hello" and "hvala" for "thank you". The main difference is that, in writing, Serbian uses the Cyrillic script, while Croatian and Bosnian use the Latin script. I've decided it should be worthwhile to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, especially since Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine are on my tentative itinerary.

Missing touts
Upon visiting developing countries, I have come to expect the touts that try to lighten your wallet, not-so-subtly implying that the privacy rights of the developed world are not always applicable. Morocco has the most aggressive touts I have experienced. I have not been to India yet, but it seems to get many votes. I would also rank Southeast Asia close to Morocco, with Latin America not ranked as high.
So far, Eastern Europe has been extremely relaxing in this regard. People are respective of personal space and do not treat tourists as human ATM's. It's a welcome change from the unceasing questions thrown at tourists in certain other parts of the world.

The Serbian dinara
In the Eurozone, there seems to be a shortage small bills and coins: customers and vendors alike are asking for change and trying to avoid big bills. Not a problem here in Serbia, where the bills have been divided up so that the smallest bill is roughly equivalent to 10 cents! Sure makes carrying around small change much easier.